It seems like every day this week has brought something different with even at times even the days varying from morning to late afternoon but there is no doubt that spring is on the way with this morning the first sky dancing male marsh harrier greeting me as I walked onto the reserve this morning spectacularly displaying hundreds of feet above the reserve and then the black-headed gulls noisily gathering on Marshland.
The noise and clamour of the Marsh
Its certainly been at times a wader orientated week but strangely not all the time, it has been a little all or just a little bit but certainly making for some interesting birding! A pair of avocets started off the week on Monday and stayed for the whole day but no records since! Other notables have been ruff, green sandpiper and a lovely flock of 25 redshank that settled in front of Xerox hide. There has been and excellent assemblage of up to 100 curlew using Ousefleet grazing marsh and the oil-seed rape field, varying numbers of lapwing, 12+ snipe, the two regular oystercatchers and yesterday evening 150 golden plover and a single dunlin flying around the field at the entrance to the reserve.
Redshank at Xerox - one of them is in its breeding plumage, a good example of winter/summer plumage of a wader that isn't always appreciated
Always nice to see Ruff - even in winter plumage
Green sandpiper at Xerox
The oystercatchers at Ousefleet have been very entertaining
Great to see so many curlew using the reserve but also interesting how they are still feeding in the oil-seed rape even though its now getting long
One strange happening the other morning after the heavy rainfall was a large emergence of worms onto the surface of the ground, it certainly provided a bonanza for many of the birds including the gulls and waders.
Big fat juicy lumbricus worms along the path to Ousefleet.
This redshank was topping up on the worms in front of Ousefleet
Birds of prey have had a real resurgence this week with the male hen harrier being fairly regular and also a ringtail seen on Wednesday, the marsh harriers too have been much more amenable with display and territorial sparring as they stake their nesting territory. Buzzards have been very visible and at times sitting close to the hides, gone are the days when I was a young lad and you had to go to Scotland to get such amazing views! Merlin are also still present along with sparrowhawk and kestrel and I also forgot to say that there had been another red kite last weekend. Barn owls are still busy on an evening although of course now the evenings are nearer to 6pm as they draw out.
Male hen harrier hunting over the field nest to the reserve
Buzzard Townend hide this morning
Marsh harriers sparring, not the best shot but I'm sure others with more time will get better!
Typical to form the brent goose only stayed for the one day and mid week the Whoopers eventually continued on their way north but not before allowing one morning of closer viewing and photo's. Star duck of course had to be our regular March green-winged teal that managed to stay for a couple of days, but just check out the teal as it could still be lurking somewhere around.
Brent goose on Singleton on Monday
Whoopers looking lovely together
Green-winged teal at Ousefleet
Plenty of other duck currently using the lagoons with wigeon, shoveler, mallard, shelduck, and some very nice spring plumage gadwall at the moment, often overlooked the male gadwalls charms can sometimes only be appreciated in good light and when they spread out their wings a little. The build up of tufted duck continues although pochard are only around in small numbers, little grebes and coot are however building up more and more by the day.
Gadwall
Pochard
Fighting shelduck
Still a small group of 16 pink-footed geese around with one very straggly bird, it always seems the late ones are youngsters or the sick and injured, there were also two barnacle geese briefly that visited away from the 2000 birds recorded on Whitton Island. Barnacles are are bit of a goose conundrum on the Humber, there is no doubt that there is a large feral breeding population, but in spring now there is often a build up of birds, last year I had 3000 and this year there are at least 2000 already. This strangely happens at a time when many wild barnacles are moving back east to their breeding grounds, the question is are our feral birds also attracting wild birds or are they all feral, and where do many of the feral birds go in winter, there was only about 400 this winter?! It certainly would make for a good study!
Pinks feeding with greylags
barnacles - Ousefleet
Plenty of small resident birds singing now but most notable has been the regular chiffchaffs, a few fieldfare moving through and a small gathering of starling roosting at Marshland. Plenty of tree sparrows around the feeders and a singing male yellowhammer in the car park while 8 siskin moved south mid week. Cettis warblers are busy singing and the odd pair of bearded tit around the edges of the lagoons but as per usual at this time of the year elusive.
Tree sparrow
Chiffchaff this morning
Starlings
March is always an exciting time, even when the weather is a bit pants, so get wrapped up and get yourself out this weekend and see spring in the raw along the Humber.
marsh and hen harriers absolutely superb today! Photos to follow.