A couple of visits to the local patch documented here with a few nice birds to keep things ticking over,but with this continued northerly or north easterly airflow it made things difficult in cool temperatures.
On both visits i concentrated my efforts between Winter's Pond and the Skitter,the following sightings are what i recorded.
Saturday 13th
On today's visit,Winter's was again quiet as i arrived no doubt due to the high water levels still and i wandered down to the Humber flood bank to scan the Humber.
Little over the Estuary apart from 7 distant Dark-bellied Brent Geese were seen,so i moved over to the marshes to see if any waders were present.
Sure enough after a few scans,i had seen a flock of 212 Icelandic Black-tailed Godwits,27 Curlew,5 gorgeous Whimbrel feeding along with the Curlew and singles of Bar-tailed Godwit,Redshank and Avocet.
Wildfowl present included a single Drake Wigeon with a slightly damaged leg,3 drake Teal,a pair of Shoveler and unusual for here 7 Tufted Duck swimming about on the largest of the pools.
Back to Winter's and a flock of mixed Hirundines and Swifts were now feeding over the main lake and consisted of 62 Swift,125 Sand Martin,6 House Martin and 21 Swallows making for a lovely sight to watch.
While watching the Hirundines a male Cuckoo flew in and landed on one of the telegraph poles where i was stood and proceeded to sing.This gave me a great chance to attempt to get some video of him and also the Hirundine flock which were showing brilliantly now settling on the telephone wires.
Other niceties seen included a Peregrine giving the local Corvids some stick and a lovely male Marsh Harrier hunting the marshes.
Monday 29th
An early start today parking as usual at Winter's for first light,saw it again being fairly cool for the time of year,so a few layers were the order of the day.
A few birds on the main lake to start,saw 84 Greylag,3 drake Tufted Ducks and 3 'Whinnying' Dabchicks being seen.
The Humber was again very quiet,so all my attention was spent concentrating on the marshes,which was pretty damn good today.
First of all the flock of summering 2nd calendar year Black-wits has now built up to a decent 294 birds and today in amongst them and feeding on the same pool,were 4 lovely Greenshank.
While watching the waders 2 cracking drake Garganey flew in and began to feed,a very welcome addition to the patch year list.
These 'Summer Teal' really are smart birds and i spent a good while watching these lovely birds along with the Icelanders.
Other species here included 3 Wigeon,2 drakes and a female,a single Whimbrel,30 Canada Geese,1 Snipe and 2 Redshank.
It would be really great if the latter 2 species could breed one day.
I then decided to walk the square up Marsh Lane,along Skitter Road to the Skitter and back to Winter's.
Very little was added to the day's sightings,but it was just great to be out and walking around this cracking patch again.
As i reached the Skitter i watched one of the resident pair of Barn Owls hunting,giving some nice views,hopefully they will be successful in rearing some chicks.
As i arrived back at Winter's again,the male Cuckoo was singing away and a small group of Swifts,Swallows,House Martins and a single Sand Martin fed over the main lake.
A couple of nice visits,oh for some sunshine and warm weather!.
Skitter Road,29th May.
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