Pat Haven

I had an early morning trip to Pat Haven yesterday, getting there before dawn the only birds on the way were a couple of barn owls.
A few gulls on the lagoon including black headed,common and lbb.
Not too many waders to start but plenty of redshank.Ringed plover,dunlin and knot were around but in much reduced numbers than of late.
A pair of little egrets were fishing around the edge of the lagoon and they were joined for a while by a heron.
A couple of vociferous greenshank roosted for a time and a single black tailed godwit kept in the deeper part of the lagoon.
Lots of shellduck appeared near high tide along with a single cormorant and 4 teal.
A bit disappointing really as there was no sign of any curlew sandpipers,ruff golden or grey plover or anything else remotely interesting.
Might be the last visit of the summer.

Redshank


Redshank


Redshank


Redshank


Black Tailed Godwit


Black Tailed Godwit


Greenshank


Greenshank


Dunlin


Grey Heron


Little Egret


Little Egret


Shellduck


Teal

Bank Holiday Birds

After finally getting my computer sorted, I've managed to update the blog with pics from the weekend.
I had quite a bit of spare time so managed a few trips here and there highlights were as follows.
saturday-Spurn arctic skua,great skua,manx shearwater,hen harrier,merlin,marsh harrier, whinchat, wheatear.
Sunday-Spurn spotted flycatcher,
Sunday-Pat Haven Curlew sandpiper,avocet,common buzzard,marsh harrier,kingfisher,golden plover,greenshank.
Monday-Curlew sandpiper plus common waders.

Some nice photo opportunities as the birds fed around the edge of the lagoon.

A Mixed bag

I was minful of the big tides predicted this weekend so I went to check out patrington haven on Friday night just to see how high it came up.
The lagoon was completely flooded leaving very little space for the waders but there were some perched on the extreme outer spits, amd one confiding golden plover landed within 10m of where I was stood.
On the walk down there were a couple of willow warbler,grey heron,yellow wagtails lots of hirundines and a distant marsh harrier.
There was also a pair of whinchat on the brambles on the opposite bank suggesting a small movement (13 were recorded at Spurn on Saturday).
Having sorted a spot I was back again before first light on saturday morning and got to the spit for about 5.30.
The river was already pouring into the lagoon , it was like a couldron and all the birds appearde to be whipped into a frenzy, I was only there 5 minutes when a large raptor shot over my head at what felt like about 3ft, it looped round and perched about 25m in front and I managed a few shots albeit in poor light.
The river continued to flood and wadres were whizzzing about all over the place.
Eventually the spit covered and it was all over.
I made my way back to the car and then on to Spurn.
There was a single snipe on canal scrape a few common waders on the river bank along side the road down to Spurn.
Not much on Beacon lane but a small seal on the beach at the end was a nice suprise.
Quite a bit going on at beacon ponds-all quite distant but plenty of terns and common waders.
All in all an interesting couple of days.

Blacktoft Sands

I had a trip out to Blacktoft sands today mainly for the wood sandpiper and the little stint.
I got there about 8.40 and was able to get into the hides straight away.The wood sand was on townend hide to start and then moved over to marshland.
It was there that most of the action happened, wood sandpiper,little stint,spotted redshank,black tailed godwit, avocet, snipe, plus some more common waders and wildfowl.
There were also some grey wagtails which are apparently quite scarce for Blacktoft, plus yellow and pied wags, a hobby and marsh harrier kept the waders on their toes plus occaisonal glimpses of the barn owl in its box.There has also been a juvenile peregrine about just lately(but didn't show whilst I was there)
The most supising sighting for me was seven bearded tits feeding openly on the mud flat, usually I have fleeting views of birds in the reeds but these stayed out in the open for a long time.
There was some good birds today, I got there early and left just after 11 I suppose crowds of people are to be expected at Blacktoft on a Sundayin August but the constant almost shouting at the excitement of relatively common birds made it rather uncomfortable.
Give me the peace and quiet of my bag hide any day.

Humber Waders

I've been having some problems uploading my photos just lately so these are some images from last weekend.
I've been down to my favourite spot at Patrington haven and managed some shots of the usual redshank,greenshank and dunlin but i wanted some variety so I tried a ne place at Paull and got the shots of the black tailed godwit and common sandpiper.
They wer taken in late evening but all the other shots were taken early in the morning.
For the green sandpiper, I had gone bak to Pat Haven with an idea of getting even closer setting up under a bag hide right at the edge of the mud.
It didnt take long for the waders to come on to the lagoon and I heard the green sand calling but thought it flew over.
Unknown to me it had landed about 5 metres away.When I eventually got it in focus I managed a few close up shots then it went to the other side of the lagoon.
Also about were thousands of knot, a curlew sandpiper and a massive flock of gulls, turtle dove at the car park.