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 visit here in pretty decent conditions, but perhaps a little windy after finishing work, saw some superb insects being found, with another 2 'New' personal species of Hoverfly seen and photographed.
The new Hovers were Helophilus hybridus and Chrysogaster solstitialis, with me thankfully managing to get some nice photos of both species. Other nice species observed during the visit included Chrysotoxum festivum, both colour forms of Volucella bombylans, Platycheirus rosarum, Scaeva selenetica, Cheilosia illustrata, Myathropa florea, Volucella pelluscens, Tropidia scita and Parhelophilus fruitetorum/versicolor.
Flies seemed to be the continuing theme, with some lovely Robberflies being recorded, which included Common-awl and Fan-bristled, with Stiletto Fly Thereva nobilitata, a female Sicus ferrugineus and my first Black Snipeflies of the year.
Another family of insects i take great interest in, as my regular readers will be aware of, are Orthoptera and today, my first 2 species of Grasshopper were seen. Both were final instar nymphs of Common-green Grasshopper and a personal favourite, Lesser-marsh Grasshopper, with both insects being males.
A few interesting beetles were encountered and included several Garden Chafers, with their metallic green head and thorax and Harlequin Ladybirds seem to be everywhere no doubt after the bumper spring of Greenflies.
Lepidoptera were mainly represented by Moths and Caterpillars, with the nicest sightings including 2 Elephant Hawkmoths, the colourful, but diminutive Micro Moth, Pammene aurana, my first Meadow Browns of the year and a cluster of Small Tortoiseshell larvae.
Finally a species i hadn't seen for quite sometime, was observed today, Bronze Shieldbug, this lovely insect gave some great views and i also managed to find a couple of Red-legged Shieldbugs for good measure.
The following are my favourite photos from the day.
Micro Moth Species Pammene aurana
Bronze Shieldbug
Common-awl Robberfly
Garden Chafer
Final Instar Red-legged Shieldbug
Hoverfly - Chrysogaster solstitialis
Hoverfly - Cheilosia illustrata
Common-awl Robberfly
Brimstone Butterfly Caterpillar
Male Lesser-marsh Grasshopper Nymph
Male Common-green Grasshopper Nymph
Stilletto Fly - Thereva nobilitata
Comma
Meadow Brown
Parhelophilus fruitetorum/versicolor
Small Tortoiseshell Caterpillars
Hoverfly - Chrysotoxum festivum
Scaeva selenetica
Hoverfly - Helophilus pendulus
Sicus ferrugineus, Waiting For An Unsuspecting Victim
A change of scenery today, travelling down the Lincolnshire coast to the Saltfleetby & Theddlethorpe Dunes NNR, basing myself at the Rimac car park. It was a pre-planned trip to look for Odonata mainly, but hoping for a few birds and insects.
I had planned to meet up with fellow birder Darren Wozencroft, but he wasn't coming down until 8.30ish, so after arriving i did some birding first as the temperature was fairly cool for insects.
The first hour or so was pretty productive, with 2 Spoonbills watched flying north overhead, a Hobby seen twice over the Dunes and a Great-white Egret which gave some nice views, to start out on the saltmarsh and then later, closer feeding on the fresh marsh.
When Darren arrived, we went for an explore seeing a few nice insects which included a couple of Wall Butterflies, Common-blue and Large Skippers and i managed to find my first Roesel's-bush Cricket of the new season.
As the temperature rose, we turned our attention to Odonata, but i did manage to find a few more nice insects and we enjoyed more views of now 2 Hobby, as they hawked Dragonflies over the dunes and fresh water marsh.
We also had a singing male Grasshopper Warbler singing out on the developing foreshore.
For an account of the Dragonflies and Damselflies we encountered, please follow this link : https://LincolnshireOdes.blogspot.com
A good month with regards to scarce and rare visitors to the local patch, with one new species for the list and a few others as additions to the local patch year list.
Sunday 4th
A good look around the patch today, walking an enjoyable 12.84 miles, saw me covering Goxhill and East Halton.
The main highlight went to a new for the year species, Hobby, as a single bird was seen over North End in Goxhill. It is always a welcome species to see here, with at least a couple of records a year.
Some great numbers of waders were recorded on today's visit, with the count of 33 Whimbrel being a particular highlight. This consisted of 26 birds feeding between Goxhill Haven and the Dawson City area and 7 also feeding on East Halton Marshes, proving the patch to be an important area for the species on spring migration.
Another feature of today's wander included some decent numbers of Hirundines and Swifts, with 49 Swallow, 8 House Martin, 14 Sand Martin and 24 Common Swift entering the notes and becoming the best counts of the year so far. These species have unfortunately declined and the last few springs have seen lesser and lesser numbers being recorded.
A few species of wintering Wildfowl were still around and included a single Drake Wigeon at Winter's Pond, a Pintail at East Halton Skitter and finally 5 Teal were split between East Halton Skitter(3) and a pair on East Halton Marshes.
Herons were nicely represented today, with a booming Bittern, 4 Little Egret and 3 Grey Heron.
Friday 16th/Saturday 17th
After hearing while away in Snowdonia, that a male Buff-breasted Sandpiper had been discovered on my patch at East Halton Marshes, you could say i was slightly concerned that i would miss out on this superb bird.
Fast forward to the morning of Friday 16th and i arrived for first light in the hope of catching up with this lovely species, but after a good look over the pool it had been found on there was no sign.....crap!. I then decided to walk north to check the rapidly drying pools further along the marshes, when a wader shot overhead and a quick view in flight confirmed it to be the BBS, thank god for that!. I then settled down to watch this cracking little Wader as it fed along the edges of the pool, giving some cracking views through the scope. It was also, occasionally, displaying to a female Little-ringed Plover and it would occasionally fly off with the LRP's and then return back to the pool.
This is the first sighting of the species i have had in Spring and one of the very few times the species has been seen to display in the UK, what a privilege!.
Saturday 17th saw me again visiting East Halton and enjoying more extended views of our lovely American visitor, with me achieving some excellent video clips, what a little beauty.
A lovely encounter while waiting for the Buff-breast to show more closely, saw me taking some lovely video of a Brown Hare, such lovely animals to watch.
A nice bonus while watching the Sandpiper, was a smart 1st summer Little Gull which dropped onto the same pool and gave some cracking views, a new species for the local patch year list.
Monday 26th
A decent visit today to the patch, covering Goxhill and East Halton again, saw 61 species being recorded.
The best passage of Swifts for here so far for the year, saw at least 196 birds passing west along the estuary, with smaller numbers of Hirundines, which included 30 Swallow, 8 House Martins and 2 Sand Martin.
The marshes at East Halton were very quiet today, now our star American has left, with 3 Whimbrel and a single Little-ringed Plover being the highlights.
At Winter's Pond, the First Summer Little Gull was still present, now for its second week and it gave some nice views as it hawked for insects over the rear pond.
An unusual looking leucistic Black-headed Gull feeding along the Humber shoreline towards Killingholme had me taking a closer look incase it was something rarer and made for an interesting sighting.
The only other notable record, was at least 5 Bearded Tit seen along the Humber bankside reedbeds.
Some nice insects recorded on today's visit, included a lovely Clouded Silver Moth, a stunning Lackey Moth Caterpillar and my first local patch Golden-bloomed grey Longhorn Beetle.
All landscape photos and pics of the Little-ringed Plover/Buff-breasted Sandpiper/Brown Hare all taken with my Google Pixel 8 Pro phone through my Swarovski ATX85 telescope and a Swarovski VPA phone adapter.
Some Lovely Skies Over The Humber On The 4th.
Brown Hare, East Halton Marshes, 16th.
Female Little-ringed Plover, East Halton Marshes, 16th.
Male Buff-breasted Sandpiper, East Halton Marshes, 16th.
Dawson City, Goxhill, 26th.
Goxhill Marsh, 26th.
Clouded Silver, Goxhill Marsh, 26th.
Male Thick-thighed Flower Beetle, East Halton Marshes, 26th.
Lackey Moth Caterpillar, East Halton Marshes, 26th.
Hoverfly Species - Eristalis nemorum, East Halton Marshes.
