Early returning wading birds and late flowering flowers, Spotted Redshanks steal the show

 Mid August, Summer is on the wain, fruit is starting to appear and yet it still feels like 'slumber' weather (for me anyway!) and I've had a right Summer lull this year with a very lazy July in particular, mind you the weather was so appalling I don't think I missed much! Enough was enough about mid August, there's a limit to how much cricket you can listen to whilst precious time ebbs away, and finally I decided to put on my walking boots, pack a rucksack, grab the camera and get back out there!

Blacktoft Sands on the Humber estuary is one of my 'go to' places in late Summer, mainly for wading birds that begin to turn up on UK wetlands after their relatively short breeding seasons in more northerly climes.

Spotted Redshank breed mainly in Siberia and like many waders winter mainly in Africa and Southern Europe and increasingly in the UK - it's not uncommon these days to see big flocks of these elegant birds on the Humber Estuary right through the winter months. I love 'em, most birders do - they're just a bit different, a bit exotic, different in many ways from our own native Common Redshank - no wing bar, longer legs, longer more slender bill, and the 'clutcher' is to see one in breeding plumage - almost entirely black with barely discernible white spots. Of the dozen or so at Blacktoft recently at least one was a 'clutcher'!

Spotted Redshank, Blacktoft, 14/08/2023

Spotted Redshank (summer plumaged), Blacktoft, 14/08/2023

Spotted Redshank (winter plumaged), Blacktoft, 14/08/2023

Spotted Redshank, Blacktoft, 14/08/2023

Splendid looking aren't they, and I was pleased to get some good flight shots. Other waders present on 2 visits within a week there included Green Sandpiper, Common Redshank, Black Tailed Godwit, Avocet, Ruff, Snipe and 2 Great White Egrets. 

Ruff, Blacktoft Sands, 11/08/2023

Great White Egret, Blacktoft Sands, 11/08/2023

Green Sandpiper, Blacktoft Sands, 11/08/2023

Ruff, Blacktoft Sands, 11/08/2023

Green Sandpiper, Blacktoft Sands, 11/08/2023

A trip to Skipwith Common, at about the same time, around some of the lesser 'dog walked' areas, produced more signs of the summer season beginning to shift as fruiting bodies from below push up to sniff the air!

Parasol Mushroom, Skipwith Common, 10/08/2023

Parasol Mushroom, Skipwith Common, 10/08/2023

Fly Agaric, Skipwith Common, 10/08/2023

Sulphur Tufts, Skipwith Common, 10/08/202

Above ground not much stirred there, a humid and steamy day, a single Swift overhead was just about the only noteworthy bird until a mixed tit and warbler flock grabbed my interest. Looked in vain for an attendant Spotted Flycatcher, something different, but had to be satisfied with 2 Blackcaps in amongst the Chiffchaffs, Blue, Great & Long Tailed Tits.

A couple of trips to the coast, Flamborough both times, got me a single female Pied Flycatcher along Old Fall hedge along with 2 Whitethroats. Stalked the flycatcher for 15 mins trying to get even a record shot but no joy. There'd been a brief window of favourable migration weather, hence the flycatcher (hell there was more than 20 at Spurn but just couldn't be arsed to drive all the way down there!), no need, if it's happening, if birds are on the move, I'm interested, but I can hang out of my attic window in York and record over 100 Swifts flying south, as I did on the 27th of July, and be a happy boy!

My Skyline, Northeast outskirts of York

But Flamborough seems to be my automatic destination if the winds go easterly. It might not have quite the profile of Spurn but I'll be there several more times than I will be at Spurn this Autumn, it's so handy, and to my mind has a bit more variety in terms of  vistas and habitats, more hedgerows, clifftop fields, wooded areas. One of the days I was there there were 100s of hirundines, House Martins mainly, congregating over the fields - a sod to photograph but I did my best.

House Martin, Flamborough Headland, 18/08/2023

House Martin, Flamborough Headland, 18/08/2023

Another day, with less favourable winds and not much moving, myself and good mate Rob, were treated to a family party of Sparrowhawks over the plantation at Old Fall.

Sparrowhawk, Flamborough, 22/08/2023

Sparrowhawk, Flamborough, 22/08/2023

Yes our latest Summer is way past its zenith, its embers morphing into early Autumn, wild flowers everywhere are enjoying their last flourishes and putting on a late show. Evening Primrose, one of my favourite flowers to photograph, are classic late bloomers and they find the scrubby ground at North Cave much to their liking .....

Evening Primrose, North Cave Wetlands, 08/08/2023

Evening Primrose, North Cave Wetlands, 08/08/2023

The Pocklington Canal is locally famed for for its botanical riches - here's a few along with a selection of other late bloomers.

Flowering Rush, Pocklington Canal, 09/08/2023

Marsh Woundwort, Pocklington Canal, 09/08/2023

Sneezewort, Pocklington Canal, 09/08/2023

Yarrow, North Cave Wetlands, 21/08/2023

Tansy, Tophill Low, 24/08/2023

St John's Wort, Tophill Low, 24/08/2023

Marsh Gentians, Strensall Common, 23/08/2023

..... and a few, like these Marsh Gentians on Strensall Common, leave it super late, in fact these are still to open fully, and when they do I'll get a better camera on them - I've got a bit lazy with my smartphone, its more convenient of course, occasionally performs admirably, but is no match for the SLR.

We're super lucky to have these delightful little specimens up here. Increasingly rare in the North of England they are more usually associated with the New Forest, where they grow in relative abundance, and the heaths of Sussex and Dorset. Tricky to find on Strensall unless you know where to look, they're only tiny and nestle in amongst the heather on some of the more inaccessible parts of the Common. 

My exhaustive tramping on Strensall also produced a couple of good birds - a juv Whinchat and a Spotted Flycatcher alongside a single Yellow Wagtail, Green Woodpecker, Whitethroat, plenty of southward drifting Barn Swallows and nice looking male Linnet still in its breeding plumage.

Linnet, Strensall Common, 23/08/2023

Whinchat (juv), Strensall Common, 23/08/2023

I waded in with wading birds at the beginning of the month and I'll wade out to them too. A visit to Tophill Low, a Yorkshire Water nature reserve nr Beverley, was primarily to see 2 Blue Winged Teal that had found their way there - rare ducks, new to me and duly ticked off but nothing to look at since they were both fast asleep! Got a record pic but honestly it's not worth gracing this page - no doubt there'll be decent pics from others on Twitter or the Tophill blog. However I did manage a half decent Wood Sandpiper, one of 3 that were present along with several Green Sandpipers.

Wood Sandpiper, Tophill Low, 24/08/2023

Wood Sandpipers certainly don't winter in the UK, that one will be Africa bound, Turnstones do though - a common sight around our coasts in the winter months, but rarely do they look like this one, still in its resplendent chestnut breeding plumage - probably bred in Siberia, will soon shed its colour like the one next to it and maybe hang out on the Humber until next year. 

Turnstone, South Landing, Flamborough, 22/08/2023

 

2 Yorkshire firsts - White Tailed Lapwing & Green Warbler, and some decent passage migrants through Fangfoss Park.

Whinchat, Fangfoss Park, E.Yorks, 01/09/21

So far the first half of September has produced some cracking good birds for me. A couple of  'lifers'  (both firsts for Yorkshire) and a clutch of decent passage migrants on my local patch around Fangfoss Park.

White Tailed Lapwing, Blacktoft Sands, E.Yorks, 01/09/21

In birdwatching / twitching language the WT Lapwing is a proper 'MEGA RARITY' but if truth be told I got more of a thrill finding my own Whinchat dropping in on my own little patch of Yorkshire. A predominantly upland breeding bird and in Yorkshire their strongholds are in the North Yorks Moors and Pennine areas, but they're a red listed bird in the UK as a whole due to a population crash over the past couple of decades. 

I'd been noticing a series of connected grassy fields the local farmer has left fallow this year, fields with vast swathes of some kind of Hawkweed and other tall plant species, and thinking 'that looks good habitat for a Stonechat or two'. 2 days later in the late evening gloom I did indeed have a Stonechat plus another chat I struggled to identify. The next morning it revealed itself to be juv Whinchat, only my second record for around here. Always a bit distant and being in the middle of a field tricky to approach, but I managed some decent shots as it flitted from the tops of the vegetation.

Juv Whinchat, Fangfoss Park, 01/09/21

Juv Whinchat, Fangfoss Park, 01/09/21

Juv Whinchat, Fangfoss Park, 01/09/21

Juv Whinchat, Fangfoss Park, 01/09/21

Juv Whinchat, Fangfoss Park, 01/09/21

It might be a bit of scruffy youngster but always good to have something out of the ordinary and it sparked a good couple of weeks around here as for migrant birds with a female / juv Redstart and a Stonechat the previous evening, single Spotted Flycatchers on the 3rd & 14th Sept, a Lesser Whitethroat on the 4th and then 2 others on the 6th, 7 Blackcaps on the 6th, plenty of  Chiffchaffs and a fantastic flock of 15 Yellow Wagtails on the same day in recently cut fields. 

Yellow Wagtail, Fangfoss Park, 06/09/21

And so to the White Tailed Lapwing - or White Tailed Plover according to which classification you use! The bird had been present for some days by the time I had a chance to pop down to the Humber but such was the draw of this bird ( a 1st for Yorkshire and only the 7th ever record for mainland UK) I still had to squeeze myself into the Xerox Hide at RSPB Blacktoft Sands for some great views of this rare visitor from central Asia.

White Tailed Lapwing, Blacktoft Sands, 01/09/21

White Tailed Lapwing, Blacktoft Sands, 01/09/21

White Tailed Lapwing, Blacktoft Sands, 01/09/21

Despite the above pics, the bird was not an active bird during the 2 hrs or so I was there, making only a couple of feeding forays either side of some extended sleeping - probably bewildered at finding itself deep in Humber mud rather than some inland marsh in Iraq! 

Goldfinches, Blacktoft Sands, 01/09/21

A nice big charm of Goldfinches entertained whilst waiting for the plover to wake up, as did plenty of other passage wading birds including Ruff, Green Sandpiper and Black Tailed Godwit, a Water Rail and several Bearded Tits. 

It never flew during the time I was there - shame, I was hoping for some 'in flight' pics, but it did do a spot of stretching and flapping showing off those broad white wing bars!

White Tailed Lapwing, Blacktoft Sands, 01/09/21

White Tailed Lapwing, Blacktoft Sands, 01/09/21

White Tailed Lapwing, Blacktoft Sands, 01/09/21

September rarely fails to deliver its fair share of rare and scarce birds to the Yorkshire coast and you never know what might turn up next, but a wee warbler caught & ringed at the cliffside dell at Buckton on the 9th surpassed even the WT Lapwing and attracted even bigger crowds of eager twitchers hoping to catch a glimpse of an extremely rare Green Warbler. 

Green Warbler, Buckton, East Yorks, 13/09/21.  Picture credit - Tony Dixon.

Green Warbler, Buckton, East Yorks, 13/09/21. Picture credit - Tony Dixon.

Another bird normally to be found in central Asia (was it driven here by the same weather system as the WT Lapwing?) this is another 1st for Yorkshire and only the 2nd ever in mainland Britain. No wonder I rubbing shoulders with over 200 birders all straining for a glimpse of what proved to be a very shy and retiring leaf warbler. A glimpse is all I managed but enough to see the distinctive wing bar.