Thursday, January 05, 2012

It's either flood or famine down here




Hardly surprising given recent weather you may think but High Royd has been underwater since at least November, recent rain has obviously raised the levels again resulting in the top picture, which is of the reedbed.


Bird wise things haven't changed much since my last visit and the birds of interest were actually on the canal and river, a pair of Goosander and a further 4 (1 redhead).


The flooded reedbed was proving a popular new feeding ground mainly for Mallard approx 20 but also a couple of Moorhen and a male Teal. The other pools held more Teal c18 along with a few more Mallard and another couple of Moorhen.


The surrounding trees had over 30 Magpies in them, whilst a nearby flooded football pitch was the haunt of 2 Grey Herons.


What we need now is a good freeze to push all the wildfowl together and bring out any rails that are hiding.


Big surprise was the lack of Nuthatch and tit flocks, although there were some Long tails about they proved hard to find in the fading light with only a couple being seen.



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