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.