Wolds Walking Festival

This weekend was the Wolds Walking Festival, and I was involved in at least one event on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.  On Saturday 5 individuals turned up in beautiful warm and sunny weather: one couple from Helmsley, another from Beverley, and one local inhabitant of Thixendale.  We walked down the hill from Robert Fuller's Gallery, but were unable to find the Tawny Owls, which usually inhabit these sycamores.  In fact any sort of birdlife was noticeable by its absence.  I had to fill in by talking about our local Swallow behaviour, plus the latest news of what was happening on the birdfront at Spurn, Blacktoft and other East Yorkshire sites. Needless to say there was no sign of the local Little Owls either.  The only birds seen at this stage were Woodpigeons flying over.  However, flying closer to us was a Migrant Hawker Dragonfly, which did give good views as it hunted for insects along the hedgerow, and almost seemed as large as a Goldcrest!  We were a long way from any appreciable water, but these can be long distance fliers.  

Barnacle Goose

 Red Kite being mobbed

 At the bottom of the hill we took a right turn on to the Wolds Way.  A tilled field was covered with Red-legged Partridges - possibly as many as 10.  The Yellowhammers, and Meadow Pipits which had been so vociferous in the Spring and Summer had all gone quiet, and it wasn't until we went through the second gate that things picked up.    We were watching a hovering Kestrel as it hunted for voles in the long grass in the steep slopes of the dale.  It plunged into the verdure several times, but when it rose again, there was nothing in its talons.  As we observed this young bird, I could hear the high-pitched telltale sounds of a Treecreeper in the mature Ash trees behind us.  We swung round and everyone was able to spot the bird as it inched its way up the main trunk of the tree, before it spiralled round to the back of the trees, and it was lost to sight.  

Cream-Crown Marsh Harrier

 Migrant Hawker

 Bracket Fungus

 Stoat

 Stoat

We hadn't gone much further when there was a strange sound above us.  At first the only birds I could see were a couple of gulls flying north, but then I spotted a bird of prey.  A Buzzard seemed to be the most likely candidate in this habitat, but through the binoculars it was uniformly dark brown despite the tattiness of many of its feathers.  It was a Marsh Harrier.  Later, we heard that the gulls and the Harrier had been in a brief skirmish, which was the origin of the unusual sound.  We carried on to the sight of a baffling turf sculpture, which apparently looks much better and explicable from the top of the hills.  While the turf sculpture was being explained to us by the local inhabitant a bright orange Comma butterfly flew south.  Fairly soon after this a genuine Buzzard came into view - its mixture of dark wing edges and central white patches were in marked contrast to the earlier bird.  On the return journey we could hear Swallows twittering and House Martins "farting", but our best birds had definitely been on the  Wolds Way.  We passed BBC Look North's Simon Clark and  friend making the most of the nice weather by walking part of the Wolds Way.  The Cirrus clouds looked fine against the blue sky, but they didn't bode well for the weather on Sunday...

5 individuals again turned up for the Sunday Wolds Red Kite Roost event.  Unfortunately my sat nav led the attendees from Robert Fuller's Gallery on a circuitous, but picturesque route seemingly all over the wolds.  However, we did eventually arrive at the viewpoint.  At first it seemed very few birds were present apart from some very noisy female Mallards opposite our site.  However, a Heron flew through, which was a sign of better things to come.  Unfortunately, it was spitting with rain, so I didn't expect too many birds of prey.  It wasn't too long before our first Red Kite appeared to the right of the site, spotted by a Pocklington couple.  It flew over the woodland and disappeared to the left and below a very distinctive tree.  We then enjoyed sightings of several lone birds, sometimes they appeared distantly over the brow of the wooded hillside.  On other occasions they began to emerge in the far distance in the north, but always making for the same general area.  At least 2 birds showed interest in a green field, which may have hosted some carrion, but the roost site seemed to be the favoured area with all the other birds.  

Another Heron made its distinctive slowly flapping flight over the  woodland - seemingly with a wingspan only marginally greater than some of the Red Kites we had been watching.   Unfortunately, the lowering clouds began to look ever more threatening.  At one time 4 birds could be discerned in the northern distance through what looked like mist, but this was the first sign of a more significant shower of rain moving in.  We decided to call it a day, but we had seen over 10 Red Kites flying into the woodland.

On Monday we revisited Friday's location in worse light, so there were fewer photo opportunities.  North Cave Wetlands seems to be a fairly well-known site locally, so it was an unusual experience to introduce the venue for 5 people (100% of the attendees) who were trying it out as part of the Wolds Walking Festival.  The birds and dragonflies we saw today were very similar to those last week.    A mammal highlight were 2 Stoats - one running towards us, and another running away.  The Barnacle Goose showed really well, but seemed a very isolated individual, and was virtually the last bird we saw, so brought the session to a fitting end.  Please see Friday's photos here: Friday

Bad Weather Alternative

Yesterday we should have been walking along a slow, gentle canal, but the previous day a flood warning was given out for the area by the Environment Agency & more rain was forecast for today, so we switched to North Cave Wetlands.  

Those who didn’t arrive really early were kept waiting as cement was added to the foundations of the new gates, which are to be SE & SW corners of the reserve.  The place is blighted on a night by lowlifes who do hand- rake turns, write graffiti in the hides & have even caused damage in them in the past.  A traffic jam started on the approach road, but the early birds were able to watch the many low-flying hirundines & a Bar-tailed Godwit which flew over the road at about 9.30.  One of the few birds seen was a Red-legged Partridge, which ran away from the approaching group.

In South Hide the northerly wind was blowing straight in & there weren’t that many wildfowl on the water apart from Tufted Ducks, a single Pochard, and a snoozing Great Crested Grebe. We were buffeted by the strong winds, but a few Willow Warblers and Blackcaps were still gamely singing.  The crop of Groundsel was wondered at & admired.  A couple of Lapwings were seen in a field & some participants believe they spotted some young Lapwing chicks.  A flock of 6 Shelducks flew fairly low over our heads on an unknown mission, whilst a few Skylarks flew up briefly before disappearing in the grass.

From Turret Hide the best birds were the Bar-tailed Godwit which had taken up residence on Top Scrape, and a singing Reed Warbler which was visible perched halfway up a reed.  There were Avocets of course, but they seemed rather overwhelmed by the many Black-headed Gulls.  A pair of Great Crested Grebes were espied building a nest, and a pair of Little Grebes were heard chittering, but most of the other birds seemed to be struggling against the wind.  Passerine birds were relatively few in number because they were almost certainly sheltering in hedges.

In the afternoon the weather took a turn for the worse, so instead of making a complete circuit of the reserve we went hide hopping instead.  We saw most of the birds that the am crowd did, but one addition was a very smart male Ruff, and better views of the Bar-tailed Godwit through a state-of-the-art-telescope.

Bar-tailed Godwit [an ideal view from Spurn]

 Bar-tailed Godwit [as we saw it yesterday]

 Great Crested Grebe

 Avocet

 Lapwing

 Swallow

 Swallow

 House Martin

 Sand Martin

 Sand Martin

 Black-headed Gull

Clean Twitching

Record shots of Spotted Sandpiper

ditto
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I had an offer which I couldn't refuse to see the transatlantic Spotted Sandpiper which appeared this afternoon at North Cave Wetlands. It's a really attractive wader with a bill similar to a Redshank in colour, but the remainder of the bird (apart from the legs & the spots!) reminiscent of a Common Sandpiper, although it didn't seem to bob to the same degree. There were a lot of familiar faces present, but it was great to finally meet up with Martin Standley, and Mike Ashforth and successfully diagnose the problems with Garry Taylor's Canon camera - sorry Garry! Some birders jokingly refer to some of their twitches as "dirty, filthy twitching", but I'm glad to report I felt completely unsullied by the experience! It wasn't as if I'd travelled 900 miles & chartered 2 planes to see a miserable-looking LBJ. There was no sign of the crowd thinning, so we came away after an hour or so! I could be persuaded to attend more twitches in future. What next? - a Roller, Bee-eater, or a Red-eyed Vireo, but not interested in a Bobolink, now that is an LBJ!