Steve's Birding,Wildlife & Walking Blog: Local Patching Update,27th/28th August,4th,10th & 11th September 2022.

A really good period continuing on the patch with a few nice additions,putting me on a respectable 149 species for the 'Patch Year'.,including one personal first record for the patch,in the form of a Pectoral Sandpiper on the 11th September.

The following is what i recorded:

Saturday 27th August

Full coverage of the patch today,saw me walking all the way up to Goxhill along the beck,covering Goxhill Haven.Dawson City and back past the Skitter and up to the car at Winter's.

Some decent birds were seen and to start at Winter's the juvenile Wood Sand was still here,along with a single Common sandpiper and a colour-ringed Great-white Egret was also present.The latter had a red darvic ring with white lettering,but it was just too far away to make out the lettering clearly.

A walk along Marsh Lane/Skitter Road up to the beck saw the best sighting going to a decent sized flock of 54 Stock Dove.....just great to see and they are such underrated birds.

Nothing much of note was seen along the Beck or Chapel Field Road,but it was just great to be out in some nice weather.

A few notable sightings along East Marsh Road included 63 Swallow and a good sized flock of 350 Curlew.

A great display by a juvenile Peregrine as it chased Gulls and Waders over the Humber at Goxhill Haven was great,as always to see,masters of the air.

As i reached the Skitter a good selection of waders were in residence which included the Green and Wood Sands from my previous visit,along with 8 Common sandpiper and singles of Ruff and Greenshank.Overhead a 2nd calendar year Yellow-legged Gull flew over the Skitter and onto the Humber.

Sunday 28th August

An early start as always today at Winter's,saw the juvenile Wood Sandpiper still being in residence,which was great to see.

Also here was the first Pintail of the autumn for the patch,with a juvenile male,great to see,with other sightings on here consisting of 1 Great-crested Grebe still,451 Greylag and a good sized flock of 70 Swallow,the biggest flock of the autumn so far.

A watch over the Humber for an hour or so,saw 15 Common Tern flying out south towards Killingholme,the only highlight.

A walk along the mitigation area,saw little being seen apart from 2 juvenile Peregrine which put on the usual good show as they chased each other and everything in their paths,a fantastic aerial show!.

A wander around the Skitter saw a few nice birds being seen,which included 6 Common Sandpipers,a juvvie Little-ringed Plover,a distant Hobby over the Beck/Langmere Wood area and a good 3000+ Black-tailed Godwit,but it was too windy and showery to stop and look for colour rings.

Sunday 4th September

Today i just watched Winter's and the Humber infront of Winter's,as the forecast had said South Easterly winds which can be good for pushing seabirds up the estuary and particularly Terns at this time of the year.

On Winter's itself first thing,a Ruff,220 Mallard,9 Wigeon,22 Coot,6 Little Egret and the colour ringed Great White Egret were seen and overhead a good sized flock of at least 220 Sand Martin fed over the ponds and adjacent Humber floodbank.

On the Humber,a single Common Scoter was NFY and as predicted a decent number of Terns were recorded and included 119 Common Tern and 7 Sandwich Tern(NFY).

Other bits seen while watching from the floodbank included a NFY Grey Wagtail which flew south and 2 Bar-tailed Godwit flew south east with Curlew.

Saturday 10th September

A good visit today in a northerly airflow and showers saw it producing a few goodies on the Humber and the first decent passage of Wildfowl up the estuary.

On the ponds first thing at Winter's,saw 4 Ruff being seen along with a Greenshank,drake Pintail,21 Shoveler,16 Little Grebe,29 Wigeon,26 Coot and 4 Little egrets,with the CR Great-white Egret still here.

A watch from the floodbank after covering the ponds,saw a good movement of birds which included first records for the year in the form of a single Guillemot and a dark juvenile Arctic Skua chasing Gulls.

Other niceities included a Sandwich Tern(North),adult Kittiwake(Off Killingholme),Arctic Tern(North),10 Common Tern(North),Whimbrel(South),12 Common Scoter(North),82 Teal(North),168 Wigeon(North) and 17 Pintail(North).

Along the shore here,4 Common Sandpiper and a Grey Wagtail which flew south were seen and also 2 juvenile Peregrines again.

After watching the Humber i walked up to the Skitter seeing a single Common Sandpiper in the outfall and my first Stonechat of the autumn,a female,watched flyatching from some dead umbellifer stems,really nice to see!.

A good effort looking through the Black-tailed Godwits at the Skitter and on Winter's revealed a total of 14 colour-ringed birds,of which i'm awaiting details on some,so will write a post here when i have received all the details back.

Just before i left for home,a cracking juvenile Hobby was watched overhead at Winter's and unbelievably,the mystery hybrid Gull from earlier in the year is back!.

Sunday 11th September

WEBS count day today,but thankfully i had completed mine yesterday,which was great,as there were better numbers present on Winter's and today it was pretty misty it had to be said.

Jon and myself walked to the floodbank at Winter's waiting for the fog to clear,as an adult Mediterranean Gull flew southwest inland with Black-headed and Common Gulls.

A look on the rear pond at winter's saw the lovely adult Great white Egret still here,im sure the colour ring reads AC now.

A further wait on the floodbank for the fog to clear fully saw Jon wandering off towards the Skitter to try and carry out his section for WEBS,but i remained in situ.....this proved a good move as the fog cleared.first a Guillemot flew north along the estuary before a 'Krrrrtttt' call from behind me saw,unbelievably a Pectoral Sandpiper flying past me and off towards the Skitter.

I phoned Jon to let him know and to keep his eyes peeled,but he didn't see it and after much searching later i failed to relocate the bird as well sadly.

This is my first personal record of the species for the local patch and it has to be said,a long awaited one as well.

Back to reality after the shock Pec,saw a couple of Grey Wagtails flying south and the Skitter area holding 2 female Stonechat now and the single Common Sandpiper was still here.

Well what a cracking series of visits,i just love my patch,what a brilliant area!