Steve's Birding,Wildlife & Walking Blog: Local Patching Update.....30th October,1st & 3rd November 2020.

Friday 6 November 2020

Local Patching Update.....30th October,1st & 3rd November 2020.

Another compilation of sightings here from my local birding patch at East Halton/Goxhill on the banks of the Humber Estuary.

Again some great sightings included here,with some impressive numbers of wildfowl,including my highest count of Pink-footed Geese for the local patch and a particularly good day on the 3rd November for witnessing this.

30th October

Today i covered the area between Winter's and the Skitter and a decent start first thing at Winter's saw 4611 Pink-footed Geese leaving their roost on Cherry Cobb Sands and heading over to feed for the day,an impressive sight and sound for sure.

On Winter's itself,466 Greylag were present,a decent count,with 53 Dunlin,400 Lapwing,114 Teal and 52 Redshank in the area also.

A walk down the edge of the mitigation area today revealed 2 female Stonechat,a roosting Short-eared Owl and the adult Peregrine was still here,after my initial sighting on the 6th October.

A good wander around the Skitter pools to try and find a Jack Snipe drew a blank,but 3 Water Pipit were flushed,the first of the autumn/winter period and 2 Rock Pipit fed along the shoreline here.Other species observed around the Skitter included a single adult Whooper Swan,possibly the returning individual from the last couple of Winters?,a pair of Stonechat,3 Marsh Harrier(2 juveniles and a 2nd calendar year male),13 Avocet and 2 Bearded Tit.

1st November

Full coverage of the patch was achieved today,albeit in some poor weather at times,but perseverance certainly paid off with a cracking juvenile female Hen Harrier being seen,hunting between the Skitter and Dawson City in the morning and then seen at the Skitter Pools and along the Beck in the afternoon.This bird was carrying a satellite tag and had been ringed in a nest in south west Scotland.Amazingly 2 days later she was in North Yorkshire,not a great place for a Hen Harrier to be!.

Other niceities seen around on today's visit included the adult Peregrine again,on the fields adjacent to the mitigation site and some nice wader counts in the Goxhill Haven area,including 95 Turnstone,37 Grey Plover and 226 Dunlin.

A flock of 400 Pink-footed Geese gave some lovely views in a grass pasture near Ruins Pond,but had no other species in amongst them unfortunately.

3rd November

I started a little later today,after dropping Mrs R at home,but it was a brilliant visit regarding Wildfowl.

To start the visit i was just getting my gear ready at the car,when 39 Whooper Swan flew overhead and south,followed about 60 minutes later by another 26,just great to see and hear with their lovely trumpeting contact calls.

Winter's held very little,with only 9 Tufties for my trouble and 298 Greylag,but a small increase in Robins,Dunnocks and Thrushes was noticeable.

Along Marsh Lane and Skitter Road,the above was again noticeable,with more Robins and Reed Buntings than normal and 2 Lesser redpoll were noted overhead,not a common bird on my patch at all.

A Chiffchaff was seen at East Halton Grange and on the adjacent fields and area 3 Common Buzzard,78 Carrion Crow and 49 Jackdaw were all logged.

I then concentrated all the rest of my visit in the Skitter to Ruins Pond area,hoping to find something good and it was pretty productive to be fair.

First goodie,was unbelievably another Hen Harrier,this time a juvenile male watched hunting along the Skitter Pools,before disappearing along the beck and inland.This was a much slighter bird than the big female seen on 1st and was great to see.

I could hear a flock of Pink-footed Geese in the near distance,but before i could go and investigate,6 Barnacle Geese flew in and landed on the mud just off the Skitter and a i took some video before going and looking at the Pink flock.

I spent at least an hour looking through this flock grilling them for Graham's Greenland White-front or Bean Goose,but didn't see them.But on a positive note another 5 Barnacle Geese were mixed in with the flock,these were soon joined by the 6 from the Skitter.This flock contained about 3200 birds a decent increase on the 1st.

I also noticed a leucistic Pink-footed Goose in amongst the flock,making for some interesting viewing and after some investigating,this bird has also been seen in Scotland and Norfolk in recent weeks,just going to show how much these feeding and migrating flocks of Pink-footed Geese move about around the country.

Other sighting's in the area included 67 Avocet,the 3 Water Pipit and 6 Stonechat and as time wore on,the 3200 Pinks from near Ruins Pond flew across the Estuary to roost at Cherry Cobb,followed by flocks of 254,580,120,125 & 2500,the latter flock at last light making for a fantastic end to a brilliant visit,with the sight and sound of these lovely Icelandic visitors summing up perfectly my local birding scene for the winter.