Craning

Friday (20th March) was my last Yorkshire Coast Nature Goshawk tour of the season. The day had started with thick fog, which really hampered proceedings, but we had a good morning, with Willow Tit, Crossbills and best of all, a showy Hawfinch, which alighted on the top of a tall tree right in front of the group. The fog lifted at lunchtime and three Goshawks suddenly appeared. An adult pair quickly saw off a young female, and once gone, they circled round and dropped back into cover. The afternoon was cold and overcast and we failed to find any more Goshawks. 

...

Sunday 22nd March 

 Despite the forecast, there was no fog to hamper my morning's birding, a change from the last couple of days. I headed down to North Duffield under bright skies, with a hope to see some early spring migrants, a Garganey or Crane perhaps. Duff was packed with birds; 150+ Black-tailed Godwits lined the bund in front of Garganey Hide, and nearby, the wintering Spotted Redshank was preening on the edge of the flood. It is a while since I have seen this bird, so it was nice to catch up with it again. Seven lingering White-fronted Geese were grazing the field behind the hide, but shortly flew onto the flood and mooched about in with the godwits. Three Ruff and a Dunlin were noted, and a couple of Marsh Harriers came along the river. Amongst the hordes of ducks, I failed to pick out a Garganey, or yesterday's Scaup.

 

Shortly, Ollie called to give me the head's up that seven Cranes were circling the Aughton poplars. Thanking him, I started to scan north and picked up the giant shapes high in the sky and heading towards Duff. Class! They started to descend, dropping dangly legs, and then circling round in front of the trees and down onto Aughton Ings. I decided to head round there to see if I could see them on the deck. A few minutes later, as I was driving down the lane to Aughton, the Cranes suddenly appeared overhead. I threw the car onto the verge and grabbed my scope. The birds were only 100m above me, looking like they might land again, but they began to gain height, heading first south and then high to the northeast, before turning back into the valley and following the river north. The calls of migrating Cranes rang out as they went. Simply majestic and exactly what I was hoping for! 

 

I followed them up the valley to East Cottingwith, but they had gone. 305 Black-tailed Godwits were roosting on the Wheldrake Ings refuge and as I left, the North Duff godwit flock powered in, with a whoosh of wings as they dropped as one, on to the refuge. A quick look at East Cottingwith Pond yielded six White-fronts happily grazing, with 50 Wigeon and a few Tufted Ducks on the water. Down at Ellerton, a real commotion in the pine copse to the south attracted my attention. 20 Carrion Crows were screaming from the tops of the deciduous trees; they were seriously unhappy about something. Suddenly, 20 or so Woodpigeons exploded from the copse in a panic and the nearby Wigeon erupted off the ings. A brown shape circled round and before I had chance to focus had dived back into the pine copse. More pigeons shot out and the crows went bananas. I couldn't be certain with the briefest of looks, but this felt like a Gos. I waited for half an hour but nothing appeared. The crows lost interest after a while and moved on, and I did likewise, and headed home.