A couple of visits to the local patch,with the 2nd being pretty good it has to be said.The following is what i saw over the two visits.
Saturday 2nd
An early start saw me arriving at Winter's for first light,getting the gear together for the day and heading along to the Humber bank,as the weather was looking promising for some seabirds on the Estuary.
On the walk to the bank,Winter's was fairly quiet to start,with the best sighting's going to an eclipse drake Pochard,a single Pintail,a few skeins of Pinks overhead and a hunting female Sparrowhawk.
A good scan from the floodbank,saw the best highlights being a Peregrine that crossed from Lincolnshire into Yorkshire and 2 Marsh Harriers,a female and juvenile passing over in the opposite direction,but little else was seen,so i retraced my footsteps back to the car.
While stood here,i noticed a Bittern directly across from the car along the edge of the small reedbed in the south west corner of the lake and it showed brilliantly,out in the open.While i was stood watching this,i turned around to see 9 adult Whooper Swans dropping in onto the lake....a nice flurry of activity i thought to myself!.
The Whoopers had a quick feed and bathe and they started trumpeting to each other and they were off again,heading south west,a beautiful sight indeed.
As the forecast was for rain from lunchtime onwards,i decided to head to the Skitter,along the mitigation site.
There was more water on here than my last visit and a few ducks as well,which included 42 Wigeon,52 Mallard and 48 Teal.
The Skitter was covered pretty well as usual,as this can be such a rewarding area,it was here that i saw the best bird of the day....a juvenile Long-tailed Skua!.
The Skua was picked up at half distance across the Estuary and gave some decent views being on show for at least 20 minutes.It was a dark juvenile and i watched as it flew along having a half hearted chase after a Black-headed Gull,which in turn chased it,typical LTS behaviour i thought.They just dont look as powerfull as their agressive cousins the Arctics,with a much more buoyant small Gull like flight.
After the star bird,a few Gannets were seen heading towards Saltend and i thought to myself,i will head back to the car and take shelter before the rain hits.On the way a lovely male Stonechat was seen flycatching along the edge of the Haven,my first of the autumn period.
I got back to the car,packed the gear away and drove around to the Skitter and got in position along the floodbank and just about on cue the rain arrived.
Over the next 3 hours this was my watchpoint and it was pretty productive to be fair with hightlights including 31 Gannets north and 25 south,3 Med.Gulls(2 Adults and a first winter),a single Guillemot and a Red-breasted Merganser,all these birds pushing up the estuary to escape the rough weather conditions at sea.
Before i left for home,i also saw a single Rock Pipit(The first of the autumn/winter period) and the lovely juvenile Whimbrel was still here also.
Saturday 9th October
Today another early visit to carry out my WEBS count was unfortunately cut short after i had completed it,due to a certain wader that had been found at St.Aidens RSPB near Leeds.
I still managed to see a Pintail,male Ruff and 3 Chiffchaff around Winter's,but amazingly none of the 5 Yellow-browed Warblers seen by an observer the day before,i want some of what he is smoking!!!!.
Another couple of visits to my little part of the Humber and i look forward to my next visit.
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