Well maybe not all quite white but it was very nice to see this lovely white lapwing this morning on the reserve, it was flighty but I managed to take a snap or two down at Singleton lagoon. Leucistic birds are often the norm, that is birds with some of their plumage white instead of the usual colour, however albino birds are much more unusual and tend to have pink eyes which this birds seems to have in the photo's. There are some areas of colour like the tail and face but not much so it really does stand out from the crowd. Be warned in flight from a distance it looks sandy grey and does look a bit like a sociable plover! BTW if you want to see the pictures better on the computer rather than the phone just click on them and they will enlarge.
Albino lapwing Xerox
Its been a little while since my last blog due to other commitments but over the last week or so we've as is usual at this time of year seen a tail off in the visible migration over the reserve. However not without some days like last Thursday when there was the first woodcock of the winter and flyover redpoll & siskin along with a small arrival of thrushes.
But winter is certainly upon us and the focus is now on wintering waterbirds, birds of prey and a few of our reserve specialties. However there is never a dull moment on the Humber and yesterday there was great-white egret on Xerox which then flew over to Alkborough, and at the weekend an owl flew out of the willows but disappeared before identification but I suspect its probably long-eared owl,
Immature great-white egret from Yorkshire sculpture park last week - will be interesting to see an estimate of how many are in the country at the moment
Still at least three water pipits frequenting the lagoons and nearby fields with this mornings ice on the lagoons forcing them into view at Singleton. Also of note was 130 skylark in the oilseed rape field adjacent to the footpath up to Ousefleet, a pair of bullfinch eating the emerging willow buds again, and a few redwing, and fieldfares along the berry laden hedges.
Water pipit - Singleton this morning
Male bullfinch
On mornings where there is no ice on the lagoons there has been a good increase in number of our wintering wigeon with 370 yesterday on the reserve end and probably over 700 on the Trent where there was also two drake gooseanders that flew up river and ten whooper swans flying south. Not many geese at the moment with just a few pink-footed geese among the greylags, but make sure you check them out as the greylags are often good carrier species for both white-fronted and bean geese .
Whoopers flying up the Trent
This is a photo from Old Moor/Adwick washlands from the weekend to show what you should be looking for to sort pinkfeet from bean goose, orange markings on the bill and orange legs on the bean and a different bill shape. (bean goose in the middle)
And on its own
Wader numbers are now fluctuating as many of the ruff seem to be resting on the river sides, but there is still a few, black-tailed godwit, redshank, lapwing, snipe, and the odd curlew from time to time while golden plover are often flying overhead. Interesting to see at the weekend excellent numbers of waders and duck using our Reeds Island refuge with at least 143 avocets, among the thousands of teal, golden plover, lapwing and dunlin, this really does show the value of landscape scale habitat conservation where birds can use different areas without disturbance during different states of the tide, during different weather and where food is most abundant. We just need more and more land to deliver more for birds and other wildlife along the Humber, there is still so much more we can all do!
And a nice 'normal' lapwing on Marshland
Curlew on Ousefleet - I was going to write a whole blog about this but unfortunately just haven't got the time at the moment but have a good think about this. In the UK shooting of curlew is banned and has been from the 1970's. But this species is now declining so fast it is a RED listed species, so why are the French still shooting 700 of these birds along with black-tailed godwits, and all other wader species including those like greenshank and spotted redshank - it really does make a mockery of the European birds directive. Here's a link to another recent BTO ringing blog - within it is a link to a Polish project to protect curlews which winter in France and the UK, but the French are in fact shooting more curlew than the whole of the Polish breeding population over a third of the Humber wintering population! What an Outrage!! http://btoringing.blogspot.com/2018/10/
Waders and wildfowl on Reads Island, its difficult to do the sheer numbers justice with photo's but I'll put a bit of video on our facebook page soon, click on picture to enlarge
Golden plover
Still good numbers of Marsh harrier about but no recent reports of hen harrier, however there is regular merlin, peregrine, buzzard and sparrowhawk and often a good chance of barn owl, one of which keeps roosting in the men's toilet block roof.
Buzzards fighting
I'll finish with a picture from last week of a few rooks feeding in with the sheep at Ousefleet, not everyone's favorite bird but then I like them as they are a quintessential part of the British countryside, our little reserve play's the part in all sorts of species survival, not just wetland birds.