North Cave Wetlands YWT

Just a quick write up of my trip to North Cave Wetlands YWT where the main target bird was a Green-winged Teal, a north American winter vagrant to our shores.

North Cave Wetlands YWT have been formed from sand and gravel extraction pits close to the M62 motorway near Goole.  The site is still being developed and has a range of habitats. It's free to visit and park and provides a good stopping off point on the way to or from Spurn and Blacktoft Sands.

This Green-winged Teal has been present for a good few days on Island Lake which is viewable from Turret Hide (number 2 on the map above).  It was quite difficult to find for a while and then gave good, but fairly distant views for a while.  On occasions I believe it has been much closer to the hide than this.

The main distinguishing feature of this bird is the vertical white bar on its flank, as opposed to the horizontal white bar on the Eurasian Teal, the bird we normally see here in the UK.

This is probably the best comparison shot I have of the two species.

It was also nice to be there on the day that two Avocets first returned to these wetlands.

Two of the three Curlews that were present on Island Lake.

There were at least three Little Egrets visible from Turret Hide today. 

 It's always nice to see them in flight.

 The Shelducks were quite abundant with lots of mating displays and fighting behaviour.

 

I only realised I'd seen a Mediterranean Gull here today when I processed this photograph which also has several Common Gulls as well as the Black-headed Gulls.

The feeding station here has been moved from its original location near the maize field due to a rat problem - it's now located half way down Dryham Lane (see map above) and has a good variety of farmland and woodland birds.

 

 

 

Tree Sparrows were quite numerous as they seem to be on most reserves along the M62 corridor in Yorkshire, and they were a nice additional year tick for me.

To finish off a good day here I was put on to a solitary Pink-footed Goose feeding in a field with some Greylag Geese.

 

I Finally Meet Elliot Monteith at West Kirby Marine Lake

Today I finally met a rising star in the birding world - NextGen Birder, Elliot Monteith.

More text to come ...

How Can Such Little Birds Be So Frustrating?

I spent a very frustrating afternoon at Wombwell Ings in the Dearne Valley, Yorkshire trying to photograph a Yellow-browed Warbler and a Firecrest this afternoon. The Firecrest was present but I didn't see it at all (well maybe a fleeting glimpse) and the Yellow-browed Warbler was very mobile, secretive in the shade and nearly always covered in twigs.

If it wasn't for the excellent company of Paul Coombes, Paula Sykes and Graeham Mounteney I'd have left quite disappointed, but the banter made up for the frustration, and a lifer is a lifer after all.

Above are a few record shots, best viewed small.

Well, at least it hadn't Scaupered!

For a quick trip out this afternoon, I decided to finally pay a quick visit to the long-staying female Scaup at Elton Reservoir in Bury.  All the time I was driving, I was just hoping that I'd see it and that it hadn't scarpered!

The last time I was here was when I saw the Common or Mealy Redpoll back in January, a bird which has only recently been accepted by the Greater Manchester Rarities Committee.  I had intended to pop in here on my way back from visiting the Glaucous Gull at Hollingworth Lake last month, but the weather conditions were so bad that I called it off.

Today the weather was sunny when I set off, but it became more and more cloudy as I approached the reservoir.  On arrival I met Steven Higginbottom, co-finder of the Mealy Redpoll, and I quickly asked if he had seen the Scaup - he hadn't, but he'd only had a quick look from the Creek area.  However, I marvelled at the fact that he told me he could make out some waders, probably Dunlin, on the small beach across the water at Wader Point though.

I asked him which would be the quickest way of getting down there, as at least I could get some wader shots if I couldn't find the Scaup. He suggested walking around on the path on the pump house side of the reservoir, as the one on the Creek side was very muddy, and so that's what I did.

Fortunately, when I arrived at the bay in the south-west corner of the reservoir, I spotted the Scaup which was loosely associating with a small flock of Tufted Ducks. It was quite unmistakable from the female Tufted Ducks, being slightly larger, with a large white patch at the base of its beak and a grey/brown back and sides. However, as soon as I approached the birds they spotted me too, and started moving towards the centre of the bay.

The light was all wrong on this side, so I walked round the other side of the bay only for the flock to move away again.  I spent the next two hours or so trying to get closer by walking to and fro trying to get ahead of them as well as a little closer with the light behind me.  The Scaup was always on the periphery of the group, and usually the furthest away, often preening and resting whilst always seeming to keep one eye on me.

So, due to the poor light and distance, all these shots are only really record shots, but the bird has taken my year 2018 Year List up to 124.  There were also Great Crested Grebe on the water and three Goosanders dropped in as I was leaving - I never did see any waders today though.

Bramblings And Other Ramblings

Today I finally paid a visit to Newchurch Common in Cheshire where I met up with Paul 'Doc' Brewster who had kindly agreed to show me around his local patch. We had arranged to do this many weeks ago, but bad weather on the day forced us to call it off.  So with a window of opportunity presenting itself, I grabbed it.

Paul is a very well-respected local birder who helps run the well-known FocalPoint Optics shop in Cheshire. I have met him on several occasions previously, with our first encounter being at a summer fayre event at Pennington Flash where FocalPoint had a stall.  Following this event the L.O.S. Young Birders' Club eventually bought six pairs of binoculars from FocalPoint and we have been in contact ever since.  The first time I met him out in the field was at Binn Green near Dovestones, when we were searching for a Two-barred Crossbill.

Smew Photo to go here ....

My two main target species for today were the resident female Smew and the huge flocks of Bramblings that have been reported here since before Christmas.  We started at Beach Peg where the day got off to a big surprise, much to Paul's delight when we came across a herd of 37 Whooper Swans which had landed on the Big Pool.  They had probably been grounded by the very cold weather and might even have been starting to make their way back north. The Whoopers were a 'patch life tick' for Paul and he quickly hurried back to get his camera and scope to get some shots.  I stayed put and took some shots for him, just in case the birds decided to fly before he got back.

It took a while for this excitement to die down, but shortly after we were looking for the resident female Smew.  A recent sighting of a female Smew not too far from here at Astbury Mere had raised the question of whether it was the same bird as the one at Newchurch.  We looked around but couldn't see her here, so it was still  a possibility.  There were however, at least nine Shoveler feeding in their characteristic circular motion on the far side of the pool, and quite a few Great Crested Grebes.

Soon we were off on a clockwise walk around the lake, with Paul pointing out all the watchpoints, which tended to be named after the fishing pegs.  After a short walk through a wooded area, we came across the Smew making its way in to Willow Arm Bay, and after that we wouldn't see it again today.  And  later in the day, a report of the same same time period from Astbury proved that there are in fact two Smews in Cheshire at the moment.  We also caught sight of a Redhead Goosander flying low over the lake.

From here we walked to what was actually the highlight of the day for me - at least 300 Bramblings feeding in a newly-cut set-aside field, with almost as many Chaffinches.  I had never seen so many of this stunning little bird, with 30-40 birds at Woolston Eyes being my biggest previous count.  It was an awesome spectacle and very difficult to capture in a photograph.

To finish off we retraced our steps back around Big Pool to try to get a better view of the Whoopers.  Paul pointed out Finch Hedge and good spots for Green Woodpeckers which breed here in the spring and summer.  We ended up at another fishing peg where the Whoopers seemed to drift towards us instead of moving away, as if they were expecting to be fed. I suggested that they seemed a little tame and that it raised the question of whether they were from somewhere that feeds them such as Martin Mere WWT.

I thanked Paul for a great tour of his patch and told him I'd definitely be back and possibly quite soon to try and get some better shots of the Brambling.

On my way home I called in at Marbury Country Park to have a look for the Bitterns and Hawfinches that had been seen quite a few times recently.  I had no luck with either of these but I did have eight Bullfinches feeding on buds in the trees around the car park, as well a few close up shots of common birds on a feeding table.  It was too cold to stay long but I had a pretty good day on the whole.