Birding on Cleethorpes Beach and Tetney Marshes.

 As I turned the focus adjustment on the 'scope the distant wader out on the beach at The Fitties sprang into sharp focus and revealed itself to be a bar-tailed godwit.  It was good to compare the details with those of the black-tailed that I had seen a week ago while they were fresh in my mind.  Brian and I had started our day in Buck Beck car park where we made our way across the salt marsh, through the dunes and onto the outer beach.  We hoped to find the small group of snow bunting that had been seen out here but our luck was not in.  The tide was only just going out, though, and so groups of waders were very close to us, among them turnstones and sanderling.  These are always confiding and easy to get close to, but, especially the sanderling, they move very quickly and so are challenging to photograph.  They run in and out of the tide like tiny clock work toys as they search for tasty morsels of food.  There were plenty of other waders about, particularly large numbers of oystercatchers, but they are more wary and difficult to get close to.  Back on the saltmarsh, redshank called insistently and several little egret searched the pools for small fish and shrimps.  Large numbers of gulls were out too, black-headed already coming into breeding plumage being the most numerous, but also herring, great black-backed and common present as well.

Giving up on our search for snow bunting we headed for the yacht club at the end of the Humberston Fitties adjacent to Tetney Marshes RSPB reserve.  Here a sweep of the beach revealed the godwit and a couple of curlew as well as large numbers of shelduck.  I had expected to find the usual flock of brent geese out towards the haven and the dunes of Horseshoe Point and was surprised not to see them.  As we made our way along the line of dunes, however, suddenly I heard the familiar guttural calls and we looked up to see a flock of at least 200 fly up from the arable fields behind the sea wall, over the marsh and settle down out on the mud flats.  Later another large flock flew up but then quickly settled down again.  The lagoons on the salt marsh held large numbers of mallard and black-headed gulls as well as a few mute swans and egrets and, tucked away in the vegetation, some teal and wigeon.  We had been searching the large clumps of sea buckthorn, which often hold stonechats, without success when a female popped up just as we returned to the car park.  A good morning with 32 species found, increasing my count for the year to 49.

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Cleethorpes Beach

Cleethorpes Beach

Black-headed gull

Sanderling

Sanderling

Sanderling

Sanderling

Turnstone

Turnstone

A Day Out at the Seaside

 AS the weather turned out better than forecast we decided to walk Jet down at the beach in hopes of seeing sanderling on the tide line.  In the event we were thwarted in both things: no sanderling and a sea fret blew in on the tide.  We had an enjoyable walk, however; like being on holiday with the hustle and bustle of people kite flying, walking on the beach and even in the tide!!  Every time I visit the Buck Beck Beach Bench becomes more elaborate; in fact it has got the the point where it features on Google as a local Cleethorpes landmark.  As usual there were several little egrets on the salt marsh, although not much else in the way of birds.  We really enjoyed our walk, though and were pleased to see the sea lavender still just in flower.

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Little Egret

Little Egret

Buck Beck Beach Bench

Buck Beck Beach Bench

Drift Wood

Drift Wood

Snow Buntings at Cleethorpes.

 Having had the all clear to carry on with normal activities after my first pacemaker check I was keen to get out with the big lens for some bird photography.  I decided on a trip to the saltmarsh and beach near Cleethorpes because it was local and I knew that there were snow buntings about.  I had already had one bird watching trip which had been unsuccessful.  I started from the car park at Buck Beck and headed straight out over the marsh managing to get one or two shots of the usual flighty redshank, the sentinel of the marsh.  Once through the marsh and mudflats I crossed the outer dunes onto the beach.  The tide had gone out further than I though, but I was able to get reasonably close to some oystercatchers to get some images.  Continuing on I walked to the end of the dunes and disturbed a flock of small birds which took off and flew a couple of hundred yards towards Cleethorpes. I could see in the bins that they were snow bunting; a small flock of 5 that looked to be first winter juveniles.  Wonderful.  I set off in pursuit and with some patient and careful stalking managed to get close enough for photography.  I was delighted and sat back for a while to enjoy being way out on the beach on my own with, for a short while, the world to myself.  I always take pleasure in looking out over the estuary; spurn point and the lighthouse looked stunning in the beautiful light and I enjoyed watching the shipping moving in and out of the estuary and saw a small group of shelduck flying upriver.  I began to make my way back behind the dunes across the marsh and was pleased with some more redshank shots and managed to get reasonably close to a little egret, usually an extremely wary bird.  Making my back through the old dunes I came across a couple of crows, one of which perched nicely on an old fence post.  It's not often I get a good crow shot.

An excellent morning.

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Crow

Little Egret

Oystercatcher

Redshank

Redshank

Reed Bunting

Yellowhammer

Snow bunting

Snow bunting

Snow bunting

Snow bunting

Cleethorpes Birding.

 It was a dull and gloomy morning as I drove into Buck Beck car park at Cleethorpes.  I had arranged to meet Nigel for an early bird watching walk.  Not only was it gloomy, it was the first morning I could have done with gloves.  Note to oneself, deply the gloves now winter has arrived.  Once Nigel arrived we set out to follow a zigzag route to get us across the saltmarsh.  In this way we could scour it for snow buntings but, although they have been seen, they did not grace us with their presence.  Soon we walked out though the far dunes onto the beach.  The tide was still well in and noting large numbers of waders on the tide line we made our way towards them and Buck Beck.  The most noticeable were the oystercatchers as they were the largest but running around like tiny clockwork toys was a flock of around 30 sanderling.  Lovely to see.  A little further on we came across another large flock, this time about 60 ringed plovers.  There a few dunlin and the occasional, larger knot.  On the mud bank lining Buck Beck a few turnstone were roosting.  Making our was back across the marsh we disturbed quite a few redshank which flew off piping loudly.  There were a few curlew around, some providing fine views, their haunting calls echoing over the marsh.  Little egrets were busy feeding in pools and creeks.  In the distance, over Tetney Marsh we could see a large flock of brent geese and another of waders, probably knot, twisting and turning in formation above the marsh.

A raw morning but an excellent short session.

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Brent Geese

                                                                 Brent Geese

Dunlin

Dunlin

Dunlin

Redshank

Ringed Plover

Ringed Plover

Curlew

Curlew

Redshank

Little Egret

Little Egret

Little Egret

Sanderling

Sanderling

An excellent Afternoon on the Coast

 It was a beautiful day today, warm and sunny with occasional clouds and becoming better as the afternoon wore on; temperatures of 14C.  When we think of autumn colours we tend to think of trees but the saltmarsh plants were ablaze with golds and reds in the afternoon sun.  I parked at Buck Bec intially and walked out to the tide line but things were quiet here, although I did find a very accommodating redshan which is unusual as they usually fly off noisily at the first sign of humans: the sentinel of the marsh.  I could see through the binoculars that there was more activity up by Tentney Marshes so I moved location and was soon parked up by the Humber Mouth Yacht Club.  Walking out onto the beach I could see loads of bird activitiy by the creek where Tetney Haven/

Louth Canal flows out to see.  I was amazed to see that the creek had moved its channel yet again; it seems to do it over night.  The tide was well out and it looked as though it would be possible to walk out to the Haile Sand Fort, although the creek would be in the way.  Through the long lens the fort and Spurn lighthouse looked as though they were right next to each other without the 4 or 5 miles of estuary in between.  on the flat, muddy beach there were several small mixed flocks of dunlin and ringed plover, the dunlin very confiding.  By the creek were several gull species, cormorants, curlew, redshank, oystercatchers and brent geese.  All very wary and I didn't get close enough to disturb them from their feeding as that time is crucial to them to built up the energy needed to survive.

Back in the dunes I checked the sea buckthorn as always and was delighted to find a female and two male stonechats.  The lagoons on the marsh held a lot of gulls and a few little egrets.

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Black-headed Gull

Black-headed Gull

Black-headed Gull

Black-headed Gull

Brent Geese

Brent Geese

Black-headed Gull

Dunlin

Dunlin

Dunlin

Dunlin

Redshank

Redshank

Ringed Plover

Ringed Plover

Ringed Plover

Stonechat, female

Stonechat, female

Stonechat, female

Stonechat, female

Stonechat, female

Stonechat, male

Stonechat, male

Stonechat, male