29/10/25 - Whooper Swans

The first herd of returning Whooper Swans (herd of eight) passed through the LDV on the way back from their Icelandic breeding grounds on the 22nd September. Several passage herds have been noted since and twelve have been present in the usual fields at North Duffield Carrs this week, with more likely to arrive in the coming days and weeks as birds depart Iceland (where they breed in marshes, lakes and small tundra pools). Around 40,000 now winter in the UK with the majority being found in the northern half of the country, with large numbers gathering at the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust centres such as Martin Mere, Caerlaverock and Welney.

Numbers in the LDV usually build up from mid-October and reach between 100-150 birds, with North Duffield Carrs and the fields by Bubwith Bridge being favoured areas. The trumpeting herds passing over the reserve as they head to the Cambridgeshire Fens are a truly welcome sight and sound of autumn. Please do let us know if you see (or hear) any flocks passing over the area. 

20/10/25 - Autumn arrivals

Over the last few days we have seen the arrival of the first of our winter thrushes, with Redwings the first to appear in small numbers from Scandinavia, often from the first week in October. Their high-pitched calls can be heard overhead during the hours of darkness as they migrate westwards, and tired and hungry flocks can often be seen and heard chattering as they search hedgerows for berry-laden bushes on which they feed.

There are only a small number of birds around at the moment, but as the weather turns colder and the supply of fruit and berries becomes depleted, larger numbers will return once again to the Ings to feed on the edge of the damp meadows, taking advantage of the high numbers of earthworms and other invertebrate prey.

Mid-September also saw the first arrivals of Pink-footed Geese in the UK and several skeins moved through the Lower Derwent Valley, as they began to arrive into the country from their Icelandic and Greenland breeding grounds. Flocks of these migrating geese often fly high and produce an almost excited medley of high-pitched honking calls, and being particularly vocal in flight makes them a sight and sound so indicative of autumn. As we move towards the end of October birds are still arriving in the LDV with two or three hundred birds now ‘resident’ around the reserve.

Almost 300,000 Pink-footed Geese winter in the UK each year with large concentrations in Scotland, around the Wash and in the north-west, particularly Martin Mere WWT. Flocks passing through the reserve at this time of year are all heading south-east and are probably on passage to the Wash or Humber Estuary. Birds then return north-west again in January and February as they start to return to the north-west coasts before making the spring migration back to their breeding grounds. Small numbers sometimes remain throughout the winter and join up with the larger semi-resident Greylag flocks. Pink-footed Geese can be separated from the similar Greylag quite easily – look for a small, dainty dark chocolate brown head and a small dark bill with a band of pink (if seen well) – also take note of the pink legs as opposed to the more orangey-pink legs of the larger/greyer Greylag. No doubt more flocks will follow over the next few weeks so please do let us know if you see (or hear) any.

14/10/25 - Hamza's Wild Isles ft. the LDV

Over a long weekend back in February some of our team spent several days working alongside wildlife cameraman Hamza Yassin (of Strictly Come Dancing fame!) and the rest of the crew in filming a feature for the forthcoming ‘Wild Isles’ series that started on BBC One at the weekend.

This series covers yet more of the amazing wildlife spectacles that we are lucky enough to support in our ‘wild isles’, but focuses on the more hidden, hard to see, elusive and surprising wildlife experiences our countryside supports. We don’t want to give the game away, but make sure you keep a look out for the National Nature Reserves at Lower Derwent Valley and Skipwith Common as we track down one special visitor, who, having travelled thousands of miles to get here, often remains elusive and hard to see. Whilst we have been studying this species for a few years now, it’s great to be able to share this work, along with the amazing footage with a wider audience – so make sure you tune in on Sunday evenings for the next few weeks, or watch all of the episodes on BBC iPlayer.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/p0l07b2y/hamzas-hidden-wild-isles?seriesId=p0l07b2y-structural-1-m0029sy6

08/10/25 - Corncrake-filled summer

Well, June feels like an awful long time ago now, and how busy we have been reflects the absence of posts to this account, with normal service set to resume, but we've been rather preoccupied doing our very best to help increase the population of Corncrakes in England... 

After months of hard work on the ground we’re delighted to be able to share the news that our team, comprising the Friends of the LDV, Carstairs Countryside Trust and Natural England, have teamed up with Deepdale Conservation Trust in Norfolk, in an attempt to bring Corncrakes back into the soundscape of the Ings wonderful hay meadows. Whilst the reserve here is probably the most reliable place in England for attracting Corncrakes, with one or two singing males recorded most years (and larger numbers/potential breeding has occurred in some of those years), this project is seeking to build and reinforce numbers to a self-sustaining population of up to 50 singing males.

A captive breeding population of chicks taken from the Scottish population have been held by Deepdale Conservation Trust over the summer, where expert aviculturists paired the birds and allowed them to parent-rear their chicks. At 14 days old these chicks were then transferred during the night to the LDV’s pre-release pens, where they remained until 34-35 days old, allowing them to fix on the night sky and enable them to hopefully know the LDV as ‘home’. Once released these birds will have hopefully migrated as normal to Africa for the winter, but the hope is that some will then return to the Ings next year to breed and mix with wild birds, giving the population a real boost.

Back in April following the news of the project, our team only had three weeks to build the pre-release pens, which would soon be home to the Corncrake chicks. The pens needed to be predator proof (down to the size of a weasel, which can fit through a finger sized hole), over-wired and completely safe for the birds to avoid any welfare issues or injuries. This took a monumental effort by our small team of staff and willing volunteers, who stepped up and put in long hours, assisted by the young people and staff of Ad Astra who produced the frames, as well as our corporate groups who leant a hand – so a fantastic team effort, and without it we simply could not have got the job done and the pens ready in time.

Furthermore, ahead of the first birds that arrived in late May we needed to have the individual pens (16 in total) vegetated with nettles, meadow sweet, yellow flag iris and other vegetation favoured by Corncrakes to give them enough cover to thrive. So there followed plenty of transplanting, watering, fertilising and ‘gardening’ by the team before the first brood of five arrived, just as the 20,000 staple went in!

 

Once the chicks were ready to leave their breeding pens in Norfolk (aged 14 days old) they were driven overnight to our pre-release pens in the Lower Derwent Valley and were kept together as broods in separate pens. From then on they spent the next three weeks in these pens, being fed twice a day on a mixture of specialist pellets and mealworms which have been fed on a nutrient-rich diet. Over this three-week period the diet was altered as the chicks grew in age to prepare them for a more natural diet out in the wild, before they were released following a veterinarian health check, when they were also ringed, colour-ringed, DNA swabbed and (for a small sample of birds), fitted with tracking tags. Attaching this small tag allowed us to monitor the birds post-release and see how they were using the area and habitat around the reserve, all helping to provide valuable information for managing the site going forward to further help these birds. The tags indicated that the birds were staying an additional week to 10 days, and departing on the mean average date we would expect from wild Scottish birds. All that is left now is to hope that some of these birds return next spring, which is when we will need your help from mid-April, in listening out for and sending us records of calling individuals around the reserve, so please do get in touch and let us know if you hear one.

Whilst this project is far from over, we are at the end of our first year of releases, which wouldn’t have been possible without the help of all of our partners and supporters, so huge thanks must go to the Friends of LDV, Carstairs Countryside Trust, Natural England, Deepdale Conservation Trust, Ad Astra, Drax and our fantastic volunteer team and corporate volunteer network, as well as to all of you who have supported the Friends via card sales, logs, talks and making donations – you have helped in our efforts to bring Corncrakes back to the Lower Derwent Valley, to Yorkshire and to England.

02/06/25 - Britcon reedbed

A fantastic effort was made in the #LDV recently by the Britcon families & staff, who are not only building our new NNR Base, but working alongside our team helped to plant over 2,000 reeds in our new reedbed areas at Bank Island. Thanks to our friends at Tophill Low LNR we were also able to plant Greater Water Parsnip, Marsh Pea, Water Dock and other local wetland plants into the reedbeds, to increase diversity and act as reservoir sites for other areas. When visiting the site, you will see that this reedbed has been planted in memory of one of the much-loved members of the Britcon team, Ashley Kent, with the aim of the project being to create a real legacy in Ash’s memory.

 

We’re very grateful to the Britcon team and all of the other volunteers who joined in on the day, including our own team who remained into the evening to ensure a good watering of the plants due to the drought conditions we were experiencing at the time – the rain this week might not have been welcome to holidaymakers but it has certainly helped the reeds! This time last year we would have needed to pump water out of the site to even try and plant the reeds in there – what a difference a year makes!

 

 

Whilst the focus of a task day is always the task itself, we always try to provide a memorable day for those involved, either by checking the contents of the moth trap or ringing a few birds, all helping to showcase the work that we do, as well as the Friends of the #LDV and Natural England. If you might be interested in organising a task day on the reserve for yourself or your team, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

06/05/25 - Tern arrival

Following the report of a pair of Common Terns back in the Lower Derwent Valley recently, our team relaunched the tern rafts last week for another season, and we’re now pleased to say that the pair have already taken up residency on one of the rafts on the pool at Wheldrake.

Common Terns used to be a regular spring passage migrant to the reserve, with occasional, but unsuccessful breeding attempts, however, thanks to a generous private donation to the Friends in 2017, two tern rafts were provided which resulted in the first successful breeding attempt for the site, with a single pair raising two young. Since then, and with an additional two tern rafts being provided, a total of 28 young have been reared and ringed on the reserve. From these colour-ringed birds we have had six subsequent resightings; a bird returning in its first summer to Lancashire, another seen during its first winter off the coast of The Gambia, Western Africa, and others subsequently breeding on the Farne Islands and in the RSPB Aire Valley. It’s amazing to think these birds cover such huge distances during the year and return each spring to the rafts in the Lower Derwent - fingers crossed for another successful year.

15/03/25 - Shelduck milestone

On the 12th February 2000 we caught and ringed the first Shelduck for the Lower Derwent Valley on the top pond at North Duffield Carrs, and now, 25 years later, we've just ringed the 1000th individual at Bank Island. Whilst that represents something of a milestone itself, the numbers are not the important thing, but rather the amount of data that those birds (as part of our long running colour-ringing project) have produced over the years, to help our understanding of Shelduck both on the reserve and in the wider area. 

‘Our’ birds include: the longevity record for the species from the BTO ringing scheme (over 20 years old), regularly returning breeding birds to the LDV year after year, and birds visiting moulting sites on the Dutch/German Wadden Sea, the Humber and other estuaries around the UK.

The map below shows a strong association with the northwest, and it is suspected that the Dee Estuary could now be a new moulting site, with young birds beginning to recruit into it over the last decade or so. Indeed, stable isotope work carried out by Ros Green (as part of a PhD study into the species) has provided very different data from the Dee compared to all of the other northwest European moult sites, and it will be interesting to see how that moulting site develops and with it, the links to the Lower Derwent Valley. A total of 100 birds had small feather samples taken by our team over the 2024/25 winter to allow such analysis, and help us understand how Shelduck use the site here. Many thanks to all involved for helping to collect this valuable data.

03/03/25 - Black-tailed Godwit increase

A species which is now a highlight in the Lower Derwent Valley each spring is the Black-tailed Godwit, which has increased dramatically in recent years and now occurs earlier than previously. During the early 1990s spring passage flocks increased from 20–30 birds to flocks of up to 100, often appearing for just a day in late April and early May. However, since then, as the Icelandic breeding population has grown, numbers here have also increased, with peak counts now usually occurring in March. This year up to 200 have been present from early February with 543 recorded over the weekend at Wheldrake Ings, with further birds expected to arrive and build up over the coming weeks. These birds are usually best looked for at either Wheldrake Ings or North Duffield Carrs, with the spring passage flocks of summer plumaged birds a real spectacle – last year numbers peaked at 1,120 on the 20th March at Wheldrake Ings – certainly one to look out for on your next visit.

24/02/25 - Spring arrival

With temperatures rising over the weekend, it’s a time of change in the Lower Derwent Valley once again. Curlew numbers have jumped from 50 to 160+ over the last week with several pairs back on territory throughout the site - it's always a highlight of the year when the first singing and displaying birds are heard across the Ings.

Breeding Oystercatchers have also returned to the reserve, their arrival having moved forward over the last 40 years from mid-March to mid-January, although most arrive from early to mid-February. The now annual build up of Black-tailed Godwits has also started, with just over 200 at Wheldrake Ings during the last couple of weeks. Other signs of spring include breeding activity in the local heronry, the sudden return of Little Egrets, nest-building Mute Swans, singing Woodlarks on Skipwith Common NNR and the appearance of the first frogs. Whilst there is likely to be some cold and wintry weather still to come, it’s a great time of year to get out and about on the reserve and enjoy the changing seasons.

Thanks to local wildlife photographer Terry Weston for the use of his image.

16/02/25 - February WeBS

At the weekend several of the team carried out the monthly WeBS UK count of the LDV’s waterfowl, as part of the national ‘Wetland Bird Survey’. These surveys have taken place on the NNR since the 1960s, and with the use of standard methodology, allow trends in wildfowl and wader populations to be studied, both at a site level and across the county.

Of the 27,500 birds counted in the Lower Derwent this weekend 20,500 were swans, geese and ducks which included an impressive 1,092 Pintail. This represents the second highest count on record for the LDV following last winter’s record breaking 1,120 in February 2024. From looking at previous years WeBS data, we can see that the ten-year averages for winter peak counts show that numbers were in the range of 54-70 during the 1960s, 70s and 80s, with numbers then increasing to an average of 186 during the 1990s, and more dramatically to 468 during the 2000s. Peak counts during the 2000s passed 600 birds in four winter periods, with the largest count of that decade of 674 in 2007/08, being surpassed by a count of 716 ten years later in the 2017/18 winter period, before two counts of 800+ more recently as well as last year’s peak of 1,120. It’s great to see the value of these long-term monitoring schemes, and to see Pintail, such a stunning and eloquent duck, doing so well here, perhaps as they start to shift their range in response to climate. Many thanks to all of our counters who have helped to contribute to this data set.

03/02/25 - World Wetlands Day

With our World Wetlands Day celebration now over, Shaun is hitting the road again to help spread the Countryside Code message elsewhere, but we’re pleased to say that Saturday was a huge success thanks to Shaun and our fantastic team who were busy all day recruiting new volunteers and running activities including bird ringing, guided walks, nest box/bird feeder construction and owl pellet dissection. 

It was also great to see the local school children in Melbourne getting involved in learning about why wetlands like the #LDV are so important and what we can all do to help protect them. 

Shaun’s arrival in the #LDV last week also coincided with the delivery of our new responsible recreation signs as part of our ongoing trial. Look out for these going up around the reserve over the course of the next few weeks informing visitors of public access areas and viewing facilities, and how we can all do our bit to help look after our special wildlife.

22/01/25 - Woodcock

Around 100,000 breeding Woodcock in the UK increase to in excess of a million birds wintering here, as birds from Eastern Europe move west in search of milder conditions. These birds spend the nights feeding (largely on earthworms) on farmland, pasture and the Ings grasslands after dark, before then spending the daytime in dense cover in the undergrowth of hedgerows and woodlands. Here their cryptic camouflage comes into its own as they melt away into the leaf litter on the woodland floor. Although you’re unlikely to spot one on a visit to the reserve (unless you’re present at dusk when they can sometimes be seen flying around the Wheldrake car park area), they usually appear after dark and are found using our thermal camera’s which have helped us to understand their requirements and habitat use in the local area.

In December, prior to the floods, we caught and ringed a Woodcock and Jack Snipe on Wheldrake Ings, and just four days later we recaught both of those birds together over 5 km away on pasture fields near Elvington Airfield, having been displaced from the reserve due to the extensive flooding. Knowing just how birds might move round the landscape and surrounding fields in response to flooding and other conditions helps us better target conservation measures, to ensure other suitable and equally vital habitats are protected and managed for these rather secretive and previously poorly understood and under-recorded species.

19/01/25 - Smew arrival

Over the last week it has been fantastic to see two Smew arrive in the #LDV. A male first appeared at Wheldrake Ings where it was then joined by a female (red-head) over the weekend, with the pair spending time on both the pool and nearby Swantail Ings – make sure to visit soon to enjoy these stunning ducks if you can.

Smew are winter visitors to the UK, with most birds not arriving until at least December and leaving again by the middle of March, before spending the summer in the taiga forests of northern Scandinavia and Russia, where they nest around lakes, ponds, rivers and other water-logged places – ideally with plenty of trees where they nest in holes and cavities.

The number of Smew reaching the UK each winter has sadly decreased dramatically in recent decades, with them now considered a scarce visitor (over recent years not more than 100 individuals have wintered in the whole of Britain). This decrease has been attributed to the effects of climate change, with warmer winters reducing the distance they have to travel from their breeding grounds to escape freezing conditions. However, numbers/sightings across the reserve over the last decade have actually shown an increase in contrast to the national trend, which may reflect a shift in range from previous key sites in southern England. Other species possibly appearing as a result of the recent cold weather include several White-fronted Geese, two Tundra Beans, Hen Harrier, Scaup and a Short-eared Owl, so plenty to look out for as we head towards our World Wetlands Day celebrations at Melbourne Village Hall on Saturday 1st February. 

Thanks to #LDV volunteer and artist Dominique Vassie for the wonderful sketch.

07/01/25 - Date for your diary!

This year we are holding a World Wetlands Day celebration at Melbourne Village Hall on Saturday 1st February 10.30am-3.30pm – come along to what will we be an amazing family fun day and find out just how special the Lower Derwent Valley and its wildlife is, with opportunities to meet the team, try out some practical volunteering taster sessions, enjoy some children’s art exhibitions, guided walks and bird ringing demonstrations. There is also the chance to meet our special guest 😁 Shaun the Sheep is back and explaining how we can all enjoy our very special nature reserve responsibly using the Countryside Code.

World Wetlands Day is celebrated annually on the 2nd February, with the aim of raising global awareness about the vital role of wetlands for people and the planet. The day also marks the date of the adoption of the Convention on Wetlands on the 2nd February 1971, in the Iranian city of Ramsar on the shores of the Caspian Sea, and is the reason the #LDV is now a Ramsar site. The day celebrates all the benefits wetlands bring – from biodiversity, flood storage and reduction, food and jobs, clean water and access to health environments for recreation – definitely plenty to celebrate here, with this year’s theme ‘protecting wetlands for our common future’.

https://www.worldwetlandsday.org/display-event?p_p_id=eventDisplay&eventEntryId=1663016&redirect=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.worldwetlandsday.org%2Fevents%23event1663016&fbclid=IwY2xjawHswJtleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHXTFmZwyss-BmSObepj8YPJDQicMkkUQ5hmPZThB9uZxhGvp-OloonyJEg_aem_wOexjBCANL3_Yr0gQtHonQ