Winter is here....

A snowy scene,Worlaby Carrs.

A visit to a few sites in the north of the county and not far from home due to our first significant snowfall of the winter,had me seeing some great birds in the freezing conditions.I visited 3 sites today,Far-Ings,South Ferriby and the local patch at Worlaby.I started the days proceedings at Far-Ings,parking at the new visitor centre and walked the whole area,with the best birds being the superb drake Smew,watched dozing in a sheltered bay on Hotel pit,a Common Buzzard,which i inadvertantly flushed from Target lake hedge,2 Marsh Harrier(adult type male and juv.)over Barton Reedbed and a flock of 94 Barnacle Geese,which were observed flying west up river.The latter were probably part of the feral population from the upper Humber at Whitton,but who knows!.The best bird of the day was seen next,the superb juv. Rough-legged Buzzard at South Ferriby.It was watched hunting in typical Buzzard fashion,waiting and watching from it's favoured fence and i only saw it fly briefly when receiving some un-wanted attention from a pair of Crows,what a cracking bird and lets hope it survives the winter.Also seen here was an adult female Marsh Harrier.The last place i visited was the local patch at Worlaby,were apart from the expected S.e.O's,the highlight was a big southerly movement of Pink-footed Geese,with a total of 1492,this may have been a local feeding movement,but my bet was that the birds were moving to Norfolk due to the weather.Other goodies seen here included the afore-mentioned Short-eared Owl's with only 4 being seen today,juv.female Hen Harrier,which came into roost,a pair of lovely Stonechat and 24 Corn Bunting.Mammal highlights today,consisted of 6 Roe Deer,flushed by a shooting party at Worlaby,which showed nicely after settling down in the wet pasture field.A good day,despite the freezing conditions.