Flamborough Migweek

 

Just in case you don't recognise the above location, it is Bank Island , next door to Wheldrake Ings.

For the past couple of weeks I have not had much spare time due to members of the family having medical problems. So on 0ctober 3rd I manage a couple of hours down the Lower Derwent Valley. Bank Island was my first stop. More water due to recent flooding however as I walked towards Cheesecake hide a couple of shepherds on a quad bike drove into the field and moved the sheep. They also disturbed all the wildfowl, so I was left with 4 mute swans. A pair of stonechats were using some tall vegetation as look out posts. I waited for an hour, but no birds returned, so I drove down to Bubwith Ings.

After parking on the village side of the bridge, I took my folding chair and sat just through the gateway to the field and watched the birds on the recent floodwater.

Lots of canada and greylag geese, with a few Egyptian geese at the back. Large numbers of mallard and teal.

This is the view of Bubwith Ings from the Geoff Smith hide, you can just about make out the flood water. The  reserve did not have any flood water and few birds, so I did not stay long.

My family have changed their plan for this week, which for once gave me some free time, so I set off for Flamborough to join in their Migweek.

I arrived at 0840, too late to see the first birds that they had caught in the nets. Nothing special except perhaps a rather vicious magpie. Subsequent catches included, redwing, bullfinch, robin, tree sparrow, wren, goldcrest, yellowhammer, blue, great and long tailed tits.

After the ringing finished I drove to Filey Dams.

Several hundred teal were asleep around the edge of the water.

male shovelers are starting to display their full colourful plumage. I walked round to East Lea.

Judith was just leaving and told me what was about. 2 bar tailed godwits, 1 green sandpiper and 2 redshanks.

As you can see the water level is low so the birds were nearer the pig farm than the hide.

Eventually the redshanks came close.

The godwits and the green sandpiper remained down the far end along with 23 moorhens.

Perhaps this cat was putting them off from coming closer to the hide.

Looking forward to mid-week when I will be joining Stuart and Suzanne for a couple of days.

Thursday afternoon at Blacktoft

 

Had to take some things to the re-cycling centre this morning, and was amazed to see how much traffic there was at 10am! The journey took longer than I anticipated, but luckily I did not have to queue at the re-cycling centre.

I was thinking of going to the coast but decided against that due to the time, so I headed for Blacktoft.

The above photo was taken from the hide at Ousefleet. On my last visit on Saturday, the lagoon was home to several hundred birds. When I arrived all I could see was 1 snipe! After a few minutes 70 teal flew in and were slowly getting closer to the hide when another birder came into the hide, slammed the door shut, banged the window as he opened it and off went the teal. As a consolation prize a kingfisher flew past the hide.

On my way to Marshland hide I saw this dragonfly and butterfly.

Lots more teal and shovelers on Marshland lagoon plus several gadwall.

not long after I took the photo, he started to mate!

Reedling had a similar mix of ducks plus at least 20 snipe in the vegetation at the edge of the lagoon.

5 ruff were with the ducks on one of the islands

This was the view from 1st hide.

There may not be much activity on the lagoon but I do enjoy the view over the reserve, and marsh harriers seem to fly close to the hide.

I saw 2 different males as well as a female. Perhaps numbers are starting to increase now that autumn is here.

Last shift of Summer

 

This was my view from Ousefleet hide at 0730 on Saturday 28th September. RSPB Blacktoft Sands has now reverted to winter opening times. The reserve is open every day but the visitor centre is now only open on a weekend, and Saturday was my last shift of the summer season.

Strange morning. I had just taken this picture when Stu sent a message asking if the road to the reserve was open?  It seems that after I drove past the church at Whitgift, a road closed sign appeared.

Stu managed to drive to the reserve but other visitors had to drive via Crowle, a long way round. We were not expecting to be busy due to the appearance of a rare bird at Bempton, but the road closure added another dimension.

However the road closure did not last long and lots of visitors arrived to take advantage of the sunshine.

Those that ventured down to Ousefleet were rewarded with close views of about 20 bearded tits.

The lagoons are quite full due the last weeks high tides, so birds are close together.

These sleeping teal and a snipe were on one of the islands at Marshland.

There were several hundred teal on the reserve along with mallard, wigeon and gadwall.

Male shovelers are starting to come out of eclipse.

A few spotted redshanks were on Reedling lagoon along with lapwing, snipe and redshanks.

A grey heron was soaking up the morning sun at 1st lagoon

Not many small birds about, A single swallow flew over the VC  and 9 whooper swans flew NE, very high up.

I ended my shift in Singleton hide. A few marsh harriers came into roost and some mallard landed just before 7pm when it was time for me to lock up.

RSPB Fairburn Ings

 

Not the best weather for birdwatching. In between showers I manage a spot of birding.

I started at Lin Dike. Lots of greylag geese flying about, a great white egret on one of the flashes and a cattle egret with the highland cattle. Lots of teal, lapwings and black headed gulls.

A heavy shower of rain moved me to the Pickup screen near the visitor centre. Lots of small birds at the feeders.

Back at the reserve on Tuesday with RSPB York Local Group, when I hope that the weather is better.

Hoopoe

 

I was not expecting this to be on my list of jobs for today.

Year tick 194 at Stamford Bridge.

Also there were Malcolm, David, Andy and Chris.

Red- breasted flycatcher and Great grey shrike.

 A very autumnal morning on Hartlepool Headland. Drizzle and mist was the weather offering, so I was hoping that the weather conditions would mean that birds would not be moving far. A great grey shrike had been reported at the Headland, so I was optimistic.

I started at the tennis courts but other birders told me that it had flown off towards the church. I joined another group in Olive Street who were looking for a yellow- browed warbler. It was a nice surprise to see Chris Downes arrive to join us. Before the pandemic we had spent may an hour in the area birding, especially on January 1st. The warbler was proving difficult to see so we walked to the bowling green and joined others looking for the shrike.

After a few minutes waiting in the rain we were rewarded with good views of the bird. I could not see it at first, but Chris soon told me where to look. The bird flew down to the ground before returning to the tree and then flying off again. Year tick for both of us.

Chris suggested that we try the putting green next, so he drove there whilst I chose to walk and check on a few places on the way. There were 2 groups of birders in the area. 1 were looking for warblers near the Boro Hall without any luck, so we joined others in the putting green. There were several birds in the trees and bushes, and as people called out where they were I found it a bit confusing. Eventually we all seemed to be watching a red-breasted flycatcher and ignoring a pied fly and a lesser whitethroat. The bird was moving from tree to tree but every now and again it was visible as it perched on leafless branches. Another year tick for both us. Mark and Carol turned up and soon saw the bird, year tick 199 for Mark.

We decided to go back to near the Heugh Battery and do a spot of sea watching. We joined 2 other birders who had been there a while, but had seen nothing special, mainly due to the mist. Visibility gradually improved and we saw gannets, sandwich terns, red-throated diver and then Chris saw an arctic skua, quite close to the shore. A year tick for him, which left him 1 behind my year total.

Chris decided to go back to the putting green to see if any other birds had been found. I stayed hoping to see more skuas but to no avail. I drove to RSPB Saltholme while Chris stayed to try to get some picture of the flycatcher. He joined me in the Phil Stead hide and showed me a good picture he had managed to take.

In front of the hide we saw, snipe, ruff, curlew, black-tailed godwits, moorhens and teal.

 

A good day, and a pleasant reminder of some excellent days birding with Chris.

Full lagoons at Blacktoft

 

This weeks high tides have had the desired effect and the lagoons all have water in them. This is what Ousefleet looked like about 4pm on Friday afternoon.

Yellow wagtails, lapwings, and a couple of hundred greylag geese were enjoying their new conditions.

At the other end of the reserve

greenshank, ruff, avocet, green sandpiper, ringed plover and black-tailed godwits were busy feeding.

Pink footed geese were constantly flying over and their call filled the autumn air.