Steve's Birding,Wildlife & Walking Blog: Latest Local Patch Sighting's Update,November 26th & 27th,December 3rd,11th,17th & 18th 2022.

Another bumper compilation with the local patch yearlist now standing at an impressive 167 species,my best ever total.

The following is what i recorded on my 6 visits.

Saturday & Sunday 26th/27th November

Coverage of the whole patch on Saturday taking in Winter's,East Halton Skitter,East Halton Beck,Goxhill Haven and Marsh and back to Winter's,saw some great birds being seen and included a patch year tick in the form of a flock of 19 Russian White-fronted Geese(Albifrons).

The birds were first picked up on call as they flew over me while walking along Chapel Field Road at Goxhill,as they headed towards East Halton Skitter.

I later located them on a Winter Wheat Field adjacent to East Halton Marshes at dusk,enjoying some distant views of the birds.

Other species seen today,included GPC's stunning pale morph Common Buzzard which was watched 'worming' in a field adjacent to Witter Farms at Goxhill.

This bird is a proper stunner and is so confiding and i managed to take some superb video of it.

Other notables included 5 Common Scoter and 134 Goldeneye off Goxhill Haven,a Spotted Redshank also at Goxhill Haven,with another or the same bird at East Halton Skitter with 8 Ruff.

The day finished with a lovely adult Med.Gull coming into Winter's for a bathe before going to roost on the Humber.

An impressive 83 species were seen today,which is pretty good for the time of year!.

More of the same was seen on Sunday,which included the lovely Ruskies still,2 Barn Owl,a Kingfisher,Water Pipit and 3 Ruff at the Skitter,4 Stonechat and the first decent arrival of Winter Thrushes,which included 170 Fieldfare,22 Redwing,11 Song Thrush and 37 Blackbird.

Saturday 3rd December

A quieter visit today,compared to last weekend,but still enjoyable,with the Russian White-front's now tagged onto the local Greylag flock and were seen on Winter's today,a new personal species for the site.

It was great to be able to settle and study this presumed 2 pairs of adults with their 15 juveniles,the juv's are really appealing to me with their subtle ID characters of dark bill base and tip surrounding the orange bill,really smart birds!.

Other species seen included a pair of Ruff and a Barn Owl at the Skitter,2 Barnacle Geese with the Greylag flock still,a lovely Merlin along Marsh Lane,2 female Pochard on Winter's and the lovely sight of 7 Grey Partridge on fields next to East Halton Marshes.

Sunday 11th December

An early start as always today,saw a decent Goose day again on the patch,with the Russian White-fronted Geese still in residence,2 Barnacle Geese still with the Greylag flock,which numbered 450 birds today,26 Canada Geese and 1550 Pink Feet in the area also,the most for a few weeks.

On a Winter's a whopping count of 4 Pochard,saw a drake and 3 females present,a big number for here! and approx. 5000 Starlings coming out of the roost at dawn.

A pair of Stonechat and a Kingfisher were seen along the marshes at East Halton and some decent numbers of Thrushes were logged today and included 220 Fieldfare and 110 Redwing.

Saturday 17th & Sunday 18th December

With our coldest period of winter weather taking place over the last couple of weeks, Saturday's visit to the local patch was a nithering -5 at dawn,this coupled with a freezing South Easterly wind made it pretty cold to be fair.

The first birds i saw today were 2 Barn Owl,one over Winter's and a single hunting distantly at the Skitter.

Winter's was 90% frozen over apart from an area near the car park and all the birds were packed in here.

Amongst the flock,were a pair of Pintail,34 Gadwall,18 Shoveler,17 Wigeon and a female Pochard.

The Geese were around also on Winter's and included the now resident 19 Russian White-fronts,180 Greylag,2 Barnacle Geese with the Greylag flock,with a further 10 birds flying north along the Humber.

Its difficult to ascertain whether the latter are wild or not,as there are so many feral populations in the country,but are nice to see all the same.

After wandering around Winter's,i decided to cover the fields up towards East Halton village in the quest to try and find a patch Waxwing in amongst the flocks of Felfare's and Redwings,but no such luck infortunately.

All was not lost though,as i flushed a cracking Woodcock from its daytime roost,what a belting bird they are when seen in broad daylight,when you can study those stunning plumage details.

Also seen over the same fields,was a cracking Peregrine which caused havoc amongst the local Lapwings and Wood Pigs.

A wander around the Skitter pools and Skitter shore,saw 2 Water and a single Rock Pipit being seen along with 2 Marsh Harrier,27 Skylark and 45 Stock Dove were on the fields here.

Sunday was a repeat of the previous day,with the wind slightly less biting as Saturday.

A total surprise while driving along Marsh lane before dawn,saw a Jack Snipe nearly flying into the car,as it was flushed from the roadside dyke.

I have spent hours trying to find one at the Skitter and along the saltmarsh up towards Goxhill and then i go and flush one in the car!.

A good number of Redwing were logged today and mainly involved birds moving south along the Humber floodbank,with 35 At Winter's,184 along the marshes between Winter's and the Skitter and at least 30 at East Halton Skitter,an amazing sight to see and no doubt a cold weather movement as the birds search for Hawthorn's to plunder......still no Waxwing though unfortunately.

Another effort to find something around the Skitter pools,did the trick today,as a cracking male Snow Bunting was found feeding at the end of the track to the Humber,i tried to get near it for a pic,but it unfortunately had other ideas and duly bogged off along the saltmarsh towards Goxhill.

Well what a great series of visits again,what a cracking patch i've got and long may it continue.