Winter
Some people find winter a depressing season where everything around seems dead, lifeless and downright dull. Personally, I love winter. For me it's a season of fresh birding opportunities, new sights and sounds and the potential for some very special birds indeed. Not to mention the chance to walk and watch on beautiful clear, crisp mornings through big frosts, well wrapped up against the cold.

What's about?
The bird prospects in winter are as varied and exciting as any other season. We experience foreign invasions, visitors from Scandinavia, Northern Europe, Iceland and some of our native species pay visits to inland locations such as the Carrs to escape harsher conditions and make the most of alternative food supplies. Many birds and mammals have to work harder to feed in the colder months, they aren't feeding young but they must eat more just to survive.
I was at the Carrs however on a late January Sunday morning, concentrating on keeping warm from the chilly wind and the skylarks enjoyed the sunshine. They tumbled and sang together as if they could feel spring was just round the corner with nesting and mating on their minds. It didn't feel any where near spring to me, maybe they knew something different.

Winter ducks.
One of the biggest attractions at Beal Carrs in winter and wetland sites in general is the number and variety of winter ducks and wildfowl, with the possibility of some stunning
rarer species. Amongst the regular mallard, tufted duck, coot and moorhen are usually good numbers of teal and widgeon. A view through the 'scope in clear bright winter light reveals what a beautiful little duck a male teal is, with its chestnut and brilliant green head and subtle cream triangular patch near the tail. The male widgeon also sports a rich chestnut head but is easily identified by the bright cream-yellow stripe which runs from the base of the bill straight up the forehead onto the crown.

Special ducks.
With luck, colder days bring scarcer visitors who may linger for a matter of hours, days or weeks. The pristine goldeneye and elegant pintail are not unusual and have paid regular visits in winter. These species breed in small numbers in Scotland but it is Northern European birds that usually over winter in the UK. Very occasionally a smew might drop in, the favourite duck of many birdwatchers in this country. Again, the male is more stunning than the female and is white with delicate and distinctive black markings, including a discreet black eye mask. The female has a reddish brown head and in birdwatchers' circles is known as a 'redhead' (rather than a female smew).

Pure magic.
On two occasions in January I was delighted by the sight of my first ever short eared owl, a species more associated with its high moorland summer breeding grounds but which favours marshy grassy lowland in winter. I'd heard from friends there was one around and tried to be there late afternoon one day, hopeful of seeing it. Alright, to be honest I'd been sitting at work thinking I was due an early finish and before I knew where I was I was going down the motorway at about 4 o'clock. Dashing home for a quick change of clothes and to grab the binos, within 10 minutes I'd reached the end of the Carrs track and started to scan the scene, knowing full well that the light would start to diminish within half an hour or so. I'll admit to an amount of nervous excitement but kept telling myself the bird wouldn't show (to avoid huge disappointment). It showed. Five minutes after my arrival the owl rose and started silently hunting over the longer grasses up and down. I watched it for what seemed like an hour but was probably only 10 minutes before it disappeared, temporarily scared off by carrion crows. What a magnificent 10 minutes they were. I was glad in a way that the owl went, I think I'd have been transfixed until I couldn't see for the dark, there was no way I could walk away from such an amazing sight.

Showing off.
The Carrs had another special visitor during last winter, a water rail. Read descriptions of water rails in any field guide or reserve report and the word 'elusive' will be there. More often than not, any sightings report says that 'a brief glimpse of the bird' was enjoyed. Beal Carrs' water rail proved just as elusive on most days, leaving us wondering whether the bird had moved on many times. The best was yet to come though on the 16th of January. Water Rail! was the call (or rather Walter Rail as we'd named him) as the bird emerged, like a moorhen in his Sunday best. Stunning slate greys, black and white barring, rich chestnut brown, vivid red bill; a superb and 'elusive bird' which treated us to 15 minute's perfect viewing picking its way along the muddy Carrs' shoreline in superb winter sunlight. Absolutely breathtaking.
Months before I'd had the real pleasure of catching a glimpse of a water rail (my first sighting) in very murky light for about a minute on a freezing cold day at the nationally renowned Blacktoft Sands reserve near Goole. The inhabitants of the hide that particular day were equally as excited as I. They'd have enjoyed that morning at 'The Carrs'.

Jackie Carlile

These 3 photographs of the Ings have been contributed by Ann Walker.
The stretch of water below is not Beal Carrs, but another well loved stretch of water in Kellington, the Old Eye, taken in 1960, by Ann Walker.
A rotten log at Beal Carrs, and the fungus growing on it.