Lunch at Winter's and a Walk to East Halton Skitter Ness.

 It was warm and sunny with no wind as we drew into the car park at Winter's today.  Heather and I had come prepared with lunch today to enjoy by the pond after our walk.  The grey lag geese and black-tailed godwits were back on the pit, although wild fowl were few and. as yet, in eclipse plumage.  For the first time I opted to walk along the back of the mitigation land, part of a scheme to mitigate for wild marshland lost to industry between Killingholme Haven and Immingham. There was little to see along here on this day, although the hawthorn hedges are full of berries and should attract winter thrushes in a few weeks.

At the outflow of the Skitter beck and all along the Humber mudflats were very large  numbers of black-tailed godwit along with gulls, avocet, redshank and curlew. In the outflow there was also a small group of common sandpiper - nice to see but too far away for photography.  Back at the pit it was pleasant to sit in the shade to eat our lunch before heading back for some food shopping on the way home.

Redshank

Humber Birding

 As I pulled into the small parking area at Winter's Pit I could see that there were large nubers of birds about; far different to my last visit when there were very few.  On first impression they seemed to be all grey lag geese, but when I set the 'scope out and scanned the meadow I could see that there were large numbers of Black-Tailed Goodwit amongst the Grey Lags and gulls.  On counting them I reached 100 and recorded the count as 100+.  What a wonderful site as many were still resplendent in breeding plumage. Unlike Bar-Tailed Godwit which have a beautiful breast and belly, the rufous marking on the Blackwit ends half way down the chest and becomes barred.  I scanned the water and found mallard, dabchick or little grebe, tufted duck and gadwall.  There were also over 20 Little Egret around the edge of the pit along with some Herons.

Gathering my kit together I made my way along the lake side and up onto the sea wall.  It was a particularly high tide so no mud for feeding birds which is why they were all roosting by the pit.  With few birds to see on the marsh I made my way down to Skitter Ness where East Halton Beck or Skitter Beck enters the estuary.  Here were another 167 Blackwit roosting on the small area of exposed mud.  I was also delighted to find a single summer plumage Golden Plover with a dark grey back but feathers edged with an ochrous yellow giving beautiful colouring. The belly and face are black and joined by a narrow black line set against white.  Fabulous.  Nearby was a summer plumage Dunlin respendent with black belly.

Arriving back at Winter's I could see that there were more Blackwit tucked under the bank that I hadn't seen earlier and I counted another 200+.  Some birds had moved nearer to the car park making photography possible and amongst them was a single juvenile Ruff.

Before returning home I called in at Killingholme Have Pits to check on a reported 1000+ Black-Tailed Godwit.  Reports were correct, what an amazing site.  There were also over 20 Avocet, Dunlin, Redshank, oystercatcher, a single Shelduck and a Curlew which came in close enough for photography and even sang it's delightful bubbling song for me.

What a day.

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Black-Tailed Godwit

Black-Tailed Godwit

Black-Tailed Godwit

Black-Tailed Godwit

Black-Tailed Godwit

Black-Tailed Godwit

Curlew

Curlew

Curlew

Little Egret

Little Egret

Little Egret

Ruff and Blackwit

Ruff, Lapwing and Blackwit

Nev Cole Way, Stage 3.

 Yesterday saw us embarking on the third stage of our Nev Cole Way walk, today's stage taking us from the Sloop in Barton to New Holland 4.5 miles along the Humber.  This turned out to be another excellent with good views and plenty of interest.  Sadly, although very warm at 24C, it was overcast and views were not crisp.  It was relatively quiet on the bird front, although I did get good views of a cuckoo fly past and reed warblers were active, churning out their rattling songs and little grebes were call on the lakes.  Buterflies were very active with very large numbers of small tortoiseshell along with occasional red admirals and whites of varying species.  Although not the best time of year for birds now this walk would be an excellent birding walk from Autumn through Winter and into Spring.  I hadn't realised how many lakes there were inland of the river, all presumably old brick pits.  I was amazed as we approached Barrow Haven to see the superstructure of a ship loom above the trees, discovering a few minutes later that it was berthed/grounded in the haven by the timeber yard.  A short while later we arrived at New Holland and I enjoyed conjecturing where the paddle steamers over to Hull had berthed and how people got to them from the station.  I only used it once or twice many years ago so had no recollection.  Back at the car it was time to repair to the excellent Sloop for well-deserved pint of Bateman's Gold and our evening meal.

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The Nev Cole Way. Stages 2a and 2b

 Our second session on the Nev Cole Way today.  As there were 6 of us involved in the second half of the walk it involved 3 vehicles and some serious car shuffling.  We split the walk into 2 in order to miss out a couple of miles of very busy road past Reed's Island and South Ferriby Sluice where the off-rad path has been closed.  The first stint of 3.5 miles took us from Whitton to Wintringham and then, after regrouping and collecting our extra personnel, the second section was from South Ferriby to The Sloop at Barton, reversing the start of the Viking Way and passing the LWT reserve of Far Ings.  I again found these sections interesting and enjoyable, being particularly fascinated by the large reed beds.  Although not birding as such, I heard whitethroat, willow warbler, chiffchaff, blackcap and green woodpecker and we had excellent views of three marsh harriers over the reedbeds.  Walking past Far Ings the call of a cetti's warbler exploded from the undergrowth.  These secretive warblers seem particularly common this year.  The sloop, despite a change of ownership, came up to expectations on both the beer and food front.

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