With the chance today, to meet up with Tim, Rich and Dan as the Army Ornithological Society were meeting up at North Cave, a trip away from the local patch was the order of the day.
I arrived before the guys and had a quick recce around to see what i could see and begin my day list for the day.
The first niceties of the day went to a couple of Green and a single Common Sand on the Village Lake area amongst the Wildfowl and i then walked up along Dryham Lane recording some decent numbers of Warblers and variety, including Willow, Chiff, Blackcap, Lesser throat, Whitethroat and Reed Warbler.
As time wore on i wandered back to the car to meet Tim and wait for the army lads to arrive.
More scanning of village lake and searching along Dryham Lane saw a couple of Great-spotted Woodpeckers being seen and a distant Red Kite was noted.
After Rich and Dan arrived, we began to explore the reserve proper, adding a juvvie Greenshank and Black-tailed Godwit to the days ever growing bird list.
Overhead an adult Peregrine but in a few appearances and i also added a male Marsh Harrier and Common Buzzard to the days sightings.
The reserve has drastically changed since my last visit and is just getting larger and larger by the day.
We all eventually made it to the western end of Dryham Lane where we had been told a family of Little Owls were residing at a farm. The birds were immediately on view and gave some great views, with these two fledged juveniles definitely having the aww factor, such smart little birds.
It was soon time for the army lads to leave, but it was really nice to see Rich and Dan again after such a long time.
Tim and myself then had a lovely bite to eat from the butty bus and then went for another explore before Tim had to leave. I walked back with him and then got my scope and headed back to the Little Owls for a go at photographing and videoing them with my scope and phone. This time there were 3 juveniles on and off and i managed to take some decent shots and nice video clips, what a privilege!..
After enjoying the Owls again i walked back to the car and was just about to leave when someone found a Whinchat. I had spent the previous day searching all over my local patch for the same species.....birding eh!.
The Whinchat was a scruffy moulting adult, but was still nice to see. It had a juvenile Stonechat for company and this brought an end to a superb visit to this great reserve.
A quick look on ebird and i totalled up a very respectable 78 species for the day.
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| A Slight Mist At Dawn Giving The Reserve A Lovely Atmospheric Feel. |
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| A Neck Collared Greylag Goose. |
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| Juvenile Little Owl. |
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| What A Cute Face! |
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