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.
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| Russian White-fronted Goose,East Halton Marshes,1st January. |
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| Humber Sunrise,1st January. |
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| Dawn At Winter's Pond,27th January. |
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| Some Lovely Cloud Formations As The Sun Rose Today,27th January. |
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