09/12/11 - A Week's Summary

On Tuesday (6^th) we headed down to North Duffield to check on the Whoopers and see if they were feeding on the grain. They were indeed and the flock had increased to 57 birds, including 18 juveniles. There was one bird still present with a darvic but we couldn’t get in the right position to be able to read the full number, various tussocks of grass and ditches were in the way! At the end of the day we drove up to the Top Pond to check the whoosh net area, about 500 Wigeon were present but most of them were on the banking sheltering from the strong winds. We sat it out for a while, a Barn Owl (already ringed) dropped into the area followed by 4 Carrion Crows! The Wigeon milled about in the water infront of the net, gradually coming up in ones and twos. Then with very little daylight left we finally fired on 5 when it looked like no more were going to come!

On Wednesday (7^th) Mike went down to North Duffield early in the morning, no birds were in the catching area, but 2 new Teal were in the duck trap. Later the same day Mike returned to try his luck again, about 40 birds were present but with it being so windy they were sheltering on the bank again. There were 30 Whoopers in the field again today so hopefully the planned catch next week will come off!

The net was open at Bank Island for an hour this morning, it was abit blowy but there were lots of Blackbirds and a few Redwing around the car park, we caught 2 Blacki’s which had been feeding on the apples by the net.

Early Thursday morning (8^th) saw a catch finally come off at Wheldrake! Despite the net being well trodden into the ground it fired well, catching 11 Wigeon, bringing that to 1000 ducks for the year! There was also 1 Mallard in the duck trap at Duffield.

Craig & Mike headed off before first light for a catch this morning (9^th) but there were no ducks on the pond, instead they moved the whoosh net at Wheldrake to a better position - and to where it's less muddy! In the afternoon they had a catch of 8 Wigeon at North Duffield, plus a Teal in the duck trap at Wheldrake.