Mike's Hobby
On Tuesday the Autumn course started with a trip to my doorstep. It was very grey, but at least it wasn’t raining. The tide was in, but there were occasional sightings of waders flying over the Humber. We did see some Wigeon in eclipse, and nearby on the rocks all the Whimbrel-like birds appeared to be Curlew. A flock of 7 noisy Turnstone were flushed by a couple of fishermen walking to their pegs.
We reached the double lighthouses. The best bird here was a single Bar-tailed Godwit, but we also saw Ringed Plovers and Dunlin. We couldn’t stay here too long as the mosquitoes were absolutely appalling. In total we encountered 31 species.
On Wednesday Blacktoft had to be shelved because it was flooded, so we diverted to N.Cave Wetlands. I can’t remember the last time I went there when the sun was out! We started walking west on Dryham Lane. There was a whole family of Stonechats in the reedbed on the left. When we reached Crossland there were 2 Hobby’s soaring high over the Silt Ponds. In the afternoon the cloudy weather seemed to bring the Hobbys down closer to us, the spectators. After lunch Mike was the first to see & identify a Hobby. We tried out the new screen, the new hide and later an alternative to Turret Hide.
We could just about see a distant Peregrine in the row of oak trees, plus a Marsh Harrier flying at the back of the lake and after lunch Sue spotted a Red Kite. Sally was the first to spot & ID an almost completely concealed Kingfisher.
We saw 51 bird species on Wednesday morning, and at least 48 on Wednesday afternoon.
On Thursday the weather was too unpredictable to risk Alkborough, so we switched to THL. We headed south to make our first stop overlooking ‘O’ reservoir. From here we saw Coots, Tufted Ducks, Pochard & Great Crested Grebes.
Hobby
We carried on and just after leaving the Grass Snake Platform we watched a Hobby in almost the same place as the Amur Falcon, all those years ago. We watched this immature bird flying for some time before it landed on the top of a tree. After chomping something it had caught it had a rest for a few minutes, before once again taking to the air
We could hear evocative Greenshank calls emanating from South Marsh East long before we arrived there. They could be seen among the many Lapwings. Jan spotted a couple of Snipe probing the grassy mound, whilst Elaine located a tiny Dunlin among the larger waders.
Watton Borrow Pits was a Goosefest with a few Wigeon, Gadwall & Shoveler sprinkled among them. Paul spotted a Great White Egret, which was busy preening until the arrival of an aggressive Heron caused it to move away.
On the return journey a Treecreeper was the main highlight. Meanwhile, the afternoon session started with 2 confiding Treecreepers in the car park. This time we headed north. We stopped off in the visitor centre from which we saw three Red-Crested Pochards.
North Marsh was fairly quiet apart from a squealing Water Rail and a whole family of Long-tailed Tits. The situation from Hempholme hide was similar, but by now the rain had set in. A couple of Little Egrets and a Jay flying past were the highlights here. We also spotted a very active nest of Hornets. After this we headed straight back to the car park protected from the worst of the rain by the conifers.
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