North Cave Wetlands

 

No football again due to flooding so after doing a few jobs at home I headed for North Cave.

Lots of cars but I managed to find a space and as I was sorting out my scope etc., Vince parked next to me. He had come to look at the equipment that In Focus had to offer.

I started at the feeders and was pleasantly surprised to see so many bramblings.

Bramblings were at the Maize field feeders, along the north hedge and in the trees along Dryham Lane.

 It was good to see lots of greenfinches, even if they were squabbling and making photography difficult.

Only coots to be seen from the Turret hide and on Reedbed lake. From the far corner I looked over towards the new hide and spotted an Egyptian goose on one of the islands. I walked as far as the new workings and added shelduck and pochard to my day list.

 Mute swans, greylag geese, wigeon, mallard, gadwall, shoveler and teal from South Hide. It was now nearly 2pm and had 38 birds on my day list including 6 year ticks. I decided to go home via Thorganby and see if I could find the male smew. The car park was very muddy, so I presumed that it had recently been under water.

I joined a birder in what I think is the community orchard and he told me where the smew was. I don't think that I would have found it otherwise. It was sitting on the water, but underneath some bushes.

It is the white object under the bushes. In the distance were whooper swans, another year tick. Lots of wigeon and teal. On some of the few bits of dry land were lapwings and what I guessed were several hundred dunlin.

A pleasant end to my day, taking my year total to 94.