Steve's Birding,Wildlife & Walking Blog: Wild Weather,Seabird Mega & More Local Patching.......21st,27th & 28th November 2021.

More visits to the local patch over three days/2 weekends,with some proper wintery weather and 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.