New Year birding resolutions and flooded landscapes across the LDV

The start of a brand new year and we all hope that by the end of it things will look significantly better and that Covid 19 will be under control and we can all get back to some sort of normality. 

In common with a lot of birders I like a list - garden, local patch, life list etc, but when it comes to the year list (number of birds seen in a calendar year in any given area / location) I always lose interest after a month or two, possibly because I usually have a foreign trip on the horizon, the ultimate distraction methinks! But with no oversees travel for the foreseeable I've resolved to keep a UK tally this year. I have a couple of birding mates who do the same and its a good bit of competitive fun but some birders take it very seriously indeed - check out Bubo Listing and look at some of these guy's (and it is predominantly men) life lists if you are in any doubt about that.

Here we go then - short days, lockdown rules, wet and windy weather - welcome to 2021! Here's my January round up.

Hovingham, 03/01/21, a circular walk around South Wood.

South Wood, Hovingham, 03/01/21

Coal Tit, Hovingham, 03/01/21

Love this part of the Howardian Hills and all the more lovely on a crisp and bright winter's day. I stood and watched about 25 Goldcrests and attendant tit species roaming through the woodland above, heard a Tawny Owl but was really after a Goshawk which do frequent the area. Earlier I happened across a rather nice clump of Velvet Shank fungi.

Velvet Shank, Hovingham, 03/01/21

Green Sandpiper, Southcliffe Common, 07/01/21

Southcliffe Common - 3 trips in the first half of the month to this SSSI and recently discovered area for me south of Market Weighton, one with my good friend Rob, produced some interesting birds including a Green Sandpiper flushed out of a drain, several Woodcock, a Great White Egret, 2 Barn Owls, 2 Green Woodpeckers and at least 2 Marsh Harriers.

Southcliffe Common, 04/01/21

Barn Owl, Southcliffe Common, 04/01/21

Marsh Harrier, Southcliffe Common, 07/01/21

Southcliffe Common, 07/01/21

Carr Dyke Drain, Southcliffe Common, 12/01/21

Lower Derwent Valley / Pocklington Canal - several visits, hampered slightly from mid month by seasonal flooding that left a number of my favourite haunts inaccessible. 

Floodwater pouring onto Thornton Ings, 21/01/21

Thorganby, 06/01/21

Bank Island / Wheldrake Ings, 16/01/21

Greylag Geese, Thorganby, 06/01/21

All the usual wildfowl suspects were still viewable though with thousands of Wigeon & Teal interspersed with Greylag & Pink Footed Geese and smaller but very respectable numbers of Pintail, Gadwall, Shoveler and Tufted Duck.

Best of all for me was a flock of 37 Ruff on the floodwater at Bubwith and a further 16 at North Duffield on the same day in with Lapwings and c40 Dunlin.

Easily my highest ever count of over wintering Ruff in the LDV and great to see.

Lapwing, Ruff & Dunlin, North Duffield, 16/01/21

 Ruff, North Duffield, 16/01/21

Ruff, Bubwith Bridge, 16/01/21

Fieldfare, Thorganby, 06/01/21

With the fields within the valley totally submerged most of the Fieldfares and Redwings seemed to have departed for higher ground but still a few around and about and when the light is good they're one of my favourite birds to photograph ....

Fieldfare, Thorganby, 06/01/21

North Cave Wetlands - two visits (10 & 22/01/21. Got my first Pochard, Redpolls and Green Woodpeckers of the year plus another Green Sandpiper on the 22nd. 2 Ruff and a Marsh Harrier also on the 22nd were other highlights and these slightly comical pair of Tufted Ducks made a good image.

Tufted Ducks, North Cave, 22/01/21

Castle Howard estate - Ray Wood / Great Lake to Easthorpe and back. 23 days into the year and got my first Treecreeper, Nuthatch and Great Spotted Woodpecker (2 of them). No pics of any but one of a small flock of Lesser Redpolls feeding on some of last year's Willowherb seeds came pretty close and made for a nice image.

Lesser Redpoll, Castle Howard, 23/01/21

Peregrine Falcon, Troutsdale, 25/01/21

Troutsdale (25/01/21) - a walk along the top of Troutsdale from Cockmoor Hall towards Wykeham Forest. Looking for a Goshawk but no joy but did get my first Peregrine of the year, a big flock of c200 Chaffinches and a nice hovering Kestrel against a clear blue sky.

Kestrel, Troutsdale, 25/01/21

Oystercatchers, Fraisthorpe, 26/01/21

East Coast (26/01/21) - Flamborough, Buckton and Fraisthorpe beach. Tempted by a reported flock of over 170 Lapland Buntings at Buckton I was tempted to travel further than I perhaps should have done. I dipped out on the Laps and got a parking ticket at Fraisthorpe beach for my efforts (serves me right but lets say no more about it😞). The beach was the best with my first Red Throated Diver, Ringed Plover and Sanderling of the year, and then a poke around Bridlington harbour for a Purple Sandpiper and ended up with 14 of them!

Ringed Plover, Fraisthorpe, 26/01/21

Ringed Plover, Fraisthorpe, 26/01/21

Purple Sandpiper, Bridlington harbour, 26/01/21

Purple Sandpiper, Bridlington harbour, 26/01/21

A walk in the Yorkshire Wolds around the Drewton Estate on the 30th produced at least 4 Bramblings in amongst a monster finch flock of Chaffinch (c200), Goldfinch (c200) and Greenfinch (c50) then on the last day of the month I added Skylark and Grey Partridge around my old stamping ground at Fangfoss Park to end the month on 109 bird species - none too shabby that😀

All around the Humberhead Levels - late Chiffchaffs, 1000s of waders, Whoopers and Great Egret on Gringly Carrs, and local waterways.

Mid November and a second wave of this blasted pandemic threatening to cause yet more hardship and suffering I found myself 'furloughed' again and spent a good deal of my spare time in and around the Humberhead Levels and Humber Estuary. Don't know about you, but when I think the Humber, I think 'mud' and lots of it - not a great tag line or an advert to draw in the tourists! Suits me but I suspect that I suffer from the same sort of unconscious bias, and although only mere 15 miles away as the crow flies, its far from a regular haunt. I should definitely make more of an effort!

Lapwings, North Cave Wetlands, 12/11/20

North Cave Wetlands, just inland from the Humber is most definitely somewhere I visit a lot, all the better on a sunny day and a convenient place to meet my old birding pal Mark before moving on. 

These Lapwings were looking resplendent with their iridescent plumage catching the light perfectly. Winter duck numbers have been building up nicely there recently with several hundred Teal and Wigeon along with smaller numbers of Shoveler, Gadwall, Tufted Duck and 5 Pochard

Common Teal, North Cave Wetlands, 12/11/20

Lots of Common Snipe there too and strangely enough they were nearly all huddled together on a small island with Teal. Don't bother counting - there were 21!

Common Snipe & Teal, North Cave Wetlands, 12/11/20

Common Snipe & Teal, North Cave Wetlands, 12/11/20

 

Other wading birds present included 10 or so Redshank and at least 3 Ruff. Other birds of note here included Siskin, Stonechat, Whooper Swan and a lot of Greylag Geese.

 

 

Me larkin about, Oak Hill CP. 12/11/20

Next up was a visit to a place neither of us had previously been to - Oak Hill Country Park, a former brickyard pond complex in Goole. A pleasant enough walk around and always good to go somewhere new but nothing much to report apart a Sparrowhawk, Great Crested Grebe and a few Tufted Ducks. If nothing else it was useful to get some location pics for my Yorkshire's Wildlife site. 

Oak Hill CP. 12/11/20

Oak Hill CP. 12/11/20

Oak Hill CP. 12/11/20

Looking out over the Ouse at Blacktoft, 12/11/20

We were hoping for a pub lunch at the Hope & Anchor at Blacktoft, on the banks of the River Ouse as it flows into the Humber, but sadly the pub was closed (sign of the times!). Always a good vantage point for watching the comings and goings on the river and views of Blacktoft Sands on the opposite bank, we made the best of the last rays of sunlight. It was cold and getting colder but we were rewarded by some mega Lapwing and Golden Plover flocks with c4,000 and c1,000 respectively, plus 4 Marsh Hariers and c1,500 Pink Footed Geese.

 

Far Ings, 17/11/20

A few days later I decided to pop over the Humber Bridge into Lincolnshire for visits to Far Ings and Alkborough Flats. I've been to both several times before but all too often these have been brief passing visits, so with an early start I was determined to give these two well known birding sites a good going over.

I was really hoping to get a Bittern and at Far Ings, but despite much searching and scanning, I was left empty handed and had to make do with good photo opportunity of a stalking Grey Heron.

Grey Heron, Far Ings, 17/11/20

Wrinkled Club, Far Ings, 17/11/20

Amazingly I noted a few still flowering plants around the visitor centre and wandering around the secluded tracks, a clump of fungi. Not been an especially good year for fungi this year to my mind with very few fungal displays on my regular patch. This one I've seen before, its a small delicate growth called Wrinkled Club.

Yellow Ox Eye Daisy, Far Ings, 17/11/20

The path that skirts the northern edge of Far Ings offers some great views of the Humber Estuary, the Bridge and across the reedbeds of the reserve, and as I was walking and admiring the views, I had a high flying big finch with prominent white wing bars flying over the Humber - a 95% Hawfinch for me but always flying away (one of those!). A few small flocks of Wigeon, Curlew and Redshank over the Humber and passing Pink Footed Geese overhead were enhanced by a lucky spot of a late Chiffchaff in with a tit flock. 

Wigeon, Humber Estuary, 17/11/20

I went into every hide and scanned, and waited, especially after talking to a chap who'd just seen a Bittern fly over and plop down into the reeds, but sadly I left with only record shots of the reserve and the ever present Humber bridge.

Far Ings, 17/11/20

 A brief stop off at South Ferriby en route to Alkborough produced the days best birds with 2 Spotted Redshank in with 40ish Common Redshank, c60 Avocets, 8 Black Tailed Godwit and plenty of Teal and Wigeon, all put up by a passing Marsh Harrier. 

Avocets, South Ferriby, 17/11/20

Teal, South Ferriby, 17/11/20

Pink Footed Geese, Alborough Flats, 17/11/20

Alkborough Flats is a large area of flood plains and reeds that sits on the southern bank of the Humber where the rivers Ouse and Trent merge. A well known Lincolnshire birding site with regular sightings of Bittern, Bearded Tit, Spoonbill as well as 1000s of wading birds. I certainly saw 1000s of waders, Golden Plover mainly and plenty of Pink Footed Geese, but alas not a sight nor sound of a hoped for Bearded Tit. I stayed dill dusk and counted 8 Marsh Harriers going to roost on the opposite bank at  Blacktoft Sands, and took some ok pics of the sun setting over the reeds.

Alborough Flats, 17/11/20

Golden Plover, Alborough Flats, 17/11/20

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stonechat, Alborough Flats, 17/11/20

 

Sunset over Alborough Flats, 17/11/20

Sunset over Alborough Flats, 17/11/20

Humberhead Levels

 

The Humber Estuary is but a small part of the area known as the Humberhead Levels, some 2,000 square kilometers of flat land extending both and south of the Humber. The moors of Hatfield and Thorne along with Skipwith Common and the Lower Derwent Valley are the best known nature reserves but there are many good spots in between, and a second catch up with Mark in the month took us on a tour of some of the sites around Gringly Carr, Nottinghamshire.

 

 

 

 

 

Bird of the day was undeniably a late Chiffchaff in the late afternoon sun, calling away and feeding on apids in a sycamore tree.

Chiffchaff, near Hayton, 19/11/20

Great Egret, Gringly Carr, 19/11/20

A Great Egret by a drain on Gringly Carr was a notable record but too far away to get decent pic, unlike some of the 240 or so Whooper Swans we saw on wet fields. 

 

 

 

 

 

Whooper Swan, Gringly Carr, 19/11/20

I'm toying with the idea of buying a canal boat as a live aboard and I'm that thought was not lost on Mark as he took me down the Chesterfield Canal for the last part of our tour around.

Canal Boat on the Chesterfield Canal, 19/11/20

Lurker under the bridge, Chesterfield Canal, 19/11/20