Twirling Moustachios

As we crossed the Humber Bridge the fog was so thick, I'm sure most people wondered if we were going to see anything.

One of the first birds we could discern was a very confiding Grey Wagtail, which was catching insects alongside the tiny creek leading to the hide.  Throughout the whole walk the air was punctuated by the croaks of flying Snipe.  Suddenly all the dabbling Teal took to the air and a long winged raptor could just be made out through the mist.  The wings looked too thin & narrow for a Marsh Harrier, so a Hen Harrier was the most probable answer.  There were plenty of Reed Buntings and Tree Sparrows in the bushes, whilst on the mud there were over a thousand Golden Plovers, plus Shelduck, a few Ruff, Curlew, Redshank, Black-tailed Godwit, Dunlin, Herons, a single Spotted Redshank, and a Little Egret.

When we took the walk along the gravel path to the other hide it wasn't long before we heard some pinging and a pair of Bearded Tits showed very well, and these were lifers for about half the group.  On the return journey we came across 2 pairs together, and eventually Maggie was able to get a picture of a pair side-by-side.  Unfortunately, although they could be heard in the distance in the afternoon they refused to reappear.  The light was a lot better in the afternoon, and even though the Grey Wagtail was relocated the loss of the Bearded Tit was a large hole, which couldn't be filled.

Bearded Tits [male left] (c) 2012 Maggie Bruce

 Grey Wagtail

 Golden Plovers

 How Blots are Smuggled into the Landscape

Disappearing Waders

It was very drizzly on Thursday morning when we returned to last Wednesday's location. We went to Townend Hide first where there were plenty of waders to see. The largest island was covered in Snipe with 2 Spotted Redshank nearby and a Dunlin on the other side of the island. There was a scattering of bog standard Redshank all over the water with a large Heron stalking at the back of the reeds. Some Teal were dabbling and and a Shoveler and a small flock of Gadwall flew West. A flock of Ringed Plover flew west, which was more surprising. We stayed a long time and eventually a Marsh Harrier flew past. 4 Greenshank flew in and the Spotted Redshank left around the same time. Some large fat Plovers flew over, which may have been Grey Plovers, but we're more likely to have been Golden Plovers. Towards the end of our stay about 12 Black-tailed Godwits flew in and started feeding.

All photos on this post (c) 2012 Richard Whateley

Black-tailed Godwits

Snipe

Redshank

Greenshank

Black-headed Gull & Dunlin

Meadow Pipits

It was very drizzly on Thursday morning when we returned to last Wednesday's location. We went to Townend Hide first where there were plenty of waders to see. The largest island was covered in Snipe with 2 Spotted Redshank nearby and a Dunlin on the other side of the island. There was a scattering of bog standard Redshank all over the water with a large Heron stalking at the back of the reeds. Some Teal were dabbling and and a Shoveler and a small flock of Gadwall flew West. A flock of Ringed Plover flew west, which was more surprising. We stayed a long time and eventually a Marsh Harrier flew past. 4 Greenshank flew in and the Spotted Redshank left around the same time. Some fat Plovers flew over, which may have been Grey Plovers, but were more likely to have been Golden. Towards the end of our stay about 12 Black-tailed Godwits flew in and started feeding.

On to Singleton where there were fewer waders, but a lot more ducks. A young Cormorant was on the island, but took off when the Black-headed Gulls moved in. There were plenty of Shoveler and Gadwall, and a couple of Little Grebes.











We missed out First Hide because there was only a Coot and we headed to Marshland. The birds were mainly roosting here with Spotted Redshank, Snipe and a couple of Greenshank being the best of it. Every member of the hirundine family went over with Swallows in the majority, with a few House Martins and even less Sand Martins. Richard spotted a Kestrel hovering in the distance. 




Near Xerox I heard a Willow Warbler and then suddenly a flock of mainly Long-tailed Tits appeared with a few Great and Blue Tits in tow.











In the afternoon it became hunt the wader with very few waders to be seen. A pristine Hobby flew right along Singleton, but only Eric and myself (as well as some strangers) saw it. In contrast most people saw great number of Lapwing fly up in the far distance and then at the back of the group the fast wing-beats of a hunting Peregrine could be discerned. It made its way all along Alkborough Flats, and apart from a brief detour to chase a small bird, it carried on heading south east until it was lost to sight. A Marsh Harrier came a lot closer and was particular enjoyed by Gordon. We saw plenty of waders drop into Townend, but when we got there there was nothing.  Eventually a Black-tailed Godwit dropped in, at least it was a new bird for the pm session. Eric also later picked up some Bearded Tits, but the rest of us had already left Townend by then. Marshland was much more disappointing than the pm with only a Pied Wagtail, some Snipe and Teal putting on much of a show. Brian spotted some small birds at the back of Marshland - the first were Reed Buntings, but the final birds he noticed were a couple of juvenile Reed Warblers.  There wasn't a sign of the best birds last week - all the Ruff seemed to have continued on their migration south.  I'm not sure if the poor afternoon was a result of the outgoing tide, or the fact that a lot of places are less interesting after lunch.

Visit to the Dentist Required

Wednesday saw us return to last Tuesday's venue. However this week it was low tide, so the birds weren't as close to the hides as last week. We sheltered from the heavy rain in the Visitor Centre where we saw several Ruff and 5 Dunlin towards the left, and Teal, Shoveler and a single Wigeon on the right. Tony saw what he thought was a Marsh Harrier flying east, which the young Scottish RSPB officer was too polite to correct. On investigation it proved to be a Bittern, which was much more exciting for everyone. We had already seen a bona fide Marsh Harrier too, so we had the best of both sightings. A Long-tailed Tit flock passed by and some of the group saw a small, sharp-billed bird in tow, which was probably a Willow Warbler.

Konik Pony

 Long-tailed Tit

 When the rain stopped we set off to last week's premier hide. There was plenty to see here again, but nearly everything was much further away. The nearest bird was a juvenile Redshank & a couple of Snipe flew in. Spotted Redshank and Ruff were already in situ, but a couple of Greenshank flew right into the back of the site and shortly before we left 3 Black-tailed Godwit arrived - one of which still had plenty of breeding colour.  One surprise was an adult Avocet with 3 youngsters in tow, which were seen from 2 hides before setting off west.  Perhaps they were breeders from further north on their way south - but records this late in September are rather unusual at this reserve.  In the afternoon a distant Great Crested Grebe was sighted from the most easterly hide.

Juvenile Redshank

 Snipe

 Black-tailed Godwits (far left & far right)

The far hide was less profitable with mainly the odd duck species, a distant Marsh Harrier and a family of Little Grebes. We retraced our steps, but the hide near the visitor centre was very poor. The photocopying hide was a little better, but didn't add any new species. The main entertainment was provided by the fierce marshland ponies. 

 Spotted Redshanks & Lapwing

 Marsh Harrier

We then tried the one hide on a different alignment to the others. Here were 15 or so roosting Spotted Redshanks, which were later joined by a very white-headed male Ruff and a couple of others, plus plenty of Lapwings. A total of 6 then 9 and later 15 & eventually as people got their eyes in 18 Snipe were asleep at first, but then set about stitching for food. In the heavy rain the afternoon group saw 6 Ringed Plovers, a fairly unusual bird at this site - they had obviously dropped in to refuel in the bad weather.

Eyeballing

Friday was able to go ahead as originally planned as fewer showers were forecast & we were going somewhere with hides and most of those faced north and the strong winds were blasting from the south.  The most disappointing thing for me was that the winds were also in the worst possible directions for catching the unusual call of a Savi’s Warbler, which has been singing to the north east of where the hides are sighted at Blacktoft Sands.  Peter spotted a male Marsh Harrier in the fields to the south of the car park – it was to be a day of exceptional sightings of this raptor species.

Before we had even reached the Visitor centre the morning group had located an extremely confiding young Hare eating grass by the footpath.  This permitted me to get extremely close, actually too close.  I had to pull in my telephoto lens, and even so I was only able to obtain a head & shoulders shot.  We travelled first to Marshland hide we saw 6 Spotted Redshanks in their smart black summer plumage hunkered down with 2 bog-standard Redshanks and a few Lapwings on one of the tiny islands made of bricks.  There wasn’t much else here, just a pair of Shelducks and a Shoveler identified by Andy.

Leveret

 Spotted Redshank (& 2 standard Redshank)

 Sedge Warbler

 Konik Pony

 Spotted Redshank (Coot & Mallard)

 Cormorants

As we left the main area of hides there was one Reed Warbler which gave several excellent views, but too brief to be photographed.  The afternoon group saw this bird even more briefly, but had a much more prolonged views of a Sedge Warbler.  At Ousefleet there was more water than is usual for the time of year, so in addition to 3 completely different male Ruffs and a single Reeve, and a single Green Sandpiper there were plenty duck species, including: Shelduck, Teal, Tufted, and Shoveler.  In Xerox we only just failed to have a big fat zero, but we weren’t exactly overwhelmed with birds.  There were a few Tufted Ducks and Pochard just starting to go into eclipse, and 4 feisty Konik ponies.  Andy spotted a Little Grebe in the far left hand corner of the pool, while Caroline identified a Spotted Redshank, which spent a couple of minutes here before flying west.  

We leap-frogged 2 hides and made our way to Singleton.  There were relatively few birds here, in what can often be the most interesting hide.  However, there were a few Cormorants on the bare part of an island with Pochard and Tufted Ducks, but when 2 Crows flew in all the ducks left.  A Mute Swan sporting a ring flew in to this pool in the afternoon.  However, the best sightings here were the many Marsh Harriers – a maximum of 7 – hunting over the reserve.  It was noted that these were invariably male birds in the morning, but in the afternoon they were nearly all female-type individuals.  The birds were struggling in the stiff winds, but that also made them easier to photograph than usual as they attempted to control their position over the reedbed as they hunted, so the attached pictures of Harriers should be better than I’m normally able to obtain.

 Marsh Harriers

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 Marsh Harrier - 1st time eye visible on one of my photos

Spots, Beards & Shanks

Bearded Tit (c) 2009 Vince Cowell

Spotted Redshank (c) 2009 Vince Cowell ditto

ditto (right)
L to r: Spotted Redshank, Lapwing, Spotted Redshank & Ruff (male)

Avocets

ditto

Sedge Warbler (c) 2009 Vince Cowell

Black-tailed Godwits (c) 2009 Vince Cowell

Reed Bunting

Ringlet (c) 2009 David Ware

Scorpion-Fly (c) 2009 David Ware

David Ware reports we had 47 species today, some of them quite striking. This includes c.12 Spotted Redshank – a couple at Marshland, more than 10 at Townend, and one dropped into Singleton late on. The views of these were uncharacteristically fine, and we were able to see that the legs were black, which is normally only seen on their breeding grounds. In a few weeks’ time these will be red, and their plumage will be much paler! Unfortunately, it was very overcast today, so Vince is not satisfied with the images he obtained. There were also half-a-dozen male Ruff in various stages of undress, but most of them still displaying a fair amount of their amazing neckwear. In contrast to these rather tatty individuals there was one smart heavily-blotched Reeve. There were also several summer-plumaged Black-tailed Godwits displaying their orange-red fronts. There were plenty of Bearded Tits all around the reserve, but they were usually fairly elusive. 2 early birds (‘students’) managed good views of a few at Marshland, and eventually the afternoon session saw 5 fly from one area of reeds to another from First Hide. Just before we were about to wrap for the week a female or juvenile remained on top of the reeds opposite that hide long enough for everyone to get good views. Early indications are it’s been a good breeding season for Bearded Tits, as there also seem to be plenty at Far Ings. There were c8 Green Sandpiper (which is a good number for this species), plus 2 Little Ringed Plover, a Greenshank, a Wigeon in eclipse & several Gadwall, Pochard, and a single Shelduck. There were also 6 Heron, plus one flyover Bittern. There were still several Avocets on show, including one immature, a Barn Owl peeped out of its box, and a pair of Stock Doves flew near the Barnie’s nesting-place. Among the passerines there were still singing Blackcaps, Whitethroats, Sedge Warblers and a Reed Bunting; but the Reed Warblers were completely silent, although we did eventually see one in the afternoon. Hirundines were also noticeable by their absence, but at lunchtime several similar-looking Swifts were above the visitor centre. What about raptors? I hear you ask. Only one species was seen – just those you take for granted at this location – Marsh Harriers – at least three were visible at any one time.