Well the recent harrier roosts have provided excellent viewing particularly of the two ring tail hen harriers and the ghostly grey male who have all shown amazingly well alongside the masses of marsh harriers! Plenty of other birds of prey to keep a look out for with regular sparrowhawk, peregrine, and occasionally merlin and barn owl. New year often see's the roost grow in number (!) so why not pay a visit to blow away those Christmas cobwebs? Best viewing is from Singleton hide from about 2.30pm - dusk for the harriers and Xerox hide for the barn owls.
The white-fronted geese continue to mix in with the greylags out on the arable farmland next to the reserve while other recent goodies have included regular singing cetti's warbler, stonechat, water pipit, treecreeper and great spotted woodpecker. Still up to 3500 golden plover and 1000 lapwing wheeling around over the estuary but keep a look out for the single ruff that is visiting Ousefleet with the lapwings. Around the bird feeders are the regular tree sparrows, but recently there has also been a couple of yellowhammers alongside the moorhens, chaffinch, and forever hungry pheasants.
I eventually managed to get to have a quick check of another of the Humber teams reserves Reads Island on Christmas eve, with the surrounding mudflats holding over 5000 Dunlin, and 1000 golden plover plus a fantastic sight of 34 pintail many of which were stunning males in summer plumage. There was also a good number of marsh harriers here too and a few pink footed geese flighting in to roost. The fallow deer that live very happily on the island seem to be doing well with at least 20 chomping the vegetation nice and short. Unfortunately as the reserve is in the middle of the Humber it is only viewable from a distance on the South Ferriby road which at the best of times is rather busy and dangerous so not always the best site to visit unless you know the area well - Blacktoft is much safer! However, It is an important site and often holds 15,000 plus wader and ducks in the winter and helps highlight that the Society does a lot more along the estuary than just running Blacktoft. There will be more about our 'other' two sites (Reads Island and Tetney Marshes), in the new year and just how important they are to the protection of the birds and wildlife along the estuary.
As I'm now of to the Lake District to get completely wet through (judging by the weather forecast) I wish you all Happy new year!
PS - My reed seed is germinating very well for those interested (see last blog)
Below - The magnificant Reads Island from the air! Note all the lovely internationally important mudflats for the Humber's wading birds, something we need to protect for the future.