Field trip to the southern end of the LDV – 10th December

A good turn out of 15 members met up in the North Duffield Carrs this morning & with the weather being thankfully dry & calm we headed for the viewing platform.

The water levels were very high, with only small areas of river bank remaining.

Along the path to the viewing platform a pair of Stonechat gave close views along with a passing tit flock making use of the  vegetation sticking out of the water.

Out on North Duffield Carrs, the highlight was 4 Scaup, with another bird present on Bubwith Ings along with around 100 Tufted Duck and 13 Goldeneye. A hunting Marsh Harrier caused panic amongst the Lapwing & wildfowl. A Little Grebe was present where the river should have been & 6 Whooper Swan headed north.

Then onto North Duffield Ings (south of Bubwith Bridge), where Natural England had given us permission to access the flood bank. Out of the flood here were 7 Black-tailed Godwit, 10 Ruff, a Barnacle Goose in with around 1000 Greylag Geese & 125 Canada Geese and 141 Pintail.

A passing Peregrine out everything up including 1500 Lapwing, 500 Dunlin & 300 Golden Plover which all came off the fields by Derwent Cottage Farm.

Due to the high water levels there was no river bank left to walk on Bubwith Ings, so we headed for Ellerton. From the Ellerton Church there were 106 Whooper Swan, 62 Shelduck, 6 Pochard, 2 Red Kite & 2 Marsh Harrier. The group also walked along the track towards Ellerton Landing.

After Ellerton we headed to Aughton where heavy rain cut short our visit, but there were few birds from the church yard here.

It was then back to North Duffield Carrs, for a bit of shelter & a (lateish) lunch.