Steve's Birding,Wildlife & Walking Blog: The Local Patch.......July Highlights.

Friday 2 August 2019

The Local Patch.......July Highlights.

After having a hernia Op on the 1st of July and being laid up for two weeks,it was really great to be able to get out and about around my patch and see what goodies i could find.The following is a summary of sightings with a selection of photos thrown in as well.

Tuesday 16th

Wader's were the main stars of the show bird wise today,with 3 Little-ringed Plover and a Green Sandpiper on Winter's Pond and 3 Whimbrel,5 Common Sandpiper and at least 970 Icelandic Black-tailed Godwits feeding along the Humber shore between Winter's and East Halton Skitter.
Non bird sightings saw me confirming two new species of Orthoptera to my local patch list,Roesel's-bush Cricket and Lesser-marsh Grasshopper both found on the Mitigation Site.
Also present were some nice variety and numbers of Butterflies with 8 species recorded,the best of which was 19 Small Heath and 46 Small White.

Friday 19th

Today Winter's held 1 Common Sandpiper,76 Black-tailed Godwit and 20 Redshank and a pair of Grey Partridge showed nicely nearby,with a single Whimbrel between here and the Skitter.
At the Skitter,4 Avocet,4 Common Sandpiper and a lovely Barn Owl were seen and at Grange Farm,3 Chiffchaff and a Treecreeper were recorded.

Tuesday 23rd

An all day visit today in some brutal temperatures hitting 35 degrees C plus,saw a nice array of species entering the notebook.
Winter's Pond had a Green Sand,140 Black-tailed Godwit and 3 Pochard early doors with a juvenile Peregrine doing its best to scare every wader,gull or duck in its path along the riverbank towards the Skitter.Also along here,were singles of Whimbrel and Common Sandpiper.
At the Skitter,2 Avocet,6 Common Sandpiper and 5 Little Egret were the highlights and an interesting piece of behaviour saw the male Barn Owl catch a Vole and then proceed to be robbed by a female Marsh Harrier,which in turn made a food drop to a juvenile.A great piece of kleptoparasitism in action,birds are brilliant!.
I managed to walk all the way up to Dawson City today for the first time in what seemed an age,with highlights consisting of 5 juvenile Bearded Tit and a single Cetti's Warbler.
Some nice insect sightings today included at least 50 male Roesel's-bush Cricket between the Skitter and Dawson City and 10 species of Butterfly.
A couple of nice mammal sightings also along here saw 3 Brown Hare and a buck Roe Deer being noted.

Tuesday 30th

A superb visit today,adding 2 species to my @Patchwatch yearlist and both seen at East Halton Skitter.
The only highlights at Winter's were a single Greenshank watched flying south over the fields towards Killingholme and a pale morph juvenile Common Buzzard.
The Skitter was really good today,with the highlight being the unexpected sight of 7 Dark-bellied Brent Geese heading north west along the Estuary,in Winter i could sort of expect this sighting,but at the end of July...bizarre.This theme was continued when 3 Redhead Goosander flew in the same direction...winter is here!.
Other highlights around the Skitter included a summer plumaged Knot associating with the local 'Shank' flock,Greenshank,11 Common Sandpiper,8 Little Egret,4 Avocet and 225 Black-tails.Also amongst the Black-tailed Godwits,was a colour-ringed bird which had been ringed as an adult at Welwick Saltmarsh on the north bank of the estuary on 03.02.19. and then was subsequently seen at Castle Espie Wetlands in Northern Ireland on 23.04.19.
Between the Skitter and Winter's,the best were a further 11 Common Sand and a single Whimbrel.

It was really great to get back to some local patching and my recovery from my Op. is going really well thankfully,onwards and upwards towards the autumn now and breaking 160 species!.