Last day of summer, 1st day of winter.

 

The weather on Saturday morning was not good, so I was glad that I was inside. In the middle of the afternoon the weather improved so I drove to Wheldrake and walked to the Bank Island hide. Another birder was sitting in the hide waiting for a flock of golden plover to return. They did not so he left.

The golden plover returned.

The water is a fair distance from the hide so the photos are not good, but I think that you might get an idea as to the birds present. The golden plover left after a short while and did not return during my stay.

A pleasant end to my summer birding.

Sunday was my first shift of the winter, as the visitor centre is now only open on a weekend until some time in March. The weather was horrible. Strong wind and heavy rain. My first visitor walked over the floodbank!

it was a young swan and it just walked along the path. I followed at  distance but could not see any damaged wing etc, so it walked off and started feeding in one of the ditches. The rain continued until after lunch when it brightened up. A few visitors came, some to see Larry who obliged by preening in front of 1st hide.

a redshank was nearby

while a little egret had a preen

The visitor centre closes at 4pm and until dusk I joined Carl, Ian and Gerald in Singleton hide. We did not see a hen harrier but had wonderful views of marsh harrier.

I did not take my slr as the light was poor, I wished that I had taken it and tried to shoot in black and white. We had 19 marsh harriers in the sky at the same time. The above were taken using my phone.

the black blobs are marsh harriers

Corn bunting

 One advantage of social media is the information that is available, so using a recent tweet I set off in the hope of getting tick number 183 for the year, a corn bunting. I parked on the grass verge and walk down the lane. I soon came across large potholes so I was glad that I had not attempted to drive down.

Either side of the lane are fields and few trees or hedges, so you have a good view of the terrain. In several fields there are large, round bales of hay and I could hear bird song coming from one of these fields. It was very windy, so it was difficult to pinpoint the source of the song. I slowly walked along and saw one or two birds flying, they were finding it hard going against the wind. This gave me a chance to look at them through my binoculars and I could see that they were skylarks. Several more skylarks joined them and as they flew further into the field a large flock of linnets took to the air. 

I walked further along the lane and came to another field with bales of hay, Again the bird sing and flying skylarks, except this time I could see lumps on top of the bales. Looking at these lumps I saw the rope that was used to hold the bale together. However some of the lumps looked a bit different and when I looked through my binoculars I could see a corn bunting. Time to get out of the wind and walk back to the car.

I then drove to Bank Island.

The sunshine would have helped when I was looking for the corn buntings. I had just sat down in the hide and noted that there were lapwings, golden plover and 3 little egrets, when everything took to the air.

I looked to see what had disturbed the birds and saw a marsh harrier, then two marsh harriers. One had red wing tags, which I think indicated that the bird came from Norfolk, 

not brilliant pictures due to the distance. They flew out of sight and the lapwings returned, only to take to the air soon afterwards. I assumed that the harriers had returned, but no it was a red kite.

As I watched the kite slowly glide around I saw a buzzard and a kestrel. Eventually the lapwings returned but not the golden plover or egrets. Their place was taken by a lot of black headed gulls. 4 snipe were feeding in the mud in front of the hide, but too far away for a photo.

Then an ex work colleague turned up. I had taken Andy on his first birdwatching trip several decades ago! A black balloon floated across the field towards the water and everything flew away including the harriers.

It was then time for me to leave to go for my booster jab.

17 more birds including kingfisher and green woodpecker. However I only have half days available for the next week or two and the clocks change on Saturday, so it will become more challenging to get to 200 birds for the year.

Green winged teal

 As the current year end gets closer I am trying to add to my year list in the hope that I can get to 200. So I am visiting sites where I might see a bird I can add to my list. Today my target bird was green winged teal at North Cave. Not a bad day warmth wise, but a very grey day which does not help when trying to either see or photograph birds.

I started out at the cafe end of the reserve and sat down in East hide and started to look at the birds on the water and islands. Plenty of teal, but not with a vertical stripe, and not every male was showing a horizontal stripe, so this was going to be a challenge. I walked to the Turret hide, where 2 other birders were scanning the teal looking for the green winged. The light was poor and the birds were mobile. Every few minutes more teal would fly in.

As we scanned through the teal we had a pleasant diversion when a bittern walked onto a small island. Just too far for me to get a decent picture in the light conditions.

It was standing in this position for a few minutes

then it stood like this before flying off. We resumed looking at the teal. Again they would be disturbed by something and a curlew flew close to the hide.

Each time that the birds moved we had to start scanning again. After a while we saw a bird at the far end of the lake which fitted the description.

The bittern flew again and this time landed in the reeds.

 Other people came into the hide so I left and walked around the rest of the reserve. Still a few bits of colour to brighten up the vegetation.

No new birds to add to my day list. Lots of greylag geese in front of South hide.

As I got back to my car, the two birders were at their car and they told me that the bird had moved closer to the hide and was now on an island to the left of the hide. I walked back to the hide and joined two other birders who were looking for the bird. I told them about it been seen on an island to the left of the hide and we concentrated our search there. The chap found a bird with a vertical stripe. The bird did not have the same head markings as the other male teal, but the vertical stripe was not a very clear one. Would the bird turn round and show its other side? It did, and it had a vertical white stripe on its other  side.

The light was still poor but I think that you can see the vertical white stripe which makes it a green winged teal. Tick number 182 for the year, can I find another 18?

Ring necked duck

 If I had written this blog in advance then the title would have been jacksnipe. My plan for today was to go to Old Moor and see one of the jack snipe that have been reported recently. I went to Broomhill Flash first. This was my first visit since they did a lot of work on the reserve, and what a difference it has made. On the island in front of the hide there were lapwing, snipe, teal, gadwall, mallard, shoveler and a very noisy jackdaw.

Not a good day for photographs due to poor light conditions.

After about an hour I left Broomhill and drove the short distance to Old Moor.  I walked to the reed bed hide as that is where the jack snipe had been seen, and where Gerald had told me to look. I spent about an hour looking for snipe but no luck.

Little grebes were active in front of the hide

as were tufted duck and gadwall.

a marsh harrier was been chased by a carrion crow.

As I walked back towards the Kingfisher hide I met Gerald, so I walked back to the hide with him. He looked at the places where the jack snipe had been seen on previous days, but he could not find one, so I continued on my walk around the reserve.

Not much to report from the Kingfisher hide. What was the family hide has been changed to something else. From the right hand corner of the hide I saw a male pintail.

There were no new birds to be seen from the next hide so I walked on to the last one.

The sun was now shining which was a bonus. A male shoveler looked splendid as he preened

wigeon were grazing

meanwhile a grey heron was chasing a great white egret away.

I walked back down Green Lane

attractive autumn colours. Tree sparrow farm was my next stop, but only goldfinch and greenfinch

and a family of long tailed tits

I was going to go back and see Gerald in the Reedbed hide, but I met Steve who told me that he had left about 30 minutes ago. I  went back to the car and checked my phone for bird news. A ring necked duck had been reported at Southfield Reservoir and as that was only about 40 minutes away and sort of on my way home, I decided to go.

I passed a birder who told me that the bird was easy to see near the large willow tree.

I scanned the area to the right of the tree and could not see the bird so I walked on a bit further and scanned the area to the left of the tree. No bird to be seen, so I walked back to my original spot. I had only just got my telescope and tripod sorted when another birder turned up, He found the bird in next to no time and was able to tell me where to look. His name was Steve and he had helped at Blacktoft several years ago, so a big thanks to Steve. This is the best picture that I could get of the bird.

Not a very good photo, so I am afraid that you will have to take my word for it, that this is the bird!

On my way back to my car I passed this barge.

nice to see that they are still working. A bit further along I saw a great crested grebe.

A pleasant end to the day and tick number 181 for the year Can I make it 182 tomorrow?.