Malcolm and I had agreed to go
to Woodhall Spa in Lincolnshire today to hopefully see a juvenile White-billed
Diver. It was on the River Witham commuting between Kirkstead Bridge and
Stixwould Station and so it was important to try and get a fix before starting
out to look for it.
We approached Kirkstead Bridge
via Witham Bank, which is a minor road running alongside the river seeing a
Great White Egret on the eastern shore.
When we arrived at the bridge we were aware that the diver was about 800
meters north of the bridge and after parking we walked along the old railway
line footpath before getting on the bank of the river to look for the
bird. Another birder making their way
back informed us that it was moving north slowly north indicating it was still
a good ten minutes’ walk ahead of us.
Two other birders were in
front of us and one stopped and alerted the other and when we caught them up we
could see the diver quite close to the shore but still 200m away. As it approached closer it didn’t appear to
be too concerned and I was able to get some nice shots of it from the top of
the bank.
White-billed Diver
White-billed Diver
White-billed Diver
White-billed Diver
White-billed Diver
White-billed Diver
White-billed Diver
It allowed us to get quite
close without becoming alarmed but when another photographer walked along the
bank right next to the water it started diving and gradually moved to the other
side of the river and thereafter gradually continued to move north. We followed it for a while with the now
reasonable flock of birders but eventually made our way back to the car. This is not the UK rarity that it once was as
there are now many coastal sightings particularly at several hotspots in
Scotland but what made it remarkable was that it was inland and on the same
river as one seen nineteen years ago.
A Sparrowhawk was observed as
we walked north along the bank and I did see a single Fieldfare whilst we were
watching the diver but otherwise we saw very little else.
Out next target was a drake
Ring-necked Duck, which has been present for some time on one of the pits at
Kirkby on Bain Gravel Pits, which was only a short drive away.
When we arrived, there was
only one other birder present and he hadn’t seen the Ring-necked Duck and
Malcolm commented that there was a larger surface of the water frozen over
today. Eventually quite a crowd
developed but all that was being seen amongst the Tufted Duck were several
Pochard and a single female Scaup. We
also had a look on the nearby tip where Malcolm had seen a Glaucous Gull on
Sunday but there was no sign of that either and after about ninety minutes on
site we headed for Frampton.
When we arrived at Frampton
there was a message on the phone that both the Ring-necked Duck and Glaucous
Gull had been seen about twenty minutes after we departed but we found out
later that they were on a different pit.
After some lunch, we went into
the centre and viewed Reedbed Marsh where we found a single female-type Scaup
and looking back over the grazing meadow found a Ringed Plover and several
Dunlin.
Our target birds here were Hen
Harrier and Merlin and with the sun shining brightly to the west we felt our
best chance was to go to the sea wall and look from there. When we reached the wall the salt marsh was quiet
and we stood looking back over the reserve where there were plenty of
birds. Mainly Wigeon but also plenty of
Shelduck and smaller numbers of Dunlin and Curlew and we also found four more
Ringed Plovers and two Black-tailed Godwits.
As we walked along the bank
towards the raptor watchpoint Malcolm picked up a couple of Short-eared Owls
but I failed to see them. There were
also three Spotted Redshanks feeding on one the flood pools and c.2000 Golden
Plover were also present.
When we reached the view point,
the salt marsh was still quiet but I did manage to connect with the two
Short-eared Owls but they were rather distant and into the sun. There was a forth Spotted Redshank on the
grazing meadows and we had three Little Egrets.
Malcolm then picked up a bird of prey flying low from the east, which
turned out to be a ring-tailed Hen Harrier but it wasn’t hunting and kept
flying east at some speed before dropping some distance away. I then picked up a female Marsh Harrier and
shortly afterwards a male appeared and a party of circa thirty Twite were seen in
flight on several occasions. One of the
Short-eared Owls was seen again but again some distance to the west and we
eventually started walking back to the car.
When we were a good way back along the sea wall Malcolm picked up
another ring-tailed Hen Harrier, which went by at a more leisurely pace as it
quartered the marsh before settling on a post.
Sunset at Frampton Marsh
On reaching the car we had a
coffee, seeing five Black-tailed Godwits flying over, before we set off for
home and then seeing a Barn Owl briefly as we drove along the road towards the
village.
No comments:
Post a Comment