Steve's Birding,Wildlife & Walking Blog: The Local Patch,8th,10th & 11th October 2020.

Another compilation of sighting's here in this post,involving 3 visits to the patch at East halton/Goxhill and including some great sighting's to boot,the following is what i saw.

Thursday 8th

A couple of hours at Winter's this morning to try and get some better video of the adult female Scaup resulted in some decent results and also some nice sighting's also.

The tide was up on the Humber and the fantastic spectacle of at least 700 Black-tailed Godwits roosting on the grassland near the car park was a superb sight!.One colour ringed bird was seen in amongst the throngs and was one of the birds i had seen on my last visit at East Halton Skitter.It had the combinations of Red over Black flag on the left leg and Green over Lime on the right leg and was one of the birds ringed by the Humber Wader Ringing Group at Welwick Saltmarsh in East Yorkshire.

Also on and around Winter's were the juvenile Spotted Redshank,5 Pintail,a single Knot,90 Wigeon and a Little Egret.

Other sighting's before i travelled home included at least 600 Pink-footed Geese visiting fields near East Halton village and 221 Golden Plover feeding on an adjacent field.

Saturday 10th

A later start than normal today after dropping Mrs R at home after her nightshift,resulted in another fine days birding.

Winter's was almost devoid of birds compared to my last visit,no doubt due to the fact a local farmer has installed a gas powered bird scarer right next to the site,thus making all the birds present,very jumpy.

A quick scan of the pit,saw that the female Scaup had moved on,but amazingly had been replaced now by a 1st Winter Drake.He showed very nicely at times,albeit in crap light,but to have 2 different birds here in a few days was exceptional.This adds to the other species of marine duck i have recorded on here,which includes a pair of Red-breasted merganser and a female Common Scoter.

Other niceities at Winter's included 2411 Pink-footed Geese overhead,a young male Marsh Harrier,the juvenile Spotted Redshank,3 Pintail and a lovely Grey Wagtail which flew off north west.

After covering Winter's i decided to walk down the side of the mitigation site seeing not very much to be fair,but still managed 3 Stonechat(1M,2F),2 Cetti's Warbler,one of which showed really nicely as Cetti's go and 7 Roe Deer were going about their morning business.

The Skitter was given some proper coverage,but due to the high tide,very little was seen in the way of waders.The best of the bunch went to a Treecreeper with a Tit flock in the plantation,at least 600 Golden Plover on the fields and a lovely Redhead Goosander watched fishing along the beck.

As i almost reached Winter's to head home,a single male Stonechat and 65 Carrion Crow were seen along the fields and hedgerows.

Sunday 11th

An early start today at dawn meeting up with Jon and Lou,saw us enjoying some fantastic views of the Moon,Mars,Jupiter and Venus before it got light.

Winter's received lots of attention as always with the 1st winter drake Scaup still being present with his Tufted buddies,before flying off onto the Humber.

A prolonged watch over the Estuary for an hour or so,revealed a single juvenile Gannet flying north,4 female/imm. Common Scoter following in the same direction,but it was the amazing sight and sound of 5624 Pink-footed Geese leaving their roost and flying over us that stole the show.This is only a small fraction of the species wintering numbers in the country,but it is still spectacular and certainly brought a smile to our faces.

Also around Winter's were 85 Redwing,Fieldfare,3 Chiffchaff,11 Little Grebe,31 Canada Geese and the first returning Rock Pipit of the autumn/winter period.

After enjoying the Goose spectacular,Lou had to leave us and Jon and myself carried on our visit walking towards the Skitter.

Highlights along here included a female Wheatear,showing some characters of the Greenland race,a cracking Merlin watched bombing along after some unseen prey,a Short-eared Owl and 3 male Stonechat.

The Skitter area was fairly quiet today with highlights including 7 Pintail which flew north,with 48 Avocet and 127 Curlew being seen also.

Again very little of note was logged between the Skitter and Goxhill Haven,but 7 Goldcrest,a Cetti's Warbler and 27 Bar-tailed Godwit were seen.

East Marsh Road & Chapel Field Road added another 6 Pintail heading north along the Humber bank,122 Rook,165 Wood Pigeon and 14 Tree Sparrow were also observed along here.

Finally something different was heard at Chapel Field Farm,a Lesser Redpoll,which became the 3rd new bird species for the patch year list today.

The Mute Swan family were still along East Halton beck,well part of it anyway,with 3 juv's still following their parents around and walking back towards the car along the edge of the mitigation area added a Common Buzzard,another male Stonechat and 5 Roe Deer to the days sightings.

Three superb visits to my little part of Lincolnshire and now the patch year list stands at 146 species,it seems a long way to go to 160,onwards and upwards.