Dave, Roger, Ken and I set off for Patrington Haven in East Yorkshire and hopefully a juvenile Ivory Gull that had been present since the 15th. We received notification on route that it was still present near the pumping station and on arrival a number of birders were leaving. Having parked up we walked to the pumping station and found that the Ivory Gull was still on the rocks on the edge of the Humber. The views were rather distant and he strong wind didn’t make viewing easy but we were able to get reasonable views as the bird sat preening on the rocks. It flew on a number of occasions but only to move to different rocks. After a while Dave, Roger and I moved to the pumping station hoping that it would come to the fish that had been laid out for it. Dave eventually decided he would go back to the car for lunch and asked the three of us to back by 13:00 as he wanted to Hornsea Mere for a Grey Phalarope. At around 12:00 there was a shout that it was coming in and after flying around the pumping station for a while it came down to feed on the fish and provided some excellent photo opportunities.
Juvenile Ivory Gull
On the ground it seemed to
have a preference for what looked like skinned salmon that had been laid out
and it devoured most of it quite quickly but ignored most of the other
fish. It didn’t stay for much more than
five minutes before it flew back towards the Humber and so elated we walked
back to the car.
The tide was receding as we
arrived and there were masses of waders feeding on the Humber with good numbers
of Oystercatcher, Golden Plover, Dunlin and Redshank but also Grey Plover,
Sanderling, Bar-tailed Godwit and Turnstone.
A Merlin was also observed perched briefly on the marsh before it flew
towards us passing low over the mud and causing some panic amongst the feeding
waders.
We stopped at Mappleton All
Saints for some lunch on route to Hornsea as the car park allowed us to look
out to sea but it was very quiet and we saw nothing but a few gulls.
On arriving at Hornsea Mere
and getting the kit on I picked up a Great White Egret sitting in some trees on
the far side and on walking to the point we were soon watching the distant Grey
Phalarope. The Great White Egret took to
flight and came towards us when it was joined by a second before coming
down. They then flew again and settled
together where we had seen the original one before flying off towards the
western end of the mere. There was a
good selection of wildfowl on the mere but we couldn’t find the reported
Long-tailed Duck or Velvet Scoter it were becoming quite difficult conditions
and so we decided to leave.
Great White Egret
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