A few signs of spring

Taxi duties have kept me busy recently, so birding has had to be local and only for a few hours. The weather intervened at last and gave me a chance to spend all day birding. Due to the recent wet weather the football matches have been postponed so I was able to go to Blacktoft on Saturday and help Stuart.

I started at Ousefleet where I saw my first oystercatchers at Blacktoft this year. 176 dunlin and 180 lapwing, 148 teal, 143 wigeon, 12 shelduck and 10 shoveler were also present, making the walk in the poor weather worth the trip. 

Marshland was home to 12 snipe and 45 black tailed godwits and a few ducks and lapwings. Xerox had mostly wigeon while First lagoon was home to 4 coots. A pair of goldeneye were on Townend along with some tufted ducks and lots of greylag gees had taken over Singleton lagoon.

The weather was a mixture of wind, rain and a brief period of fine weather, during which time the marsh harriers were busy hunting. Just before I locked up 6 brambling were seen near the toilet block.

A problem with the catering arrangements resulted in Sunday afternoon becoming free so I returned to Blacktoft. Better weather than on Saturday.

After chatting to Ian and Stuart I walked to Marshland hide. Lots of snipe, but they were well hidden in the vegetation until a marsh harrier flew over and they moved to a different island.

Mostly wigeon on Xerox hide so I sat in First hide and ate my lunch/tea. The harriers were busy hunting and interacting

The goldeneye were still on Townend lagoon. A buzzard was sat in a bush near Singleton lagoon which upset one of the marsh harriers.

No bonus brambling when it came to time to lock up.

Today I was thinking of going to the raptor viewpoint in the hope of seeing goshawk. However the weather was cloudy and as the birds are a fair distance away I decided I would postpone the trip until better weather. North Cave was my 2nd choice and it was about 1030 when I arrived. Not many visitors today, possibly because the butty van is not there on a Monday. A group of people were walking down the lane the lane towards South hide, so I decided to start at East hide.

Lots of blackheaded gulls on site and their noise fills the air. A pair of great crested grebes swam past the hide towards the Turret hide. They both dived and when they surfced they were carring weed.

Not the best picture in the world dur to the distance and light

Their courtship was cut short by a blackheaded gull dive bombing them. But a special sight and a sure sign of spring. I left the hide and walked along the path towards the Turret hide. In the trees on my left I saw goldfinch, greenfinch, long tailed tits, redwing and siskins. At the bird feeders goldfinches, chaffinches and tree sparrows were competing for space at a feeder, while rooks picked up the seed that had fallen onto the floor.

The noise from the black headed gulls is a little deafening in the Turret hide so after a quick glance around the lagoon I carried on towards the North Field. Not a lot of activity and not much to see from the farm viewpoint. The path is muddy in places so I was looking where I was walking when I noticed a redwing fly past me. I stopped and turned round and saw that it had landed in a bramble by the side of the path. After a few minutes it hopped down onto the path and started to look for food in the mud.

I stood still and just watched it look for food and trying not to scare it by taking a picture. The bird would get a bit closer, then stop and look around before continuing. It reminded me of my trip to Iceland when redwing seemed to be everywhere.

After about 10 minutes I slowly walked backwards and left the bird looking in the mud for food. No sign of an owl at the corner so I continued along the path. There is a small feeding station on the left of this path and chaffinches, blue and great tits were there.

I think that this is female great tit as the mark on her tummy is quite narrow, while the bird below could be male as the mark is wider.

Sadly some of the seed ends up on the ground and rats come looking food.

A dunnock was just sitting watching events.

I walked down to the new workings but was unable to add anything to my list. I met a couple from Paul and we spoke about Spurn. Crossland hide had nothing new to offer so I walked towards South hide.

This robin was so close

It then followed me along the path

I took this photo with my phone the bird was so close. 

more signs of spring. Not a lot of birds to be seen from the South Hide. Partly due to the number of visitors who banged the door shut as they came into the hide and then slammed the window open. After they all left a male goldeney came a bit closer to the hide.

Not long now before duck numbers start to reduce as the birds fly north to breed. From the left hand side window of the hide I was able to watch a great crested grebe build its nesting platform. I am unable to say if it was one of the grebes I watched earlier. It certainly like long lengths of reed.

An excellent end to my visit with 50 birds on my day list.

I stopped briefly at North Duffield on my way home, but the number of birds visible was small. In the car park I met Elaine and Ian and Janet Carstairs. I have not seen Ian or Janet for about 20 years, it was good to meet again.