Spotted redshanks at Blacktoft.

 

I arrived just before 2pm and left after locking up at 8pm.

The male marsh harrier was often to be seen on his favourite bush

A male pochard was asleep on an island in front of Townend hide.

A family of shovelers were feeding on Singleton.

Marshland was the most popular hide. 3 spotted redshanks were busy feeding, getting ready for the next part of their journey south.

6 green sandpipers were also feeding and calling to each other as they moved about the lagoon.

An adult grey heron was with 2 young birds

A barn owl was out hunting

I hope that the reserve continues to attract waders as the autumn migration gets into gear.

Bolton Percy.

 

This is a photo of All Saints Church, Bolton Percy, which celebrates its 600th birthday next month. 

A bit of a trip down memory lane today, as I used to visit the area some 65 years , As a school boy train spotter I would cycle to the railway station to collect steam train numbers. I even travelled on the last train that left the station for York in September 1965!

A view of the church from the cemetery. I saw this young bird, which I think could be a blackbird?

I then drove to the nature reserve

This used to be a brilliant little reserve until Network Rail, or whoever started work on the railway line and ruined it. The flowers are slowly starting to grow again, but I only saw 1 butterfly today, as did another chap. Before the work was started on the railway, I used to see several species of butterfly.

What a waste, just to reduce the travel time by two minutes!

I will visit again next month when it is the Big Butterfly Count.

Bank Island

 What to turn to? Football or general election? Answer neither, common tern family at Bank Island provide better entertainment.

1845  when I arrived but there was a gentle cool breeze blowing into the hide.

The two common tern families are doing well, the young have grown a lot since I last saw them on Thursday last week. This one was able to flap its wings and make short flights.

Parents were bringing them fish

Another young tern was given a larger fish

it did eventually manage to swallow it

Parents were on guard

or arguing with the other set of parents

 

little egrets were perched in nearby trees when I arrived, but eventually they came down to fish.

Mrs shoveler and her brood hurried across the scrape in front of the hide.

2 green sandpipers were often flushed by lapwings and the terns.

the lapwings were also dive bombing other birds such as a pheasant, but I could not see any sign of young birds.

 

North Cave Wetlands

 

I arrived at 0715 in order to avoid the hottest part of the day. From the covered seating area I saw this grey heron

From the East Hide, I saw this mute swan family. Only the second one I have seen this year.

A sedge warbler was singing from the North Hedge

A lesser black backed gull was watching the young ducklings on Reedbed Lake

A chiifchaff was singing from a tree top along the western footpath

From Crosslands hide I could see several little egrets and a little ringed plover,

Avocets were on the Silt Pond and from the balcony outside the hide I could see lots of mute swans and greylag geese.

Nothing to report from further down the lane. Lots of flowers etc along the sides of the paths.

Longest Day at Blacktoft

 

After completing the H&S checks at Fairburn and St. Aidans I went to Blacktoft to man reception.

As I drove in, my friend Chris (chrisdownesbirds) was just leaving. We chatted for a few minutes, then he left and I went to reception, where Joe was on duty. Miriam was busy working on the main notice board for the reserve.

Adrian and Steve arrived and we chatted for a while as we had not seen each other for ages.

John Gardner came into reception to report that he had seen and photographed a wood sandpiper  on Marshland. I sent a message to Pete, who came down and we went looking for the bird. The hide was busy and some people had seen the bird, but at that moment it was out of view.

I left and returned to reception. Pete arrived shortly afterwards and told me that he had seen the bird, so I went for a look and saw the bird, year tick 172.

There was a steady trickle of visitors to the reserve, who were all pleased to see the wood sandpiper and 2 green sandpipers.

A hobby shot passed reception hide, year tick number 173.

Joe came and we closed reception and I went to Marshland.. The birds were between the sun and I, so taking photos was a bit tricky.

The waders were still present and a little egret was having a bad feather day.

From 1st hide, this marsh harrier appeared to be watching a ship go past.

3 young ladies from the Manchester area called in at the reserve on their way home from Bempton.

They went to Marshland and were able to see a young barn owl in the box, and then an adult barn owl flew off hunting.

Little egret, grey heron, lapwing and sandpipers were all close to the hide so they were able to have excellent views of the birds.

It was still light when I locked up at 8pm.

Wheldrake Ings

 

Met Stuart Rapson at Bank Island at 0730 and we walked on to Wheldrake Ings. Plenty of birds singing as we walked along the footpath to the pool hide, which is where I took the above photo.

A family of mute swans swam, along in single file

Stuart spotted a cuckoo in a bush to our right.

His vido on X is much better than my photo

(@RapsonStuart)

A kingfisher flew across the water, carrying food to its young. A large brood of gadwall ducklings, which for a time mother let swim about on their own. Luckily when she re-joined them there were still 11 of them.

A female tufted duck did not let her 5 black off spring out of her sight.

This is the view we had from Swantail Hide.

There were no birds on the patch of open water. Over to the right, cormorants were sitting on fence posts and Stuart located teal. A chap, carrying some poles walked across the reserve, it looked as if he could have been going to Storwood.

We walked back along the path to the car park and saw whitethroat, sedge warbler and the swallows that were nesting in the tower hide. I also managed to see my first garden warble of the year, tick number 171.

We ended our visit by visiting the two hides at Bank Island.

A marsh harrier disturbed the lapwings and redshanks as it flew over the open stretch of water

We visited the second hide and watched as the 2 pairs of common terns chased away crows and then the marsh harrier when it appeared, and one was dive bombing a pheasant!

We only saw 2 young tern chicks today, I hope that the other was in the long grass.

A pleasant morning with excellent company.