Local Patch February Roundup 2025

Another monthly roundup of sightings here from my local patch at Goxhill & East Halton.

Saturday 1st

A visit to Goxhill first this morning proved a good choice when i found a lovely Purple Sandpiper in the company of a single Dunlin, Turnstone and Redshank. The bird gave some lovely views and i left it after getting some nice pics, albeit phonescoped in poor light.

A superb count of 352 Curlew along the fields between Goxhill Haven and Marsh was really great to see. 

After enjoying the birds at Goxhill, i moved up to East Halton and bumped into birding mate Darren Wozencroft. We wandered up to the Skitter seeing some nice birds, which included the cracking male Hen Harrier i had seen a few weeks before. This time he was seen very briefly as a Marsh Harrier flushed him, before he settled back down again.

Other bits along here included 3 Pintail, a male and a pair which were a new species for the patch year list, a nice flock of 68 Avocet, a new for the year Oystercatcher, 650 Lapwings and 3 Drake Pochard on Winter's Pond.

Saturday 8th 

An abandoned visit to East Halton today, after hearing some bad news about Winter's Pond, saw me totally dismayed as to what is potentially going to happen with the site.

I have learnt that the Winter's family have decided to sell their property to Able UK, this potentially could mean the development and destruction of this very important site for birds and wildlife. After having a few conversations with our local MP and several others, it may not be as bad as initially thought, so I'm sat here with everything crossed in the hope it is saved.

Back to the birding, after hearing the bad news, i travelled over to Goxhill and parked at the haven,deciding to walk up along the floodbank to East Halton Skitter, then inland along the beck and up to Chapel Field Road and back up to the haven along East Marsh Road.

The best of the highlights went to 2 Water Pipit around the Skitter pools, with a lovely mixed flock of Buntings and Finches nearby which contained 55 Chaffinches and 30 Yellowhammers, with the only other goodie being a Jay along the beck.

Sunday 23rd

After the previous weekends illness, it was really great to get out and about again today, with one cracking find at Goxhill, when a Richard's Pipit flew over my head while covering a different area on the patch for a change.

The bird was seen flying from a field along Chapel Field Road and then over my head and onto the aerodrome. In flight it gave some superb views in good light, large size, finely streaked upper breast, gleaming white underparts and long tail with distinct white sides. Subsequent searching after the initial sighting drew a blank unfortunately. This was a new species for my personal patch list and a species i have looked for, for many years, it was just a big surprise to find one in February of all months!.

Other nice sightings included a new for year species in the form of a Treecreeper seen with a Tit flock near Goxhill Tilery, a welcome addition to the years sightings, 2 Bearded Tit along Goxhill Marsh and the regular Jay along East Halton beck again.

Remains Of An Invasive Species, Chinese Mitten Crab Found Along Goxhill Marsh.

Stunning Skies Near Goxhill Haven.

Purple Sandpiper, Goxhill Haven.

Purple Sandpiper, Goxhill Haven.

Troutsdale, Saturday 22nd February 2025

With the prospect of near perfect weather conditions for birds of prey, i made the journey north from my home in North Lincolnshire, to one of my favourite areas in Yorkshire, Troutsdale Valley.

The valley is situated roughly to the west of Scarborough, with Wykeham Forest to the south and Broxa and Langdale Forests to the north, this valley has some fantastic habitat, couple that with the North Yorkshire Moors and the River Derwent running through the valley also, it is just a special place!.

After parking at my usual spot beside the River Derwent at Hilla Green, i got my pack up and kit  together and some warm clothes on and headed off, checking the River first.

It wasn't long before i was watching the local pair of Dippers, as the male sang his lovely, scratchy song to his mate nearby. Dippers really are a special species for me and are cemented in my top five birds to see, just perfect.

Other species around Hilla included 3 Grey Wagtail, 2 Marsh Tit, the electric blue flash of a Kingfisher and around the ox-bow, a pair of Mandarin Duck.

As the sun rose and i walked, I stopped to start scanning the valley, as i looked behind me i saw the incredible sight of not one, but two male Goshawks flying right towards me. They seemed preoccupied with chasing each other and flew past at 50 metres range giving some stunning views in the binos.

I carried on watching over the next 7 hours seeing at least 3 pairs of Gos displaying with additionally, 2 immature birds (a male and female) watched soaring over separately along the valley, making for at least 10 birds in all, but there were probably more. The views can be exceptional at times, with patience and the weather was just perfect today to get these big Accipiters up in the heavens, with hardly a spell without a bird on view. At one point there were 4 birds flying around together, just fantastic to see!.

While watching the valley, at least 6 Common Buzzard including a couple of displaying birds, a male Sparrowhawk, Kestrel and 2 Raven were also seen, along with a handful of Crossbills and 35 Siskin making for some great viewing.

A pretty decent 51 species were logged during the visit today and after enjoying this superb raptor spectacle, i travelled back home completely satisfied in more amazing views of our 'Ghost Of The Forest'.

Troutsdale Valley.

Hilla Green & The River Derwent.

Male Dipper, Looking Lovely In The Afternoon Sunshine.

A New Patch Year!......January 2025 Roundup.

A New Year arrived and because i was away in the Lake District with Mrs R, i could not get out until the 2nd of January.

I finished the month on a respectable 93 species, the following is what i saw during this month of local birding.

Thursday 2nd 

An all day visit today saw a respectable 79 species being recorded on my first venture out on the patch.

A listen for Owls before dawn, saw only a single Tawny entering the notes, as it was heard calling in Redhouse Wood.

Winter's Pond first thing held the 1st winter Red-necked Grebe still, which was a cracking start to proceedings. Also on Winter's were 7 Barnacle Geese and on the adjacent fields a single Russian White-fronted Goose was seen with the local Greylag flock.

Back to Winter's and 11 Pochard were present along with a single female Goldeneye, the regular female Kingfisher, a single Little Egret and a Cetti's Warbler, kept things ticking over nicely.

The marshes were pretty productive today also, with 7 Ruff, Bar and Black-tailed Godwits, 163 Curlew, 4050 Lapwing and 21 Canada Geese being seen. Relatively small numbers of Teal and Wigeon were recorded when compared to previous visits.

Some nice raptors sightings in the marshes area included a Merlin, Female Marsh Harrier, Common Buzzard and Kestrel, with a Short-eared Owl performing really nicely later in the day.

A walk up into the village added the first of 6 Stonechat to enter the notes for the day, along with a female Great-spotted Woodpecker and Goldcrest along Jericho Lane.

Saturday 4th

Back to the patch again today, with Tim this time and meeting up with Jon, saw incredibly no sign of either the Red-necked Grebe or Russian White-front, as they had moved on, no doubt due to the freezing weather.

A few nice sightings around Winter's included a Peregrine which flew over towards Killingholme, 19 Little Grebe, 4 Marsh Harrier, 2 Little Egret and 32 Avocet feeding along the Humber shore.

A good tramp around the Skitter pools, saw at least 4 Water Pipit being seen, along with 2 Rock Pipit, but the star of the show here was a lovely 1st winter female Snow Bunting which was watched feeding along the edge of the saltmarsh. This is the first i have seen here in January for a very long time.

At Ruins Pond, 2 Bearded Tit were seen, another welcome addition to the year list.

A Short-eared Owl hunted along the edge of the marshes after being harassed from its daytime roost by a moronic, clueless togger!.

Sunday 12th

A steady visit today saw more of the same sightings as the last two visits, apart from 2 different Russian White-fronted Geese continuing the excellent run of records. They really do seem to like hanging around with Greylags!.

Sunday 19th

An excellent start to the day before dawn, saw a good series of records entering the notes, which included 4 calling male Tawny Owl, a NFY Little Owl, 2 calling male Grey Partridge and 14 Snipe.

Still only low numbers of Wildfowl were around, with 6 Pochard still at Winter's, 10 Coot and only 8 Little Grebe now.

It was a pretty decent day for raptors today as well, with an adult Peregrine sat in one of the fields along Marsh Lane, and a lovely Merlin hunting along the marshes.

A superb count of 172 Curlew feeding on the marshes today was great to see, with 6 Barnacle Geese feeding here also.

It was nice to see 47 Avocet feeding on the mud just in front of Winter's today, something that just did not happen in January in the past.

Sunday 26th

A really enjoyable day today, with the smartest bird of the year seen so far, a stunning male Hen Harrier. The bird was watched as it hunted in unison with 2 Merlins, a habit i have seen before in the past. The Harrier flushed up the small birds and the Merlins then began chasing the Finches and Buntings the Harrier had flushed, a great piece of behaviour to watch.

The Winter's/Marshes area saw a considerable increase in numbers of birds on today's visit, with 755 Wigeon, 110 Gadwall, 13 Barnacle Geese, 355 Greylag, 565 Lapwing, 16 Black-tailed Godwit and 201 Curlew. The latter is a record count for the marshes.

In the village a pair of Great-spotted Woodpecker were seen along with 10 Redwing and a Jay was seen along East Halton beck.

As i wandered back to the car, 2 lovely Drake Goosander flew over for my 93rd species for the month and 74th species for the day.

A good month with plenty of scope for some more additions to the year list.

1st winter female Snow Bunting, East Halton Skitter.

Manor House Farm, East Halton.

Distant Russian White-fronted Geese, East Halton.

A Fiery Sunrise Over Killingholme.

Winter's Pond Sunrise.

Sundown Along Marsh Lane, East Halton.

The Dark Peak, Saturday 25th January 2025.

A day off together today, saw us heading to the Dark Peak area of Derbyshire to complete a circular walk taking in Padley Gorge, Owler Tor, Bolehill Quarry and back to the car at Grindleford station.

The walk takes in some lovely habitat from the temperate rainforest habitat of Padley Gorge, to the open moorland and gritstone scenery Of Lawrence Field & Owler Tor.

A few nice birds seen, included a lovely singing male Dipper along Burbage Brook, always a joy to see.

After our lovely walk we travelled over to Castleton for some lovely lunch and had a walk around the village and shops before travelling home.

The following are my favourite photos from the day:

Burbage Brook.

Lawrence Field.

Over Owler Tor.

Owler Tor.

Hope Valley 

Bolehill Quarry.

Padley Gorge 

St.Edmund's Church, Castleton.

Mam Tor.

Peveril Castle

Review Of The Local Patch Year .......2024

A pretty decent year overall in 2024 at East Halton/Goxhill, with me recording a satisfying count of 165 species. This included 4 personal 'New' species for my local patch list, these included in order of appearance, a Nuthatch between East Halton Skitter and Winter's Pond in June, a flyover Woodlark in October, a long awaited Yellow-browed Warbler at Winter's Pond in October and last but not least, only the second record of Red-necked Grebe. This latter record was the first since the famous big freeze in the winter of 1978/79.

I also managed to find only my second record of Purple Sandpiper for my personal patch list, with 2 being found in November.

Several species were not recorded this year and included no Auks being seen, Curlew Sandpiper and Scaup, with a poor showing of seabirds in the autumn also, resulting in only Arctic Skua being seen by myself.

The overall breeding season was poor on a whole with only low numbers of summer migrants arriving and Barn Owls are just about absent, with only one pair being present that I'm aware of.

On the plus side though, Cetti's Warblers continue to do well, with at least 7 singing males and two broods of juveniles were seen and those reed nesting species Marsh Harrier, Bearded Tit and the star this year Bittern also bred.

Waders were represented when Oystercatchers bred with a pair fledging 3 young and Little-ringed Plovers continued to visit, but didn't breed again.

The Marshes were in fairly good condition throughout the year, attracting Wood Sandpipers, Garganey, Little Gulls and Spoonbills in the spring, but there was poor breeding success amongst the Waders unfortunately, with no Redshanks this year and most of the Lapwings attempting to nest, were predated. The autumn saw a party of 5 juvenile Spoonbills spending the day here, my largest personal local patch count of the species to date.

I'm now looking forward to 2025 and to see what this year brings.

The following are some favourite photos and video clips from this year all taken with my phone or phone x telescope combo.

Winter's Pond, December.

Little Egret, Winter's Pond, December.

Female Kingfisher, Winter's Pond, December.

Russian White-fronted Goose, East Halton, December.

Merlin, East Halton Marshes, December.

Stunning Skies Over Goxhill Marsh, December.

A Sleeping Red-necked Grebe, Just How I Found It In December.

Grey Heron, Winter's Pond, December.

Russian White-fronted Geese, East Halton, December.

After The Storm, East Halton, December.

Stunning Sunrise At Winter's Pond, November.

One Of 2 Purple Sandpipers, East Halton, November.

Snow Bunting, Goxhill, November.

Snow Buntings, Goxhill, November.

juvenile/1st Winter Caspian Gull In The Mist, Winter's Pond, September.

Male Cuckoo, Winter's Pond, May.

Bittern, May.

Spoonbill, East Halton Marshes, May.

Wood Sandpiper, East Halton Marshes, May.

Great-white Egret, Winter's Pond, April.

My Earliest Yellow Wagtail Since I Began Birding, March.

Lovely Lighting Over the Humber, March.

Male Brambling, East Halton Skitter, March.

Winter's Pond Dawn, February.

Russian White-fronted Goose, January.