Holgate Birder: A busy end to May

I will not bore you with all the domestic jobs that have kept me busy in between bits of birding.

Sunday May 22nd and I was on duty at Blacktoft. My last visit was on May 1st and how the reserve had changed. The vegetation was greener and much higher and sedge warblers singing was the dominant noise.

The ponies were just waking up as I approached them. There was no water in front of Ousefleet hide, which is good as it allows the weeds etc to grow ready to feed the ducks this coming winter. A few tufted ducks and coots on the water on the scrape to the right of the hide.

Lots of avocets on my last visit to Marshland hide, just 2 today. Various predators had eaten the eggs so the birds had flown off to either Witton Sands or Read's Island.

A single shelduck was sat on the island. I presumed that the others were busy nesting. The barn owl returned to its box.

this red admiral landed on the sightings board

the tortoiseshell chose the path.

the woodpigeons were eating the elderberries

coots were busy feeding their young while cormorants had taken over the island in Singleton lagoon.

meanwhile back at home the young starlings are eating their way through 2 insect blocks a day.

Tuesday 24th of May I visited North Cave Wetlands. I was sat in the East hide when Stuart joined me. After a few minutes I returned to the car and put on another layer of clothing, it was cold in the hides. I met Brian and Mike on my walk around the reserve. Not a lot to see on my walk around so I returned to my car and ate lunch. I then walked around the reserve again and this time I saw lots more wildlife.

Lots of black headed gull chicks

lots of butterflies enjoying the sunshine.

male reed bunting perched on the top of a hedge

grey heron looking for food

at last I managed to get a glimpse of reed warbler, tick 171 for this year.

a chiffchaff along the west path.

On the way home I called in at North Duffield Carrs.

Most of the water has now gone and not much activity on the scrape. The mute swans have left and I hope that they have managed to raise young. I decided to walk down to the Garganey hide. As I entered I saw a kestrel hovering just outside the hide.

Despite the lack of water I managed to log 25 species.

Wednesday the 25th and I went to Scarboro to see my grand daughter via Flamboro and Filey.

I hoped to catch up with a woodchat shrike which had been reported from the gorse field. I joined other birders on the edge of the car park. We were all wearing hats and coats as it was so cold. I spent a couple of hours there and saw 19 different birds but no shrike. The tawny owl was still at Filey Dams and had a list of 25 birds. After taking my grand daughter shopping I retuned to York. That evening I attended an indoor meeting organises by York RSPB Local Group. Before the meeting people had a chance to look at photos of previous group trips, as the group was celebrating its 50th anniversary. Alasdair McKee, the Local Groups officer for the North of England presented long service medals to four people and then he presented this painting to me.

Saturday the 28th and Sunday the 29th I was back on duty at Blacktoft. Similar list of birds for both days. In front of reception hide a family of mute swans often use the area to have a rest.

The sides of the ditch are quite steep and the cygnets struggle to climb it. As some of you may have seen on your visits, water voles feed in this area. The water voles make little tunnels in the bank of the ditch which lead to the area of grass. One cygnet could not climb up the bank so tried to use one of the tunnels made by the water voles, but it got stuck. The other three cygnets decided that they had spent enough time preening and sleeping and dropped back into the water in the ditch and swam off. Mum had to follow but did not want to leave the cygnet that was stuck in the tunnel. After she had swam after the cygnets Stu quickly went down to the area and rescued the cygnet.

He quickly put it into the ditch and he swam off to join the rest. About an hour later they returned and this time they all managed to scramble up the bank. The weather was not brilliant in the afternoon with lots of rain showers. In between the showers the sun shone and the birds became active. 3 spoonbills landed at Marshland.

Two of them had rings on their legs. I will try to find out where they were ringed.

From reception hide you can see an elderberry bush and birds often perch in there. During one of the showers a cuckoo landed in it..

Later on in the afternoon a pair of crows were perched on the bush when a marsh harrier flew across and dropped into the reeds at the edge of First lagoon. One of the crows then flew and started to attack the harrier, then a second crow joined in. A second marsh harrier then joined in.