Steve's Birding,Wildlife & Walking Blog: Local Patching Update - Yankee Wader First etc.

Saturday 23rd September

An early start for a change today,saw me parking the car on the floodbank near Winter's Pond and spending some time watching the estuary from here.

As it got light the first Pink-footed Geese began leaving their roost site on Cherry Cobb Sand in Yorkshire and headed over to East Halton for the day to feed on a harvested stubble field.

A decent count of 2419 birds left the roost and a further 615 birds joined them during the day making for a decent 3034 birds counted.

The sight and sound of them overhead is so special to me,what lovely birds they are.

In amongst the flocks of Pinks was a single Barnacle Goose and add to this 475 Greylag and 41 Canada Geese feeding in the same area,it made for a very 'Goosey' start to the day.

A nice collection of Ducks were on Winter's,with 54 Shoveler counted,41 Teal,24 Wigeon and 10 Pintail observed in the area.

Other species observed on Winter's included 14 Little Grebe,15 Coot and a single Little Egret.

In the bushes around Winter's 43 Linnet,2 Bullfinch,2 Goldcrest and 11 Chiffchaff were recorded.

A watch from the floodbank saw a single Common Tern fly out south and an adult and juvenile Arctic Tern head north and then out south later.

After spending some time around Winter's i moved up to the Skitter to see if i could find something nice.

The best of it went to a single Wheatear feeding along the floodbank and in the outfall area,2 Common Sandpiper,3 Little Egret,22 Knot,5 Bar-tailed Godwit,16 Avocet and a flock of 101 Stock Dove on the fields nearby.

Another look back up at Winter's before i travelled home,saw a cracking juvenile Hobby watched hawking dragonflies and i wished it a safe journey to Africa.

Saturday October 14th

An incredible day of local patching today saw me starting on the floodbank at first light to count the Pinks coming out of the roost on Cherry Cobb as part of the synchronised Icelandic Goose Survey on the Estuary.

An incredible 8128 birds were counted today,blowing my previous counts out of the water and even more incredible was the amazing number on the whole Estuary being a whopping 56800 birds an all time record count.

This species seems to be going from strength to strength and long may it continue.

While watching the Pinks,a lovely Merlin flew across the Estuary from Yorkshire and headed across the fields towards East Halton village,my first here for several months.

Winter's was fairly quiet today,with 4 female Goldeneye being the only highlight,so i returned to the floodbank to watch the outgoing tide.

It wasn't long before i got onto another good bird and it was a species i hadn't seen here for many years,a Razorbill.

I watched as this juvenile drifted slowly out on the tide,a really useful year tick and great to catch up with.

This was followed by a single intermediate plumaged juvenile Arctic Skua which flew north.

A wander up to the Skitter proved fruitful with some nice birds being seen,with the main highlight being 3 Cattle Egret watched at some distance feeding amongst the cattle on the marshes,another great species to catch up with and still pretty rare here it has to be said.

More niceties around the Skitter included 3 Ruff which flew south,4 Knot,15 Bar-tailed Godwit,59 Curlew and a stunning adult Peregrine which put the frighteners up the local waders scattering them in all directions.

Away from the waders and beautiful Falcon,a Wheatear fed along the seawall and i then came across 2 Coal Tits.

The latter is pretty rare on the patch and after studying my photos,it was apparent that these birds were of the 'Continental' race Ater,identifiable by their greyer mantles and little tufty crest.

Today was really turning into one of those amazing patch days!.

Some prolonged scanning of the marshes saw me picking up a cracking Red Kite as it thermalled its way south high up,another year tick along with a lovely adult male Marsh Harrier.

Next sightings of note were a couple of flocks of Whooper Swans involving 5 birds on the marshes,8 which flew into Winter's and another 17 which flew south,just great to see and hear,my first of the autumn.

A few flocks of Pinks were moving about over the fields and i managed to pick up 2 Barnacle Geese and a stunning Bar-headed Goose in amongst the 8000 throng,the latter obviously an escapee from somewhere.

As time was getting on now,i decided to drive around to Winter's and look on the marshes to see if any Owl's were going to hunt before dusk,when a lovely Great-white Egret flew slowly past me.

While i was watching the Egret a small wader shot past me and landed on the first pool.

I got the scope on it to see long primaries,short black bill and scalloped upperparts,sh#t a Baird's Sand!!!!!,but then for no reason it was gone and flying to the pools further down the marshes.

I could see in the distance that the pools had loads of Geese and at least 5 Whooper Swans,but i had to try and relocate the Baird's.

I walked towards the pools and the Yank flew onto the next pool,then all hell broke loose as all the Swans and Geese took off,the Baird's then flew again and was heading for the Humber,crap!.

The birding gods were smiling on me though thankfully and the bird flew back in and landed on the third pool.

I moved in and quickly got some video to aid with any description i would have to write up later and then began watching it through the scope,when all of a sudden it began calling and flew off north towards the Skitter.

Unfortunately i had to leave but let GPC and Jon know about my find and put it out on the Bird Information services,but stated the bird had flown off north and would be looked for in the morning.

To put things into context,this is the first record of this North American species for my local patch and only the 7th record for Lincolnshire.

As i left Winter's there were 13 lovely Whooper Swans bathing on the main lake...........What a day,it took a good hour or so to relax after,but what an amazing day,if Carlsberg did birding days.......

Sunday 15th October

After dropping Mrs R at work it was down to the patch and meeting up with Jon and then GPC and we walked onto the marshes checking the first pool and nothing,then Graham saw a small wader bomb past us,a quick check and sure enough it was the Baird's.

We crept up to it and then watched it for a good 25 minutes as it showed really well allowing some chances to study the bird and get some nice video and photos,before no apparent reason it began preening,stretched its wings and it was off again calling with that distinct 'Prrreet' which it repeated three times as it headed for the Humber.

We then spent a large amount of the day attempting to re-locate the star bird with no luck for us anyway,but still managed some great sightings in the form of another 4 Whooper Swans,the 3 Cattle Egret on the marshes,2 Great-white Egret on the marshes and a late Common Sandpiper along the floodbank between Winter's and the Skitter.

A Redhead Goosander also flew north.

Other goodies during the day included a Short-eared Owl and juvvie Peregrine over the marshes,10+ Common Buzzard,8 Bearded Tit along the edge of the marshes,4 Stonechat and a patch first for Herons with Great-white Egret,Cattle Egret,Little Egret and Grey Heron all being seen on the same day.

Well what a amazing few visits with the year list nicely boosted and the patch life list with another species added,what a really great place this is!