Its always nice to see lots of different birds but this morning the star of the show was undoubtedly for me a single curlew on Ousefleet. So whats all the fuss about a single curlew? Well apart from being a Red listed species this lone curlew was lovely and close to the hide and allowed some great and very natural views of it happily and unconcernedly feeding on some juicy little worms.
And as the video now seems to be working I should hopefully be able to show it!
Curlews especially when feeding on grassland can be particularly wary (and are very sensative to human disturbance on the Humber) so it was very nice to have this one so relaxed in front of the hide just getting on with its daily life. You can see from the picture below just exactly what it was feeding on, these smaller worms tend to like to feed around dung and off course within this area there was plenty of Konik pony dung (the lads were just to the left in fact).
Its a few years now since I studied curlew on Orkney but I still have a very soft spot for this relatively plain but inexplicably beautiful wader, with losses over the intervening 20 years its really going to be a fight to save this species, but here on the Humber we are really determined to do all we can to provide safe and undisturbed roosting and feeding areas for our wintering and passage curlews.
Here's a few more shots for you to enjoy as it searched through the rough cut fen and grassland (click on them to enlarge on the computer)
Part of the above links to my next bit of the blog, yesterday I had the pleasure of accepting the Humber Nature Partnership award for the best conservation project on the Humber for 2018, this was for our pond and lagoon creation on Whitton Island. This work was to help create better roosting and feeding habitat for species like curlew which literally a couple of weeks after the lagoon was finished I had the pleasure of watching a flock of curlew coming in to roost on the central bund of the lagoon.
This award is great recognition for the work of the Humber reserves team (both staff and volunteers of course!) who tirelessly work so hard to deliver the conservation work across the RSPB landholdings and wider estuary. It was on the day dedicated to my old boss Roy Taylor who was instrumental in the project and who sadly passed away a short while ago and who always ensured conservation work was delivered rather than just talked about.
Unfortunately with been away from the reserve at meeting for most of the week I've not had a lot of time to do much birding but this morning there was certainly a nice mix of species around site with ruff, black-tailed godwit, marsh harriers, and water pipits being the highlights and a good range of duck on site too. For more information on what you are likely to see on a visit then please see the last blog.
I can now add in an updated edit that there was a ringtail and grey male hen harriers into roost tonight so things are looking good for the new year!
Here's a few shots from this morning which was a lovely fresh and at last sunny day.
Wigeon and lapwing
Ruff on Singleton
Water pipit on First
An as I've got video now hopefully working here's a few waders on Reads Island last weekend. Awesome!
Congratulations to you Pete and the team for the award - recognition richly deserved.
Grey male hen harrier and ringtail into roost tonight (Friday) as well as the usual marsh harriers