By Friday evening we were at Shustoke watching and year ticking this little beauty. Also 5 Arctic Terns passed through, 12 Gadwalls circled the pool and two Hobbies were seen hunting at around 7.30pm. Home in time for fish, chips and Big Brother finale night. A good start to the weekend.
On Saturday the rain bucketed down most of the day. I'm not one to let a bit of rain stop me though and this weekend, anticipation hung heavy in the air - what with the weather conditions and return migration in progress, anything could turn up!
Something came in our way though - Richard Branson. Anytime between 8am and 1pm, Virgin Cable had said said....I had a phonecall from the cable engineer at 12.10pm asking would we mind if he came at 3pm! A few choice words in his ear and lo and behold he turned up 15 minutes later.
Domestic obligations out of the way, it was a bit late now to go to Draycote, as planned, so we plumped for somewhere closer. On arrival at Upton Warren, we were greeted with sights like these....
As you can see the islands on the Moors Pools have all but disappeared and the water is up higher than I've ever seen. And thats just the Moors; at the flashes, I didn't even dare get my camera out. The boardwalk down to the Flashes was starting to go under water, the feeding station there was about a metre under and mostly all the lovely wadery edges and gravelly bits on the Flashes have gone under. Looks like we can forget hopes of a rare wader for autuam passage for now.
As if that wasn't bad enough we'd not long missed an Osprey passing through. Dam you again Branson! Still, it wasn't all bad. On the Flashes a hungry Hobby caught a Swallow and then a House Martin, also there were 2 Green Sandpipers, 1 Common Sandpiper, 1 Curlew and a Lesser Whitethoat was heard. On Moors Pool; 5 Snipe, 3 Common Tern (adult and 2 juvs), Kingfisher, another Hobby, Cetti's Warbler (heard), Chiffchaff, Little Grebe and 100's of hirundines. A stop at Upper Bittell on the way home got us a Black Tern and a soaking.
Yesterday Morning we finally arrived at Draycote Water. Continued showers raised hopes of that 'something good' dropping in. We missed the Great Skua when we retreated to the cafe after getting slightly damp. And it was a Great Skua and not a Great Snipe as Birdguides had reported! We hot footed it to Toft Shallows anyway on the off chance of lifing the Bonxie, but as expected it had shot straight through....fingers crossed for next week then.
Highlights 4 juv Shag (WMBC tick!), 1 juv Arctic Tern, 5 Wheatear, 2 Yellow Wagtails, Kestrel and 3 Little Grebes.
So next time I update the blog it will be with a trip report from East Yorks. We are off this Friday and we are booked on the RSPB Skua and Shearwater Cruise from Bridlington next Saturday, plus we'll be visiting Spurn for the first time. Just looking at BG sightings from East Yorks from the last few days its looking hot hot hot.....
2 comments:
I hope the skua and shearwater cruise brings you a few goodies.
Dead jealous!
I've even brought official seawatching trousers today!
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