Steve's Birding,Wildlife & Walking Blog: Redwing Surprise And Wader Fest!........Friday 15th July 2022.

Another visit today to the local patch at East Halton was certainly a good one today,with 4 NFY species added putting me on 139 for the year here,not a bad total.

The following is what i saw in the 8 or so hours on site.

I started my visit as always by parking at Winter's Pond and today,it was fairly cool to start being only 12 degrees,so a couple of layers were needed.

I got the gear together,pack up etc. and headed off,with a commotion on the main lake coming from lots of Black-tailed Godwit voices,so i went for a look.

As it was high tide in 3 or so hours,the Islandica Black-tailed Godwits use Winter's as a wash and brush up area and then either roost in the shallow water or on the grassland and today there was a steady stream as birds feeding areas were getting covered up on the Estuary.

In total,there were at least 420 birds present,making for some great viewing and i attempted to look through them for colour rings,but the birds were so tightly packed,so i gave up.

As i was watching the Godwits,2 cracking summer plumaged Med Gulls flew north along the floodbank towards the Skitter,my second and third birds here in as many visits.

I was then scanning the exposed areas of mud on the far side of the lake watching a flock of 7 Snipe,when a Thrush popped out of the reeds and to my amazement it was a Redwing!!!!

I watched as it ate a couple of insects in total amazement to what i was seeing,a Redwing in July!.

After the surprise of the Thrush,a couple of more scans of the pit revealed 4 Little-ringed Plover(2 adults and 2 juveniles),2 Green Sandpiper still and a flock of 19 Dunlin which flew in and joined the Godwit throng,the latter a record count for Winter's.

I then,carried on walking down towards the Humber,hearing the familiar sound of alarm calling Cetti's Warblers and soon found the culprits,4 fledged juveniles showing relatively well for Cetti's,allowing some nice views.

I then spent a while scanning the Humber,seeing not very much to be fair,but a Grey Seal was a nice diversion away from looking for birds.

A flock of 43 Sand Martin made their way south,as a handfull of Swallows did the same and then a 'tluee' call alerted me to a Siskin heading north overhead towards the Skitter,a year tick and not a common species at all here.

I walked along the floodbank towards the Skitter seeing very little apart from a handfull of Curlew,the mitigation site is now bone dry apart from a couple of small areas of water,but the nice sight of a flock of 70 Goldfinch,was great to see.

I walked around the Skitter area,as the sky started to blacken slightly from the west and it even spotted with rain for a while,we really are in need of some prolonged rain,as it hasn't properly for weeks and weeks.

I then sat down and began to scan the Humber as the tide dropped off and then 1 and then 2 adult Kittiwakes flew across my field of view,followed by 2 adult Common Terns.

The Kits were a year tick and are always nice to see on the Estuary,as are Common Terns,i hope they survive this horrible on going epidemic with avian influenza.

Other birds around the Skitter included 10 Little Egret and 3 broods of Shelduck,9,12 and 12 with the ducklings now growing fast.

As the tide dropped off more,several wading birds began to appear,with 3 Common Sands feeding in the outfall,along with 8 each of Avocet and Curlew and a single Whimbrel flew past towards Goxhill,the first of the autumn wader migration season.

I walked back onto the floodbank to see the Blackwits from Winter's flying onto the estuary to feed and this gave me a good chance to look for colour ringed birds and it wasn't long before i had found some.

Three new birds with the combinations of Green over Yellow left leg and Yellow over a White Flag on the right leg,Lime - Yellow - Green left leg and Green -Yellow-Green on the right leg.

I'm now waiting on communications on their life histories and where they were ringed after speaking to Professor Jenny Gill from the BTO.

Another bird,which had Red over Black Flag on the left leg and Blue over White had been seen nearby at Killingholme in September 2021 and had been ringed by the Humber Wader Ringing Group as an adult on 25.10.18. at Welwick Marsh on the Yorkshire side of the estuary.

I will attach full details of the birds life history on this post.

After finding these colour-ringed birds i headed back towards Winter's,when a familiar 'Chew-it' call drew my attention to a Spotted Redshank as it flew past me and landed on the mud with the Black-tailed Godwits as they flew out of Winter's.

This is another new species for the patch year list and is always a welcome species to see,with it still being in partial summer plumage,a smart bird indeed.

It is most probably the returning adult which i saw with the Black-tailed Godwit flock on Winter's on the 27th September last year and possibly the juvenile i had there on 19th September 2020.This species is very often regular at sites,with individuals returning year after year.

As i walked back towards the car,there were still some Godwits on the grassland and roosting in the shallows,a quick scan through them revealed 2 more colour ringed birds.

The first,had the combinations of a Lime & Red ring over a Lime Flag on the left leg and blue over red on the right leg and again,i'm awaiting details on this bird,as it is a new colour ringed bird for the patch.

The second was another Welwick ringed bird with the combinations of White over a Black flag on the left leg and Green over Red on the right and i saw this bird at East Halton Skitter on the 22nd August 2021.I will again,post the life history of this bird as an attachment to this post.

As i was putting the gear away in the car,as if the day hadn't been good already,a Hobby did a slow flypast heading towards the village,a nice end to cracking visit.

Another superb visit to this superb little corner of Lincolnshire,the following are some phone-scoped images from the day.