Weekender

Had the day off on Friday, so after a few commitments, I headed down to the LDV. It was murky, but with the ice mostly thawed, birds had poured back in and birding was great. Three Scaup - an adult male and two first-winter males, were present at North Duff, but there was no sign of the Eagle. Down at Bubwith Bridge, the Spotted Redshank was feeding on a puddle on the riverbank with three Redshanks. I headed up the valley, where the highlight was two Short-eared Owls, flying about across the river from Thorganby. These owls are surprisingly scarce in the LDV, so this was an unexpected treat. 

Later on, after dipping a local Waxwing, I headed up to Castle Howard to do the gull roost. The ringed first-winter Caspian Gull was standing on the ice among plenty of small gulls, and gave great views. Unfortunately I managed to delete all my videos of the beast, leaving me with a few fuzzy photos!

 The bird is colour-ringed and seems to be from a Polish scheme. We will see!

Later on, I met Trevor Jones, Tim's Dad, and together we checked out the gulls and saw a male Goshawk, which cruised past, flushing everything on the lake. Duck-wise, the female Red-crested Pochard was still present, along with plenty of Goosanders and Goldeneyes.

Saturday 

A fantastic day leading a tour for Yorkshire Coast Nature, the highlight of which was the White-tailed Eagle. We had been watching a Peregrine mobbing a Marsh Harrier on the riverbank at North Duffield, when, to our astonishment the huge form of the eagle suddenly appeared out of the murk and landed nearby. 

After we'd all had great views, the eagle flapped off north up the valley, leaving us to sort through the ducks, which revealed the three Scaup, plus a few Goldeneye, among the hordes of commoner birds. Two Great Egrets stalked the riverbank, standard fayre these days. We followed the eagle up the valley, and found it in one of it's favourite trees, a large ash across from the church. 

We finished our day at Wheldrake Ings, where a flock of 90 Black-tailed Godwits were the highlight. 

Sunday

Despite the rain, I gave Dunnington another go, and shortly after arrival, all the small stuff flushed, and at least one of the Twite flew past with other finches calling. It landed briefly in the top of a small hedgerow tree before disappearing further down the field. I didn't see it again, but I was delighted to get this little finch on my York list after a couple of attempts. At least ten Tree Sparrows, 30 Corn Buntings, and good numbers of Linnets, Yellowhammers and Reed Buntings were present along with several Redpolls. I will definitely have another look when the weather improves.

This afternoon at the Wheldrake roost, an adult Mediterranean Gull was the clear highlight, with three Lesser Black-backed Gulls, c5000 Black-headeds, c200 Commons and 400 Herrings for company, plus 10 Great Black-backs. Five Marsh Harriers gathered to roost and the big Blackwit flock was flying around.

Not a bad weekend despite the wet weather!

 

An Icy Start

Saturday 10th January 

Yesterday was baltic, with a hard frost and it was still -2DegC at 9am. I took my Dad to see the White-tailed Eagle in the Lower Derwent Valley which is still lingering. We headed first to Ellerton and I spotted the eagle immediately sitting in a tree on the other side of the ings. After a while, it came nearer and began hunting in the river channel flushing a lot of ducks before landing in a tree on the opposite bank. We left the eagle sitting in the tree as birders arrived to have a look. Just out of the village, 188 Whooper Swans and a few Mutes were in a winter wheat field grazing happily.

 

Sunday 11th January

Woke to a covering of snow in the garden and a Fieldfare feeding on an apple with the local Blackbirds. I dropped Addie and her friend off at their aerobatics club and then headed to East Cottingwith. By this time, it was pouring down with icy cold rain, but this was the start of the thaw and I welcomed it, for the respite it would bring to struggling birds. 

A big group of Greylags near East Cottingwith Pond was worth a look and sure enough a pair of Euro White-fronted Geese were with them. The goose flock paid me little heed as I carefully jumped out of the car and had a look through my scope. Smart birds with the male sporting heavy black belly stripes. After enjoying good views I headed round to the pond where 100 Wigeon were grazing in the field. 100ish Pink-footed Geese were in the field across the road, but there were no Tundra Beans to be seen, sadly. The Whooper Swans were still feeding near Ellerton and I stopped to count. 184 today, so pretty consistent with yesterday.

 Part of the big Whooper herd at Ellerton

 Next, Ellerton Church, where the White-tailed Eagle was hunting the river in tandem with a comparatively tiny Marsh Harrier. They flushed clouds of Teal and Wigeon from the river. Ten Black-tailed Godwits caught my eye as they winged rapidly south down the valley, and scoping the flock I was surprised to see a smaller plain-winged wader that looked good for a Bar-tailed Godwit, but unfortunately the flock had gone behind the near trees before I could clinch it. Hopefully it might be picked up somewhere else. 

 

The eagle landed on the ice on the Ellerton side of the river and tried to drink a bit of water from the puddles collecting on the ice surface. It skated about looking rather ungainly before it flapped off south towards Aughton. I headed down to North Duff to see if I could find any waders. A few patches of water were out from Geoff Smith Hide, and had attracted a few ducks who seemed to be enjoying the thaw. Several Snipe, Dunlin and Lapwings were feeding on the exposed grass around the pool and as I watched a pipit flew in across the ice. It looked big, dark and interesting and it landed momentarily on the exposed bank It was clearly a Rock or Water Pipit, but before I had chance to zoom in fully with my scope it took flight and flew off over towards Garganey Hide and I lost it. It 'felt' like a Rock Pipit, but can't be sure. I failed to find it from Garganey, but did pick up the eagle again distantly, hunting over the river before flying off purposefully west at about 1.30pm towards Skipwith Common. Cold and wet, I decided it was time for lunch so headed home.  

 

Winter Visitor

It is flippin' freezing out there, and as anticipated, the first Blackcap of the winter has appeared in the garden. I skewered a few apple halves on twigs, which pleased the local Blackbirds, and shortly the dapper male Blackcap returned and tucked in. Also there has been up to four Redpolls and 40 Goldfinches in the garden today. 

 

 

2026 Yorkshire Bird Race

The first Sunday in January can only mean one thing, the Mike Clegg Memorial Bird Race! I have been a regular competitor since 2011 and it is a great way to blow away some Christmassy cobwebs, get the birding year off to a good start and raise some money for conservation in Yorkshire. 

Since 2021, and following the restrictions imposed by the Covid pandemic, it has been a non-motorised event. This has led to some pretty sketchy races - see here - and really restricted the number of sites that can be covered. It is also difficult for people who are less mobile to take part, with some opting just to visit one site. Nevertheless, this year, Adam Firth, Duncan Bye and me - The Stormcocks - decided we'd do a loop of the Lower Derwent Valley by bike, taking advantage of the glut of exciting species that had turned up in recent weeks. However, as race day approached, some bitter weather arrived and we decided to use Adam's EV, as cycling looked like it would be too dangerous in the icy conditions (most of the loop is on untreated roads). We realised this would exclude us from submitting an official total, but we'd take part, raise some money for Leeds Swifts and have an enjoyable day out, with minimal carbon footprint. We heard that Tim Jones' team were also planning to use an EV, so we didn't feel too bad!

Dawn at Allerthorpe
 

Our day started stomping around a frozen field near Elvington, looking for Snipe and Jack Snipe. Unfortunately, the big freeze had forced many of the birds away, and we managed a couple of Snipe and a Woodcock, as the first glimmer of light appeared in the southeast. We made out way to Allerthorpe Common, seeing a second Woodcock on the approach road. Dawn in the woods was beautiful, as the peach light crept gradually through the pine trunks, illuminating scattered gems of frost in sheltered pockets. Another Woodcock flew in from the fields seeking a quiet spot to roost in the woods, whilst Tawny Owls noisily announced their plans to go to sleep. Redpolls and Siskins joined the predictable Robins being the first birds to wake, mostly just picked up on call. We did a circuit of the woods as the light grew, with a couple of chipping Crossbills the highlight, along with a Marsh Tit that appeared right on cue by the entrance gate, as we exited. We received the crushing news from Tim and co had seen two Twite with the finch flock at Dunnington. Adam and Duncan, who didn't need this species for their York list, were not keen to detour to look for these increasingly scarce little finches, so they would remain absent from my list.

Around Thornton and Melbourne we built our list, with a flock of 120 Skylarks and a Peregrine the highlights, though the lack of Corn Buntings and Yellowhammers would haunt us for the rest of the day. On to the LDV proper, we received news that the White-tailed Eagle was back at Aughton again - hopefully we'd bump into it during the day. East Cottingwith was lacking in finches, and the Cetti's Warbler was conserving its energy by keeping quiet, but we did see a Great Egret and a fab flock of 89 Black-tailed Godwits standing on the ice. Nearby six Egyptian Geese - still scarce round here -were cavorting on a farm pond, acting like it was spring, and not minus two degrees!

 Black-tailed Godwits roosting on the frozen refuge at Wheldrake Ings

On to Ellerton where we found our target Mistle Thrush but were gutted to hear that the eagle had flown north over Wheldrake, probably as we were driving south to Ellerton. This was galling, particularly as it had been reported by Jane and Rob Chapman, Duncan's usual race companions. We never did catch up with the eagle.

Heading south, Bubwith and North Duffield Ings were mostly frozen and all the recent waders were absent, presumably seeking better feeding conditions on the Humber Estuary. Things went from bad to worse, when we failed to find the Tundra Bean Geese at North Duffield Carrs, nor the Scaup which seems to have departed with most of the Pochards. Our spirits lifted when we met Tim and Co at the platform; it was good to compare stories and find out how they were doing.  

First-winter Caspian Gull - centre, with Herring, Common and Great Black-backed Gulls
 

Next up, we made our way north along the west side of the valley, popping into Thorganby, where we hoped we might see the eagle - we didn't. The regular Little Owl wasn't cooperating either, but we did add Ruff and Little Egret to our faltering list. Duncan suggested we try a farm track near Wheldrake for Grey Partridge on the way to Bank Island and this paid off, with a covey of six Greys sitting tight in the middle of a field. Spirits lifted, we headed to Bank Island for some food and then on to Wheldrake for what remained of the day. Time and energy ran away from us, so we didn't make it furthen than to Tower Hide, so we settled in for the gull roost. A couple of Lesser Black-backed Gulls (usually scarce in winter in York) revealed themselves, and whilst trying to get the boys on to the second more obvious bird, a first-winter Caspian Gull dropped in close by - which was handy. I let Tim know and they managed to get on both species for their growing list, distantly from Swantail Hide, where they had also added Cetti's Warbler. As the light fell, we resigned ourselves to not being able to pick out a Mediterranean Gull, so ambled back to the bridge and then the Wenlock Arms, for a much needed sit down and a pint. 

 

Our total was 89, which is a little below par and it was a bit disappointing to miss most of the scarcer species, especially the eagle. Neverthless, we have taken part and helped raise a good sum towards the Leeds and Sheffield Swifts projects. 

Big thanks to Yorkshire Coast Nature for sponsoring our team with a generous donation to the project.

 

 

 

 

New Year Eagle

Happy New Year! 

The year got off to a good start, when, having dropped Sol's mate off at Wheldrake, we headed down to Aughton to see if we could see the White-tailed Eagle. Sol was interested in having a look - as long we didn't have to wait too long! - so I was anxious when a birder told me that the bird had flown out of sight. I felt the bird may decide to move north, so kept an eye upriver through a gap in the trees. We entertained ourselves watching Goldeneyes on the ings, and Marsh Harriers worrying the wildfowl and waders gathered on the floodbanks. After a while, I spotted the huge form of the eagle flapping low north, as I figured it might. It quickly went out of view behind trees, so I let the other birders know, before we headed off to Ellerton. This paid off, as shortly after arrival at Ellerton churchyard, I spotted the hulking raptor sitting in a dead tree opposite the church. It sat there, being scolded by local Magpies and Carrion Crows, and even Sol was impressed. After filling our boots, we headed home.