The Numbers Game - Wetland birds flock to the Humber in record numbers - Charlie's Blacktoft Blog - Blacktoft Sands

30 Oct 2020

Firstly I will confirm that yes the reserve is still open 9am to 5pm last entry at 3.30pm every day. We will update you as soon as is possible if this changes, please bring a face mask and wear them in the hides and toilet block and I recommend that you bring hand sanitiser as it is not provided in the hides. Also just to say that we have limited parking and this means visitor numbers are restricted, so please think carefully about visiting especially with so many areas now under tier 3.

So on with the bird news.............................

Pink-footed geese flying over the reserve this week

I'll start with some news from 1991, yes I know a little tardy with the news but I thought it worthwhile to quote the Blacktoft bird report for this year and just what it says about pink footed goose in autumn.

1991 - 'Autumn return to the Humber noted on 22nd September when 55 seen with up to 120 seen in October and up to 15 in December'

This morning 2020 while I was repairing the electric fence on Ousefleet I had flock after flock flying over my head going out onto the arable to feed, thousands of birds reflecting the amazing numbers that have been on the Humber in the last few weeks with a record 39,000 counted roosting at our Reads and Whitton Island refuges on the National pink-footed goose count weekend. Very nice to be able to report on one species that is doing well and that the provision of safe roosting areas is complimenting some good feeding areas on stubbles out on the arable farmland.

In fact the two go very much hand in hand and I've got a friend or two that have have been actively promoting the benefits of leaving the pinkfeet to clean up the cereal stubble rather than allowing people to disturb them or shoot them. Good conservation is very much about working together particularly along the Humber.

BBC TV filming down at Reads Island on the day we had 30,000 pinkies.

And large flocks seem to be the order of the day especially out over the estuary on what we call the Apex where the river Trent and Ouse merge together to form the Humber, you can see the whirling masses of lapwings (1300) and golden plover (3000+) from the hides but if you want closer views then you have to go over to Alkborough where you can see our small mudflats. The flocks can be mobile and it all depends on tide but at the right time you will see them buzzing about like a swarm of bees especially when being chased by a peregrine or marsh harrier.

Golden plover and pink footed geese over the Apex mid week - every morning I'm in awe of the sheer numbers

In fact many of the birds seem to have taken to feeding out on the mudflats at the moment and I recorded this on video at the weekend, but on tide and at certain times there is still a nice selection of species on the reserve for the time of year.

Some lovely backdrops to the gulls as they flew down the estuary to roost - sometimes its just nice to enjoy the beauty of birds rather than the detail

Alongside the geese there has been an on/off southward passage of whooper swans with occasionally small groups roosting on site, this is another bird who's numbers seem to increase year on year, maybe Iceland is the only place where bird populations are doing well! Nice to see a few family parties in with them including one of four that roosted on Ousefleet flash, I'm hoping that these are from our regular wintering pair who failed to raise any young last year after two years of success.

Not so many waders on the lagoons at the moment but on and off there are regular spotted redshank, a few ruff, black-tailed godwits, redshank, and dunlin, even curlew numbers have declined after some nice peaks on high tide of up to 50 birds a couple of weeks ago. Nice to see on those tides for a couple of days at least two little stints that are sadly the only record of the year, these along with curlew sandpipers just seem to get scarcer by the year.

Spotted redshank

Ruff

And little stints

Curlew feeding on the wet grassland

Raptor numbers are relatively buoyant though with up to 23 marsh harriers roosting and regular peregrine sightings, not so many buzzards though but still occasional records of hen harrier, and merlin. Sparrowhawk is also a regular sighting and a few kestrels hunting over site. Unfortunately I've been somewhat office bound recently as I'm trying to finish off our five year management plan so haven't really had chance to see what is roosting.

Female marsh harrier

Duck numbers have also reduced after the big early October influx, its amazing how they soon hoover up the food although as time progresses Ousefleet will start to generate a bit of insect food that will bring back the teal onto it. Currently it seems though that Xerox hide is where most of the duck hang out with a good count of 94 shoveler yesterday alongside gadwall, mallard, wigeon and teal. Of more interest are the few little grebes left on site with one bird still showing its juvenile humbug head pattern, they can be quite late breeders and I suspect this bird hasn't being fledged for long.

Juvenile little grebe

Sometimes you have to look carefully even when the pools don't have much on, this morning I had a brief bittern drop low into the back of Singleton slap bank into one of our specially created pools from our 'Back to the Future project'. The habitat we created over the five years of this project (which finished a couple of years ago) is just coming into real condition and delivering for this species. Sometimes habitat management just takes a little time to mature. There was also a little egret and plenty of squealing water rails so watch out for them alongside some of our pools with a bit of edge vegetation and mud showing.

Bittern from September

Currently one of the most noticeable and enjoyable seasonal changes is the migration of thousands of small birds that are moving from the Northern UK, Scandinavia and Eastern Europe to feast on the berries and seeds in more milder climes.

There has been plenty of flocks of fieldfare over and a few redwing mixed in, but also now blackbirds and song thrushes starting to feature and even a mistle thrush heading a flock of fieldfare. Amongst the chaffinch there is now the distinctive eek eek of the brambling, not as big a year as last years record breaking numbers but certainly more than I expected.

Fieldfare

And after a brief lull the constant morning passage of redpolls has renewed, wowzer what a year its been for this species with hundred upon hundreds moving through in small flocks. A walk out onto nearby Crowle moor the other week indicated where at least some of these birds were going and what they were feeding on. I have to say it was pretty impressive and certainly the biggest flock of redpoll I've ever seen over my 40 years birding, one of the flocks was at least 800 strong (and I always underestimate!) and then there were smaller flocks avidly feeding on the abundant birch seed around the site giving a conservative estimate of 1200 redpoll. A lot of ringers have been catching large numbers of redpolls but I haven't heard of many large flocks, so would be interested to hear from anyone who has found good numbers.

One of the redpolls from the moors - they just don't land at Blacktoft

Accompanying the Polly's have been a few siskin and then also skylarks, goldfinch, greenfinch and a few meadow pipits. While one morning we had a small fall of goldcrests and chiffchaffs but it seems that all the chiffy's have now moved on. Still a few pied wagtails about on the grazing marsh and at least one rock pipit that has hung about, maybe indicating that its of Scandinavian origin. There has also been a spinnoleta pipit around Ousefleet lagoon from time to time and I suspect this is more likely to be water pipit, so make sure you check out and little brown jobs at the edge of the lagoons!

Goldfinch - not so many about this year for some reason

The bearded tits as per usual have been a little contrary with a couple of weeks ago lots of parties of birds irrupting all over site, then a change in the weather and hardly a ping from them! There is a bit of high pressure forecast that will bring a settled period next week so it will be interesting to see if we get a bit of late movement from the remaining birds.

This was from the last day they were active - a nice male for a change

While the stonechats have now reduced to more normal wintering numbers although this still means quite a few pairs around particularly at Ousefleet, I never tire of this beautiful little robin of the reedbed.

And for a short while there was 40,000 starlings making their way through the reserve on the way to roost, not so many now but for a short while it was nice while it lasted

Still a profusion of wild flowers giving a last bit of colour to the Countryside recently and I particularly enjoyed finding a little colony of field pansies in a ditch that borders one of our meadows. Not because they are rare because they are a very common little flower, but because this ditch and the arable field next door gets a bit of a rough ride in terms of weed killer drift and intensive agriculture. For me it was just a little show of defiance from this little arable 'weed' that it wasn't going to be forced into extinction.

You may have noticed that the weather has been generally wet and mild, this means that a bit of fungi has started to appear around site, but not as much as I'd hoped and it certainly comes and goes quite quickly. Here's a few that I've found over the last couple of weeks.

Toughshank

One of the bonnets

Crowle moor however where the redpoll were always has a fine selection of fungi, so many species its just mind boggling. I just tend to try and enjoy the beauty rather than identify them all as unfortunately I don't have the time I'd like!

Birch Russula with accompanying species