Birding Lincs

Me and Mark made a trip into Lincs today starting at Fiskerton Fen just east of Lincoln where an American Wigeon has been residing over the last couple of weeks, we found the bird with a large flock of Eurasion Wigeon in a flooded field across the road from the reserve but it was quite distant, not the best views I’ve ever had of an American Wigeon, there were also a couple of Little Egrets there. We then headed over to the North Lincs coast for our second target bird, a Black Brant at Humberston Fitties, it was associating with a large flock of Dark Bellied Brents which we soon located in a field just behind the sea wall and a scan through them soon found the Brant plus a couple of Pale Bellied birds for good measure. As we were in the area we thought we’d have a quick look at Killingholme Haven next but there was not a lot happening there, lots of Redshank and a female Marsh Harrier plus a Little Egret posed nicely in front of the hide, we spent the rest of the afternoon at Worlaby Carrs where several Short Eared and a Barn Owl performed well and we finished with a flock of about 30 Corn Buntings flying over, we also saw several Buzzards throughout the day including three birds at Worlaby, a pleasant days birding although it was bitterly cold especially on the coast.

the windswept look

rumour has it the Carrs are to be ploughed up this year
so this could be the last winter for these guys

A nice day out

It was a nice day today so me and Mark thought we’d try for some Raptors down Troutsdale, unfortunately they weren’t playing ball and although several Buzzards and Kestrels eventually got up there was no sign of any Goshawks, not while we were there anyway, we dropped into Scarborough and got some Fulmars along Marine Drive but it was so busy we didn’t hang around for the Peregrines we checked out the Med Gulls at Holbeck instead, two of the adults are starting to acquire their black hoods now. It was Filey Dams next where a winter plumaged Slavonian Grebe has been hanging around over the last few days, out of sight at first it eventually came reasonably close, we then decided to forsake the coast particularly as we had heard that yesterdays Great Northern Diver had returned to Tophill, it was showing well on D Reservoir, it was then straight on to the LDV starting at Bubwith Bridge where there was a good numbers of Golden Plover, Dunlin, Ruff etc, a large flock of Swans were out by Derwent Cottage Farm but distant then it was round to Thorganby where some White Fronted Geese had been reported this morning but there was not much of anything there this afternoon, we spent the last bit of the afternoon at Ellerton but a single Pinkfoot with the Greylags was about it, a Barn Owl was seen by Hagg Bridge on the way home.

the sun creeping into the valley

single Pinkfoot

sunset over Ellerton Ings

Sleepy Ring Necked and dodgy Scaups

I went off to Tophill Low this morning primarily for a Ring Necked Duck that has been there all week, the bird was still present but right down at the far end of D Reservoir and asleep most of the time, it was best viewed from the middle hide as the light was all wrong from the hide it was nearest to and it looked quite dingy from that distance, not the usual nice clean grey on the flanks I am used to seeing, it got disturbed a couple of times so I had some brief views of its bill pattern, there was also a drake Scaup down at that end as well as two hybrid types out in the middle, one of these is probably the bird that was in the Lower Derwent Valley a couple of weeks back but typically the dodgy birds were nice and close while the good birds were miles away, also of note on the reservoir were lots of amorous Goldeneye and a Little Gull that dropped in for a quick bathe. A quick look at the new wetland area which was frozen found a Buzzard perched on an Owl box and there were a couple of Woodcock showing at the Visitor Centre feeding station plus a Barn Owl was hunting in the afternoon sunshine along the approach road as I left. I called off at North Duffield Carrs on the way back, very flooded again at the moment so everything was well spread out, a load of Whooper Swans out towards Ellerton and a drake Scaup asleep at the far side of the floods were about the best of it.

difficult to see until the Pheasant flushed it into the open

skulking back into cover

a very flooded North Duffield Carrs