Welcome To My Blog,This Will Be Mainly Used As A Diary For My Local Birding Patch At East Halton/Goxhill On The Banks Of The Humber Estuary,With Occasional Twitching And Visits Elsewhere Including Photos From Mine & Tracey's Walks Around Our Beautiful Countryside.
A free day for us both to be able to get out together walking, saw Tracey and myself heading for Fairholmes car park between Ladybower & Howden Reservoirs in Upper Derwentdale in the Peak District.
We had planned to complete a circular route staring from Fairholmes, then along the western edge of Derwent and Howden Reservoirs, up to Slippery Stones and it's famous, old packhorse bridge and then back along the eastern shore of both reservoirs and back to the car.
The walk takes in some lovely scenery, being more akin to somewhere in Scandinavia rather than northern England.
To start the weather was pretty cold, with a cool northerly wind, but by late morning it was much warmer and pleasant conditions for walking.
A noticeable feature on today's visit was the fairly low water levels, obviously due to the low amount of rain we have been experiencing of late.
Very few birds were seen today, apart from a few Crossbills chipping overhead, but the scenery certainly made up for this and it was nice for us to get out together again for a wander.
The following are a selection of my favourite photos from our day in this beautiful part of the Peak District.
Another monthly roundup of sightings from my local birding patch at Goxhill and East Halton on the Humber Estuary.
Saturday 1st
A great start to the new month saw an excellent count of 82 species seen as I covered all the areas along the Humber bank between Goxhill Haven and Winter's Pond.
A lovely start to the day as I got my kit together at Goxhill Haven, saw a hunting Barn Owl in the early morning light, a brilliant start to any day in my opinion.
As I walked a few nice sightings between Goxhill Haven and East Halton Skitter included a female Stonechat, a Short-eared Owl hunting along Goxhill Marsh, with another hunting Barn Owl, 2 Green Sandpipers and 2 Water Pipits at East Halton Skitter. The Green Sands were a nice surprise and were my first records for the year.
The only highlights observed at Winter's Pond, included my first Chiffchaff of the year, which was nice to see and also13 Barnacle Geese still feeding on the grass field near to the car park.
The return leg back to Goxhill, saw a cracking Red Kite showing really nicely over East Halton Marshes and then the Skitter, before this 2nd calendar year bird was lost in the direction of Goxhill Haven.
The final nice bird of the day, saw a smart Merlin chasing Starlings at Goxhill Haven.
Sunday 9th
Today, I followed the same walking route as my last visit to the local patch, walking along the floodbank from Goxhill Haven and up to Winter's Pond and back along East Halton Marshes to the Skitter and back to Goxhill Haven.
The best sighting of the day, went to a re-appearance of the Purple Sandpiper last seen at Goxhill Haven with the Turnstone flock back on the 1st of Feb. It was really nice to see this lovely bird again, as it fed with the jittery Turnstones, they always seem so nervous to me here for some reason.
Some decent Wildfowl counts today included a good total of 764 Wigeon, which included 419 at Goxhill Haven and 345 on the marshes at East Halton. There were also 2425 Pinks feeding on the fields along Goxhill Marsh and 29 Shelduck counted, with 22 at East Halton Skitter.
The highlight of the day today though, was 2 cracking Raven which showed nicely on East Halton Marshes, my first record for the patch since 2 in 2018!. They spent quite a lot of time feeding on the ground, as well as few sorties chasing the local Carrion Crows, just brilliant to watch and hear.
Other notable sightings today included 4 Bearded Tit along Goxhill Marsh, a Water Pipit still at the Skitter, 3 Chiffchaff and 5 Cetti's Warbler for the day, which included 4 singing males.
Saturday 15th March
Instead of walking all the way from Goxhill Haven today, i visited East Halton first in the morning and then drove up to Goxhill later.
Highlights at East Halton included a NFY species, as a Great-white Egret slowly flapped its way north along East Halton Marshes, a good addition to the year list here.
Also along here, was a Barn Owl as it was watched hunting along Marsh Lane, 2 Chiffchaff were seen at Winter's Pond and a Grey Partridge was seen along Marsh Lane also.
After arriving at Goxhill Haven, i walked up past Dawson City to the long wood and Firecrest corner, with the best sighting's going to another brief encounter with the Purple Sand near the Haven and a single Chiffchaff singing in Dawson City. Also recorded at Goxhill Haven, was a good count of 119 Turnstone, my highest count here for some time it has to be said.
Monday 24th March
A late morning visit to East Halton today, after arriving back from our weekend away in the south west, saw a pretty good visit as i covered the areas between Winter's Pond and East Halton Skitter.
I managed some nice sighting's on the visit, which included 3 NFY species, Whooper Swan (East Halton Marshes), Little-ringed Plover(3 pairs, East Halton Marshes) and finally a pair of Great-crested Grebes on Winter's Pond.
It was great to see some proper summer migrants with the LRP's, they are always nice to see.
Other sighting's observed during the visit included winter visitors still in abundance with 3550 Pink-footed Geese still in the area along with 452 Wigeon, 185 Teal and 46 Curlew.
A lovely immature Peregrine was watched dropping into drink on the marshes, scattering birds in all directions.
Saturday 29th
An early morning visit covering the areas as on my last visit, saw a superb mornings birding being enjoyed.
An obvious arrival of summer migrants, saw my first Willow Warbler and Blackcap of the year around Winter's Pond, with 5 Chiffchaff also. It was just great to hear these Warbler's all singing in the spring sunshine, a smashing experience.
As i walked along the seawall towards the Skitter, i saw a bird pop up onto the wall, and sure enough it was the species i had suspected, a lovely Wheatear. This male spent some time feeding and perching up along the hedgerow adjacent to the marshes, before disappearing onto the ground.
A scan over the Humber revealed another NFY species in the form of a Kittiwake, as it flew out south along the outgoing tide, a nice species to add this early in the year.
The Peregrine from Monday appeared again, this time over the fields at the Skitter, scattering Corvids, Curlew and Wood Pigeons in all directions, the typical chaos these big raptors cause.
Other sightings noted, included 31 Avocet, 2 Ruff and 60 Curlew, the Avocet flock containing a colour flagged bird, with the combinations of a blue flag with A9 inscribed on it over a yellow ring on the left leg and a yellow ring on the right leg and I'm still awaiting details back on the birds life history.
Sunday 30th
A long walk today around a considerable proportion of the patch, saw me walking from Goxhill Haven up along Goxhill Marsh to East Halton Skitter, then inland along East Halton Beck, past Chapel Farm, along Chapel Field Road at Goxhill, up along Ruard's Lane to North End at Goxhill, then along West Marsh Lane to Goxhill Tilery and then back along the Humber bank to the car at Goxhill Haven. A total of 10.17 miles and really enjoyable in the lovely spring sun.
Two NFY species were seen, a Knot feeding with Redshank at Goxhill Haven and a single Sand Martin feeding over the ponds at Goxhill Tilery.
Other species seen during the day, included a cracking Barn Owl hunting at East Halton Skitter, another Wiilow Warbler near the old boatyard near Goxhill Haven, the immature Peregrine again, this time over Langmere Covert and a good count of 20 Chiffchaff.
Finally some lovely insects were recorded today and included my first Comma, Red Admiral and Large White of the year, along with Small Tortoiseshells, Dark-edged Bee Flies and Tapered and Common Drone Flies.
What a cracking months birding and wildlife watching!, now for some proper migrant action next month, bring it on!.
East Halton Beck, 30th.
Dark-edged Bee Fly, Chapel Farm, Goxhill, 30th.
Large White, Chapel Farm, Goxhill, 30th.
Hoverfly species Eristalis pertinax or Tapered Drone Fly, East Halton Skitter, 30th.
Hoverfly Species, Eristalis tenax or Common Drone Fly, East Halton Skitter, 30th.
Goxhill Haven Sunrise, 30th.
Whooper Swan, East Halton Marshes, 29th.
Goxhill Haven,29th.
Stunning Skies Over The Humber At East Halton, 1st.
Our final day in this lovely part of the world, saw us firstly visiting the amazing world heritage site at Avebury.
This site is just amazing and it was great to see the standing stones up close and personal, unlike the nearby Stonehenge. When we visited it was quite atmospheric with the cloud formations and sun just showing through the clouds, a brilliant experience.
It is amazing to think the standing stones here first began to be erected in the 3rd millennium BC, making them just over 5000 years old.
After enjoying Avebury the next place we visited was the lovely Stourhead estate, close to the town of Mere, which is, as the name suggests, near to the source of the River Stour.
It is a 2650 acre estate with some really nice grounds and lake to walk around and the house is a grade 1 listed Neo-Palladian mansion which was previously owned by the Stourton family.
A few nice birds seen while we walked around the grounds included a Red Kite, Grey Wagtail, 2 Crossbill and 4 Chiffchaff.
Our final destination for the day was the lovely little town of Bradford On Avon.
It is situated along the River Avon and the Kennet and Avon Canal and is a lovely picturesque little place, with lots of history stretching back as far as the Roman occupation of Britain.
Well what a lovely few days away in this pretty and historic part of the UK, one of which we will certainly visiting again, now for the journey home!.
.jpg)
