Monday 4 April 2011

A couple of QUALITY local birds

Spent the day birding to the east of Skipton today, rubbish weather but still a few decent birds, lots of Golden Plover and Curlew. A small flock of 10 Swallow was nice.

Whilst having tea this evening I got a text from Russ telling me there was 2 Wheatear at Bank Island, Wheldrake. A fairly decent local bird. I thought I'd head over to North Duffield Carrs to see if there were any down there too. I almost didn't go as it was so black outside I thought it was going to start raining again.

As soon as I got my scope up to scan the reserve the first thing I dropped on was a female Wheatear!!! Happy with this I phoned Alan to let him know. After getting off the phone a male jumped into view. I managed to get a couple of record shots on my phone but they are typically rubbish! (see below).



A further scan around the reserve resulted in a count of about 32 Black-tailed Godwit, 4/5 Oystercatcher, a couple of Curlew and the usual ducks and swans, but now in much lower numbers - with much less water than my last visit.

A couple of Swallows were noted flying through with a single Chiffchaff singing away outside the hide. A Barn Owl flew through as I neared the car park and my first Willow Warbler of the year gave a brief bit of song.

As a postcript I heard that Jono had 3 Wheatear this evening at Bank Island. I wonder how many had dropped into the Lower Derwent Valley this afternoon?

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