Steve's Birding,Wildlife & Walking Blog: October 2015

Friday, 30 October 2015

Excellent Tophill.....Sunday 25th October 2015.

Today a change of scenery saw me heading through Beverley and to the superb Yorkshire Water reserve at Tophill Low.
A decent drive on the way over to the reserve,saw a cracking Common Buzzard on a Hawthorn hedgerow along the approach road.
After paying for my day permit and while getting the gear together a few notables around the car park area included a Grey Wagtail,Siskin,Redpoll,Great-spotted Woodie and 2 Fieldfare.
As on previous visits,i decided to head down to Hempholme Lock first and cover the northern part of the reserve.
The walk through D-woods revealed a single Marsh Tit at the feeding station another Great-spotted Woodie and a close,but brief encounter with 2 beautiful doe Roe Deer before i arrived at the Kingfisher hotspot that is North Marsh.Here,as expected,a cracking Kingfisher showed well,but little else,so i continued on my walk.
On arrival at the lock,2 Little Egret were resting on the nearby meadow and on the River Hull,6 Little Grebe and another Grey Wagtail flew along the river bank.Highlight here and the day so far went to a Green Sandpiper flying towards North Marsh,with that distinct 'peet weet weet' call,looking like a giant House Martin.
The return walk back to the car park alongside D-res saw a small flock of Redwing plundering the local Hawthorn crop,always a great bird to see and if it was a rarity,people would rave about this stunning species.
After a lunch stop at the car,it was time to explore the southern section of the reserve and nearby Watton Carrs.
After arriving at the hide overlooking Watton Carrs,a quick scan of the local 'Lag' flock saw the reported 'Tundra' Bean not being present,but after about 20 minutes it flew in with it's 2 Pink-footed Geese buddies.Distant views of the bird were enjoyed as it preened and loafed with the goose flock a great record of this scarce visiting goose species for the reserve.Other species here included 37 Curlew and singles of Little Egret and Common Buzzard.
A few notable insects in South Scrub included several Mesembrina meridiana,2 Comma and a lovely Red Admiral.
A quick look on D-res after wandering back to the car park saw some decent variety and numbers of Wildfowl which included 3 Red-crested Pochard(2 drakes and a female),61 Shoveler,6 female Goldeneye(My first records of the winter period),24 Pochard and 133 Tufted Duck.While scanning the fields here,a Merlin flew south between the res and the Decoy woods,a pretty good record for here.
The final hour or so of my visit was spent overlooking South Marsh,with some nice sightings logged,the best of which was a brief singing Cetti's Warbler,my first for a few months and 54 Golden Plover and a whopping juvenile female Peregrine flew west.
So today was another great visit as always to this superb reserve and i travelled home contented.

North Marsh.

Pied Wagtail,D-res.

Hempholme Lock.

Distant shot of the Tundra Bean Goose on Watton Nature Reserve.

Incoming 'Lags',Watton Nature Reserve.

Mesembrina meridiana,South Scrub.

Record shot of the Juvenile Female Peregrine,showing a full crop after a recent meal.

Rrecord shot of the Juvenile Female Peregrine.

Tuesday, 13 October 2015

The Big Walk And Yankee Double....Saturday 10th October 2015.

Another trip out to,yes you guessed it,Spurn today saw this amazing area providing more superb birding.
I decided to make the big commitment today and walk down to the point after parking in usual style next to the Bluebell and i sort of half expected it to be hard going after the early morning OBP had disappeared into the jungle that is the point.
The walk down wasn't all dull,with some nice weather conditions and a cracking Firecrest doing it's best to skulk in an area of Sea Buckthorn at the Old Narrows and a little further on just before Chalk Bank,the most skulking Yellow-browed Warbler i have ever seen,spent it's time hiding in a Elder with a Goldcrest for company,so not a bad start really.
The remainder of the search around this area revealed at least 6 Stonechat and only a couple of Chiffs and 25 Redwing at the point,a pretty poor return,although the Stonechats and Redwings are always great to see.
A bit of landscape photography on the long walk back broke up the boredom and after at least 9 miles walking i eventually made it back to the car.
I then decided to go and pay the Richard's Pipit a visit which had been reported on and off all day in a pasture field opposite Westmere Farm.
After arriving at the birds chosen field and after a little patient scanning,the bird showed every so often,popping it's head up as it searched for insects in the long grass.This is my first sighting of the species for a couple of Autumns.
On returning to the car,some nice views of a cracking male Black Redstart in an adjacent garden was a nice bonus bird and then like the week previously the short wave radio sparked into life with a Juvenile American-golden Plover being found close by at Kilnsea Wetlands.
Myself along with Steve Exley and others yomped to Long Bank quickly to see the bird showing at relative long range to begin with.The face pattern was really distinctive on this bird,reminding me of a Dotterel.Then suddenly all the birds got up as a Sparrowhawk flushed all the gathering waders and the American Goldie was heard to call several times as it flew over.It eventually flew back in and settled down and then to everyone's amazement a second bird flew in and joined it,2 American Goldies together,amazing!.
There was some discussion over the second birds identification,but it was clearly a similar size to the first bird,with the same bill structure,but was a much duller individual,with not such a striking head pattern.I stood along with Wayne and Claire who had originally found the birds earlier in the day and enjoyed this duo and it brought back memories of my last encounter with the species,also a double at West Butterwick,near Scunthorpe back in September 2007,on that occasion involving 2 adults.
So again,as always,this amazing area delivered more quality birds and birding,where else is there on the mainland which consistently delivers scarce and rare birds on a regular basis,nowhere!.
So i made the steady drive back to North Linc's again very happy at my visit to this amazing area again.

Wigeon pair,Canal Scrape.

Male Stonechat,Wire Dump.

Record shot of the American-golden Plovers,Kilnsea Wetlands.

Monday, 5 October 2015

Spurn At It's Best!.......Saturday 3rd October 2015.

A free day today and determined to catch up with some good birds or find one after being at work all week,i had organised to meet up with Tim for an all day effort around the recording area....and what a day it turned out to be!.
We began in usual fashion,starting at the Bluebell car park and as i waited for Tim to arrive i took several photos of the stunning sky and sunrise at dawn and thought to myself this north easterly wind albeit light,must turn something up.
We began the day by heading up Beacon Lane first,with several Song Thrushes going into the notebook,including a grey eastern type bird and also a hand full of Blackbirds.As we arrived at Appletree,Marcus kindly showed us a posing Merlin that was perched near to his garden and after a short while it decided to take flight and i managed to obtain a few half decent shots as it bombed past,a nice start to the day.
Further on and up to Beacon Ponds and the wetlands and this area provided us with several notable sightings which included a pair of Stonechat,3 Greenshank,Ruff,6 Brent Geese,a hunting Barn Owl and a Spotshank along with some good numbers of roosting waders on the high tide at the wetlands and 6 Little Egret showed well as they had their usual grumpy fall outs as to who was having the best fishing spot.A message broke over the radio that an OBP had been found near Chalk Bank by Marcus on his cycle ride down the point,but we were miles away and it was high tide as well,but it was a good omen.
After the wetlands we decided to head up Easington straight and then down Peter Lane to Sammy's Point and to be fair we covered a lot of ground for little return,with the highlight probably going to a confiding flock of Lesser Redpoll along Humber Lane and 1 Fieldfare and 3 Redwing along the same area.
As we neared Sammy's Point car park,a Kingfisher shot along an adjacent drain,we had heard earlier in the day that 2 Yellow-browed Warbler had been seen here and after entering the second paddock it wasn't long before i had found one of them.At first it was seen flycatching in between Umbellifer stems and long grass before it relocated to a Hawthorn where it just sat for a while as i took a zillion images of it.What a cracking little bird they are and it beggars belief that people take them for granted these days,when you think where this little bird has flown from to reach us...just amazing!.
The remainder of Sammy's was fairly quiet apart from a Chiffchaff and a couple of Goldcrest and we then carried along the Humber shore crossing over to Pancho's Pond seeing 2 Wheatear and a couple of Rockits.
After a chance meeting with John Hewitt and others,all hell broke lose in typical Spurn style as a message came over the radio that a Pied/Black-eared Wheatear had been found at the breach,so we all headed in that direction and we were dropped kindly by John at the Warren.
We walked as fast as we could across the dune and breach and i had forgotten how bad it is walking on sand!!!,we eventually made it to where the bird was with a fairly big crowd already watching it and there he was below us,a cracking male Pied Wheatear.
At first it was being pushed south sadly by the gathering crowd,but after everyone settled down the bird came back and showed very nicely as it caught several insects below us.What a corking bird he was and this individual was my first male after the female several years ago at Reighton near Filey.This bird should be on it's way to East Africa for the winter instead of being blown off course to East Yorkshire,the wonders of bird migration.
As i watched the bird for a little longer before having to leave,Tim had to go and i decided shortly afterwards to do the same.As i was walking away Tim was some way infront and had returned shouting to me that there was a Citrine Wagtail just past where the Wheatear was....bloody hell!.I dashed back to where everyone was and it was on the same piece of beach as the Wheatear and i thought to myself only this can happen at Spurn.
I watched the Wagtail as it sallied after flies,giving some great views of this eastern cracker and it even called several times as well with that striking buzzy call.
Eventually time was getting on and i left the two goodies to walk back to the bluebell,but the day still wasn't over with another Yellow-browed being seen feeding in the saltmarsh vegetation and Couch Grass at the breach as i walked past and another being seen in the Warren bushes with a couple of Goldcrest.
I eventually made it back to the car slightly worse for wear after walking at least 11.5 miles during the day,but what a day it was and i reluctantly made my way home after the best days birding of the autumn so far.