Goosander on a Cold and Grey day

A seafront walk today on a grey and cold morning with rain in the air to try and catch up with the female goosander.  I had had two previous attempts to find it, both unsuccessful.  It was actually in the exact spot where a friend had found it yesterday.  I have to say it is a very cooperative bird and it was easy to secure shots of it.  Just a pity that the light was awful.  A bracing seafront walk, though, with 21 species in the bag and a satisfying glow that I had caught up with the elusive goosander at last.

A Very Cold Day at Donna Nook and Dipped out on the Goosander Again

 As Brian, Heather and myself crested the Dunes at Donna Nook we felt the full force of the biting westerly wind and the chill 4C temperature felt even colder. We had expansive views though of the salt marsh and estuary and across the Spurn Point and, behind us, over the rapidly developing flood mitigation area.  The recently noisy and busy grey seal nursery was now quiet and peaceful again, the adults and pups having returned to the sea.  We made our way along the seaward side of the dunes as far as the old sluice at Pye's Hall where we crossed back over the dunes to return on the landward side of the dunes.  The recent high tides had flooded the path and the whole area was busy with bird life.  The thrilling call of curlew echoed over the marsh along with the insistent and strident calls of redshank.  Egrets fed in the creeks and gulls gathered raucously.  Walking back towards the car we passed the area which, in a couple of months, will be alive with green hairstreak butterflies, but now things are still wintry despite the welcome sunshine.

On our way home we called in at Cleethorpes Country Park thinking that this might be where the female goosander was.  I had already tried unsuccessfully on the boating lake and we had no better luck today.  Not long after getting home I had a message to say that it had been showing well on the boating lake.  Ah well!!

Looking towards Pye's Hall

Good to See Bullfinches in the Woodland Burial Ground

 It was good to see two pairs of bullfinches feeding on buds in the woodland burial ground today.  They were in exactly the same spot as I photographed them last year feeding on blossom.  I didn't take the camera so the images are from 2021.  We had a pleasant walk in the sun with Jet and despite being only 5C it felt warm in the sun.  It was difficult to believe that a second storm in two days, Corrie this time, was headed our way.  Apart from the bullfinches the other highlight was a large flock of long-tailed tit foraging in the plantation.  Although the ground is drying out it was soft enough to take the impressions of the roe deer prints.  Snowdrops in flower nor and hazel catkins beginning to shrivel.

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Greenfinches in the Garden

 I was delighted, today to see a flock of 5 green finches moving through the garden.  I can't remember the last time I saw a greenfinch; a real treat and fantastic news.

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A Walk Along the Freshney Valley

 A very pleasant walk along the Freshney Valley today to exercise Jet.  It was a fairly mild afternoon at 11C and felt warm despite the brisk NW wind.  We walked through Town Holt and out into the open valley beyond where the river becomes Laceby Beck, one of Lincolnshire's precious chalk streams which rises in blow wells near Laceby village.  We made our way as far as the impressive lone surviving elm tree in the area.

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A Second Woodpecker at the Feeding Station.

 A very pleasant session at the winter feeding station today.  I had two visits from a very nervous male great spotted woodpecker at approximately an hour apart.  The second the bird saw the lens move he few away.  After another hour I had another visit, this time the bird approached from a different direction and was much more confident.  It was only when reviewing the images on the back of the camera that I realised that this bird was a female.  No doubt, like people, wild creatures have different characteristics.  I was pleased to see two nuthatches at the same time today so that means that there are at least two individuals around and probably more.

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Blackbird

Blue Tit

Blue Tit

Blue Tit

Coal Tit

Great Tit

Great Spotted Woodpecker - Female

Long-Tailed Tit

Nuthatch

Nuthatch

Nuthatch

Robin

Robin

An Excellent Day on a New Reserve

 I found the hole in the tree in the 'scope and, as I zoomed in, the back of the hole morphed into the face of a tawny owl.  Excellent, my first for this year.  To be fair a regular birder had told me where to look but I finished my day with several new for year species.  Heather and I were staying at South Cave in the fine Cave Castle Hotel for a weekend yoga retreat so I used the excuse of a creaky back to spend the day exploring a new reserve for me: North Cave Wetlands, only 15 minutes away.  It was a perfect morning: blue skies and a hard frost but the sun made it feel quite pleasant.  When I parked up the Butty Van looked very tempting but fresh from a full English breakfast and a large evening meal to come I desisted.  The reserve is relatively new and is in old gravel workings.  Some of the old pits are well rewilded now but others are in the process of allowing nature to reclaim them.  The route around the reserve is a square with several hides overlooking the workings.  Other areas, such as the maize field, have been developed to be attractive to a range of bird species and the site is well-supplied with feeding stations and hedges.  Most of the pits were iced over so not ideal for the birds but at the Crosslands hide the water was open and there were large numbers of waders and wildfowl.  Highlights of the day for me were a pair of ruff at Crosslands along with 2 black-tailed godwit, good numbers of siskin, the tawny and a peregrine.  I did take the trouble to make the walk to where a little owl was a regular but it had gone by the time I arrived.  Such is life.  The sky had clouded over by 2.30 and it was time to return to the hotel for a cup of tea and thoughts of a swim in the lovely pool.

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Reed Bunting

Reed Bunting

Reed Bunting

Robin