Another visit out to the local patch today,produced another great days birding with 2 more new species for the patch year list to put me on a respectable 142 for the year,18 short of my target of 160.the following is what i saw during the 9 hours out and about.
I started proceedings at East Halton as always,parking in my usual spot at Winter's Pond and after getting my kit together for the day,i was off.
To start with,very little was to be seen on Winter's,so i carried on straight to the Humber floodbank,found a decent place to sit and began to watch the Estuary.It was a big tide this morning and was still coming in,with a blustery easterly wind,things looked superficially good for some seabirds,but it was just missing that important element,rain.
After a good hour and a half or so,with nothing to show for my efforts apart from a Dark-bellied Brent Goose and a juvenile Arctic Tern,both heading towards the Skitter,i decided to make a move and wandered back towards the car and check the pit in case anything had dropped in.As i walked,a couple of juvenile Peregrines put on a fantastic aerial display as they chased and sparred overhead,what a great sight.
A good scan around revealed nothing too exciting,but 10 Little Grebe,11 Shoveler,Little Egret and a single Dunlin were more than what was present at dawn.
I then decided to walk down the edge of the Mitigation Site and could hear that all too distinctive sound of Pink-footed Geese.Sure enough in the distance over the Skitter a flock of 228 birds were heading roughly west,before splitting into 2 groups.This is the largest flock i have seen so far this autumn,but the sight and sound of this mini flock was just superb!.
Other bits on the Mit site,included 2 Ringed Plover,2 Little Egret and a lateish Whimbrel which was nice to see,with a good sized flock of 75 Linnet also noted.
An extended period of watching at the Skitter as the tide dropped paid dividends,with me seeing a single Little Stint bombing past with 4 Dunlin followed by a flock of 6 Pintail heading towards Goxhill.These latter two species were both new for the year and were very nice to see.Other niceities around the Skitter included 600+ Black-tailed Godwit,juvenile Marsh Harrier,26 Knot,36 Wigeon and a Grey plover.
I didn't even attempt to try and read any colour rings on the Black-tails,as it was far too windy today.
Nothing of note along Skitter road and as i reached Winter's for the second time today,a quick look before going home certainly was worthwhile,with a cracking juvenile Spotted Redshank feeding at the far bank from the approach track.This was a new species for my 'Winter's' list,putting it at a pretty good 156 species.
Numbers of Wildfowl had certainly built up from the morning,with 350 Greylag,180 Mallard,54 Black-tailed Godwit and 58 Lapwing being logged.
Sadly it was time to head home,but i had enjoyed another brilliant day out on my little part of England.
Sunrise Over The Humber,Taken With My Samsung S10 And Swarovski ATX85 Telescope. 
Some Lovely Light Over The Humber Pre-Sunrise.
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