And it seems like the birds certainly know about it with fieldfare pouring through site, lapwings and golden plover arriving and up to six whooper swans often feeding in the fields next to the reserve. 

Whoopers and greylags

Plenty of other birds and wildlife to see too with the resurgence of wader numbers continuing to impress with a nice late October count of 66 ruff on Singleton this morning and 50 (red listed) curlew roosting at the opposite end of the reserve on Ousefleet last night.

Ruff (and single redshank) on Singleton in the early morning light

And curlew in the twilight on Ousefleet with lapwings

We should never under estimate just how important even these small aggregations of declining waders are in terms of their future survival, providing safe undisturbed refuge is essential. This also goes for the nice flock of about 600 lapwing that were roosting on this mornings tide on Ousefleet flash, also the thousands of golden plover on our Humber Mudflats at the Apex, and the accompanying waders that are using the lagoons including redshank, spotted redshank, snipe, dunlin, black-tailed godwits. Notable records also include a jack snipe yesterday on Singleton again, and this morning a late greenshank and two green sandpipers.

Lapwings at Ousefleet this morning

 

 Black-tailed godwits - Singleton this am


 Tide this morning at Singleton with ruff and redshank feeding as a big boat floats past


Fantastic to see the whooper swans hanging around and enjoying the sugar beet alongside the greylag geese which they seem to really like to mix with at the moment for protection. 

The greylags are doing the farmer a favour here as they scoff the waste sugar beet

And in their own right they look pretty nice in the right light

A nice variety of wildfowl on site with a notable count of 90 shoveler this morning, at one time they would have gone south by now to warmer climes but it seems these days more and more stay to winter in the UK each year, good to see them enjoying the recently de-silted Ousefleet lagoon alongside a few other duck. 

Shoveler and teal

A few more gadwall about this morning and there was a goldeneye seen on Marshland yesterday with a supporting cast of wigeon, mallard, teal, mute swan, shelduck (including the hybrid), and a few small parties of pink-footed geese. Also notable at this time of year has been the appearance of a couple of little grebes, they often leave for deeper water and don't return until the new year.

Greedy teal - Ousefleet

Little grebe, Ousefleet lagoon - Mike Pilsworth

Birds of prey have been a bit quieter in recent days with mainly the marsh harriers supported by buzzards, peregrine, sparrowhawk and Kestrels. However, we have been busy so there is still a chance that the hen harrier and merlins are still showing from time to time. 

With the promise of colder weather it seems that the fieldfares are on the move in numbers now supported by a few redwings and a range of finches heading south including chaffinch, siskin, redpoll and a few yellowhamers. A mistle thrush was a notable record this morning and there is regular sightings (if not brief) of water pipit around the lagoons. Cetti warblers are at times starting to show and not just sing while the stonechats are often present along the edge of the reedbed areas and there are still a few bearded tits around the lagoons so watch out for small irrupting parties if the weather is cool and calm.

Fieldfares flying west - I'm hoping to get some better shots of these lovely thrushes

I'll finish with a nice picture of a hare in front of Ousefleet hide - it was standing very still as a marsh harrier flew over!

It will certainly be interesting this weekend with a high tide and strong Northerly winds! There could be a bit of seabird movement. 

Maybe I'll see you in reception which I'm manning this Saturday?