We began as usual,by parking at Winter's Pond and after getting the pack up in the rucksack and warm clothes on we were off.
Winter's was holding the usual species,with the best being 103 Mallard,4 Little Grebe,160 Lapwing and at least 30 Fieldfare.The 4 Goldeneye from last weekend were still here and were joined by another bird,which was great to see.
The weather unfortunately,was pretty crap today and rain looked like it was on its way as we turned the corner towards the Skitter.
A quick couple of nice sightings involved a fairly late House Martin as it flew east and i joked that we will have a Pallid Swift next,as we were both aware of a bird earlier at Spurn and the national influx taking place,little did we know what was in store later.The next nicety was a Short-eared Owl being harassed by a local Maggie on the mitigation site.I always feel sorry for them,as they don't look capable of defending them selves,a great record all the same.
By now it had started to drizzle as we reached the Skitter and we decided to do a circuit to see if any Wipits were present.
After walking the shore and pools,at least 3 Water Pipit and 7 Rock Pipits were logged,the latter a big increase from the 2 the previous weekend.Just as we reached the flood bank,i looked over and on the rough ground near to the gas compound to see 5 Twite were feeding quietly.They showed brilliantly,but it was a proper struggle to try and get any images in the rain.This is no doubt part of the flock seen the previous weekend and i was really pleased they were still around.
After leaving the lovely moorland finches we carried on towards Dawson City and Goxhill Haven.It was obvious as we walked that there had been an arrival of Thrushes with at least 20 Blackbird and 61 Redwing being logged,a considerable increase on the handfull seen the week before.
As we neared Dawson,all of a sudden i turned around to see a Swift and i shouted to John 'SWIFT' as i tried to get as many shots of it as i could,but the light was garbage.This had to be a Pallid and we watched as it hawked over the saltmarsh and then out over the Humber,it then came closer and i noticed it looked chunkier than Common Swift with possibly broader based and blunter tipped wings than that species,plumage detail was very hard to see.The bird suddenly gained speed and we lost it in the direction of Goxhill Haven.I tried to alert other birders further west,including Chaz Adland and Graham Catley,but sadly no one else got onto it.The whole sighting had lasted about 10 minutes and now it turned from panic into elation as the realisation of what i had just found,on my inland patch.....BOOOM!
This is the first sighting of this species for myself on my patch and was a lifer for John,but interestingly the species has a history here,as Graham Catley(GPC) had the first record for Britain in exactly the same spot in June 1977 and another unidentified Swift sp. on October 29th 1982 which was most probably a Pallid also.
After all this excitement,it was back to more normal fare,but i just couldn't stop smiling and saying out loud f$$@@@g hell we've just had a Pallid Swift.
More rain on the walk back to the car and a female Stonechat at the Skitter was the only different species added to the day's records,but what a day!,i had reached my target of 140 species for the year for the patch and what a way to do it.
As a postscript and after reaching home,it was apparent that the Pallid Swift we had,was in fact the same bird seen at Spurn earlier in the morning,as it showed a distinct step between the belly and tail which was really obvious when the bird was observed side on.I would just also like to say a big thankyou to both Graham and Adam Hutt for comments on the bird and help with editing images.
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| Twite,East Halton Skitter. |
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| Twite,East Halton Skitter. |
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| Pallid Swift,Dawson City LWTR. |
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| Pallid Swift,Dawson City LWTR. |
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| Pallid Swift,Dawson City LWTR. |
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| Pallid Swift,Dawson City LWTR. |
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| Pallid Swift,Dawson City LWTR. |
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| Pallid Swift,Dawson City LWTR. |
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| Female Stonechat,East Halton Skitter. |
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