cliftonbirding: Yorkshire Cranes

Tuesday, 3 April 2012

Yorkshire Cranes

I initially tried for the two Common Cranes that had turned up near Sherburn last Thursday afternoon after work but there was no sign of them then, however it later came to light that the birds were feeding in the field there in the mornings and evenings flying off to private land during the day so Sunday morning it was back to Sherburn Carr along with Mark and Andy and sure enough there they were feeding in the field albeit a bit distant although a dog walker flushed them a little closer at one point, we stayed with them for a while then mid morning they upped and went off to the private site over towards Potter Brompton, half a mile up the road a male Reeves Pheasant may have been “plastic” but was still a smart looking bird. We then headed up into Wykeham Forest after being given a site for drinking Crossbills, two or three came in but the area had virtually dried up so they didn’t hang around for long, we dropped into Troutsdale and at Hilla Green an immature Goshawk went over and two drake Mandarins were on the Ox-bow Lake but there was no sign of any Grey Wagtails or Dippers nor did any more Raptors show. After lunch we went on to Bransdale looking for Ring Ouzel, we tried a couple of sites but its still probably a bit early yet and we didn't see any, Red Grouse were posing though and a Red Kite and Buzzard were sparring at the top end of the valley, next up was Newburgh Priory Lake where the drake Garganey was still present but right at the back and there were no Hirundines about neither. We ended the day at Nosterfield where we hoped to connect with the Black Necked Grebes from the day before but there had been no sign of them, there were a couple of Avocets on Lingham Lake though and a Med Gull in with the Black Headed colony at the main reserve plus our first Sand Martins of the year at last.