The plan for today was to shelter from the wind in the hides at North Cave Wetland. The A64 was gridlocked due to an accident so I was heading west instead of east. I continued to the A 1 and drove north to Staveley. Previous attempts to visit have been thwarted by a full car park.
I was pleased to find that the car park was empty when I arrived. As I walked along the path towards the hides, lots of pheasants and crows flew off. From the first hide I visited I could see lots of greylag geese close to the waters edge, sheltering from the wind.
Lots of birds trying to get food from the feeders at the next two hides.
The sun was shining but the wind was strong. The birds were keen to get food from the feeders but the feeders were swinging to and fro in the strong wind so staying on the feeders was difficult.
After a couple of hours I left and drove to Nosterfield.
A mixture of greylag and canada geese along with some oystercatchers and black headed gulls. Site maintenance closed some of the footpaths so I drove to the other site.
It had started to rain so I went to the first hide. Most of the birds were on the far side of the water, so I had to use my scope to see what was about. 165 curlews, 220 lapwing, 51 oystercatchers, 153 wigeon, 48 teal a few tufted ducks, gadwall and shoveler. The waders kept taking to the air, but I could not see any birds of prey. Each time they took to the air, a few curlew flew off.
Three rabbits were grazing in front of the hide as I left for home.
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