Although still very cold, the clear sunny conditions had come to an end and it was grey and overcast, but only 3C as I parked in Dryham Lane at the entrance to North Cave Wetlands YWT reserve. I quickly gathered all of my gear, donned the wellies and set off into the reserve. The viewing platform opposite the Butty Van, overlooking Village Lake, is always a useful place to start. As usual there were good numbers of wildfowl including wigeon, teal, mallard, coot, tufted duck and gadwall. I love to hear the whistling of the wigeon and the bubbling call of curlew echoed over the lake. There were plentiful small birds in the hedge and on the feeders too.
I was keen to move on and get to the maize field feeders where 50+ brambling were said to be found. I was not disappointed. As I arrived there was a whirring of wings and everything disappeared but the birds quickly returned including the bramblings. I was delighted; apart from a brief glimpse of some at Whisby last year I hadn't seen any of these colourful finches for years. At a quick glance they could be mistaken for chaffinches but they are more orange and far more colourful. As far as we are concerned bramblings are winter visitors to our shores breeding in upland birch forest in Fenno-Scandia. I was delighted to see a fair number of tree sparrows here as well as all the other usual suspects to a winter feeding station.
I was hoping to see the usual tawny owl near the NW corner but it must have been tucked away today. There was very little to see from Crossland Hide overlookng Cell A, perhaps because the water was frozen. There were one or two green woodpeckers 'yaffling' around the area, though, which was good to hear. Moving on down Dryham lane back towards the car and Butty Van was another feeding station which again came up trumps as far as brambling were concerned and there were larger numbers of tree sparrows here as well as goldfinches, greenfinches and tits.
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