Three visits to the local patch covered here,with some spring migrants arriving at last and a cracker of a day on the 25th,the following is what i saw.
Saturday 11th March
A fairly steady visit today,with a few winter visitors still hanging on,the best of which were 27 Russian White-fronted Geese still visiting the Winter's area.
Other sighting's around here and on the marshes included 245 Wigeon,5 Pochard on Winter's,2 Ruff and 2 Oystercatcher.
A flock of 35 Redwing were along Skitter Road still,no doubt feeding up before heading north or east.
Sunday 19th March
A really pleasant visit today in some warm weather for a change saw a good movement of Buzzards,with 16 birds being observed.This consisted of a mix of local and passage birds,the locals soon seeing off the intruders,with much calling and displaying.just great to see.
The continued efforts watching the sky today,paid divedends as my first Merlin for the patch year was seen as it bombed after a Starling flock on the marshes.
Potentially the rarest sighting of the day went to another Falcon,as a stunning white morph Gyr Falcon was seen being hounded by a Carrion Crow flock along the old railway at East Halton village.
This was most definitely one of the escaped birds from a mass escape a few weeks ago in Derbyshire.
Back to more credible visitors and there were still 20 Russian White-fronts in the Winter's area today,stopping off for a drink and bathing session on the main lake.
Its been really great to have these lovely Geese around all winter.
Other notables during the day included 8 singing male Chiffchaff,male Stonechat,1 Water Pipit and a big count of 76 Carrion Crow.
Saturday 25th March
Today was a pretty wet visit to the patch,but what a day bird wise!.
First goodie seen was a male Wheatear feeding on the grassland on the marshes and it certainly brightened the visit,what a great bird these lovely Chats are,this site being particularly good for them.
Continual scanning of the Humber and Winter's certainly paid off today despite the shower's as in a dry spell,i picked up a huge bird approaching from the east,in the bins it looked like a Crane or Stork,i got my scope on it and imagine my disbelief when it WAS a White Stork i was watching!!!!.
I watched as it flew in off the Humber,with a couple of flaps of those huge wings,it then looked like it was gliding in to land between East Halton village and Killingholme Haven,but after much subsequent searching afterwards it sadly drew a blank.
This is the first record for the patch and also a Lincolnshire tick for myself.
It was interesting to note,that a Dutch ringed bird was seen this evening on the Cam Washes in Cambridgeshire,so could well have been the same bird.
While looking for the Stork i picked up a distant small wader which looked like a LRP,sure enough as it got closer my first Little-ringed Plover of the year flew past me calling as it passed by,just fantastic to see these lovely waders returning.
Some decent passage along the Humber flood-bank today included only small numbers compared to other sites,but included 35 Linnet,24 Chaffinch,44 Meadow Pipt,7 Pied Wagtail,my first White Wagtail of the year and also 3 Siskin which were new for the year also.
Final goodie of the visit was a spanking adult Spoonbill feeding on the marshes briefly before it was flushed by a moron on an off-road bike,another great edition to the days birding and year list,just a shame it hadn't stayed longer.
Today was pretty damn good and certainly worth putting up with the rain showers with 5 species new for the year and a patch lifer to boot.it's what local patching is all about,roll on my next visit.
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| Dawn At Winter's On The 11th March. |
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| A Phone-scoped Shot Of A Lovely Fox From The 19th March. |
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| Skitter Road,19th March. |
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| Blackthorn Blossum,19th March. |
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| Skitter Pools,19th March. |
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| Incoming Storm On The Marshes,25th March. |
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