Staveley YWT 12th March

Fifteen of us (including a visiting birder from Canada) enjoyed a glorious sunny spring day at Staveley YWT reserve SW of Boroughbridge on Sunday morning, followed by a visit to Nosterfield Quarry N of Ripon in the afternoon.

We clocked up 78 species (though as usual not everybody saw everything). Some of the highlights included:

Staveley:

First singing Chiffchaffs
A small marsh with up to 30 Snipe
Reed buntings everywhere
Tree sparrows ditto
Flock of (elusive) Siskins
Marsh tit
A single Brambling
Displaying Goldeneye
2 Buzzards and a Red kite soaring together in beautiful light
A good selection of dabbling ducks (Mallard, Teal, Gadwall, Wigeon, Shoveler, Shelduck)
Fieldfares and a single Redwing
Water rail (heard, not seen)

Nosterfield:

Avocet 4
(European) White-fronted geese – 2
Little owl – 2
Dunlin – 2
Pintail
Great drifts of Lapwings
A mystery flock of about 100 ‘small brown birds’ too distant to ID with certainty, but could have been Linnets
Barn Owl
Tawny Owl
Stock Dove
And the Starling murmuration was very good and worth the wait (per PEWW)

Altogether a great day out
John L