Local Patching Update.......A New Year Begins!.....January Round Up.

Monday 1st January 

A solid start to the new year list today,with highlights including the wintering female Hen Harrier seen hunting the rough field near to Winter's with a Short-eared Owl nearby.

The Marshes held 4 Whooper Swans first thing and a single Russian White-fronted Goose was with the local Greylag flock making for a good start to the year.

Winter's saw a single Drake Pintail and Pochard being the highlights.

The Skitter Pools were covered and revealed the usual suspects,with 4 Water pipits being seen,but no Jack Snipe unfortunately.

A good total of 82 species entered the notebook today.

Saturday 6th January

A whopping 14.3 miles were covered today as Jon and myself covered most of the patch walking up to Goxhill Tilery and back,taking in Skitter Road and East Halton village.

Best sightings went to a Woodcock inadvertently flushed from it's daytime roost at Goxhill Tilery ponds,a pair of Goosander which flew north,Barn Owl near Winter's,a merlin along East Halton Beck,Jay at The Grange and Coal Tit and Mistle Thrush along Jericho lane in East Halton.

A good effort with 76 species logged and some really good numbers of Waders with 6800 Golden Plover at the Skitter.

Saturday 20th January

A blustery day today,with un-forecasted rain setting in from lunch time,saw the visit cut short and no NFY species being seen.

Highlights went to now 2 Russian White-fronted Geese with the local Greylags,2 female Pochard on Winter's,1845 Dunlin between Winter's and the Skitter and 2 Merlin together chasing each other along Marsh Lane,a juvenile male and a female.

The latter sighting is the first time i have seen 2 together on the patch.

A paltry 56 species were recorded on today's visit.

Saturday 27th January

A good visit today,but with nothing particularly rare being seen,but 6 NFY species were added,putting me on 97 species for the local patch list.

The best sightings went to 2 Grey Partridge along Skitter Road,6 Ruff on the Marshes,2 Dark-bellied Brent Geese distantly off Winter's,28 Avocet feeding on the mud off Winter's in the afternoon and the best sighting of the day,a Treecreeper watched with a Tit flock at The Grange.

The latter species is only usually encountered at this time of year,with roving Tit flocks.always really nice to see.

Some decent numbers of Wildfowl and Waders on the Marshes and at Winter's included 465 Wigeon and 78 Icelandic Black-tails on the Marshes and a cracking count of 72 Gadwall at Winter's.

A pretty good start to the year,despite being ill for part of it with Covid or something similar.

Russian White-fronted Goose,East Halton Marshes,1st January.

Humber Sunrise,1st January.

Dawn At Winter's Pond,27th January.

Some Lovely Cloud Formations As The Sun Rose Today,27th January.

Scarborough Seabirds,Sunday 7th January 2024.

A trip out today with Mrs R to Scarborough for a wander and some lunch,saw us seeing the lovely wintering birds in and around the harbour.

The first goodie we encountered was the very smart drake Red-breasted Merganser which has been hanging around the harbour and south bay.

He gave some lovely views,not coming too close,but allowing me to get some record video clips.

These are not too common in this area in winter,so he has drawn quite a few admirers,what a smart bird.

Next was the wintering 1st winter Great-northern Diver,which with a little patience,eventually came over to where i was stood and i managed to get some lovely video.

Divers do seem to like the harbour and are usually seen catching and eating Shore Crabs,which there are certainly plenty.

While watching the Diver and Merg,i was also kept entertained by the local Turnstones showing brilliantly as always as they scavenged for food,occasionally being seen eating chips from passing tourists,brilliant little characters.

The final species i managed to get a decent clip of,was a 1st winter Red-throated Diver watched feeding around the harbour mouth,giving some great views as it preened.

An adult was also watched in the Harbour,but never stopped diving,so i gave up on trying to take some video as it was far too quick for me.

A couple of Harbour Porpoise and a handful of Shag were watched off Marine Drive and it was great to see and hear the local Fulmars back on their breeding ledges along the cliffs.

Fabulous Frampton.....Thursday 28th December 2023.

Another free day today as Mrs R was at work,saw me heading south towards the flagship Lincolnshire RSPB reserve at Frampton Marsh.

I wanted to get there before first light to see the Wild Swan roost  before they left for the surrounding fields to feed for the day and after a trouble free drive to the reserve,I arrived to the lovely sound of trumpeting Whooper Swans.

It was blowing a proper gale as forecasted and I quickly got my kit together for my day around the reserve.

As it got light properly there were 250+ Whooper Swans on the wet grassland from the car park,what a fantastic sight and sound to start the day!.

As I knew the wintering Lesser Yellowlegs had been seen around the car park area,it wasn't long before I was watching this elegant American visitor.

It was loosely associating with a Redshank as it fed around the flooded grassland,giving a good chance to compare these two Tringa Sandpipers,what a smart bird.

This is the second time i have seen this bird,enjoying great views back in October last year and the first since i saw a bird in North Lincolnshire at Bagmoor Lake in 2012.

After enjoying super views of this American 'Shank' i made my way over to the 360 hide and spent a good couple of hours watching Wildfowl and Waders from my viewpoint.

Nothing rare was seen apart from more views of the Lesser legs,but it was great to sit and take in such superb views of species such as Whooper Swan,Pintail,Redshank,Lapwings,Avocet,Wigeon,Ruff and Teal.

I spent some time taking advantage of the close views,with some nice phone-scoped videos for my collection.

I even found an adult Whooper Swan with a colour ring,which had been ringed on the 19th November 2018 and was an adult male bird at Martin Mere in Lancashire.He has travelled quite a bit around the British Isles,being seen at Martin Mere on 11 occasions,Loch of Strathbeg in Scotland,near Silloth in Cumbria and near Bescar in Lancashire before my sighting today.

After enjoying the great views from the 360 hide I decided to go for a walk around the rest of the reserve,seeing at least 10 Goldeneye on the Reedbed Lagoon and then at least 2 lovely Brambling in with a mixed flock of Finches feeding in a Sunflower strip.

Other species seen during my wander included a Peregrine,Merlin,at least 7 Marsh Harrier and 35 Ruff.

After arriving back at the car and the look of rain on the horizon,I called it a day and had a steady drive back north to Barnetby.

Fantastic Paintings On Some Old Wash Marker Buoys.

Some Phone-scoped Images Of A Redshank Feeding Close To The 360 Hide.

Ringing Details On The CR Whooper Swan.