Steve's Birding,Wildlife & Walking Blog

Tuesday, 8 July 2025

Local Patching Roundup For June 2025

As so often happens as we move into June and the summer months, things usually quieten down with regards to the birding scene, but things ticked over nicely on my four visits to the local patch during the month.

Saturday 7th

Today i basically travelled along all the areas at East Halton, with Winter's Pond, Marsh Lane, East Halton Village and the Skitter area being covered.

Highlights went to the lovely sight of 3 Med Gulls together at the Skitter, which was a really good record and a new species for my local patch year list. The trio consisted of 2 1st summer and a 2nd summer bird and they gave some nice scope views as they fed along the shore with a flock of Black-headed Gulls.

The other highlight went a 1st summer Peregrine as it flew along Skitter Road, scattering the local Corvids in all directions. This was the same immature female i had seen earlier in the spring.

Other bits seen included a Mistle Thrush on the edge of the marshes, 2 Little-ringed Plover on the marshes and 2 pairs of Shelduck with 10 and 9 ducklings respectively.

Saturday 14th

A misty start at Goxhill today had the desired effect i hoped for, as this can disorientate seabirds at this time of year and it certainly did the trick, with first an unseasonal Dark-bellied Brent Goose flying west off the haven, followed later by the amazing sight of 31 Kittiwakes together in a tight bunched flock as they headed out east along the estuary. Both these sightings are pretty good for the time of year and are species i usually associate with easterly winds in October or November, not mid June.

Another Med Gull was seen today, as a spanking adult flew east close inshore and later it or another flew west, such striking birds in summer plumage.

Other nice sightings consisted of 2 Yellow Wagtail, 4 Bearded Tit, 4 Marsh Harrier and 5 Teal.

A lovely encounter with a buck Roe Deer saw me getting some lovely photos and video with the telescope.

Sunday 22nd

A productive visit to East Halton today, saw autumn migration beginning, with 90 Lapwing, 25 Black-tailed Godwit, 2 Green Sandpiper and a male Ruff featuring in the days sightings on East Halton Marshes, with 6 Little-ringed Plover here also.

Wildfowl numbers were also beginning to increase with 4 Pochard, 20 Teal, 93 Mallard, 190 Greylag and 17 Mute Swans all being seen on Winter's Pond.

Other sightings during the visit included 3 Marsh Harrier and 2 Great-spotted Woodpecker.

Sunday 29th

A short visit to Goxhill today before the sweltering temperatures later in the day, saw a respectable 59 species being recorded between Dawson City and the Old Boatyard.

Highlights went to my earliest returning juvenile Wheatear along the flood bank near Dawson City. This little cracker gave some lovely views and i manged some decent pics and video with the telescope and phone.

Other highlights along here included an adult Yellow-legged Gull sat on a lightship off the haven, 37 Black-tailed Godwit and a single Grey Partridge.

Best non-bird sighting went to a cracking Dark-green Fritillary as it bombed past west along the Humber shore while i was watching the Wheatear.

A decent month overall, now the autumn migration begins and we will see what it turns up!.

Winter's Pond Early Morning, 7th.

East Halton Marshes, 7th.

Skitter Road, 7th.

A Murky Goxhill Haven, 14th.

What You Looking At!, Buck Roe Deer, 14th.

Hide And Seek With This Gorgeous Buck Roe Deer, 14th.

Winter's Pond, 22nd.

Small Skipper, East Halton, 22nd.

Small White, East Halton, 22nd.

Black-horned Cleg, Winter's Pond, 22nd.

Goxhill Haven, 29th.

Juvenile Wheatear, Goxhill Haven, 29th.

Thursday, 26 June 2025

Saltfleetby & Theddlethorpe Dunes NNR, Saturday 21st June 2025

Another visit to this superb NNR, bright and early today, after warden Owen Beaumont had found a singing male Savi's Warbler a few days previously. We also planned to look for Odonata and a separate post on my Dragonfly sightings blog can be found here @ https://LincolnshireOdes.blogspot.com .

After arriving just after dawn, i got my kit together and made my way down to where the Savi's Warbler had been singing and as i neared where the bird had been reported i could hear it singing. After meeting up with Dave H, we settled down to enjoy some really nice scope views of the bird as it sang from relatively the same area. Most of the ID features could be seen through the scope, with the rounded tail and pale edged undertail coverts being visible, along with the diffuse supercilium and slight breast band. This is my first sighting of the species in Lincolnshire and has been a long time coming to be honest, with a twitchable one in the county being absent for many, many years.

After enjoying the lovely Locustella, i spent an hour or so scanning the sea, saltmarsh and surrounding area waiting for Daz to arrive. Some nice birds which were seen from my viewpoint included 2 Barn Owl, a Great-white Egret, 2 Eider which flew south, 100+ Common Scoter sat on the sea and 14 Icelandic Black-tailed Godwits which also flew south.

When Daz finally arrived, we went to explore and look for Odonata. While wandering about, other nice sightings included Pyramidal and Southern-marsh Orchids, Marsh Helleborines and 40+ Small Skipper and overhead 2 Red Kites thermalled slowly south.

By the time lunch time had arrived i was knackered after the early start and it was just too hot, so i called it a day, but i had already been on site for a good 8 hours.

The following are a selection of pics and videos from the visit.

A Phonescoped Shot Of The Male Savi's Warbler

Small Skipper.

A Great View Of Part Of The NNR At Rimac.

Phone Pic Of A Marsh Helleborine.

Phone Pic Of A Pyramidal Orchid.

Thursday, 12 June 2025

Messingham Sand Quarries LWTR, Friday 6th June 2025

A visit here in pretty decent conditions, but perhaps a little windy after finishing work, saw some superb insects being found, with another 2 'New' personal species of Hoverfly seen and photographed.

The new Hovers were Helophilus hybridus and Chrysogaster solstitialis, with me thankfully managing to get some nice photos of both species. Other nice species observed during the visit included Chrysotoxum festivum, both colour forms of Volucella bombylans, Platycheirus rosarum, Scaeva selenetica, Cheilosia illustrata, Myathropa florea, Volucella pelluscens, Tropidia scita and Parhelophilus fruitetorum/versicolor.

Flies seemed to be the continuing theme, with some lovely Robberflies being recorded, which included Common-awl and Fan-bristled, with Stiletto Fly Thereva nobilitata, a female Sicus ferrugineus and my first Black Snipeflies of the year.

Another family of insects i take great interest in, as my regular readers will be aware of, are Orthoptera and today, my first 2 species of Grasshopper were seen. Both were final instar nymphs of Common-green Grasshopper and a personal favourite, Lesser-marsh Grasshopper, with both insects being males.

A few interesting beetles were encountered and included several Garden Chafers, with their metallic green head and thorax and Harlequin Ladybirds seem to be everywhere no doubt after the bumper spring of Greenflies.

Lepidoptera were mainly represented by Moths and Caterpillars, with the nicest sightings including 2 Elephant Hawkmoths, the colourful, but diminutive Micro Moth, Pammene aurana, my first Meadow Browns of the year and a cluster of Small Tortoiseshell larvae.

Finally a species i hadn't seen for quite sometime, was observed today, Bronze Shieldbug, this lovely insect gave some great views and i also managed to find a couple of Red-legged Shieldbugs for good measure.

The following are my favourite photos from the day.