Last day of summer birding

 

RSPB Blacktoft Sands re-opened today after another closure due to high tide flooding. This is a picture of the footpath from Reedling hide looking towards reception. Another sign of the recent flood.

I walked down to Ousefleet hide and on the way these whooper swans flew east

 where I saw over 200 teal, lots of shovelers, a few mallard and 4 wigeon, plus these 3 whooper swans.

32 snipe were on Reedling Hide.

not all the snipe were easy to see.

I visited the other hides, and just walked into Singleton hide in time to see some bearded tits.

I returned to Ousefleet to see if I could find the ponies for Stu, who was busy looking after a residential volunteer. I could see 5 of the 6 ponies. In Ousefleet hide I joined Catherine, She had been on holiday to Norfolk and had a good time. She had bought some new binoculars, which she let me look through. We could not talk much as she had a touch of flu and nearly lost her voice. She left to go to other hides, and I stayed a while. Marsh harriers were active.

Ducks in flight when marsh harriers fly over.

Some of the 200 plus teal on Ousefleet.

On my way back to the car park these pink feet flew over.

Several thousand geese flew over the reserve during the morning.

I left just before 1pm to go home to wash my car. Why do farmers have to leaver inches of mud on the road, I saw 2 motorcyclists skid when they came across it.

Clocks change tonight, so my winter starts tomorrow and lasts until December 22nd when the daylight hours start to increase.

Bank Island.

 

 A dull grey morning at Bank Island but a chance to see more birds as there is now more water then on my last visit. An American wigeon had been reported over the weekend, but I was unable to visit the area until this morning.

Better light would have helped as I started to scan the several hundred wigeon on the water. They were not staying still , either paddling back and forth or putting their heads in the water to feed. So it was a slow job scanning each group. I had just about got halfway through the group when a couple of jets roared overhead, which put all the birds to flight. I did not think that for one minute that the birds would return to their original places on the water, so I started again.

After about an hour, I presumed that the American wigeon was not there.

Some of the birds came a bit closer, but sadly still no American wigeon. Year tick number 200 still remains elusive.

Whisby Nature Park

 

RSPB York Local Group coach trip to Whisby Nature Park on Saturday October 19th.

Not the best weather for a coach trip due to the constant rain. However by the time that we reached the reserve, which is near Lincoln, the rain had eased a little and by lunchtime it had stopped.

We decided to do the Grebe walk as there were hides to shelter in. Mute swans, gadwall, shoveler and my first goldeneye of the winter were the birds we saw on the Grebe Lake.

The viewpoint at the Teal lake was our next stop. From here we could see lots of wigeon, lapwings, mallard, mute swans, greylag and canada geese.

We returned to the centre for lunch. Barbara and I ate ours while watching the bird feeders. Blue and great tit were the more numerous birds. A single female chaffinch, two dunnocks and several woodpigeons were also there, as was a jay for a few seconds.

After lunch we walked past the Dragonfly Lakes.

A ruddy darter had landed on a fence rail, no doubt enjoying the heat of the sun.

As we made our way to the Willow Lake we saw several examples of fungi.

This was our view from the Willow Lake hide.

A little egret was perched on the branches to the left of the hide, but it soon flew off. Not long after it left a kingfisher appeared and this was joined by another. We could see a third on the far bank of the lake. During our stay in the hide we had some excellent views of the kingfishers as they flew around.

Long tailed tits were also flitting around on a tree to the right of the hide.

On the way back to the coach and visitor centre we noticed this strange growth on a tree.

Near the footbridge over the railway line we saw lots of sloes.

A pleasant trip with excellent company.

Flamborough Bird Observatory Migweek. Part 2.

Wednesday morning saw me heading for the East Coast to join Stu, Suzanne and David at the cottage in Flamborough. 

The weather was not brilliant but undeterred we headed for Bempton. A red- flanked blue tail had been reported and we joined several other birders looking for it. It was misty and a cold wind was blowing, so the bird sensibly stayed under cover. We waited for about an hour and decided to return to Flamborough and watch the bird ringing.

The ringers displayed several birds that they had caught in their mist nets. Goldcrest, yellowhammer and tree sparrows were amongst the birds we were able to see in the ringers hands.

After lunch we decided to do a seawatch from the observatory hide. There was a steady stream of gannets flying south with a few teal and wigeon also going in the same direction. The highlight of the session was an arctic skua which Stu saw near the cliff top.

We decided to end the day with a visit to Thornwick Pools. We added little grebe, grey heron, dunlin and water rail to our trip list. Suzanne and David went for tea and then to Bempton for a talk by Will Scott. Stu and I went to Filey. It was high tide and we watched the waves splashing over the sea front.  A cormorant was fishing in the nearest rollers, showing how strong swimmers they are. Stu then enjoyed a fish supper. It was good to be able to spend some time with Stu, away from Blacktoft.

Thursday dawned a better day weather wise and after an excellent breakfast we planned to go to RSPB Bempton to watch the bird ringing. Suzanne as always kept us up to date with the latest bird reports and she told us that a Pallas's Warbler had been seen at Flamborough near the lighthouse.  David drove us to the site and while he sorted out the parking, Stu, Suzanne and I joined other birder looking at the warbler. It was flitting about in the bushes, far too quickly for me to get a photo, but David managed to get this excellent pic.

Also nearby were black redstarts. When we went to see it, we were surprised to see 3, two female and a male. Another one of David's photos.

We then decided to return to RSPB Bempton to watch the ringing. On the way Stu remarked on how good it would be if the managed to get the red flanked bluetail in their mist nets. As we arrived on site, the ringers were going back to their base as they HAD caught the bird.

This was a small part of the queue to see the bird.

We spent some time at the feeding station in the hope of seeing a hawfinch, but no luck. We returned to the cottage for lunch and then went back to Flamborough Headland. A Radde's warbler  had been reported and we joined several birders looking for the bird.

After a while Glen joined us and as we were watching a woodcock flew in off the sea. We soon noticed a group of birders to our left looking at something.

We joined them and before long Suzanne managed to spot the bird using her thermal imaging scope.

David got this picture of the bird

The Radde's warbler was my 199th tick of this year. The others generously offered to go to Thornwick Pools to try to find a little bunting, so that I could get my 200th tick. However we were unable to see the bird. We then returned to the cottage where Suzanne worked her magic in the kitchen and produced and excellent Cauliflower curry.

Sadly on Friday morning I had to leave early to attend a H&S meeting at Fairburn.

I had a magical couple of days with the three of them, they are all excellent company.

Many thanks to David for doing all the driving and taking the photos.

Suzanne was a wizard at keeping us up to date with the latest bird sightings, finding birds with her thermal scope and cooking a superb meal. Without wanting to wish my life away, I am looking forward to the Migweek in 2024.

Flamborough Migweek

 

Just in case you don't recognise the above location, it is Bank Island , next door to Wheldrake Ings.

For the past couple of weeks I have not had much spare time due to members of the family having medical problems. So on 0ctober 3rd I manage a couple of hours down the Lower Derwent Valley. Bank Island was my first stop. More water due to recent flooding however as I walked towards Cheesecake hide a couple of shepherds on a quad bike drove into the field and moved the sheep. They also disturbed all the wildfowl, so I was left with 4 mute swans. A pair of stonechats were using some tall vegetation as look out posts. I waited for an hour, but no birds returned, so I drove down to Bubwith Ings.

After parking on the village side of the bridge, I took my folding chair and sat just through the gateway to the field and watched the birds on the recent floodwater.

Lots of canada and greylag geese, with a few Egyptian geese at the back. Large numbers of mallard and teal.

This is the view of Bubwith Ings from the Geoff Smith hide, you can just about make out the flood water. The  reserve did not have any flood water and few birds, so I did not stay long.

My family have changed their plan for this week, which for once gave me some free time, so I set off for Flamborough to join in their Migweek.

I arrived at 0840, too late to see the first birds that they had caught in the nets. Nothing special except perhaps a rather vicious magpie. Subsequent catches included, redwing, bullfinch, robin, tree sparrow, wren, goldcrest, yellowhammer, blue, great and long tailed tits.

After the ringing finished I drove to Filey Dams.

Several hundred teal were asleep around the edge of the water.

male shovelers are starting to display their full colourful plumage. I walked round to East Lea.

Judith was just leaving and told me what was about. 2 bar tailed godwits, 1 green sandpiper and 2 redshanks.

As you can see the water level is low so the birds were nearer the pig farm than the hide.

Eventually the redshanks came close.

The godwits and the green sandpiper remained down the far end along with 23 moorhens.

Perhaps this cat was putting them off from coming closer to the hide.

Looking forward to mid-week when I will be joining Stuart and Suzanne for a couple of days.

Thursday afternoon at Blacktoft

 

Had to take some things to the re-cycling centre this morning, and was amazed to see how much traffic there was at 10am! The journey took longer than I anticipated, but luckily I did not have to queue at the re-cycling centre.

I was thinking of going to the coast but decided against that due to the time, so I headed for Blacktoft.

The above photo was taken from the hide at Ousefleet. On my last visit on Saturday, the lagoon was home to several hundred birds. When I arrived all I could see was 1 snipe! After a few minutes 70 teal flew in and were slowly getting closer to the hide when another birder came into the hide, slammed the door shut, banged the window as he opened it and off went the teal. As a consolation prize a kingfisher flew past the hide.

On my way to Marshland hide I saw this dragonfly and butterfly.

Lots more teal and shovelers on Marshland lagoon plus several gadwall.

not long after I took the photo, he started to mate!

Reedling had a similar mix of ducks plus at least 20 snipe in the vegetation at the edge of the lagoon.

5 ruff were with the ducks on one of the islands

This was the view from 1st hide.

There may not be much activity on the lagoon but I do enjoy the view over the reserve, and marsh harriers seem to fly close to the hide.

I saw 2 different males as well as a female. Perhaps numbers are starting to increase now that autumn is here.