A big apology to my fellow birders on this trip for arriving at the destination 20 minutes late, not the actions of a good leader! Two factors, I had to return to Gargrave from Embsay for my forgotten binoculars then road works and traffic lights in Harewood causing a big tail-back. Hopefully the famous Butty Van helped while the earlier car people waited patiently.
However, the weather played fair and was sunny though the cool wind whistling through the sunless hides meant we had lunch outside on two conveniently placed seats.
The Yorkshire Wildlife Trust reserve just north of the Humber is as a result of sand and gravel workings and has recently been extended with two new hides. Despite the recent lack of rain, the pool levels were quite high with not as much muddy areas and so fewer waders. The new area seemed to be most productive with 30 Curlew feeding at the edges and in shallower water. Lapwings were present as were a pair of Redshank and one Black Tail Godwit. We missed the reported Little Ringed Plover but some of us saw the Egyptian Goose, once a rare escape bird but now more common and breeding in Southern England, obviously beginning to work its way northwards.
Reed and Sedge Warblers have arrived and their songs accompanied our lunch but were not seen. Clare and Pragna are our very helpful bird song experts, but we are trying to learn another song each time, seeing a bird singing its song is a big help. We also heard and saw Blackcap, Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler, more summer visitors.
The only Hirundinidae seen were the Sand Martins though the Swallows and House Martins are reported to have arrived in England, the Swifts will be another week or so. The pools had Shelduck, Shoveler, Coot, Moorhen, Gadwall, Tufted Duck, Teal and both Grebes amongst others. Our total count was nearly 50 so an excellent day despite the rather fraught start.
Leader Josephine Drake
