Welcome To My Blog,This Will Be Mainly Used As A Diary For My Local Birding Patch At East Halton/Goxhill On The Banks Of The Humber Estuary,With Occasional Twitching And Visits Elsewhere Including Photos From Mine & Tracey's Walks Around Our Beautiful Countryside.
A chance to get out again today, saw me taking Lee out for his birthday and heading up to the stunning coast line of Flamborough Head and Bempton Cliffs. We planned to visit Flamborough in the morning and then head over to Bridlington to catch the Yorkshire Belle up to Bempton Cliffs and back.
After a nice drive up to Flamborough, we were soon parking up and getting our cameras and my scope together and heading down to the fog station to look on the sea.
It was a lovely morning, and we wandered down taking in the cracking scenery taking plenty of photos on the way and watching a flock of about 200 House Martins as they rested and fed over the lighthouse grassland, preparing for their long migration south.
Once we reached the cliff edge, i began to scan the sea looking for Whales and it wasn't long before we were watching at least 2 Minke Whales feeding around a feeding frenzy of Kittiwakes, Gannets and Auks. These amazing animals showed pretty well at about a mile range and became Lee's first ever sighting of a Whale.
Also around the area where at least 400 Grey Seals and 10 Harbour Porpoise, with a distant Great Skua watched harassing the feeding Terns and Kits offshore.
After enjoying all the cetaceans, Seals and maritime bird species, we headed to the Headlands restaurant for a well earned brekkie.
After breakfast we headed over to Brid, parked up and then caught the bus into the town ready for our well anticipated boat trip.
Once we got underway on the Yorkshire Belle, i went up to the front and began scanning for birds etc.
No real rarities were seen on the boat trip, but it was great to see flocks of feeding Common Terns, Sandwich Terns, hundreds of Razorbills with their chicks and mixed flocks of feeding Gannets, Kittiwakes and Gulls.
The ships captain took is in pretty close to the cliffs and showed us several of the hundreds of sea caves and geological features, which included the famous Staple Neuk where the Gannet colony is located at Bempton Cliffs.
For anyone who has not been on this trip before, i highly recommend it, as seeing the cliffs and geological features really shows Flamborough and Bempton from an interesting and different angle.
After enjoying our boat trip, it was time to travel home after a brilliant day out.
A lovely few days away with Mrs R staying in North Yorkshire, saw mixed weather not allowing to get out walking until Tuesday 5th when we completed a lovely, if slightly hot walk from Hutton-le-Hole, taking in the lovely villages of Lastingham and Appleton-le-Moor, then back to Hutton-le-Hole.
We also managed to visit a few other lovely little places which included Lealhom, Goathland and Rosedale amongst wet morning visits to Whitby and Scarborough.
The first night we stayed at East Ayton Lodge, but then stayed for 2 nights at a lovely little farm, with a stunning cottage at Middleton.
The following are my favourite photos from our stay away.
Another month over and the birding calendar is heading to my favourite time of the year, autumn migration proper. Of course, over recent weeks, the wader migration has began, but has been fairly steady to be honest. The rarest species have been Gulls, with some nice juvenile and immature Caspian Gulls putting in various appearances, with a couple of Yellow-legged and Med Gulls adding some variety and a couple of distant Spoonbills were seen on the Humber mud.
The Local Patch yearlist has ground to a halt just about as it does at this time of year and it is stood on 149 species, with the autumn all to come yet I'm sure i will be adding some more species yet.
Sunday 6th July
Today i covered all the Humber bank areas between Goxhill Haven and Winter's Pond, with a respectable 80 species recorded.
Gulls and Waders were the order of the day, with the best of the Gulls being a cracking adult Med Gull heading west off Goxhill Haven, followed by another adult at the Skitter along with singles of Yellow-legged Gull and Caspian Gull.
The best of the waders included 3 Little-ringed Plovers at Winter's Pond, 3 Whimbrel(1 west at Goxhill Haven and 2 at East Halton Skitter), 10 Common(4, Goxhill Haven and 6, East Halton Skitter) and 2 Green Sandpipers (Winter's Pond).
Other nice sightings during the day included 2 Common Tern which flew east at Dawson City LWTR, a lovely juvenile Wheatear at East Halton Skitter and a flock of 273 Sand Martins feeding over Goxhill Marsh.
A heartening sight along Goxhill Marsh, was the successful breeding of Gadwall, with a female with 5 ducklings showing nicely, the first breeding for about 5 years.
Sunday 13th July
Today i concentrated my efforts just at East Halton and managed to record 73 species. It was a a fairly steady visit if I'm honest, with Waders providing the main interest.
A juvenile Little-ringed Plover at East Halton Skitter, along with 4 Common Sandpiper and 4 Whimbrel made for some nice viewing and Winter's held the usual 2 Green Sands and a Greenshank flew south west overhead.
Icelandic Black-tailed Godwits are beginning to use Winter's as a bathing and feeding site as they do every autumn on migration, lets hope this site isn't ruined by Able UK and their continued destruction of sites along the Humber.
On a positive note, 8 Grey Heron and 14 Little Grebes were a welcome increase on recent visits.
Sunday 20th July
Another day visiting both Goxhill and East Halton, saw another count of 80 species being seen, proving this area really is productive.
The main highlight were 2 distant Spoonbill roosting near Cherry Cobb on the Humber, becoming my first sighting for the year of this lovely species.
Waders and Wildfowl provided the main interest as has been the recent theme of visits lately.
A record count for the local patch of Cormorants, saw 52 being logged, which included 27 at the roost off Goxhill Tilery, 2 west off Goxhill haven, 19 flying north at East Halton Skitter and 4 roosting on the old seaplane jetty towards Killingholme Haven.
Also today, 8 Common Scoter flew west at Goxhill Haven, which were nice to see, the Gadwall family were still along Goxhill Marsh, 39 Teal were logged and 11 Tufties were seen on Winter's pond.
Waders were again represented well, with 13 species recorded, the best of which were 6 Grey Plover near Goxhill Haven, 608 Icelandic Black-tailed Godwits, of which 485 were on Winter's Pond, 6 Common Sandpipers, 2 Green Sandpipers, Greenshank and a lovely summer plumaged Knot at East Halton Skitter.
A lovely sighting at the Skitter saw 2 fledged Barn Owls showing nicely, with 3 fledged juvenile Kessie's nearby a great sight to see.
A decent sized flock, by modern day standards of 535 Sand Martins, was a great sight to see feeding over Goxhill Marsh and 14 fledged Bearded Tits was great to see also, along with at least 5 juvenile Cetti's Warblers.
Saturday 26th July
On today's visit, i decided to do things differently at Goxhill, walking up to Dawson City first and then up to Goxhill Tilery and back along Neat Gangs Lane/Ferry Road to the car.
A decent count of 71 species were recorded today, with again a good mix of species.
The haven area saw the main action, with another juvenile Caspian Gull seen sat on the Humber and later being been seen again in the afternoon along with a juvenile Yellow-legged Gull. Five Common Tern were also seen off the Haven, firstly flying west, then back out east again.
Waders today were represented by 64 Curlew, 2 Whimbrel, 5 Avocet and a Bar-tailed Godwit, with a single Common Scoter flying east off the Haven providing the most exciting Wildfowl sighting.
The rarest sighting of the day went to a juvenile Cuckoo seen along the Humber bank towards the Tilery Ponds and a Jay in the same area was a nice surprise.
Three hundred Sand Martins feeding over Goxhill Marsh and 12 Yellow Wagtail were also great to see.
A really nice surprise away from the avian delights, saw 3 species of marine mammals being seen, 2 Harbour Porpoise, a bull Grey Seal and my first Harbour Seal for many years on the Humber.
Sunday 27th July
Today i just covered the areas between Winter's Pond and East Halton Skitter and happily recorded a good 75 species.
The best of the waders today went to singles of Little-ringed Plover, Whimbrel and Green Sandpiper at Winter's Pond, with a total of 10 Common sands recorded (3 Winter's Pond, 2 along the Humber shore towards Killingholme Haven and 5 at East Halton Skitter).
On Winter's a smart Great-white Egret, 14 Little Grebe, 2 Shoveler and 66 Mallard were the highlights.
Some nice counts of passerines today included 16 juvenile Reed Warblers, 8 Chiffchaffs, 5 Lesser-whites and 12 Whitethroats, with 74 Swallows also recorded.
Tuesday 29th July
A quiet visit bird wise to Goxhill Haven today, saw a single Common Tern and a Whimbrel being the only notables, but thankfully having a big interest in insects and other wildlife provided me with an interesting few hours out here.
Two more Harbour Porpoises were seen today as the tide dropped off, with one showing really well off the Haven, i even managed some record shots.
Insects were the main focus, with Orthoptera being seen in really good numbers. The main species seen were Long-winged and Short-winged Coneheads and Lesser-marsh Grasshoppers. The Coneheads distribution in the UK has been something of a huge expansion north, with both species being found along the Humber now, the same can be said of Lesser-marsh Grasshopper.
A few nice butterflies along here, included my second Dark-green Fritillary along here in recent weeks and a few Painted Ladies and Brown Argus.
Another enjoyable month watching this cracking area.
Approaching Storm Clouds, East Halton Skitter, 6th.
Adult Mediterranean Gull, East Halton Skitter, 6th.
