Baggins on the Loose: over wintering

Sunday, 12 January 2020

Festive season catch up - Lower Derwent Valley, Far Ings, Silton Forest and over wintering Blackcaps

To be fair, the baggins has had a lot on his plate recently and is hereby excused for not posting a single thing on here since last summer😜😜.

Seriously though, and not that this bothers me unduly, 'tis another consequence of 'getting on a bit', that inability to juggle quite so many balls in the air at the same time without falling down legs akimbo! Whatever, 😀 Mental health re frame required for reaching the age of 60 is under construction and work is progressing on schedule!

Enough of that rubbish. Here's a few of my wildlife highlights over the festive season.

Me n Mikey, Bubwith Ings, 10/01/20 (pic R. Marrs)

First off and fresh in the mind, a great day out around the LDV (Lower Derwent Valley) with good mates Mikey, Rob n Mark ...

A bright, crisp and sunny day, the kind we haven't had enough off this winter so far, and a joy to be out and about the floodplains.

Me n Mark, East Cottingwith, 10/01/20 (pic R. Marrs)


Aughton church from North Duffield, 10/01/20

Bubwith Ings, 10/01/20

Wigeon, East Cottingwith, 10/01/20

Lots of birds around with 1000s of Wigeon, Mallard and Teal in the air along with smaller numbers of Pintail, Gadwall, Shoveler and a few Goosanders. At one point mid afternoon we reckoned on appx 7000 ducks flew over East Cottingwith into Wheldrake Ings

Wigeon, Bubwith Ings, 10/01/20

Ruff, in with Lapwing flocks, East Cottingwith, 10/01/20

Nowhere near the huge numbers of Lapwing that there used to be but comfortably 2000+ and in amongst these flocks just 2 Golden Plover (disappointing) but also 4 Ruff that I took to be Golden Plovers at the time till I zoomed in on the pic .. easy mistake to make!

2 Marsh Harriers patrolling the reeds over by Aughton provided us with constant entertainment as we sat in the hide at North Duffield, as did a single Water Rail creeping around the scrape there, and later on at Melbourne / Thornton Ings an even better treat - a female Merlin speeding over Church bridge and heading south looked to be joined by another. Uncommon birds in the York area so a good record. Just before dusk there appx 30 Corn Buntings flew over towards their usual roosting spot nr Thornton lock.

Marsh Harrier over Aughton, 10/01/20

Silton Forest, 09/01/20

Out on my own the day before I went up to Silton Forest, a forestry commission england site near Northallerton and on the western fringe of the north yorks moors. I was after some location shots for the new website and couldn't have picked a murkier day, but got what I went for in the end, and a pleasant walk in a pleasant forest to boot.

Not a great deal spotted - Nuthatch, Treecreeper, Jay, GS Woodpecker, Willow Tit and a small flock of Siskins.

Silton Forest, 09/01/20

Closer to home, my mother's house to be exact and out the back on the pond there have been up to 17 Goosanders throughout the winter so far, plus a Kingfisher, Great Crested Grebe and in the gardens backing on to the pond Redwings, a Fieldfare, Bullfinches and best of all at least 3 different over wintering Blackcaps - 2 males together a few weeks back and a few days later a male and female together. Great garden record, even managed to spot where one of them goes into roost - a neighbours acacia tree!

All feeding on the last few Rowan berries and the fat balls of course!

Male Blackcap, York, 14/12/19

Redwing, York, 14/12/19

Goosander (female), York,

Bullfinch (male) 11/12/19

This past year has been like no other for me, much change and lots of ups and downs, the first year for decades that I haven't traveled abroad and the year I decided to give up living on a caravan site. All coming together now, thank god, and planning to be away again to mainland Europe in the spring after a short trip up to Scotland next month. In the meantime here's a few more selected pics from Dec/ Jan.