An oustanding couple of local patch visits over this weekend,really showing what a cracking little patch I've got.
Friday 20th
An early morning start to carry out my WEBS count,saw me parking as usual at Winter's Pond and spending the next 2 hours around this cracking little site.
To start with i headed for the Humber floodbank to see what waders and wildfowl were present in the calm and slightly misty conditions and was soon rewarded with singles of Ruff and Little-ringed Plover as they flew north overhead,a decent start i thought.
As i walked along the floodbank towards the old seaplane jetty 6 Common Sandpiper were watched along the shoreline,a Greenshank 'Tu-tu-tu'd' it's way south.I then turned around to see 4 Ruddy Shelduck flying by at quite close range,they looked like they were going into Winter's,but after a quick look,they were nowhere to be seen and must have carried on west.
To put the latter sighting into context,this is a patch first species for me personally,so was a great sighting,despite the unkown origin of the birds.
A good scan of the main lake at Winter's revealed 19 Tufted Duck,2 Great-crested Grebe,10 Little Grebe and the usual wily old Grey Heron in his favourite fishing place and in around the bushes a really good count of 15 Willow Warbler and 6 Lesser Whitethroat were seen.
Plenty of scanning of the Mitigation area,as i walked saw some nice sightings being logged and included another first for the year in the form of a Hobby.It was watched hunting and caught a Swallow,before sitting up in the trees at the back of East Halton Grange,what a cracking bird!.
Also along the Mit site,were 2 juvvie Marsh Harrier watched hunting and resting on the fence posts and also a nice flock of 63 Goldfinch were noted.
More scanning of the Humber in hope something good may have come up River in the misty conditions and big tide,saw this paying divedends,with first 4 Arctic Tern being seen,then 2 fem./imm Common Scoter and finally a gorgeous juvenile Kittiwake.
The Terns and Kit flying towards Hull and the Scoter's drifting out on the tide as it dropped off.
The Skitter,as on my last few visits,was a hive of wader activity,with today's stars including the adult and juvenile Wood Sandpipers still,1 Green Sandpiper still,a juvenile male Ruff,another Common Sandpiper,3 juvenile Water Rail and a very noisy flock of 6 juvenile Greenshank.
The latter were feeding in the Haven and eventually flew off south towards Killingholme.
The juvenile Water Rails put on a great show also,with 1 bird showing very nicely in the open allowing me to take some pretty decent video of it.
Other bits around the Skitter included 4 Bearded Tit,a Grey Plover,a Whimbrel and a Great-spotted Woodpecker in the plantation.
Sunday 22nd
Today's visit along with Jon,saw some favourable conditions,with a light north easterly and slight mist/low cloud and with the rain overnight,making us hopefull for a movement of seabirds or grounded passerines.
The former was soon confirmed,as we experienced a large movement of Terns early on,with a minimum 338 Common Terns,4 Arctic Terns and 7 Sandwich Terns all moving north along the Estuary.Mixed in with these were an adult Kittiwake,21 Common Scoter and a single Arctic Skua chasing Gulls near Killingholme and a juvenile Caspian Gull also flew north,giving some nice views,as well as a stunning juvenile Med.Gull resting on the seaplane jetty.
The movement of Terns,is the most i have seen personally on my patch and it was a real privilege to witness all these lovely birds re-orientating after the overnight rain.
Waders seen along this stretch up to the seaplane jetty included a single Ruff which flew south,a flock of 11 Whimbrel which flew west,60 Ringed Plover roosting on the car storage area,9 Avocet,87 Redshank and a Common Sand.
Overhead a flock of 48 Sand Martin flew south and around the bushes a few Willow Warblers,Chiffs and Lesser Whitethroat were seen.
The mitigation area was a bit disappointing to be fair,as with the overnight rain,i expected to see at least a Whinchat,but no migrants of that nature were seen,just the local Starling flock which numbered 250 birds today and 70 Goldfinch.A juvenile Marsh Harrier was also seen.
The Skitter area again proved to be good for wading birds with 2 juvenile Wood Sandpiper,Green sand,6 Common Sand and a decent sized flock of 1894 Icelandic Black-tailed Godwits.
In amongst the Godwit throng,we managed to pick out 6 colour-ringed birds,3 of which were birds which had been ringed by the Humber Wader Ringing Group at Welwick Saltmarsh in Yorkshire,the other 3 we are awaiting details on.
As we arrived back at Winter's a quick scan through at least 200 Ice Black-tails on the car park grassland revealed another 2 flagged birds,one,the french ringed bird i have seen on two previous occasions and 1,another bird ringed at Welwick,again by the Humber Wader Ringing Group,which was a new bird for me and the details of which i will attach to this post.
Well what can i say,but two superb visits again to this cracking area,i love my patch.
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| Ringing Details On Colour-ringed Icelandic Black-tailed Godwit |
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