Ruddy photos

Finally, here's a couple of photos of the Ruddy Shelduck. Lack of a black neck band indicates this to be a female.

Another shot of the shelduck.

Oystercatcher at Harpham - an odd location for them. Look at the state of that puddle, yuk!

Female Yellow Wagtail in a paddock at Kelk. The male was a few yards to the right.

Pheasant looking at home in the yellow jungle.

Buzzard doing what buzzards do best - sitting about in the distance!

May I?

If I leave it any longer there'll be no review of May at all so here's an abridged version. Time to move on!

Friday 14th May

Having traveled over in the afternoon there was still a couple of hours daylight left, not to be wasted. Around Harpham were a Cuckoo (seen and heard), a Tawny Owl sitting out in the open at dusk, 2 Barn Owl, a Sedge Warbler, 2 Blackcap, a Garden Warbler and a Lesser Whitethroat - the latter two were the only ones of the weekend.

Best of the bunch was the GRASSHOPPER WARBLER at New Road which 'reeled' (song) for a grand total of about 30 seconds in the 20 minutes we stood waiting in the hope it would really get going. This is the first one I've heard locally for a long time, so while more than welcome it was a bit disappointing not to have a bit more of a show. Consolation while waiting was the 2 Barn Owls mentioned and a fox slipping through the rough grass - my first of the year.

Saturday 15th May

Harpham (morning): 3 Sparrowhawk, 1 Common Buzzard, 1 Kestrel, 2 Oystercatcher, the Cuckoo again, c20 Swift, reasonable numbers of warblers (summarised later).

Gembling/Brigham (afternoon): 3 Shelduck, 9 Gadwall, 2 Shoveler, 3 Pochard, 22 Tufted Duck, 7 Little Grebe, 2 Great Crested Grebe, 3 Grey Heron, 1 Marsh Harrier, 1 Common Buzzard, 12 Coot, 1 Oystercatcher, 3 Yellow Wagtail, 1 Corn Bunting singing by Foston Bridge.

Strangest, though prettiest bird of the day was the RUDDY SHELDUCK at Gembling. Sightings in UK are typically considered escapees from wildfowl collections but there is discussion that a small number could reach us from either feral populations in western Europe or in exceptional circumstances from wild populations further east. In Yorkshire in mid-May... who knows?

Green Lane / Barf Hill (evening): buzzard, 2 Kestrel, 1 Oystercatcher, 1 Yellow Wagtail, 55 Linnet and 2 Bullfinch.

Butterflies today were; Holly Blue at Harpham, 13 Orange Tip, 1 Small Tortoiseshell, 7 'whites'.

Sunday 16th May

Kelk Beck (morning): 2 Canada Goose, 1 Gadwall, 14 Tufted Duck, 1 Kestrel, 2 Coot, 1 Common Gull (the only one all weekend!!), 4 Yellow Wagtail, 1 Tree Sparrow, 4 Reed Bunting.

Gransmoor / Kelk Lake (lunchtime): 1 Great Crested Grebe, 1 Grey Heron, 1 Sparrowhwak, 2 Commom Buzzard, 2 Coot, 2 Lesser Black-backed Gull, 1 Herring Gull, 1 Cuckoo, 2 Great Spotted Woodpecker, 1 Yellow Wagtail.

Lowthorpe / Harpham (late afternoon): 2 Common Buzzard, 2 baby Moorhen, 40+ Swift, 4 House Martin, 1 Tree Sparrow, 1 Bullfinch.

Butterflies today were; 1 Small Tortoiseshell, 1 Speckled Wood, 5 'whites'.

Warbler summary

Number of singing males across the whole area over the three days

Sedge Warbler............... 14
Reed Warbler................ 1
Grasshopper Warbler...... 1
Blackcap..................... 10
Garden Warbler............. 1
Lesser Whitethroat......... 1
Common Whitethroat...... 26
Chiffchaff.................... fewer singing than in April
Willow Warbler.............. 11
Goldcrest..................... 1

The number of Common Whitethroat is much higher than 2009 but the others are low, especially Lesser Whitethroat of which there were half a dozen last May.

Year list additions:

095 Cuckoo
096 House Martin
097 Swift
098 Lesser Whitethroat
099 Garden Warbler
100 Grasshopper Warbler
101 Sedge Warbler
102 Common Whitethroat
103 Marsh Harrier
104 Corn Bunting
105 Shoveler

106 Ruddy Shelduck (ooh controversy!)

107 Reed Warbler

True Blue

No no no, not the new electoral map of England. A blue butterfly. Much nicer than all this unpleasantness they call politics :)

Ah, I digress.

Erm.

My visit for May was last weekend but I'm busy so this is a filler post until there's time for a proper report. I made nearly a dozen additions to the year list including a brief singing Grasshopper Warbler at Harpham - my first since the 1990s. Hurrah!

The picture below is a Holly Blue, at Harpham. Holly Blues are regular but uncommon in the area. Even by butterfly standards they're spectacularly beautiful - not that this woeful picture is going to convince anyone.

2004

This evening I was looking through some books and a piece of paper fell out of the middle of one. On it were some handwritten notes of a visit to the Kelk area 11th-14th April 2004.

Why is that interesting? Huh? Well it isn't really but it predates my blog and it's a good excuse to fill a gap here before my next visit. Ha!

I used to live in Kelk in the early 1990s and was out in the field every day which means I have a fair chunk of data to help me put in context current records. However after moving to Liverpool my birding petered out while I spent ever more time doing the daft things people who live in cities do - mostly being indoors a lot and going to bed at the wrong end of the day. Fortunately the birding bug caught up with me again in the mid-noughties and from January 2007 I promised myself one visit a month. So that's where we are today. But my inner nerd gets very annoyed now by the missing decade. Data gap! Noooo!

Anyhow... what was knocking in mid-April 2004?

11th - at Kelk Lake a displaying pair of Great Crested Grebe, 2 very late Goldeneye, a pair of Ruddy Duck (the last pair were in 2005 - none since), 1 Curlew and 1 Redshank. Elsewhere a Kingfisher at Harpham, several Swallows, a male Wheatear in Kelk, and 2 Treecreeper at Harpham.

12th - much the same at Kelk Lake again plus 2 Oystercatcher, 2 Shelduck. Nothing notable elsewhere.

13th - at Kelk Lake 2 Teal, pair of Sparrowhawk, 2 Redshank, 1 Coal Tit (haven't noted one here since). At Brigham Quarry were 2 Gadwall, 2 Pochard, 3 Oystercatcher, 2 Willow Warbler. An extraordinary flock of c450 Golden Plover were at the south end of Kelk in the evening - see my March post for more about spring Goldies 'swallow-not-summer'

14th - only managed a quick visit to Kelk Lake but the grebes were still displaying, one of the Goldeneye was still there, as were the pair of Shelduck and Oystercatcher.

Fast forward to 2010

A Cuckoo has been regular around Kelk and a Marsh Harrier was near Gransmoor yesterday morning, and a 'probable' Marsh Harrier near Barf Hill late afternoon. 'Not many' is the verdict on the number of Swallows - perhaps they're spending more time away from nest sites due to the colder weather.

Can't wait to get back across, May is my favourite month for birding but painful knowing that every day you're probably missing some good birds. Gah!

Red Alert

Right then, April.

Migrants had started to arrive including a Blackcap, 2 Yellow Wagtails and 1 White Wagtail, though only a few Swallows so far. Once again raptors were visible with the best two being an unseasonal Peregrine and a RED KITE. Also seen were 75 Golden Plover, 3 Green Sandpiper, and a Little Owl.

Good omen for the weekend was a Little Owl seen from the car on Friday evening at Harpham on the journey. A year tick before I'd even started!

Saturday 17th April

Much the better day for birding - light wind and sunshine. Around Harpham-Lowthorpe in the morning were 4 Greylags, 1 Little Grebe, 3 Sparrowhawk, 10 Lapwing, 6 Herring Gull, 1 Great Spotted Woodpecker, 1 Swallow, 2 Mistle Thrush, 1 Blackcap singing, 9 Chiffchaff, 2 Willow Warbler singing, 1 Goldcrest, 2 Long-tailed Tit, 2 Coal Tit singing, 1 Tree Sparrow, and 10 Linnet.

Bird of the morning was a Peregrine, a first locally for April. This appearance even more so than the in winter poses 'where from?' questions - was this a 'local' breeding bird, perhaps from the coastal cliffs?

A good morning was followed up with a better afternoon. Immediately. Stood outside the house I picked up a large raptor flapping lazily around. It was nothing less than a RED KITE. Slowly the bird gained height and drifted north-west and after 10 minutes was gone. Although hard to tell for sure it seemd rather less 'red' than a typical adult so could well have been an immature bird, which leads one to consider it as a Wolds-born non-breeding bird wandering around - there was a post-breeding population of around 30 birds in 2009: http://www.yorkshireredkites.net/home.html

Gembling was the next stop after all the excitement; 1 Greylag, 2 Gadwall, 2 Grey Partridge, 1 Grey Heron, 4 Coot, 2 Oystercatcher, 3 Green Sandpiper, 1 Great Spotted Woodpecker, 8 Sand Martin, 1 Swallow, 2 Meadow Pipit, 1 Yellow Wagtail, 1 White Wagtail (photo in previous entry), 5 Tree Sparrow, and 2 Reed Bunting. There was still quite a lot of flood water on the fields, left over from the previous autumn - receeding but could still be there into May.

Moving on to Brigham Quarry; 1 Mute Swan, 6 Gadwall, male Pochard, 4 Tufted Duck, 6 Little Grebe, 8 Coot, 12 Stock Dove, 21 Sand Martin, and 6 late Fieldfare. The most unusual sighting was a male 'green' Pheasant, not a different race as such but a genetic variant sometimes bred and released by shooting estates. I have seen odd ones locally before but this is the first noted for a while.

Not wishing to let a good day end there I took an evening walk around Green Lane and Barf Hill which turned up a few more goodies; 7 Greylags, 1 Canada Goose, 2 Shelduck, 4 Teal, 1 Red-legged Partridge, 1 Cormorant flying SW, 3 Kestrel, 2 Oystercatcher, 14 Lapwing, 2 Swallow, 3 Chiffchaff, 2 Long-tailed Tit, 19 Chaffinch together in a freshly drilled corn field, and a Bullfinch.

The large flock of Golden Plover I wrote about last month was still present but has reduced ot 75 birds (photo to follow), though that's still a respectable number. My theory/guess is that these are Scandinavian birds which have wintered in the UK and are staging here before setting off for a direct flight to their breeding grounds. Many were parading their bright summer collection wardrobe.

Sunday 18th April

Inevitable really, but Sunday was an anti-climax. The weather took a turn for the colder and I had to spend the morning shifting furniture so didn't get going until lunchtime. Along Kelk Beck were 5 Mute Swan, 1 Canada Goose, 4 Gadwall, 16 Mallard, 3 Tufted Duck, 2 Little Grebe, 1 Cormorant (flying S), 3 Grey Heron, 1 Sparrowhawk, 1 Buzzard, 2 Coot, 1 Curlew flying west, 30 Sand Martin, 5 Swallow, 1 Meadow Pipit, 1 Yellow Wagtail, 3 Willow Warbler, 2 Long-tailed Tit, and 2 Reed Bunting.

To complete the weekend I had another go at Harpham-Lowthorpe but it was much less active though 2 Sparrowhawk, 3 Kestrel, 3 Lesser Black-backed Gull and 5 Herring Gull, 4 more Swallow, 4 long-tailed Tit and 2 more Coal Tits were noted.

Among all this, during the weekend also were 1 bat sp, 1 Water Vole, and the first few butterflies; 5 Peacock, c25 Small tortoiseshell, 1 'white' sp.

Seven additions for the year:

088 Little Owl
089 Blackcap
090 Willow Warbler
091 Red Kite
092 Yellow Wagtail
093 Shelduck
094 Curlew

Speaking of numbers the kite is the 130th species in the last 5 years.

Addittion: Cuckoo heard in Kelk on Wednesday morning - a very early bird.

Wagtail lessons

Visit for April done and dusted. More of that later, but as a stopgap here are some wagtail photos.

To start with a sparkling male Yellow Wagtail at Gembling. This species is a summer migrant that typically arrives at the front of the first big wave of migrants. Unfortunately they have undergone a serious decline in recent decades though we still get a few pairs in the Kelk area.



Same bird agian. Crikey, just how yellow are they?



This next fella was also at Gembling - it's a White Wagtail, the continental race or subspecies of the more familiar resident Pied Wagtail. In East Yorkshire these are uncommon passage migrants mostly in Spring. Not rare but always a bonus.



Another view of the bird. Features to note; pale clean grey back and clear dividing line with the black cap, rump same colour as back, and distinct white dividing line between the bib and back. They're a fairly classic identification problem for novice birders, personally I feel they're one of those "you know when you've seen one" birds. If it doesn't quite look right it's probably Pied not White.



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Here's a female Pied Wagtail for comparison; note the grey back is similar but slightly blotchy and messily extends into the cap, and there is no clear white line between the bib and back. You can't see it here but the rump is darker than the back.
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More pictures and a report from the weekend to follow...

Eagle Eye

A couple of bits of news: first a WHITE-TAILED EAGLE that was seen a Bempton and Flamborough earlier in the week had made it's way to Tophill Low this morning... Kelk lies roughly in a line between the two!

Report here: http://tophilllow.blogspot.com/2010/04/sea-eagle.html

Oh boy, that would have been a wee bit special.

More mundane, a couple of Swallows were in Kelk yesterday, including one at a farmyard looking more like a local bird than an earlier migrant moving through.

Ok, an excuse for some piccies. These three were from the last visit. First up a male Tufted Duck from Burton Agnes pond. Unlike most birds these are an easy target, they come for bread with the Mallards.



Next, a nice pair of Red-legged Partridge at Harpham. Contrary to the above picture, these birds are not at all easy birds to see well so I'm quite happy with this murky shot.



Finally this is part of the record breaking flock of 480 Golden Plover at Kelk.