North Cave Wetlands

 A mixture of family commitments and preserving fuel meant that it was 1230 before I arrived at NCW.

A mixture of weather, bright sunshine, cloud, rain, strong wind made taking photos a bit difficult. I started off at the South Hide.

 Bright sunshine as I looked out of the hide window. Large numbers of ducks. Male pochards looked smart in the sunshine

this male wigeon is nearly there, a bit more yellow on his head.

Mr and Mrs gadwall were staying close together.

lots of female shovelers

Crossland hide next

not many birds were on this lagoon. 2 green sandpipers, 2 little egrets, teal, mallard and wigeon.

 A walk along the western footpath

 

someone has put some food in one of the bird feeders

this blue tit was busily feeding on the peanuts. I have not put out any food for the birds yet, perhaps I ought to now that the temperature is dropping. Lots of greylag geese in front of the next hide and plenty of lapwings, but the the sun was shining directly at the hide so no photos. A lesser black backed gull was having a preen on a post.

Goldfinches were feeding on the teasels

no matter how hard I try whenever I hear these birds I am still unable to make "charm" out of their call as apparently this is where the name charm of goldfinches came from!

Despite the wind and rain, dragonflies were on the wing

From the turret hide I was able to see a ruff feeding. From the East hide I managed to see a male mandarin duck

tick number 170 for the year.

It started to rain again as I made my way back to the car so I popped into South hide again.

Little grebes were busily feeding.

great crested grebes were also looking for food, this one travelled a long way under water.

a young moorhen was feeding at the edge of the lagoon.

Perhaps on my next visit there may be some winter visitors to see.

Wink wink, wink wink

 

In earlier blogs I have commented on bird song/calls. North Cave wetlands for instance when the black headed gulls start nesting and their noise fills the air. Now it is the time when the sound of pinkfeet are heading south. Blacktoft is an ideal place to see and witness, what for me is one of natures spectacles.

I was on duty at Blacktoft on Saturday afternoon and all day Sunday and the sound of the geese could be heard for most of the day. On Saturday the geese flying back to the Humber were flying fairly low so it was possible to identify barnacle geese amongst the pink feet.

"Larry" the white tailed lapwing is still present and attracting visitors from far and wide.

Not sure how much longer the bird will remain. Will the colder weather make it continue it journey south?

Lots of little egrets on the reserve

a great white egret was also on Singleton lagoon.

and several ruff

From Marshland hide I saw snipe,

lots of meadow pipits were also on the lagoon.

I saw a merlin 3 times during my stay on Sunday. I think that it was the same female. Will the change in weather bring us another star bird or more winter visitors?

Scarboro, St.Aidans and Fairburn

 Wednesday I went to Scarboro. The eldest grand daughter is at Uni and needed a shopping trip. Afterwards I had  quick walk around the harbour.

A nice view on a pleasant September afternoon. However all is not well.

Lots of razorbills and guillemots inside the harbour searching for food. This bird was just on the slope of one of the boat launching sites. Reports from coastal places of lots of dead birds. Not a pleasant sight.

Thursday afternoon I went to Saint Aidans.

A much pleasanter experience than my last visit as there were hardly any people there.The weather could have been kinder, a stiff breeze and lots of cloud.

These magpies were taking turns at pecking this sheep. I presume that there must have been insets lodged in its wool.

still splashes of colour to be seen.

Cormorants were busy fishing

Male shovelers are starting to regain their splendid colours.

female teal were close to the path

grey herons were standing in the water, waiting for prey.

great crested grebes were also busy

a good selection of waders were present, black tailed godwits,

dunlin and ringed plovers

but no sign of the grey plover I was hoping to see.

Pink footed geese flew over

I called in at Fairburn Ings on my way home.

The hide at Lin Dike is still not open. It has been closed since the first lockdown, with no explanation as to why it is still closed. I don't think that I am on my own when I say that this is the best bit of the reserve. Lots of effort is put it near the visitor centre, it is time for some effort to be put in to restore this hide into use.

The viewing screen near the hide has been damaged. I don't know who designs these screens, but I don't know anyone who can comfortably use the viewing slots, so I guess someone has become frustrated at not been able to access the hide and has made the viewing slots more friendly. Someone has also cut part of the hedge to give a better view of the scrape. From the path I could see several spoonbills

this highland cow and calf were playing

two ruff were fairly close

I stopped near the moat and saw several geese, swans and these three pintails.

Today I visited the "Pool of Destiny" on my way to a garden centre.

This was the pool when it was home to curlew sands, little stint etc.

This is it today.

North Cave and Hartlepool

 Saturday afternoon and a couple of hours to spare so off I went to North Cave. Good weather and not many people so I was hoping for a pleasant visit.

Plan A was to park at the far end of Dryham Lane and walk to the new workings. I visited the South hide first.

Lots of mute swans. Little grebes were busy looking for food.

a female tufted duck

A hobby was flying over the lagoon hunting for dragonflies until it was mobbed by a flock of lapwings.

Not a lot of birds on the new workings so I went to the Crosllands hide. On the way to the hide I noticed lots of crab apple trees.

The fallen apples were popular with carrion crows who were eating their 5 a day.

No much activity from the hide so I walked along the path towards the north field in the hope of seeing a corn bunting. No luck with a corn bunting or any other small birds. I met Brian and his wife, and Penny the ranger for the day.

Lots of lapwings in front of the next hide, but the sun was shining directly towards them so no pictures.

Despite the sunshine and warm temperature I was surprised not to see any dragonflies near the small ponds. The turret hide was my next stop. Curlews, black tailed godwits and green sandpipers.

From the east hide I could see lots of ducks and greylag geese. I was unable to find a mandarin duck which had been seen earlier in the week. As I walked back to the car I could hear buzzards and as I looked up there were 5 circling over the reserve.

A nice end to my visit.

Sunday I was on duty at Blacktoft and it was a busy day as birders came to see "Larry" the white tailed lapwing or the bluethroat.

Tuesday was a free day so I decided to go to Hartlepool. 

I started at the headland in the hope of seeing a skua or a shearwater. It was very quiet with a few eiders on the sea and lots of guillemots . On the rocks were turnstones, redshanks and purple sandpiper. I walked along to the pilot jetty and added curlews, shag and cormorant to my list. House sparrows were flying about.

a herring gull had found some food.

The tide was out so no birds at Newburn Bridge just people having a paddle. The road to North Gare and Zinc road were also bird free zones. Greatham creek was my next stop. I joined 3 other birders who were looking at the various birds. Black and bar tailed godwits, redshanks and curlews,

The other birds left to try and locate a spoonbill and I went to Saltholme. From the Phil Stead hide I saw teal, little egrets, a green sandpiper and lots of moorhens.

In the visitor centre they now have "Albie" pin badges on sale.

I had a walk to the wildlife watchpoint where on moorhens were on view. No birds at Paddys Pool as volunteers were cutting down the vegetation on one of the islands. From the last hide lots of geese including barnacles.

A curlew sandpiper was also present busily feeding.. I went back to Phil Stead hide to have my lunch. Chris sent a text message so I joined him at the headland, Again not many birds apart from guillemots. Chris left to try to see a bonxie while I went to Ward Jackson Park. The park was always our first stop on our visits to the area, mainly to see the parakeets, but they have not been seen for a while. I parked on one road and walked across the park to the other road. I could hear jackdaws but thought that I could hear parakeets. I stopped and listened and managed to locate the tree that the sound was coming from. At first I could only hear their call and see movement in the tree, then one came into view. They were eating the fruit from the tree.

A nice end to a pleasant day. Year total is now 169.

 volunteere were