Welcome To My Blog,This Will Be Mainly Used As A Diary For My Local Birding Patch At East Halton/Goxhill On The Banks Of The Humber Estuary,With Occasional Twitching And Visits Elsewhere Including Photos From Mine & Tracey's Walks Around Our Beautiful Countryside.
A lovely couple of days away visiting Malhamdale,covering Janet's Foss,Gordale Scar and Malham Cove on Monday and then walking between Burnsall and Grassington and back on Tuesday saw us enjoying some lovely landscapes despite the poor weather on Monday and a much better day on Tuesday.
A few bird highlights were seen which included one of the resident adult Peregrines and 2 Ravens at Malham Cove on Monday and a single Goosander,2 Kingfishers and my first ever Little Egret along the River Wharfe on Tuesday.
The following are my favourite photos from the trip.
As many people who know me,my birding is mainly taken up by watching my local patch At East Halton/Goxhill on the Humber,but i do also occasionally twitch birds,mainly in my home county of Yorkshire,but also in my adopted county of Lincolnshire,as well as further afield if it's a proper mega or something I havn't seen before.
2021 has turned out to be an exceptional one in my home county of Yorkshire and this is the story of the species i travelled to see.
It all started for me in May,with a trip over to St.Aidens RSPB reserve near Leeds on the 22nd to see a species i should have already seen by now,Franklin's Gull.
This stunning gull was watched displaying in amongst the Black-headed Gull colony and gave some outstanding views and i also managed to take some pretty decent video of the bird,new species number one.
Tracey had pre-booked us a weekend away at Whitby from the 1st June,which was a stroke of genius,as an adult Lesser-grey Shrike had been found nearby the previous day,with the bonus of a flock of 11 Bee-eater for visitors to enjoy.
I was obviously gripped off by this and after enjoying a trip on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway in the morning,we made our way to see the Shrike before heading to the Hotel.
The Shrike showed admirably and was my first sighting of an adult of the species,after i had only seen autumn juveniles in the past.
As we walked back to the car,a guy was waving us over and i just thought to myself,surely the Bee-eaters havn't come back..Imagine my disbelief when there on the overhead telephone wires were a flock of 9 Bee-eaters....talk about jammy!
The birds gave some superb views as they cruised about catching several Wasps and Bees and 2 pairs were even seen mating.Next day they were gone,but later were seen touring Suffolk.
Next,was the return of bird of the year for me, Albert,the Black-browed Albatross....
I had hoped,along with the rest of the birding community,that this amazing bird would return to the Gannet colony at Bempton RSPB after his brief visit in 2020 and he duly obliged staying from 27th June until 24th September.....an amazing 90 days,spending 64 of those on site,allowing people to twitch him from far and wide.I managed to see him on 3 occasions myself,along with Tracey,gaining some outstanding views,sometimes only a few metres away....what a bird!
After seeing on line on the 2nd July that amazingly Paul French had found a 'Meena' Rufous-turtle Dove in his garden at Easington near to Spurn,i had to attempt to see the bird,as it would be a new bird for my Yorkshire list and only my second sighting of this race.
After meeting up with Tim on site and a bit of a runaround attempting to see the bird,as it was commuting between Paul and Georgia's garden and Tony Broome's garden,we were very kindly allowed into Paul and Georgia's house to view the bird in their garden.It gave some cracking views as it preened and dozed,what a great addition to their garden list and a great chance to study the bird at leisure.
July has traditionally been a month to catch up with rare Terns in the country and a trip over to Southfield Reservoir on the 9th,only a stones throw from Thorne,saw me catching up with one of 3 Caspian Terns that had been seen on the Humber and visiting here.
The bird gave some superb scope views,with me finally adding this monster Tern to my Yorkshire list as I watched it catch a couple of fish.
All hell broke loose while i was at work on the 28th August,after a text message from Tim to say a White-tailed Lapwing had been found at Blacktoft Sands RSPB...Frustratingly,it is about 20 minutes from work to the reserve,but i didn't have any gear with me,so i travelled home got the kit and headed straight back to Blacktoft,thankfully it was still present and gave some cracking views,another mega rare wader to be found on the reserve after Britain's first Hudsonian Godwit was found here in September 1981 and another first in July 1986,in the form of Britain's first Red-necked Stint.
This was another new species for myself and was payback after dipping one at Caerlaverock in Dumfries & Galloway in June 2007.The Blacktoft bird was also still present last week,after becoming Britain's longest staying bird.
On the 9th September,i was dashing back up to Bempton again for the umpteenth time this year,not to visit Albert this time,but to twitch Yorkshire's first Green Warbler,which had been expertly found by Head Of RSPB Investigations, birder and ringer Mark Thomas at his ringing site at Buckton only a spit from from the reserve.
This bird,was the most difficult i twitched this year so far with not ideal viewing conditions while i was on site and the behaviour of some of the twit...chers on site,but i eventually got some tickable views and heard the bird call on one occasion as well.This is the 9th record for Britain and the first twitchable bird on the mainland,so obviously attracted a substantial amount of visitors during its stay.
After arriving back from our holiday in North Wales on 17th,a quick evening twitch over to Easington near Spurn,saw me enjoying some cracking views of only my second Isabelline Wheatear as it showed really well infront of the gas terminal.Typically it had gone next day to disappoint the weekend twitchers,but while we watched it,it was constantly feeding and looked like it would go to be fair.This is incredibly,the 5th record for the Spurn recording area.
A bit of a theme continued on the next biggie,as on the evening of the 8th October a wader had been found at St.Aidens RSPB(Remember the Franklin's Gull) which was identified initially as a Temminck's Stint....then a Least Sandpiper and then finally as Britain's 3rd Long-toed Stint after some excellent photos had been taken!!!.
A quick dash up the M62 saw me seeing the bird relatively straight away and gaining some decent views,albeit at 60x on the big Swaro.This species should be residing in India or South East Asia now instead of Yorkshire,a long way from it's breeding grounds in Eastern Siberia.
This bird also constituted a new species for me and also the first record of an adult in Britain,the last record a juvenile,being as long ago as September 1982.
Finally on the 16th October,Spurn got in on the act again,when a Phyllosc which was found initially as a Yellow-browed Warbler,was quickly re-identified as Yorkshire's 2nd and Britain's 10th Two-barred Greenish Warbler.
Tim and myself were on site for dawn next morning and it wasn't long before i was watching my first Two-barred Greenish Warbler.The bird gave some stunning views and stayed faithfull to the canal bushes area allowing all visitors to see this very rare siberian visitor.
Final Yorkshire mega of the year,was seen again in the Flamborough recording area,a Taiga Flycatcher.
A bird had been amazingly found at the lighthouse headland on the same day as the Two-barred Warbler had been discovered at Spurn,but had sadly done a bunk the next day and then this bird was found in the wooded ravine at South Landing on the 4th November.
There is some discussion as to whether this bird is the same bird as seen on 16th October at the Fog Station or that it is a different individual,frankly i was just pleased to see it as it was another addition to my Yorkshire list.
It showed pretty well considering it spent all it's time feeding high up in the canopy when i visited,what a cracking little bird,being only the 5th for Britain,but amazingly the 2nd for Flamborough after the first was found at Old Fall in April 2003.
Nearby on the visit today,was my 5th Red-flanked Bluetail which showed really nicely also,what a cracking species these beautiful Chats are.
Well what a year in Yorkshire and particularly East Yorkshire and amazingly i managed to add 5 lifers and 8 Yorkshire ticks through this bountiful year with all the species being seen only an hour or so from home.
I now look forward to see what 2022 will bring,it will be pretty tough trying to repeat this year,but you never know,this is the best mainland birding county,so who knows what could turn up.
On the 9th November a local fisherman was fishing on the banks of the River Ribble,when he made the discovery of lifetime.....a male Belted Kingfisher.The bird showed on and off in the vicinity for a while,before disappearing due to raising water levels,no doubt making fishing difficult for the bird,it was then,thankfully re-discovered nearby on the River Darwen,a tributary of the River Ribble at Samlesbury.
An early start along with the 2 Tims(Cowley and Ishwerwood),saw us heading over to attempt to see this 5th record for Britain of this North American species.
On the journey over,the good news was the bird was still present,thank god for that and it made things a little less nervy.
After arriving on site,Tim skillfully parked up in the very limited parking available,we quickly got the gear together and we were off.
It was a bit of a hike up hill and then across two muddy fields to where the bird had been seen and we arrived to the news it had showed,but wasn't showing currently.The viewing was very difficult,looking through trees and downwards to the River,but i managed a very brief view of the bird as it shot down from it's perch.
More searching for the bird ensued and i managed to find it again,but it was really difficult to get on it and there was a bit of pushing and bolshy birders to deal with which wasn't great to be fair.
The bird then flew again and landed in an area where it could thankfully be seen by everyone present,as it caught a fish and proceeded to eat it's catch.
What a whopper of a bird!,i had only ever seen our native Kingfisher and this was probably 2.5 times bigger,being more Jackdaw like in size.He was a powder blue over the upperparts,with a long,shaggy,punky crest,long,quite broad,all black bill,white spot infront of the eye on the lores and a broad white collar.The underparts were pure white with a three pronged breast band and i could see some barring on the closed tail,this being more noticeable when he was seen in flight,along with the white flashes in the wings.....what a cracking bird!.
He then flew a little further along the river and was then a little more distant,but it was great to see the large size of the bird in flight.He then flew again and disappeared briefly,at this point we saw our native Kingfisher nearby and it was great to appreciate the size difference.
A couple more distant views of him sat under a Willow before he disappeared again,then we saw him perched really high up in a dead tree providing our final view of him before we had to leave unfortunately.
I did manage to take some distant phonescoped video,but unfortunately the light wasn't ideal and all the footage isn't up to my usual standard,but i still got something and have a record of this fantastic bird
I was really pleased to see this,my 7th new bird of the year,what an amazing one 2021 has been for rare birds.
Another series of visits to the local patch here,with some poor weather at times,but still enjoyable visiting this superb area for the hobby.
4th December
A pretty decent visit today,in a force 4-5 westerly wind with occasional showers saw me covering Winter's,the mitigation area,the Skitter and beckside/Chapel Field Road areas.
Sighting of the day went to the best views of Bittern I've had for many years on the patch,with a very showy individual on Winter's,which allowed a fairly close approach,allowing me to obtain some nice phonescoped video.This bird is no doubt one of the birds which has been seen on and off since September here,when i had 2 together,what a cryptically plumaged cracker!.
Also seen at Winter's while i was watching the Bittern,was a very brief sighting of an Otter,down near Jean's cottage carrying an Eel.The sighting was all too brief for me,but great to see one locally again.
Other sightings at Winter's included 131 Wigeon,1 adult Great-crested Grebe still,78 Teal and 5 female Common Scoter flew up the estuary off here.
The 2 Barnacle Geese were still with the Greylag flock,mostly feeding on the mitigation area,with occasional visits to Winter's.
Best sighting's around the Skitter included 2 Water Pipit,a pair of Stonechat,a nice flock of 63 Stock Dove and 2 1st calendar year Marsh Harriers.
11th December
WEBS Count day today,saw me starting proceedings as usual at Winter's,with some great numbers of Wildfowl present in the area which included 62 Gadwall,8 Mute Swan,32 Coot,139 Mallard,267 Teal and the best of the bunch 6 cracking Goosander.
The latter consisted of 5 drakes and 1 redhead,the boys jostling to get nearest to the girl,with much chasing and posturing,just great to watch.
Also here were the 2 Barnies again with the local Lag flock,approx.1800 Pinks overhead from their Yorkshire roost sites and unusual for here,9 Stock Dove.
A walk along the mitigation area saw some nice sightings being logged which included 450 Starling,41 more Stock Dove,a lone Little Egret and a pair of Stonechat.
The Skitter area had some decent numbers of birds again today,with another pair of Stonechat,2 Water Pipits again,352 Dunlin,2 Bearded Tit and a good sized flock of 51 Redwing feeding in a wet field near to the gas compound.Also on the same field were 94 Curlew no doubt taking advantage of the same food source as the Redwings,Earthworms.
I carried on up to Dawson City,through Goxhill Marsh,with the 4 Ruff still feeding on the flooded field behind the pig farm and 2 Marsh Harrier also in the general area,which included a 1st calendar year bird and the regular 2nd calendar year male.
As i walked passed Ruins Pond,the regular female Merlin gave some nice scope views,before bombing off after something and another pair of Stonechat were watched on the saltmarsh as i walked up to Dawson City.
Dawson City itself was fairly quiet,apart from 44 Curlew feeding on the pasture,but other birds in the general area and on the Humber consisted of 55 Mallard,400 Lapwing,89 Wigeon and 2 female Common Scoter sat on the Humber.
19th December
There are not many visits to my patch were i get peed off,but today wasn't great weather wise,with low cloud and fog/drizzle all day,but i stuck at it and managed to find a few nice sightings to cheer me up.
Winter's first thing held a single drake Goosander and a female Goldeneye,with the 2 Barnies on here again with a flock of 189 Greylag.
Also here were a briefly singing male Cetti's Warbler,10 Little Grebe and 24 Coot,with 50 Wigeon being seen also.
I walked as far as Ruins Pond today,with some decent numbers of Redshank being seen to be fair which included 90 birds between Winter's and here,with the 4 Ruff still on the flooded field near the pig farm,a single Water Pipit on the same field,the same 2 Marsh Harriers as on my last visit in the area,at least 2 Bearded Tit and a nice flock of 36 Avocet at the Skitter.
The best sighting of the day was seen in this area,2 Short-eared Owl.I presume these are the 2 birds seen hunting along the mitigation area a few weeks ago and certainly lifted the spirits in the gloom,but they looked a little wet bless them.
As i neared Winter's before leaving for home a low flying flock of Geese came in from the direction of Killingholme and they were Barnacle Geese.A quick count of them revealed 68 birds,my highest flock here to date.
It would be interesting to know where they originated,could be birds from Cleethorpes or Whitton,but could easily be wild birds,but with so many naturalised populations in the UK now,who knows,but they were nice to see all the same.
A few decent visits again here,hopefully we will get some sunny weather again soon.
Phonescoped Photo Of Teal Feeding Along The Shore Near Winter's Pond,11th.
A Very Colourful Sky At Winter's Pond With Some Lovely Reflections On The 11th.
More visits to the local patch over three days/2 weekends,with some proper wintery weatherand storm Arwen delivering a proper seabird to the patch on the 27th,the following is what i saw over the three visits.
Sunday 21st
A brisk northerly/north westerly airflow and showers saw me starting the visit today parked on the floodbank at the Skitter first thing.
Highlights from my viewpoint here included 3 female Common Scoter loafing on the Humber and 3 Whooper Swans,2 distantly flying down the estuary and a single flying along the mitigation area.I wondered if this latter bird,is the same single which has been visiting the patch for the past 3 years,always on his or her own.
After the early rain had subsided,i drove around to Winter's,got wrapped up and the water proof on and began my visit proper.
A good selection of birds on the main lake included 67 Wigeon,9 Little Grebe,27 Coot,16 Shoveler and a good count of 76 Gadwall.I also managed a good count of 12 Cormorant,the most i have recorded on the site in one go.
After looking around Winter's i decided to cover Marsh Lane and Skitter Road,with no real surprises seen,it was just nice to cover a different area of the patch for a change.Highlights went to 12 Reed Bunting in a flock along Marsh Lane and 2 lovely Common Buzzard in and over Redhouse Wood were having some sort of dispute,with lots of mewing calls.Two doe Roe Deer were also seen along the edge of the wood,just lovely to see as always.
After dodging a large shower,i eventually arrived at the Skitter and spent a good amount of time looking around the pools etc.
Best birds seen here were 6 Twite,which flew towards Goxhill Marsh,the second record of the autumn of this lovely moorland Finch and also the resident pair of Stonechats showed uncharacteristically well,unfortunately it was too windy to try and get some video of them.
The usual suspects of 2 Water Pipit were seen in flight as usual around the pools,with 16 Avocet,3 Knot,2 Rock Pipit and 300+ Dunlin around the haven.
Saturday 27th
An all day watch from dawn until at least 3pm from the floodbank at the Skitter in the car as storm Arwen battered us with a force seven northerly and heavy rain,saw that travelling out in extreme conditions can pay divedends and i wasn't totally mad.
First blood from the seabird world went to 2 Pomarine Skuas as they chased gulls off Killingholme Haven,providing me with my first sighting of the year of this species and my fourth species of Skua for the year here,but better still was to come.
While scanning the estuary,i had 2 tantalising glimpses of a Petrel lifting off the waves very briefly and at first i was convinced it was a Leach's,but the viewing was certainly not easy in the heavy wind and rain,i prayed it would show again.
Thankfully,I then saw the bird again,this time there was no doubting what it was,as a Storm Petrel flew close by along the tideline past my position,to say i was chuffed to see this bird was an understatement.A new species for not only the local patch,but also for Lincolnshire as well!.
I saw the bird a further 2 times and even managed to get some pretty decent video of it with my phonescoping set up,what a little cracker!.It just amazed me how this diminutive seabird just flew into a howling northerly with such energy and when you think they are not much bigger than a House Martin,they are defintely made of steel!.
This species is a pretty rare bird in Lincolnshire,with some years not even recording any birds in the county at all and it began to sink in what a great find it was.....thankyou storm Arwen!.
Other sightings from my viewpoint included a Redhead Goosander,female Common Scoter and a single Sanderlng.
Sunday 28th
A much calmer affair today with a force 4 north westerly,saw me watching the estuary from Winter's to start with in the hope some seabirds or wildfowl may be re-orientating after the previous days wild weather.There had also been some light snow overnight and a good frost covered the ground,making driving a bit hairy in places.
First goodie was a cracking drake Long-tailed Duck which flew up the estuary at mid distance,a welcome addition to the year list and another great bird to see.
Also from my viewpoint here,a single juvenile Gannet flew up the estuary and then back out again,a single female Common Scoter was seen again as the previous day and an adult Kittiwake slowly flew out towards Killingholme.
Other bits seen included a good passage of 'Big' Gulls,which included 322 Herring,15 Great black-Backs and smaller numbers of Common and Black-headed Gulls.
After a good 2 hours,enough was enough and the cold got to me,so i decided to walk up to the Skitter.
A good look around here,saw the best sighting going to 4 Pale-bellied Brent Geese as they flew out south towards Killingholme,a decent sighting for here,as Pale-bellied birds are far less common than there Dark-bellied relatives.
Also around the Skitter,the resident pair of Stonechats had survived the previous days storm and an adult female Marsh Harrier also passed by towards Goxhill Marsh with a full crop.
In the Haven,75 Teal,250 Dunlin and a handfull of Redshanks fed in the relative shelter and along the bushes a few winter Thrushes included 5 Redwing,a single Fieldfare and 23 Blackbird making the most of the winter crop of Hawthorn berries.
A wander along the mitigation area back up to Winter's saw a further 2 Marsh Harrier being seen and included a 2nd calendar year male and juvenile/1st winter bird.
Other sightings included another pair of Stonechat,180 Starling,88 Rook and 4 Roe Deer.with the 2 Barnacle Geese still being present with their noisy Greylag cousins.
On my return to Winter's for the second time today,saw a lovely Woodcock being seen as it flew out of the ditch i was walking along and 150 Wigeon,single Great-crested Grebe,70 Mallard and 52 Gadwall were counted.
The Great-crested Grebe,i thought had gone,but may have been on the rear pit on my last visit.hopefully they will breed next spring.
A fantastic trio of visits to the local patch,with the Storm Petrel being the obvious stand out sighting,this puts me on 213 species for the patch life list and the Long-tailed Duck putting me on a patch year list record of 158 species.Lets hope i can reach the 160 species target i set myself for the year list 4 years ago.
Red House Wood,21st.
Ivy,A Very Important Shrub In Late Autumn/Winter,21st.
Lovely Autumnal Colours On This Hazel Leaf,21st.
The Grange And Skitter Road,21st.
The Grange And Skitter Road,21st.
In Coming Storm,Skitter Road,21st.
More Wild Weather At The Skitter,21st.
In Coming Storm Over The Mitigation Area,21st.
Watching The Humber From The Car,27th.
My Viewpoint On The 27th.
The Humber Floodbank Looking Towards North Kilingholme Haven,28th.
