Steve's Birding,Wildlife & Walking Blog: Winter's Pond.......What A Site And Year!

Wednesday, 28 December 2022

Winter's Pond.......What A Site And Year!

Winter's Pond,or East Halton Pit as some know it is a series,well three to be exact,of old clay workings which once upon a time was a working tilery which made pantiles for the building industry.Two of the lakes/pits are still open and visible,but the third is grown over now.

Today,it gets occasional visits from Angler's,but mainly people walking along the side of the main lake to the Humber floodbank,with the kind access allowed by the owner Jean Winter.

I have been visiting Winter's on and off since 1986,when i first took up birding,but in the last 6 years this has intensified with me concentrating efforts between here and Goxhill to record bird species and hopefully find a few rarities along the way.

Winter's has a long history of rare birds being found here,with Graham Catley finding Lincolnshire's first Black Kite here on 18.05.79. and the previous year,a male Little Bittern resided here from the 19th until the 29th April.

It wasn't until the 3rd April 2018 when i could stamp my mark on the site with a quality find in the form of a singing male White-spotted Bluethroat,which spent the day typically skulking in the hedgerow and adjacent field which runs paralell to the track down to the Humber and occasionally sang also.

The continued efforts to try and find some more or another rare bird did not happen until 15.01.22. when a Glossy Ibis made a flying visit,literally and then a Cattle Egret spent the day feeding on the grassland on the 14th May along with a singing male Redstart in the adjacent hedgerow.The Ibis and Cattle Egret were both personal find ticks also.

Next was a very brief Pectoral Sandpiper on 11th September,before it flew north towards the Skitter never to be seen again,but frustratingly still no BB rare.

This thankfully changed when i managed to find a very smart juvenile female Blue-winged Teal on the 15th October,which was associating with the local Shoveler flock.

It commuted between the main lake and the smaller rear lake at the back of the site and could be elusive at times,but stayed until 20th November.

This species is of Nearctic in origin breeding across North America and Canada.

Now the rarest bird to have graced this site,occurred on 31st December 2020,when Mike Pickwell visited and found a 'Funny looking wader' with yellow legs feeding on the grassland.

Unfortunately i was out for the day with my wife,but i communicated with Mike on what it could be,Lesser Yellowlegs perhaps,no!,i then sent GPC a message and he went to check it out,imagine my disbelief when he rang me back to say it was the White-tailed Lapwing!.

It had left Blacktoft on Christmas Eve and disappeared until Mike found the bird.

A frantic visit next day,saw the bird thankfully still around and it then spent the next 66 days either on Winter's or on it's favoured pool on East Halton Marshes next door.

It is the 7th record for Britain of this very rare wading bird,which breeds occasionally on the Black Sea coast Of Romania and further east and winters in Pakistan and India.

Apart from rare visitors,the site is an important one for Wildfowl and Waders,with it being particularly important for Icelandic Black-tailed Godwits which use the site to bathe and feed throughout September and October.

The constant effort of reading colour rings which the birds are fitted with on their legs to study their migration,has shown birds visiting from France,Iceland,Holland,Norfolk,Suffolk and Welwick on the Humber,as well as Frampton RSPB on the Wash.

A total of 26 species of wader have been recorded on site to date by myself and 1 of those,Avocet,has also bred.

Visiting Wildfowl species have included Red-crested Pochard,Garganey,Smew,Scaup,Red-breasted Merganser,Common Scoter,White-fronted,Egyptian and Brent Geese.

Other species which have made appearances,have included a wide array of families,such as Hooded Crow,Long-eared Owl,Twite,Black Redstart,Waxwing,Hen Harrier and Black Tern.

I have to date recorded a total of 157 species on and over the site,a decent total.

The site is not only good for birds though,with a fairly good list of Odonata,which includes a breeding colony of Small red-eyed Damselflies and occasional Hairy Dragonfly.

Mammals are also a regular feature of my visits and include daily sighting's of Roe Deer,the occasional Otter and Muntjac,with the much persecuted Fox and Badgers being seen also.

This site really is a special one and i hope it continues for many years to come,with the continued pressures from companies like AbleUK to develop land along the Humber.

The following are a selection of my fave photos and video clips of birds and the stunning sunrises and landscape of the site.