Local Patching Round-up For August 2025

Another month over which ticked along nicely on the local patch, with a few more additions to the ever growing year list, which now stands at a respectable 152 species with most of the autumn still to go.

Friday 1st 

A wander around the Goxhill part of the local patch today, covering Goxhill Haven, Dawson City, East Marsh Road, Horsegate Field Road, North End, West Marsh Lane and Goxhill Tilery  saw a decent 64 species being recorded.

The best of the sightings went to a Hobby watched hunting along Horsegate Field Road and 23 returning Turnstones at Goxhill Haven.

Thursday 7th 

Another trip today to Goxhill, parking at the haven added some interesting sightings to the notes.

A decent number of Terns were off the Haven, with 37 Common and 3 Arctics being seen along with a juvenile Caspian Gull which flew west.

On the Humber a Great-crested Grebe floated along on the out going tide and the amazing sight of 5 Great-white Egrets was witnessed as they flew west in groups of 3 and 2 respectively.

A Bittern was also seen in flight here which was great to see.

10 Species of Wader were noted today also, with this including 2 Whimbrel, Common Sand and the first returning Bar-tailed Godwit of the autumn migration period.

The best of the rest, included a lovely juvenile Peregrine which flew west, occasionally attacking the local Gulls on its journey.

Saturday 9th

Today saw me visiting the East Halton area, with an early start paying dividends, with a lovely Badger being seen near Station House.

Winter's Pond provided the bulk of today's sightings with a huge count for the local patch of 34 Willow Warblers, also seen were 8 Lesser Whitethroats and 12 Chiffchaff.

Waterbirds on site included 22 Little Grebe, 10 Coot, 155 Mallard, 9 Mute Swans and the best, a lovely eclipse male Garganey. The latter showed mainly distantly on the far bankside, but was lovely to see.

Waders included 725 Icelandic Black-tailed Godwits, 2 Green and 7 Common Sandpipers, with singles of Whimbrel, Greenshank and Ruff also being logged.

Sunday 10th

A big tide this morning at Goxhill Haven, had the desired affect first thing, with a few Terns being seen, which included my first Sandwich Terns of the year here, with 3 being recorded flying east, along with 7 Common and a single arctic Tern as well.

Also around the Haven area were a Kingfisher, Peregrine, 177 Golden Plover, a single Common Scoter which flew out east and a record count of 58 Cormorant at the roost off Goxhill Haven.

Mammal sightings included a single Harbour Porpoise moving east off the Haven and a Weasel was watched near to Dawson City.

Saturday 16th

A return to the East Halton part of the patch today, saw a cracking 82 species recorded.

No real surprises were recorded today, but some great counts of species and some passage waders boosted numbers nicely.

Winter's held 1035 Greylags, along with my largest count here of 70 Canada Geese, 16 Moorhen, 15 Coot, 16 Teal, 23 Little Grebe and 16 Cormorant. A few nice Waders  included 2 Green Sands, Common Sandpiper, 2 Ruff, a juvenile Little-ringed Plover and the first Snipe of the autumn.

A wander around the lanes in East Halton village, saw my second Green Woodpecker of the year being recorded along with a good count for the patch of 22 Blue Tit, 63 House Martins, 7 Lesser Whitethroats and a Hobby which shot over the marshes before i wandered back to the car.

Sunday 24th

More birding at East Halton again today saw the first returning Wigeon of the autumn being recorded at Winter's Pond, along with 12 Shoveler, 208 Mallard, a juvenile Pochard, 106 Canada Geese again breaking the patch record, 755 Greylags and 9 Mute Swans.

On the Humber, 11 Common Scoter drifted out on the dropping tide and Wader sightings today consisted of 4 Whimbrel, 3550 Icelandic Black-tailed Godwits, 124 Redshank, 5 Ruff, a single Knot with the Black-tails, 3 Green and 2 Common Sandpipers.

The best sighting of the day, went to a Guillemot sat on the Humber between Winter's Pond and the Skitter, becoming my first sighting of the year for the local patch list.

A walk back along the marshes, saw a lovely Clouded Yellow being recorded, my first local sighting of the year in what is proving to be a good one for the species nationally.

Saturday 30th

Full coverage of the patch today saw a good 84 species being seen. A distinct pick up in Wildfowl numbers was noticeable, with 2 Wigeon, 4 Pintail, 85 Teal, 29 Shoveler and 117 Mallard being noted.

Small numbers of passage Waders were also logged and included, 3 Ruff, Greenshank, Green Sand and 4 Common Sandpipers, with the only surprise being an adult Sanderling near Goxhill Haven.

3 Swift were recorded along Goxhill Marsh along with a flock of 39 House Martins and 85 Swallows.

The best sighting from a personal point of view went to 2 Ravens being seen, the first which flew in off the Humber at Winter's and then spent some time flying around the site before heading off south west towards East Halton village and the second which was seen near to Ruin's Pond and which then flew off towards Witter Farms. These became my 2nd and 3rd records here for the year after a pair in the spring on East Halton Marshes.

Other notables seen today were 2 juvenile Yellow-legged Gulls seen off Goxhill Haven and a lovely Grey Wagtail which flew along the Humber floodbank at East Halton Skitter.

Another enjoyable month on this superb patch.

Winter's Pond, 9th.

Juvenile Willow Warbler, Winter's Pond, 9th

East Halton Marshes, 9th

Full Moon Over Goxhill, 10th.

Sunrise Over Saltend, 10th.

Stormy Skies, East Halton, 16th

Winter's Pond, 16th

Birding, Goxhill Haven, 30th

Winter's Pond, 30th

East Halton Skitter, 30th

Black-winged Pratincole, Kirton Lindsey, Saturday 23rd August 2025

After an expert find and then a welcome phone call from Wayne Gillatt, i travelled over the relatively short distance from home to Nebraska Wetlands on the outskirts of Kirton Lindsey to see this lovely bird.

After eventually finding the location after being re-directed twice around roadworks, i arrived to a group of happy faces indicating the bird was still here.

Now i had seen this species on 2 occasions before, once at Frampton Marsh RSPB in June 2019 and then another last July at Finningley on the Notts/South Yorkshire border. The first at Frampton just sat still and didn't fly around or give particularly good views and last years bird, only really showed distantly, so fingers crossed this bird would show better.

This was soon proven well, as the bird showed really nicely hawking insects and also perched on the ground, what a cracking little bird!.

It had a curious head bobbing routine when looking for insects i presume and on a couple of occasions jumped into the air to catch a passing fly.

This is the first juvenile i have seen and it was interesting how pale the bird was, particularly when sat head on facing us. They are such elegant birds in flight being very tern-like when hawking insects.

This species breeds through south eastern Europe, through Ukraine to south west Russian and northern Kasakhstan.

Also present on the wetlands were a smart juvenile Spotted Redshank, 3 Ruff and a Cattle Egret.

Burghley House, Saturday 23rd August 2025

A family day out today with Tracey, Michelle and Lee to this lovely house, gardens and grounds saw us having a lovely day out.

The weather forecast had not been that good on the Met Office and forecasted cloudy conditions all day, but we were pleasantly surprised with sunshine for most of the day.

The house was built for Sir William Cecil, 1st Baron of Burghley , who was Lord High Treasurer to Elizabeth the 1st and it was completed between 1555 and 1587 costing 21,000 pounds at the time, the estate is now estimated to be worth 800 million pounds in todays money.

The extensive grounds have a serpentine lake, and the extensive gardens and woodland were designed by the famous landscape designer Capability Brown and are used for the world famous Burghley Horse Trials, which has been held here since 1961.

It was a really enjoyable day with the added bonus of a fine food fare on at the same time as our visit which was superb.

The following are some of my favourite photos from our visit.

Some Views Of The Stunning House & Grounds

Some Of The Beautiful Paintings And Interior Of The House

More Views Of The Lake And Gardens

North Cave Wetlands, Sunday 17th August 2025

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.

A Slight Mist At Dawn Giving The Reserve A Lovely Atmospheric Feel.

A Neck Collared Greylag Goose.

Juvenile Little Owl.

What A Cute Face!

Flamborough Head & Bempton Cliffs, Friday 8th August 2025

A chance to get out again today, saw me taking Lee out for his birthday and heading up to the stunning coast line of Flamborough Head and Bempton Cliffs. We planned to visit Flamborough in the morning and then head over to Bridlington to catch the Yorkshire Belle up to Bempton Cliffs and back.

After a nice drive up to Flamborough, we were soon parking up and getting our cameras and my scope together and heading down to the fog station to look on the sea.

It was a lovely morning, and we wandered down taking in the cracking scenery taking plenty of photos on the way and watching a flock of about 200 House Martins as they rested and fed over the lighthouse grassland, preparing for their long migration south.

Once we reached the cliff edge, i began to scan the sea looking for Whales and it wasn't long before we were watching at least 2 Minke Whales feeding around a feeding frenzy of Kittiwakes, Gannets and Auks. These amazing animals showed pretty well at about a mile range and became Lee's first ever sighting of a Whale.

Also around the area where at least 400 Grey Seals and 10 Harbour Porpoise, with a distant Great Skua watched harassing the feeding Terns and Kits offshore.

After enjoying all the cetaceans, Seals and maritime bird species, we headed to the Headlands restaurant for a well earned brekkie.

After breakfast we headed over to Brid, parked up and then caught the bus into the town ready for our well anticipated boat trip.

Once we got underway on the Yorkshire Belle, i went up to the front and began scanning for birds etc.

No real rarities were seen on the boat trip, but it was great to see flocks of feeding Common Terns, Sandwich Terns, hundreds of Razorbills with their chicks and mixed flocks of feeding Gannets, Kittiwakes and Gulls.

The ships captain took is in pretty close to the cliffs and showed us several of the hundreds of sea caves and geological features, which included the famous Staple Neuk where the Gannet colony is located at Bempton Cliffs.

For anyone who has not been on this trip before, i highly recommend it, as seeing the cliffs and geological features really shows Flamborough and Bempton from an interesting and  different angle.

After enjoying our boat trip, it was time to travel home after a brilliant day out.

Selwick's Bay, Flamborough

Flamborough Lighthouse

Cattlemere, Flamborough.

Selwick's Bay

Adult And Juvenile Razorbill's, Flamborough Head.

Flamborough Head.

Gannets.

North Landing, Flamborough Head.

Adult Gannet, With A Downy Chick, Bempton Cliffs.

Staple Neuk, Bempton Cliffs