A couple of decent visits to the local patch along the banks of the Humber at East halton/Goxhill,with a few more additions to the patch yearlist putting me on 149 species with 2 and a bit months to go.
Saturday 16th
A good visit today starting as usual at Winter's Pond first thing,with some Mammalian sightings to start off with,2 Foxes,1 on Winter's itself and another hunting Voles in the stubble field near the car park entrance.
Two Roe Deer were also seen at the entrance to the Mitigation site,alway's great to see these.
It was quiet on the ponds again first thing,no doubt due to the continued shooting activities by a couple of idiots out of the village,but still the 2 Great-crested Grebe were still present and also a female Goldeneye.
I then made it up onto the floodbank and began to scan the Humber,quickly seeing 8 adult Whooper Swan on the mud towards the old Seaplane Jetty,as i slowly walked towards them,they obviously didn't like the strange person walking toward them and they were off and flew towards Killinghome haven.
Pink-footed Geese were heading in all directions and don't really seem to have settled into any pattern yet regarding feeding flocks.It doesn't help when they are being shot at either,i wish these arseholes would just leave them alone!.
As i walked back to Jean's cottage,2 Siskin flew over north,a new species for the patch year list.
I then walked along the mitigation area,seeing a lovely adult female Marsh Harrier hunting,followed by a lone male Stonechat and more Pink flocks.
Some good coverage of the Skitter area didn't really produce anything out of the ordinary,but i flushed an adult Water Rail as i walked and there was also15 Snipe and 5 Rock Pipits around the pools/haven area.
The resident pair of Mute Swans from the Beck,were here today,with their now fledged 9 cygnets and also 22 Avocet were feeding out on the estuary,my first decent sized flock for some time.
Now the gas pipeline has been completed,i decided to walk down past there and cover the fields/pig farm area as it looks really good for Buntings and Finches.
My hunch came true as i walked this area,with 2 Corn Bunting being seen with a flock of 14 Yellowhammers,the latter a rare bird on the patch.Also in the area were 55 Linnet,5 Tree Sparrow and a lone Lesser Redpoll.
The rest of East Marsh Road was a more mundane affair,but the lovely sight and sound of 100+ Rooks at the rookery,was great to see.
A flock of 173 Pinks were feeding in a stubble field near to Goxhill Haven,as i approached and a cracking count of 154 Turnstone along the shore,was my largest here for a long time.
The Sunflower field between the Haven and Dawson City was really productive last winter and again it is shaping up to be productive with 45 Greenfinch and 78 Linnet being seen.Hopefully it will have the desired affect and attract something rarer like a Little Bunting.
The area between Dawson and the Skitter,saw a few nice birds being logged and this included a pair of flycatching Stonechats.a Jay in the Long Wood and in the Ruins Pond area a flock of 14 'Pinging' Bearded Tit and my first Water Pipit of the autumn/winter passed overhead.
The latter flew into a field which slurry has been pumped onto at the rear of the pig farm and was also attracting a flock of 30 Black-tailed Godwit and 3 Ruff.
Saturday 23rd
A good visit again,in,unfortunately south or south westerly winds,produced a bit of vis-mig as on my last visit,with today providing me with another year tick,this time in the form of a Brambling.
The bird was in the little copse near the car park at dawn,with those distinct 'Eeep' calls,before it promptly flew north west towards The Grange.
These lovely Scandinavian breeding Finches are almost annual here and are a joy to see and hear.
Also here was an unbelievable count of 37 Coot,this might not sound exciting to some,but the previous visit had only yielded 4 birds and just goes to show how these birds migrate,this being a record count for the patch.
Also on the ponds were the 2 resident Cetti's Warblers blasting away that distinctive song,2 Pintail,198 Mallard,46 Gadwall and flocks of Pink-footed Geese including 320,430 and 267 birds all heading south west.
A scan from the floodbank,saw a single eclipse drake Goldeneye on the Humber,a single Rock Pipit over north and a flock of 14 Whooper Swans heading south distantly and also a Grey Seal provided some welcome interest away from the birds.
A walk along the Mit site saw nothing out of the ordinary being seen,but 33 Skylark,87 Goldfinch and 14 Reed Bunting provided a bit of interest.
As i didn't want to walk too far today,i just wandered up to the Skitter and spent a good while covering the area.This proved productive,with 2 lovely Twite flushed to start with from the shoreline,they then settled on the track down to the Humber from the floodbank and i managed to take some shaky video in the blustery wind of these gorgeous little Moorland Finches.I watched them from distance in the scope and then all of a sudden they were off and flew towards Goxhill Marsh,dropping back in about 500 metres away.
The Twite were my 149th species on the patch this year,not a bad total considering autumn migration hasn't been the best so far.
Other nicities included a single Water Pipit around the pools and a lovely Redhead Red-breasted Merganser which flew towards Killingholme along the tide edge and also another flock of Whooper Swans,with 13 this time heading in the same direction as the Merg.
A walk along Skitter Road/Marsh Lane saw little of interest being noted apart from a couple of roving Jay's and a flock of at least 350 Wood Pigeon.
A lovely couple of visits to the patch,just great to get out and about on my little part of Lincolnshire.
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