The plan today was to take Malcolm and Maureen to the Yorks Wildlife Trust reserve at North Cave Wetlands but we hadn't realised there were roadworks and traffic delays on the Humber Bridge. We had already been in the traffic queue for well over half an hour with another hour predicted by Google when we reached the Barton turn off so we waved the white flag and headed up the slip road and into Barton for lunch at the Ropewalk. Reassessing, we decided to head to Winter's Pit and East Halton Marsh by the Humber Bank. This was no hardship as it is one of my favourite birding spots and Malcolm and Maureen really enjoyed the walk along the sea wall to East Halton Skitter in the warm spring sunshine. Although, on the surface, there didn't seem to be a great deal of activity we finished the day with 34 species and a couple of small tortoishells. Malcolm and Maureen were delighted at the good numbers of curlew and the plaintive courlee call often bubbled into the full rich, rhythmical trilling song which makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. This must be my favourite bird song. It was also pleasing to see good numbers of avocet and a few black-tailed godwit. We finished the day with a visit to the LWT hide at Killingholme Pits. The water levels were much more favourable than the last time I was here and both curlew and teal ventured onto the muddy shore just in front of the hise. Sadly the avocets that were present were on the far side of the pit but it was wonderful to have such close views of curlew in beautiful late afternoon light.
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