Wetlands

Out with Mark today and we met up with Dave and Steve from Rochdale at North Cave Wetlands and after an initial look for the recent Curlew Sandpiper, not present today, we headed off to Blacktoft Sands having a look from the Faxfleet side of the river on the way, plenty of Warblers singing including Cetti’s, Reed and Sedge, quite a few Marsh Harriers out hunting and good views of some Bearded Reedlings in the reeds by a small pool. We carried on to Blacktoft where me, Dave and Steve headed down to Singleton Hide while Mark went to photograph a showy Cetti’s Warbler, after 30-40 mins of scanning through all the Harriers Dave eventually got onto something different and it proved to be the female Montagu’s, she came in fairly high circled around a couple of times then drifted off again, a quick visit. We headed off to join Mark who’d had a good session with the Cetti’s, I gave it a bit of time but although it showed well it was very quick and I never managed to photograph it in the open, with there being not much more on the reserve we went back to the car park for lunch meeting up with a few other birding mates and discussing our different mornings itineraries. After lunch it was a return to North Cave taking a tour of Goole Fields en route where we picked up our first Yellow Wagtail of the year, at North Cave it was the usual Little Ringed Plovers, Ruff etc on Dryham Ings then Mark heard a brief snatch of Lesser Whitethroat song from a nearby hedge, it never sang again but we got some decent views as it moved along the hedge feeding, a Red Kite over and three Mediterranean Gulls in the Black Headed colony on the Main Lake were the best of the rest. A steady but pleasant day and we all managed several year ticks.

plenty of Avocets at Blacktoft

and Marsh Harriers

showy Cetti's

LRP at North Cave

plus Red Kite over