Welcome To My Blog,This Will Be Mainly Used As A Diary For My Local Birding Patch At East Halton/Goxhill On The Banks Of The Humber Estuary,With Occasional Twitching And Visits Elsewhere Including Photos From Mine & Tracey's Walks Around Our Beautiful Countryside.
A pretty decent year overall in 2024 at East Halton/Goxhill, with me recording a satisfying count of 165 species. This included 4 personal 'New' species for my local patch list, these included in order of appearance, a Nuthatch between East Halton Skitter and Winter's Pond in June, a flyover Woodlark in October, a long awaited Yellow-browed Warbler at Winter's Pond in October and last but not least, only the second record of Red-necked Grebe. This latter record was the first since the famous big freeze in the winter of 1978/79.
I also managed to find only my second record of Purple Sandpiper for my personal patch list, with 2 being found in November.
Several species were not recorded this year and included no Auks being seen, Curlew Sandpiper and Scaup, with a poor showing of seabirds in the autumn also, resulting in only Arctic Skua being seen by myself.
The overall breeding season was poor on a whole with only low numbers of summer migrants arriving and Barn Owls are just about absent, with only one pair being present that I'm aware of.
On the plus side though, Cetti's Warblers continue to do well, with at least 7 singing males and two broods of juveniles were seen and those reed nesting species Marsh Harrier, Bearded Tit and the star this year Bittern also bred.
Waders were represented when Oystercatchers bred with a pair fledging 3 young and Little-ringed Plovers continued to visit, but didn't breed again.
The Marshes were in fairly good condition throughout the year, attracting Wood Sandpipers, Garganey, Little Gulls and Spoonbills in the spring, but there was poor breeding success amongst the Waders unfortunately, with no Redshanks this year and most of the Lapwings attempting to nest, were predated. The autumn saw a party of 5 juvenile Spoonbills spending the day here, my largest personal local patch count of the species to date.
I'm now looking forward to 2025 and to see what this year brings.
The following are some favourite photos and video clips from this year all taken with my phone or phone x telescope combo.
Winter's Pond, December.
Little Egret, Winter's Pond, December.
Female Kingfisher, Winter's Pond, December.
Russian White-fronted Goose, East Halton, December.
Merlin, East Halton Marshes, December.
Stunning Skies Over Goxhill Marsh, December.
A Sleeping Red-necked Grebe, Just How I Found It In December.
Grey Heron, Winter's Pond, December.
Russian White-fronted Geese, East Halton, December.
After The Storm, East Halton, December.
Stunning Sunrise At Winter's Pond, November.
One Of 2 Purple Sandpipers, East Halton, November.
Snow Bunting, Goxhill, November.
Snow Buntings, Goxhill, November.
juvenile/1st Winter Caspian Gull In The Mist, Winter's Pond, September.
Male Cuckoo, Winter's Pond, May.
Bittern, May.
Spoonbill, East Halton Marshes, May.
Wood Sandpiper, East Halton Marshes, May.
Great-white Egret, Winter's Pond, April.
My Earliest Yellow Wagtail Since I Began Birding, March.
A planned trip away with Mrs R to the Lakes, saw us enjoying some lovely time away, unfortunately the weather didn't play ball and we only had one day when we could get out walking.
We certainly made the most of a visit to Keswick and Derwent Water on Monday 30th allowing me to take some decent landscape photos there.
The last month of the year saw some great birding as always, with the yearlist finishing on a pretty good 165 species.
The months visits produced some brilliant birds and the following summary is what i saw during this brilliant month.
Sunday 1st
A fairly steady start to the month today saw 60 species being recorded, with a few highlights which included an adult Peregrine crossing the estuary from Yorkshire and 7 Barnacle Geese with the Greylag flock on the marshes.
Some really good numbers of Wildfowl and Waders were around with 653 Wigeon on the marshes, along with 955 Lapwings. Other species here included 4 Black-tailed Godwits, 75 Curlew, 6 Dunlin and 300 Greylags.
On Winter's the best sightings went to 4 Pochard, 16 Tufties a Great-crested & 8 Little grebes.
Friday 6th
A nice find today as i looked across the fields after arriving at Winter's, was a pair of lovely Russian White-fronted Geese. They were loosely associating with the local Greylags, along with 13 Barnacle Geese and gave some nice views through the scope.
On Winter's the Pochard flock had grown to 18 birds, with 8 Little Grebe, Kingfisher and 18 each of Gadwall and Shoveler.
On the marshes, at least 500 Wigeon were present along with 650 Lapwings, a good count of 105 Curlew, 6 Redshank, a single Ruff and 42 Dunlin.
Other highlights included a cracking count of 41 Yellowhammer along Skitter Road, 40 Blackbird around the whole patch and 2 Jay along Jericho Lane, with a nice surprise between the Skitter and Winter's of a flock of 6 Goosander, the largest count of the year.
Sunday 8th
Horrendous weather conditions today as storm Darragh hit the UK, saw me parking on the floodbank at the Skitter in an attempt to see if any seabirds would get pushed up the estuary.
The best of it went to 2 adult Kittiwake as they flew north here, including one which i could almost have touched as it flew past my car window along the sea wall and a single Drake Pintail which flew north also.
Other Gulls seen included birds also moving north, with 225 Herring and 42 Great black-backed Gulls counted.
The Russian White-fronted Geese were also still along Marsh Lane with the Lag flock.
Saturday 14th
A visit to Goxhill Haven first thing proved a good choice, as a Tundra Bean Goose was seen with Pink-footed Geese on fields near the haven. Unfortunately it did not hang around and headed over the Humber to Yorkshire, calling as it went, the lack of photos was annoying, but the light was rubbish.
Other sightings of note along here included 228 Goldeneye floating along on the outgoing tide, a single Drake Goosander which flew west, 3 Grey Partridge, 67 Turnstone, 12 Grey Plover and 17 Bar-tailed Godwit.
As i walked back to the car, a pair of Stonechat were nice to see.
I then drove over to East Halton, this proved a good move!.
After getting the gear together, a quick scan of the main lake, saw a sleeping Grebe at the far end which had a rounded head and no crest, bloody hell a Red-necked Grebe!!!!.
I quickly moved around to the other side of the plantation near the car park and began to enjoy watching my first ever patch Red-necked Grebe.
After talking to GPC, this is incredibly the first record for the local patch since 1979!, this made the find even more sweeter.
Other nice birds around included the 13 Barnies still, but no sign of the White-fronts, 44 Shoveler, 18 Pochard still, a merlin along Marsh Lane and a Barn Owl hunting along Marsh lane at dusk.
Sunday 15th
Another visit to the Winter's/East Halton Marshes area today, saw the lovely Red-necked Grebe still here, along with the 13 Barnacle Geese, 741 Wigeon in the area and the Pochard flock now at 21 birds, with 3 Goldeneye also on Winter's, a lovely adult Drake, 1st winter Drake and a single female. Along the shoreline towards Killingholme Haven, was a cloud of 725 Lapwing, a great sight to see as they were flushed by an unseen raptor no doubt.
A good count of 93 Redwing, included 77 in one flock along Skitter Road and a couple of Snow Buntings were seen flying north along the floodbank near to the Skitter, the third record of the year.
Friday 20th
After breaking up for the Christmas period, it was great to get out to the patch again today and really nice to see the Red-necked Grebe still here.
It gave it's usual distant views, keeping to the southern side of the lake. Other species seen here included two cracking Wildfowl counts of 97 Gadwall and now 26 Pochard!. The latter is my largest count for the local patch since the days of the wintering Aythya flock off New Holland/Goxhill in the late 80's/early 90's.
The Barnacle Goose flock has now dropped down to 6 birds, with 16 Canada Geese making an appearance.
The only other highlight seen, was an adult Peregrine which flew over the marshes towards Killingholme.
Sunday 22nd
Another visit to East Halton today saw a pretty decent count of 64 species being recorded during the day.
On Winter's the Red-necked Grebe was still present, now for its 8th day and i managed to find another Russian White-front with a flock of 97 Pink-footed Geese as they fed on the fields near the car park entrance. This bird showed really nicely and i managed to take some decent phone-scoped video and photos of the bird. After studying my photos and video later that day, it was clear this bird was definitely different to the other two birds seen on the weekend of 7th/8th due to its differing belly bar markings.
Other species around Winter's included 43 Canada Geese, 7 Barnacle Geese, 245 Greylags, the 26 Pochard still, 54 Gadwall and 14 Little Grebe. Also here, were the first 2 Little Egret i have seen on the site for a while and also the Kingfisher put in another appearance and it showed really well too for a change.
On the marshes a cracking Merlin showed nicely and 245 Wigeon were seen along with a superb count of 3250 Lapwing, 3 Black-tailed Godwit, 6 Redshank and 15 Dunlin.
A couple of nice species along Jericho Lane in the form of 2 Goldcrest and a Mistle Thrush were great to see.
82 Avocet at East Halton Skitter were the final notable sighting of the visit.
Wednesday 25th
A nice wander in incredibly mild conditions with Trace today up at Goxhill, saw very few notable sightings apart from a good count of 465 Goldeneye between New Holland and Goxhill Haven on the Humber.
Well what a cracking year again around this fantastic birding area, with 4 new patch additions during the year and lots of great sightings, i now look forward to starting again afresh on January 2nd.
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