Spring Day at Staveley

Sedge Warbler

It's been a few weeks since we've been able to get out bird watching, just too many other chores getting in the way! 

But a few weeks back we did spend a morning at Thorpe Perrow Arboretum where we spotted a Little Grebe on the ornamental pond.

Today though we went back to our local reserve and encountered a whole new range of bird song.  The water birds weren't plentiful but we were treated to 2 warblers, Sedge and Willow alomg with the Lesser Whitethroat and the Blackcap.  There were also Swallows, House Martins and Sand Martins all flitting over the water for insects, making it easier to spot the differences in flight.

Shawnna

Spotted locally...

The weather has been keeping us mostly indoors that last few weeks, so our bird spotting days have been low key with local walks and watching our bird feeders.

We added Fieldfare to our list a few weeks ago when driving up our road we saw a small flock overhead in the trees.

Song Thrush and Mistle Thrush were visiting the feeders during the worst of the weather, fabulously at the same time so it was easy to spot the difference!

And today's walk at Fountains Abbey resulted in 3 new birds for us bringing our tally to 88 birds each. Spotted were a Goosander, Sparrowhawk and Redwing.  We also saw several Gold Crest and Great Tits along with about a million Crows.


Shawnna

Looking for a Hawfinch

We got up extra early this morning to get to Sizergh Castle at the recommended time for spotting Hawfinches only to spend hours cold and hungry waiting patiently for them to show themselves. 

We got there just before 8am.  The first ones there.  Keen and dedicated!  A couple hours went by and the crowd expanded.  Finally someone had a quick sighting in the distance but the bird disappeared before anyone got a really good look.  By 10:30 most people had given up.  I went for a walk just to warm up my toes!

When the cafe opened we opted to sit indoors for a nice warm cup of tea and a scone.  Then Andy saw someone pointing at a tree and rushed out while I continued to enjoy my tea.  And missed the only decent sighting of the morning as one lone Hawfinch perched on a tree top for 30 seconds.

So my day was a little disappointing while Andy was pleased as punch.  Apparently I'm just not dedicated enough!

There were lots of other birds though.  At least 50 Chaffinches, 3 woodpeckers, loads of various tits, Bullfinch, Siskin and over the fields we saw 5 Buzzards.  And best of all for about 15 min after arriving we had 2 Jays bouncing around the trees.  While we had seen them before in our last garden (visiting for the peanuts) we hadn't seen them just 'out and about'.

Shawnna

Nosterfield Local Nature Reserve

Another bitterly cold morning as we made our first trip to Nosterfield and walked to each hide to check out the views over the ponds.

Definitely need a scope here!  All the birds were well on the other side of the ponds.  The hides are fantastic though and we'll be back soon.

One new bird spotted despite not having a scope to hand and that was the Ruff.


Shawnna

Fowl Weather

The plan today was meant to be an outing to the Saltholme RSPB site.

We had to be in Darlington first thing anyway.  But the weather in the area made it a rather risky trip on the roads with snow already causing problems on the roads first thing, so we opted instead for our more local stop at Staveley and we were rewarded with two more ducks to add to our now growing list!

Goldeneye and Scaup were our new birds with lots of Teal, Wigeon and Tufted Ducks also present.  We also got a much better sighting of the Short-eared Owl thanks to our brand new binoculars.


Shawnna