Wednesday 26 November 2014

A Damp Tophill Day.....23.11.2014.

A change of scenery today and a visit to Tophill Low near to Watton in East Yorkshire,saw some pretty crap weather to be fair and i had to work damn hard for my sightings today.
 Because of the weather i spent the first few hours watching D-res,but the notable sightings were few and far between due to the poor visibility.There was certainly no sign of the Grey Phalorope that had made 'D' it's temporary home.
 The best i could manage was 22 Goldeneye and a Weasel watched along the bank outside the hide carrying a caught Vole in it's mouth.
 After putting up with the rain for so long i decided to stretch my legs and walk around to North Marsh.Sightings here included some cracking views of a pair of Water Rail which were nice to see,a lovely Marsh Tit close to the hide along with a foraging Tit flock and a Cetti's was heard calling at the far end of the marsh.
 Back through D-Woods towards the car had a Tawny Owl calling in its tree top roost site.
 After a quick refuel stop at the car,it was on to Watton nature reserve and 'O' res.Watton saw some decent numbers of wildfowl and a good sized flock of 34 Curlew fed and loafed on the grass banks surrounding the reserve and 14 Cormorant fished and dried their wings.
 As i walked around the side of 'O' a Dunlin flew over calling and was quickly followed by a Juv Perg.The Falcon spent several minutes chasing the Dunlin,but the Falcons potential prey's evasive action worked and the Perg broke off it's chase.
 A quick look on South Marsh saw very little birds being seen,but a couple of bursts of Cetti's song brightened the gloom and 67 Pink-footed Geese flew over high north east.
 Back to D-res as the time was getting on and the roosting gulls had began to slowly trickle in.The best sighting here was a female Scaup and it showed fairly well amongst the Tufties,Pochard,Coot and Goldeneye.
 Eventually the front of weather finally begin to clear and the last hour or so of the daylight saw some sunshine at last....better late than never!.
 Gull numbers were pretty low and included 4000 small gulls,39 Great black-backed Gulls,45 Herring Gulls and a single 2nd calendar year Leeb.
 A tough day with regards to the weather,but great to get out again.
D-res as the weather front began to clear.


D-res.

2 comments:

  1. days like that ,,gleaning is hard work,, especially if weathers bad,,
    blows the cobwebs off tho & keeps your eye "in",, good read tho
    again steve,, hope you didn`t miss the bonaparte`s amongs`t the
    4,000 ,,small,, gulls ,,hahaha :)

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  2. Thanks mate and yes maybe did miss it....at the wrong end of the Res :-)

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