A dull and cold spell of bird watching at Lindike this morning.
An avocet was close to the hide.
I could only see this bird, but it chased other birds, including this shelduck away.
A little ringed plover was on an island a fair distance away and a single lapwing flew in. Lots of birdsong, but no sign of birds, they were staying out of the cold wind.
Lets hope the peregrines show up at the Minster tomorrow.
This is the view from the first hide, just water. A single grey heron flew in
I walked towards the Trent Falls hide.
Lots of pools of water in the fields.
An information board about what might be seen in traditional grassland.
A sedge warbler was singing near the footpath.
A familiar sight at Blacktoft
The footpath leading to the hide is still under water.
Little egrets were busy fishing.
These information boards are near the hide.
The ship was making progress along the Humber.
A spoonbill was nearby
I walked back to the car park to get a drink and then walked to the tower hide.
Looking from the hide towards the Humber. A large expanse of reedbed, with a small area of water to the left of the hide, where a single mallard was feeding.
After getting back to the car, I had walked 5 miles and only managed to see 28 birds, including 2 lapwings, no sign of any other waders. Probably not likely to visit again in the near future.
At York Minster today with other members of RSPB York Local Group, in support of activities organised by the Minster.
Red kite, buzzard, swifts, blackbirds, herring gulls, wood pigeon but no sign of a peregrine till 2:45pm.
Then we were busy using 3 telescopes to show lots of people the peregrine perched high up on the Minster.
Blue and great tits at the feeders except when they were chased away by a couple of grey squirrels.
Goldfinch, reed bunting and chaffinch paid short visits before flying off.
A little egret was fishing in the pool in front of the hide.
Cormorants were nesting in the trees.
Two spoonbills flew near the nesting cormorants but did not come any closer.
Minster Peregrines tomorrow.
The orchard is looking good with plenty of wild flowers in with the grass, but no sign of any butterflies.
A slow walk to the first hide was rewarded with views of a sedge singing away.
It flew from the reeds to a nearby bush.
Common terns were flying around in front of the second hide. One tern was nesting on one of the platforms along side the black headed gulls.
Two black headed gulls were having a tussle.
As I left the hide and walked along the path, this deer was watching me from the field.
I could hear a bittern booming as I approached the 3rd hide, but I did not go in as the person inside was smoking a cigarette!
I walked across the reserve to the other hide.
Plenty of flowers about and swifts were flying low as they hunted insects.
From the other hide I saw ringed plover, lapwing, oystercatcher, wigeon, gadwall, shoveler, canada and greylag geese. Common terns were busy fishing
One landed on a perch and started to call
Another tern arrived and they immediately turned their backs on each other.
A pleasant couple of hours and 46 birds on my list for the visit.
Other birders set off to look and listen for a Savi's warbler, but we decided to stick to our original plan to walk around the reserve in anti-clockwise direction.
Just past the East hide we stopped and listened to a song thrush, blackcap, willow warbler, chiffchaff and willow warbler. In the distance we could hear a cuckoo. From the turret hide we added whitethroat, reed bunting, cetti's warbler and a little grebe with young.
A sedge warbler showed well as we walked along the edge of the set aside field. Rooks and lapwings were in the ploughed field and several whitethroats were in the hedge. At the corner we stopped and looked for a cuckoo, and were pleased to see two fly out from the trees and fly in front of us.
We were unable to locate any young tawny owls in a large willow tree. We observed several sand martins flying into holes in the sand martin bank. Crossland hide was the venue for lunch. Very few birds to be seen from this hide. Where are all the waders?
After lunch we walked down past the new workings towards the new hide, which is still not open for visitors. We saw several common terns on one of the islands along with shelducks with a large number of ducklings.
On our way back to the car park we called in the South hide. Black headed gulls were on the raft and we could see several young. 3 common terns were busy fishing, but we did not see any sign of them nesting.
A pleasant day with good company and a bird list of 46 birds.
Greatham Creek was our next stop where we saw several dunlin and ringed plover.
RSPB Saltholme was our last stop. We visited the wildlife watchpoint first but it was very quiet
We walked down to Saltholme Pools where we were able to add lots of birds to our list including pintail, little ringed plover
black headed gulls had young
tufted ducks looked smart
as did this male shoveler
We then walked to Paddys Pool from where we were able to see some barnacle geese and a red breasted goose was with them. An excellent end to our trip, with 101 birds on our list.