North Cave

 First outing for over a week as I slowly get over a dose of covid. I only walked just over 2 miles and was glad to be able to rest in the 5 hides.

Just after 9am when I arrived and I was able to park near the entrance. There is a little blackboard on the side of the "butty van" and a birder was entering details on it. A restart was still present in the North hedge, so if I managed to see it it would be a year tick. My first stop was the East hide. Not a lot of birds on the water, a few lapwings standing at the waters edge and lots of greylag geese.

There were more greylag geese to be seen from the turret hide along with several green sandpipers. As I walked along the path towards the north hedge, a birder was walking in the other direction and told me where to look to see the redstart. I heard a sedge warbler in the vegetation on my left

I joined another birder who was stood to the right hide side of the north hedge watching the redstart. The bird was moving from a branch on a bush to an umbellifer and onto the ground. I was able to watch the bird for a few minutes before it went out of view.

I walked back to the path and walked back along the path towards the next hide. I did not see the redstart again but there were lots of small birds in the hedge, A family of warblers, dunnock, reed bunting and a yellow wagtail. The water level in front of the hide was lower than on my last visit which provided plenty of space for lapwings and starlings.

As I reached the end of the north hedge path and turned left, I could hear lots of noise from the bushes and saw a family of blackcaps. Not many birds to be seen or heard as I walked along the path towards Dryham Lane. From Crossland hide I could see lots of mute swans and more greylag geese.

South hide was my last stop and from where I could see lots of pochard, including a red crested pochard. Little grebes were active, chattering to each other

A family of mute swans were on the water and the parents were guarding the 5 cygnets very closely, even though they are a fair size. A black swan came a bit too close and was chased and attacked by the male swan.

As I walked back to my car, it started to rain, so I drove home.

Watch the birdie.

 Last week we had all of the windows in our house replaced, so we were sat out in the garden a lot of the time. On Tuesday evening about 8pm we were still sat outside listening to the chirping of our house sparrows when all went quiet.

This sparrowhawk landed in the gutter and was watching our sparrows.

They soon saw it and hid in the hedge!

Fowlmere

 Grandads taxi was back in Cambridgeshire, so I thought that I would add a new RSPB reserve to my list.

There is a pleasant walk around this reserve, part of it on a boardwalk, so I assume that in winter it possibly floods. Thursday was a busy day on the reserve, with lots of volunteers undertaking various tasks, so I walked around the reserve twice, so as to avoid them but see the whole reserve.

Not a lot of birds about and several of the chaps in one of the hides seemed to be more interested in the "birds" from Duxford. Spitfire, De Havilland  etc. From the reedbed hide I saw a red kite, several green woodpeckers, a chiffchaff, lapwing, black headed gulls, mallard, coot and moorhen. A few swallows swooped low to get a drink of water and a solitary swift flew past. Not a fantastic list, but a pleasant place to spend a couple of hours.

Waders at Blacktoft

 July 17th was my last spell of duty at Blacktoft, it was a quiet day visitor wise, possibly because of the heat and the start of the school summer holidays. This enabled me to give Stu a hand with a couple of jobs, including pumping water onto Marshland lagoon. Over the weekend the high tides were the highest of the month and had deposited some water into the feeder ditch. This allows the team to transfer water into the lagoons, and as the recently arrived waders had chosen Marshland, Stu was topping up the water level.

Black tailed godwits, snipe, greenshank, little ringed plover were some of the waders on the lagoon. Others were redshank, ruff , lapwing and green sandpiper. Juvenile beardies were busily feeding on the insects they found on the mud at the bottom of the reeds.

 

One of the young magpies likes to pop in and say hello to visitors in the First hide. 

Not sure if I will get to Blacktoft before the end of the month, so it will be interesting to see what has changed.

Filey, Fairburn, Paxton Pits, Ouse Fen and Rutland Water

 Grandads taxi has been about a bit in the last few days. First place I visited was Filey Dams.

The tufted duck family are doing well and the young carrion crows are still begging for food.

An oystercatcher dropped in for a bathe

This common sandpiper did not look very well!

Lapwings were close to the hide

young mallard were busy feeding

a green sandpiper was busy preening

a barn owl came out of its box

After a couple of pleasant hours at Filey Dams it was time to go and collect granddaughter and bring her back to York.

Wednesday I went to Fairburn Ings to buy something from the shop and spent about anhour down the Lindike end, still no sign of any progress with opening the hide.

a peregrine was perched on one of the pylons. On the water were lots of geese, 2 great white egrets, common sandpiper and ringed plover. Lots of butterflies about.

 

Thursday and after dropping my granddaughter off at Cambridge I went to Paxton Pits Nature Reserve.

 

I had a nice cup of tea in the visitor centre before setting off to explore this reserve. As it was my first visit a followed a route suggested by one of the volunteers on duty. The reserve has a large colony of cormorants and the trees that form their nest site are covered.

a few common terns were fishing but not many other birds to bee seen or heard. I disturbed a pair of green woodpeckers and this stoat ran down the path towards me.

RSPB Ouse Fen was my next stop, another place I had not visited before. I was standing at the viewpoint when a local birder walked up and joined me looking over a patch of water. He was telling me how quiet it was bird wise and he had hardly seen any birds. He told me where he had seen a water rail so I followed the path on my right and then turned left to walk along a path with water on both sides.

Not brilliant pictures due to the sun and distance, but it was certainly an active water rail and not bothered about coming out into the open. Time to go to my hotel.

Friday morning and on my way home I called in at Rutland Water.

A very large site and one that I could not explore fully in the couple of hours I had to spare. Steve in reception was very helpful and so off I set to explore lagoons 1 to 4. Plenty to see including great white egrets, little egrets, avocets, osprey  common terns

not brilliant photos due to the height of the vegetation in front of the hide.

this black tailed godwit was not an Icelandic one, like the ones we get at Blacktoft but one that had been born on the Nene washes. From another hide I had distant views of a kingfisher

lots of ducks close to a hide.

I added greenshank and ruddy shelduck to my year list. A reserve I will visit again when I have more time.

Early July at Blacktoft

 I spent the first 3 days of July on duty in reception at Blacktoft. A mixture of weather, heat, cool, wind, heavy rain showers and thunderstorms. Despite the weather and my limited chances to birdwatch I managed to get58 different birds on my list, which shows what a great place the reserve is, a view many visitors told me over the weekend. Plenty of visitors calling in on their way to or from Bempton, most of whom said that they would return to Blacktoft.

Water levels are slowly going down on some lagoons in order to provide a suitable habitat for waders on their journey south. Other lagoons are still home to lots of duck families as tufted and gadwall broods can now be seen feeding, while mallards are having their 2nd or 3rd broods.

Marshland lagoon has attracted wood and green sandpipers, ruff, redshank, snipe and avocets with their young.

the barn owl family are ready to leave the box

water rails are walking around the lagoon, although some distance from the hide.

Young herons are very visible from most hides

There are about 10 active marsh harrier nests on the reserve and their food drops etc have enthralled lots of visitors, many of them have never seen a marsh harrier so close before.

a cuckoo has often been seen as it hunts for the large hairy caterpillars.

Over the 3 days as I walked on to the reserve I was greeted by a sedge warbler singing away, there are several to be seen as you walk along the paths.

the reed warblers and sedge warblers like other birds are busy feeding young.

Comments from visitors suggest that sedge warblers seem to be everywhere this year and the numbers seem to have increased. A chiffchaff is still singing

a whitethroat remains near Singleton hide.

young bearded tits can be seen either feeding on insects on the mud at Marshland lagoon or in the reeds from other hides.

Egret numbers are increasing. At least 3 great whites on Singleton lagoon

the little egrets are often seen chasing each other from lagoon to lagoon, there is a family group moving between 1st and Townend.

a magpie family are staying close to the hides and footpaths

a few butterflies about

In a previous post I mentioned the mute swan family that was feeding in the ditch and the plight of one cygnet. The family are back in the ditch but this time only the adults climbed out of the ditch.

It is now possible for visitors to walk through the flower meadow on a path cut by the team, it is well worth a visit.