Having walked a long way today in the forest, I was feeling pretty tired and went to bed lacking in enthusiasm for the following morning's Yorkshire Bird Race. I read a little of Oddie and Tomlinson's classic 'The Big Bird Race' and this did the trick; I set my alarm for an early start and went to sleep planning my route and dreaming of the fantastic birds I was going to see tomorrow.
For a while now, the Mike Clegg Memorial Bird Race has been non-motorised, so this means logistics have to be planned carefully and a route is dictated by one's fitness and how many miles you can squeeze in before the light fails. This year would be a solo effort, with previous team mates either being away from York or planning alternative routes. Bird-racing is usually a team event, but I do enjoy a bit of solo birding as it means there's no distracting chat and I can please myself with where and when to go. The downside is that you have only one pair of eyes and ears - a big disadvantage - and there is nobody to give you an encouraging nudge when you are starting to flag.
My day began at North Duffield Carrs, overlooking the watery world of deep flooding in the Lower Derwent Valley, as the first rays of light crept across the waterscape. A huge throng of gulls was milling about noisily, with birds heading off in all directions for their day's feeding. I quickly scanned through trying to make out species in the half-light before they all departed. I thought to myself that the only way of identifying anything unusual in the gloom would be if it was at the very front of the flock. Moments later, to my astonishment, there at the front of the flock was a small gull with gleaming white primaries and a dark bandit mask- an adult Med Gull!
Bonus. This was presumably the same bird I'd seen a few days ago, but was more than a little luck to find this here at the start of the race. After notching up most of the regular species from the hide, including a pair of hunting Peregrines, Marsh Harrier and Little Grebes, I decided to have a walk towards the Garganey Hide to see what farmland birds I could find. I didn't find many farmland birds, but on the way back I was treated first to the fantastic spectacle of Pink-footed Geese emerging from the dawn sky and heading west filling the air with their lovely cries, and then moments later, I was astonished for the second time when a ringtail Hen Harrier cruised low across the field in front of me. She went across the road and into the distance. What a fab start!
I peddled off down to Bubwith Bridge, with the hope of seeing the Pochard flock on the ings: they were present and correct; and to look for waders on the riverbank: Curlew, Ruff and 20 Redshank also gave themselves up.
Nearby a fine Stonechat posed nicely in what was left of the car park that hadn't been flooded.
As I cycled back towards North Duffield a sharp call from a roadside reedswamp revealed an unexpected Cetti's Warbler. With deep flooding the only Cetti's I was aware of were on the other side of the valley and out of reach of me and my bike, so this was a really nice addition. Next up, I headed to Skipwith Common, notching up a notable flock of 60 Corn Buntings feeding in a stubble field and sitting on the overhead wires.
My luck held and following up a calling Green Woodpecker, another ringtail Hen Harrier flew past me and began quartering the heath in front of me. She was gorgeous and seemed unperturbed by my presence. She drifted off towards another part of the common. Shortly after, I had my most frustrating moment of the day, when a small raptor shot low across the heath. I got my bins on it just before it disappeared behind some trees and I was sure it was a Merlin, but I just couldn't be sure with such a brief glimpse so had to let it go. After stomping around the wet heath for a while, I had only one Snipe to show for my efforts so decided to leave the common. I paused near the entrance where I'd seen Treecreepers previously, one of the few woodland birds that had so far eluded me. No sign today, maybe too many visitors. I decided to go for a pee. Midway through, I realised the car next to the tree I was peeing against wasn't as empty as I'd assumed and the old lady inside gave me a rather surprised look! I shuffled awkwardly around the tree a bit.
Pressing on, I left the common and headed further up the valley, notching up a surprise roadside Marsh Tit near Danes Hills and even more remarkably, a Grey Wagtail in a field just south of Thorganby. The Thorganby platform was next and several birders were present, twitching the wintering drake Smew. It was great to bump into Craig Storton, who I had enjoyed the Biggin Red-footed Falcon with a couple of years ago, and to meet Dave Aitken from Bempton RSPB. Until moments earlier one of the resident Little Owls had been perched out in the open, but annoyingly it had decided to go back to its roost. I gave the site a good 45 minutes and it didn't reappear while I was there. The Smew was much better behaved and showed very well in the usual area, before retiring to the shelter of some branches poking out of the flood, where he masqueraded as a plastic bag caught in the tree!
Up the road I wearily rode, to my final destination: Wheldrake. Or so I thought! News of some Bramblings up by Cheesecake Farm lured me further up the road where I bumped into Duncan Bye and Tim Burkenshaw who had decided to do the bird race on foot. They had just left about 50 Bramblings by the farm, so I peddaled up the lane to have a look. A Kestrel was sitting by the farm and there were few small birds; presumably the little falcon had flushed them all. Fortunately, a few minutes later and a few finches pitched into the top of a nearby tree and at least two of them were Bramblings, to my relief. My list was growing steadily, but I was running out of daylight and still needed several relatively easy birds. I decided my best bet was to don my waders and head through the floodwater to begin my vigil on Wheldrake bridge. There was a bunch of stuff I could see from there, so that seemed like the best plan. My first problem was that it seemed somebody had stolen my waders that I had stashed earlier that morning. After checking with Craig Ralston and Duncan that they hadn't moved them, I had a mini panic until I realised they were hidden behind a different log pile. Phew! Duncan then told me I'd cycled past two Tree Sparrows with the House Sparrow flock by the village. Doh! I didn't have the energy to go back. Things were falling apart!
I headed down the lane, donned by waders and launched myself into the floods. Duncan and Tim arrived after a few minutes, and we began to watch the deeply-flooded ings. It was so frustrating we couldn't even get to Tower Hide! The Scaup that had been seen earlier had gone, and the gull roost seemed to be assembling on Swantail again- miles away! To warm ourselves up, we waded to the first corner along the very wet riverside path. This was a good plan as I added my only Treecreeper of the day! Back at the bridge, Tim spotted a Willow Tit in the willows (where else?!), which was another good bird and another tick. Sadly, apart from a Mole which emerged from the soil and then swam out into the flood water, we failed to find much else and my list ground to a halt. The only other bird I added was a Tawny Owl that called as we made out way back up the track in the dusk gloom. The bird race was at an end.
It had been a good day, with some fantastic birds and a decent amount of luck. With a bit more planning and a lot more energy I could have easily got four or five more birds (I think I say this every year!). I had cycled further than I'd planned, about 15 miles and walked a few more. My final score was 87 bird species, one up on last year, and included some difficult bird race species, like Grey Wagtail and three, yes, three, Sparrowhawks. Green Woodpecker, Hen Harrier, Smew and Cetti's Warbler are not guaranteed and were therefore notable, but the Yellowhammer, Tree Sparrow, Skylark, Little Owl, Grey Partridge, Coot and Canada Goose should have been easy, but I failed to see them. But that is birdracing I guess! The Young Upstarts who always win the York area race (and usually win the whole Yorkshire title too) did fantastically well, finishing on 99 species.
But the whole point of this is conservation and this year, money raised is going towards helping breeding waders at Edderthorpe Flash, near Barnsley. If you've enjoyed reading this, please make a small donation to this excellent cause. If you haven't enjoyed it, then make a big donation! Here's the link: https://www.gofundme.com/f/edderthorpe-flash Thank you!
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That swimming Mole...
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