Tophill Low Nature Reserve

Kit’s and Cat’s

2012-02-01T22:23:00.004Z

No sightings of the cattle egret in the first part of the week, but Derrick managed to re-find it at Easingwold Farm this afternoon again. Derrick has also managed to get the Hull Valley Website back up and running again so it’s always worth a look to see what else is on the go around the area.

Steve Brimble meanwhile witnessed this little egret making a rapid exit from a pheasant shoot across the river (and escaped fine as one would expect):

Again iceland gull has turned up – this time on ‘O’ res courtesy of HVWG:

It is worth noting HVWG’s observation on the fluctuation in numbers on the roost 4000 on the 28th and 22,000 yesterday. As with most nights Mediterranean gull (1st winter) was also to be found too.

Elsewhere egyptian goose was present on Watton with the two smew, pintail, black tailed godwit and redshank, and short-eared owl at Struncheonhill.

We'll be trying to take in some of these on the reserve walk on Saturday morning at 10am - all abilities welcome - but please expect a steady pace!.

Finally a local brought us this kittiwake from his garden in Leconfield which was released onto D res and presumably was OK. We do occasionally get kittiwakes on the reservoirs – but I’m not sure that this one counts for the year list if you release it on site!

Cat' in the compound

2012-01-30T08:56:00.005Z

Thanks to Erich for the Sunday update via the medium of Facebook - as he writes:
The Cattle Egret was still in the works compound this morning but flew off in the direction of Easingwold Farm at 11.30 [heard nothing more on it.] A mixed finch flock including Siskin and Lesser Redpoll was in the car park. Had a Short-eared Owl at Standingholme Pond. 2 Smew and drake Pintail on Watton NR. First winter Mediterranean Gull again roosted on O res.

Thanks too to Steve Coleman for these great pictures of the cattle egret during its stay in the works compound on Saturday:

And also for this improved image of the iceland gull from last week by Tom Lowe:

Remember too to keep checking the Flickr page for excellent photos including more of the cattle egret by Alan and some outstanding sparrowhawk pictures by Jeff Barker.

Icelandic images

2012-01-26T20:59:00.003Z

Thanks to Pete Drury for today’s updates from Tophill; whilst the cattle egret has continued to entertain at close range within the Treatment Works compound for Michael Flowers group, perhaps a more challenging bird to see was the iceland gull picked up by Tom Lowe on Tuesday evening and actually photographed here (left bird):

Presumably the same bird was present again tonight and reported yesterday at Brandesburton.

Also on Tuesday Tom reported the cetti’s warbler calling from South Lagoon Inlet hide, and peregrine on the pylon behind Easingwold Farm, with a further two well north of Tophill at Rotsea Farm along with 16 whooper swans.

In South Scrub today a ring-tailed hen harrier was seen by the practical work team, as well as lesser redpoll in a mixed flock of goldfinch and siskin in the alders of North Lagoon with photo’s here from James.

And for those who are quiet and patient in North Marsh the rewards can be great as for Steve Brimble this morning at around 8:45am:

Catty from a Ducati

2012-01-24T21:17:00.008Z

Cattle egret continues to steal the show – for the last few days its been either in the Treatment Works compound or in the car park offering very close in views – such as for kittyducati (aka Mandy) in her brilliant photo on the Flickr page here. HVWG also got another great shot here (all much to the detest of the local mistle thrushes!):

Amongst other pics appearing are those on Steve’s and Dave Ware’s blogs.

Today there was a lot of construction work in the compound so it had vacated back to Easingwold Farm – a passing mobile phone pic in-keeping with my current run of quality images showing the un-missable white blob here:

More of a sighting though came further up the road as you make the turn off the A164 lay-by into Tophill – just south of the road (opposite the beware of the bull sign) over the hedge is Watton Beck which passes through a field where the cattle have formed a wallow on the banks. 3 (presumed) little egrets were feeding here – we didn’t have time to stop but may be one to check out.

Elsewhere Sunday turned up drake pintail and female garganey on D reservoir. On Watton the two smew, 3 black tailed godwit, a water rail and a long eared owl were seen.

Monday saw the addition of bittern coming in to roost on South Marsh West at 17:05.

This and others including a fly over knot on Sunday now bring the Tophill year-list up to 97 for the year to date – thanks to HVWG for the running total - who's going to bag 100?

A cat treat'

2012-01-21T19:02:00.006Z

No sign of the cattle egret today until last light. A fox hunt on Watton Carrs may have dislodged it from Easingwold and we had nothing but negative back from Hempholme. However at last light Andy Nunn picked it up on the water treatment works compound lawns again - where it possibly could have been all day if no one glanced that way. It merited another fine shot from the bino/phone combo - one day I'll get a proper pic!:

Also seen today were ring tailed hen harrier at Hempholme and a Marsh Harrier over D woods.

Finally I now have the results in for the permit photo contest for the 2012-13 permit design. As stated the picture had to be taken in 2011 and be submitted by e-mail or in person. We've had some belters this year and thanks to everyone who has sent in the photos which make the blog.

I made the selection of a short list based on the needs of the permit design - we need an image that can work on a credit card size and have the space to work in the cardholder details too. At this scale supreme image quality was not necessarily important. Given we had a kingfisher for 2011-12 we decided we would go for a change this year. The images I thought worked well in no particular order include John Coish's black-necked grebe avoiding a tufted duck:

Martin Standley's common tern in flight:

Mike Day's courting great spotted woodpeckers:

Andy Marshall's common tern in a close shave with a peregrine:

Perched barn owl by Roy Vincent:

Osprey by Alan Walkington:

And otter by Andy Marshall:

However we took all images anonymously to the department at Yorkshire Water and got them to vote for their favourite on nothing more than image merit. A close second was Tony McLean's excellent barn owl in the evening light:

But the worthy winner was... Alan Walkington's picture of a the long-tailed tit family which always brings a smile to anyone viewing it.

It is this image that will feature in the new permit design and Alan wins a year's membership to site - well done! - Again thanks to everyone who submitted and apologies we couldn't include them all.

We are running the same open contest for 2012 - however - to save me deliberating on which to inlcude; we will this time be asking for individuals to submit just one photo each in December. Remember images need to work on credit card size and feature space for names etc - pictures must have been taken in or around Tophill during 2012 - happy snapping...

A near cat-astrophe

2012-01-20T20:50:00.004Z

The cattle egret remains on site – I don’t think it was picked up on Thursday but came on the pagers for 15:30 today. For the lucky people that have had good views there have been some great photos generated – Tony Robinson got these at Hunt Hill Farm earlier in the week after Michael Flowers course visit:

HVWG too got these great pictures:

A highlight from Wednesday was this iceland gull on the D res roost – it is the pale bird centre of shot second row up – A nice second showing for the year only half way through Jan:

And this coal tit visited the feeders to accompany the willow tit:

And the near cat-aclysm? That would be as photographed by Rich and Giselle and visible on their excellent lighthouse journal blog here!

Cat catch up

2012-01-16T19:48:00.004Z

The cattle egret was again on show today - firstly at Hempholme, actually inside the water treatment works compound at 2:30pm and then last thing back at Easingwold farm where HVWG got this shot which is perhaps marginally better than my last!:

At last light - 16:19 it again returned east apparently back to Hempholme. Around the rest of the reserve were 2 willow tits in D wood - HVWG pics here:

Short-eared owls are still on Struncheonhill with an adult mediterranean gull on D res roost. And on Watton NR 2 smew, egyptian goose, 1 white-fronted goose, 1 pink-footed goose and reported garganey.

Thanks to HVWG for the updates.

The early birder catches the worm (or saves a walk)

2012-01-16T10:37:00.003Z

Thanks to HVWG and Martin for the days updates from Sunday:

Everyone’s main interest was the cattle egret – early risers were rewarded with the close in showing at Easingwold Farm, but at 10:30am it flew north and returned to its traditional haunt of Hempholme. The best photo’s yet of it I have seen were taken by Martin Standley and are on his blog here.

Again thanks to the locals for their patience – if you fancy owning a house that looks out onto a cattle egret then why not look at this one which is where the original sighting was made from. In all seriousness though the Hempholme area does seem to be very up and coming for wildlife – the presence of lots of HLS wet grassland, woodland and shooting cover seems to be generating big returns on wildlife at present.

Really the best bird of the day was a 2w glaucous gull on D res roost – a year first apparently found by Erich and photographed by Martin and on his blog here. A 1w mediterranean gull was another nice bird on O.

Elsewhere the two smew were present – photo here by HVWG:

And on Watton too were egyptian goose, pink-footed goose, c.40 eurasian white-fronted geese. At Struncheonhill were one to two short-eareds, with willow tit D woods, 100 chaffinch in the car park and tawny owl, and three egrets overflying – presumably little.

Easing the walk

2012-01-14T19:11:00.004Z

As hoped the cattle egret showed brilliantly today down to a few feet to repay those who could not see it earlier.

I believe the bird was picked up at Hempholme Farm area again early doors before birders reported it flying south at about 11:00 - after the start of a local shoots and a later fox hunt on the east bank. The livestock of Easingwold Farm (the first farm outside the main gates of Tophill Low) has always been a hope and sure enough it was picked up here – actually on the mown lawn of the farm house and feeding with the chickens.

The link here shows the location – note the public footpath and please stick to it. It is suggested that viewing is best from the path which subtly skirts the farmyard to the West – please do not enter the yard itself despite what the map suggests. This image I obtained with a phone and binoculars from within Tophill this afternoon – and as you can see this is someone’s private lawn.

For closer up views as available down to a matter of feet see Andy Hood’s excellent photo here.

Big thanks to Reserve Volunteer Richard Sears who knows the Farmer and has contacted him to explain the situation. He is currently OK with it and has said the bird has apparently been there the last 3 afternoons – but as ever – please be respectful to landowners when viewing. Richard mows the lawn for Easingwold Farm which must be why it's there – if you too would like to attract a cattle egret to your lawn visit his website here!

Again – parking is an issue – the road in is a main access for the Treatment Works, farms and residences so we would ask that people park within the reserve and visit the farm on foot. There is no official parking on this road. There are plenty of great birds in the reserve also – short-eared and barn owl have again been seen around Hempholme weir, willow tit in D woods, bittern midday on Watton NR with two smew to name a few today. If you are desperate to avoid a charge there is a small public car park at Wilfholme landing to the south from which you can walk through the mud across the back of Watton NR to the EA hide and subsequently on the prow to Easingwold. However there are only about 5 parking spaces here so expect not to get in.

The bird made a brief circumnavigation of O res mid afternoon before returning to the farm. At last light the bird almost certainly flew over the reserve car park NE - straight back towards Hempholme Farm - we can't see it going far overnight.

The other notable sighting of the day was a near ermine stoat frolicking on the ice of North Marsh for observers today.

The cat’s out the bag

2012-01-13T14:39:00.004Z

Many apologies for something we do not like doing – but there has been a cattle egret present next door to Tophill Low Nature Reserve since at least the 29th of December – and is undoubtedly Bob Askwith’s bird from Kelk on the 18th and 19th of that month – and the Sunk Island bird from November the 7th.

This is as we can work out about the 10th for Yorkshire and the first readily visible since the Fairburn bird of October 2006.

The reason we have not put this out sooner was at the request of the land-owner because it had only been showing on private farmland and was not visible from Tophill. Whilst visible from the road it is single track and would not support the traffic parked up. Before anyone levels ‘suppressors’ against us – we were not at liberty to disclose this information and create an access issue for private farmers. Prior to this morning the number of Tophill regulars who had seen the bird could be counted on less than one hand (and not me either). At the invite of a local landowner one member of Hull Valley Wildlife Group obtained these pictures yesterday:

Based on the land-owners initial photo:

We had assumed the bird would quickly end up in a publicly viewable area and we could put it out – however it obviously likes it and is apparently feeding most days in a field of sheep near Larum Farm, Hempholme. Since this morning it has come to our attention the bird has been rumbled so we now need to get the news out to avoid potential conflicts over access.

We have tried in the last two weeks to negotiate parking with local farmers unsuccessfully – so at present vehicles are requested to park at Tophill Low NR car park (normal admission applies) or find a sensible and legal location – probably nearer Brandesburton – we have yet to find one to recommend but will keep you posted. Vehicles are requested NOT to park on the verges of the single track road to and from Hempholme village – or in the village/hamlet itself (which is little more than a farm yard). We have been in touch with the land owners, parish councillor and local police to advise that we are publicising the bird with this proviso.

There is nothing to restrict access to the usual rights of way – but again DO NOT enter private farmland or leave the paths – we have been specifically asked to make this be known by the Farmers. The link here shows the usual centre of activity to the south of the village.

Note the public footpath across the fields – we have spoken with the farmer and suggested people will be using this – currently it is ploughed – but please stick to it. They have also asked to point out there is no access to the east bank of the river Hull above Hempholme Lock.

At lunch time today the bird could be viewed from within Tophill in the fields to the east of the river.

Ultimately make a day of it – there are a few good year ticks from the car park to Hempholme – willow tit, goldcrest and kingfisher in D woods, with potentially three species of owl present around Hempholme – like the short-eared’s courtesy of Rory:

And John Hirschfield:

Unfortunately no green-winged teal or greeland white front sightings of late. But the smew and garganey have still been seen on Watton today with egyptian goose and pintail and a 1st winter med gull on O res. Beware too of the pair of little egrets also regularly around Hempholme.

Once again we are very sorry we couldn’t let people know for their ’11 lists – but as you’ll appreciate our hands are tied when on private property.

Enjoy the bird and view it responsibly – if we as birders are seen to be a nuisance we will never hear about future birds that frequent the area also.

Inside and out of the otters

2012-01-09T19:33:00.008Z

Chances are you may have seen the excellent feature on otters at Tophill Low and the River Hull this evening.

So by means as a bit of background to the story:

Otters in the river Hull

Otters have always been indigenous to the River Hull and Holderness area. Like most populations in England during the 50’s to 80’s they suffered from the widespread use of industrial and agricultural pollution in the form of dieldrin, PCB’s and the like. Canalisation and drainage schemes did not help their cause and the animals became extinct in many river catchments.

At their low ebb the otters in the river Hull had dwindled to handful in the upper reaches – but even in the bad times spraints were still found around Wansford and Brigham. This carries great significance as the Hull otters are genuine East Yorkshire otters. In some areas – such as over the Wolds on the Derwent the population was deemed to be so small that captive reared individuals were released to bolster the population. This has never happened on the river Hull (contrary to some beliefs)and as such they are gentically very valuable.

Gradually the otters have made a return and there are now estimated to be a dozen or so in the Holderness area. Again we have had mutterings that the population is rocketing leading to fears over fish stocks – however otters are extremely territorial animals. A dog will require around ten miles of prime river, and a female around six of lesser habitat. They will not tolerate other individuals or even their own mature young and will fight viciously to protect their territory – often targeting their opponents genitalia to render them ‘useless’. This has been reflected in heavy scarring in some road casualties. According to Jon Traill of the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust casualties have been recovered from Fraisthorpe on the coast and individuals have now been seen on Hull foreshore; reflecting a population expanding outwards.

Meanwhile the hazards of modern life unfortunately claim many otters both on the roads and in illegal eel nets – such as those that claimed what could well have been two of Tophill’s otters at High Eske two years ago.

All in this makes for a stable population – the otters have been well attuned to their environment for thousands of years and will not eat themselves out of their environment – but inevitably there will be occasional conflict when an otter finds an easy and captive meal – like koi ponds and intensive fisheries. There is much information available on how these can be protected. Ultimately it is telling that the winning peg on the EA all River Hull fishing match this summer was won at Hempholme – next to one of the rivers best otter habitats.

Seeing the otters

Those who have put in hours of time have sometimes managed to glimpse these animals at Tophill Low and other reserves like High Eske. Sometimes people are lucky – like those on two of our roost walks this autumn when an otter ran in front of us twice running. But generally it requires a long wait in the hides – North Marsh, South Marsh West / East and Watton have all returned sightings in the last year. But for example the footage in the Youtube video below was the culmination of approximately 40 hours or more of observation!

Much of our understanding has been obtained through the use of a trail camera – these have come down in price massively in the last few years. We have been using a Wildgame IR4 – but there are many others as good or better out there.

One of the interesting notes is the one family of an adult and three cubs in the video have been observed from as far north as Hempholme to as far south as half way along Leven Canal – a huge area.

Some of our quiet and patient photographers have managed pictures – like these outstanding pictures by Andy Marshall:

Tony McLean:

and Rory Selvey to name a few:

Remember – the reserve closes at 6pm nightly – to observe outside these times you need to be a member – details above. If you don’t have a members permit (or have a valid day ticket in the accompaniment of one of our members) you will be asked to leave.

Again please be respectful when viewing – make noise and the otters will simply not show or pass the hides underwater. And they usually only pass once – so if you are noisy the chances are those next to you whom have waited for 5 hours may not be pleased…

In addition to the BBC InsideOut team we would also like to thank the volunteers at Tophill who work both on and off screen to better the habitats. Credit is also due to Jon and Gareth and their team from the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust who helped us with the piece and Andy Walker for his infra-red binos!

The year rolls on

2012-01-09T10:35:00.002Z

Big thanks again to HVWG who has been keeping a rolling total of the figures over the first week of the year:

By 2nd:
71 Feral Pigeon D wall
72 Kingfisher WNR

By 4th:
73 Garganey WNR
74 Cettis Warbler South Lagoon

By 5th:
75 Canada Goose SME
76 Shelduck SME
77 Fieldfare Top of site

By 6th:
78 Common Buzzard Struncheon (W over WNR 8th)
79 Hen Harrier E of River.
80 Starling Top of site.

By 7th:
81 Iceland Gull D res

By 8th:
82 Lesser Redpoll Nth Lagoon
83 Pink-footed Goose WNR
84 Grey Heron W over WNR
85 Green sandpiper Hempholme

Still no mention of Song Thrush this year.

Birds present yesterday (the 8th) included:
2 smew:

garganey WNR, green winged teal still WNR and O res (same bird). 2 mediterranean gull (1 st wint D then O res, adult D res,) egyptian goose and 2 pintail Watton NR, 20 siskin N Lagoon.

Med gull:

And earlier on the 5th:
O res: 940 herring gull, 8 Scandinavian herring gull.
SME: c150 curlew, 15 canada geese & 1 shelduck.
WNR: Ruff and 3 Blackwit.

Race day contenders

2012-01-07T19:08:00.004Z

Those of you in local birding circles will likely be aware that the Mike Clegg memorial charitable bird race is running tomorrow across the county. We’ve already had some interest from prospective listers so hopefully todays sightings will be of use.

The big highlight has been an adult iceland gull on the D res roost tonight – confirming finder Martin Hodges thoughts that this is ‘the best gull winter ever.’ In addition a 1st winter mediterranean gull was also in attendance with a fine drake goosander all day.

The northern reserve also saw a presence of the short eared owls again albeit only early afternoon – check out Alan’s pics on Flickr here. Barn owl too has been delighting observers along with the usual north marsh kingfisher and car park siskins. David Ware as he writes here also had a ring tailed hen harrier on Hallytreeholme (East Hull bank) rough grassland yesterday.

As has been the case all winter you then need to turn to Watton NR at the other extremity for the rest. White-fronted geese continue to fluctuate between 2 and 100 depending on the luck of the observer – presumably the greenland race is amongst them somewhere. Apparently green winged teal showed after finally being flushed out by a passing peregrine late morning but was not easy. 2 red head smew have now made a welcome appearance along with a fine drake pintail, egyptian goose – chased by a swan here – photo by Andy Marshall:

Garganey was seen yesterday – not sure is anyone logged it for today. 3 black-tailed godwit were also present, and the rest of the week has seen them with a ruff and up to 12 redshank too. The last bittern sighting was on the 4th here too; so hopefully a good range for any competitor.

If it were me…

I would aim to arrive at Tophill mid-afternoon and hit the site late in the day. It’s a difficult choice which way to go – but I would perhaps go north first if you needed short eared and barn owl and potentially a lucky hen harrier – stopping to look for the reliable willow tits on the D woods feeders and hope for a kingfisher on North Marsh.

I would then strike out for Watton NR – hoping the wildfowl is playing ball and readily visible. It is then a choice – stay for the bittern and little egrets roosting and try for a med on O res at very last light / or return to D res for the main gull roost in the hope of something more exotic and a likely goosander.

Tawny’s are easy to hear if not see after dark, and if you are really keen you could always sit next to Scurf Dyke in the hope of a hunting long eared…

Best of luck to all competing!

Now we may yet re-schedule – but I am assured that the Tophill Low otter featurette on BBC InsideOut will be airing on Monday night – but we’ll wait and see!

And finally I found a bit of time to edit together this taste of last summer – not long to go now…(Oh - and presumably it is the same in the video as the field - you may need 'young ears' for this!)

Either way up it's a good start...

2012-01-03T20:08:00.003Z

After a further investigation we now have a new total for New Year’s Day – 70 species all in – Big thanks to HVWG for compiling this:

1. Mute Swan
2. White-fronted Goose
3. Greylag Goose
4. Egyptian Goose
5. Wigeon
6. Gadwall
7. Teal
8. Green-winged Teal
9. Mallard
10. Pintail
11. Shoveler
12. Pochard
13. Tufted Duck
14. Goldeneye
15. Smew
16. Pheasant
17. Little Grebe
18. Great Crested Grebe
19. Cormorant
20. Bittern
21. Little Egret
22. Sparrowhawk
23. Kestrel
24. Peregrine Falcon
25. Moorhen
26. Coot
27. Golden Plover
28. Lapwing
29. Ruff
30. Black-tailed Godwit
31. Curlew
32. Redshank
33. Black-headed Gull
34. Mediterranean Gull
35. Common Gull
36. Herring Gull
37. Great Black-backed Gull
38. Stock Dove
39. Wood Pigeon
40. Collared Dove
41. Barn Owl
42. Short-eared owl
43. Tawny Owl
44. Great Spotted Woodpecker
45. Grey Wagtail
46. Pied Wagtail
47. Wren
48. Dunnock
49. Robin
50. Blackbird
51. Redwing
52. Mistle Thrush
53. Goldcrest
54. Long-tailed Tit
55. Blue Tit
56. Great Tit
57. Coal Tit
58. Treecreeper
59. Magpie
60. Jackdaw
61. Rook
62. Carrion Crow
63. Tree Sparrow
64. Chaffinch
65. Brambling
66. Greenfinch
67. Goldfinch
68. Siskin
69. Bullfinch
70. Reed Bunting

A few of these birds were also on the go yesterday – thanks to HVWG for the pics – Egyptian goose again on Watton NR with the geese:

White-fronted geese and curlew:

The green winged-teal was also on show too just along with the pair of bitterns coming in to roost again. For these the EA hide has been recommended. The smew, black-tailed godwits and ruff were also showing. This fieldfare was a bit more showy though:

And this barn owl though nice would have done better as a little owl (the box support is perched upon:

And these five whoopers were a nice year first:

Lastly Andy had the cetti's warbler calling again from the South Lagoon hide - if you fancy a go then do so sooner rather than later; we will be undertaking some management works with the EA and the Treatment works in that area in coming weeks for which South Lagoon main hide will need to be temporarily closed.

Clickety click it’s the new year

2012-01-02T11:27:00.008Z

66 was the total haul for new year's day at the reserve with those wanting a good start to their ’12 lists having a good day like Jess. The big highlight for most vistors was the green winged teal – visible most of the day on Watton NR – many thanks to HVWG for the pics and counts:

The green winged is in the lower left in all pictures.

The two bitterns again returned to roost at Watton too – which is where most of the day’s action was. Alan managed a picture for the Flickr page earlier in the week here. Red-head smew as ever, with three black-tailed godwit, a ruff and egyptian goose. At least 90 eurasian white-fronted geese were about and the greenland race showed for a select few. A check of the gull roost returned another mediterranean gull – HVWG:

For a full round up of gull activity and a nice montage of some of the year’s highlights visit Martin’s page.

Two short-eared owl’s showed briefly before the heavy rain of late afternoon – along with four separate barn owls – one of the Hempholme birds here:

Year end

2011-12-31T21:48:00.003Z

Thanks to HVWG and Martin for todays updates:

2 bittern showing at Watton NR with a red-head smew and a roosting long-eared owl - in addition to the one Tom Lowe had yesterday hunting Struncheonhill at the northern end of the complex - it would seem that long-eared's are as prevalent as short-eared's around the reserve but more difficult to find.

Two short eared owls were again at Struncheonhill with a ring-tailed hen harrier on the go around D res.

The last sighting of the green-winged teal was on the 29th and the greenland-white front on the 28th - so still a chance for Jan 1st.

2011 draws to a close with a final 1st winter mediterranean gull on D res roost.

Over all we've had an excellent year at the reserve with some great birds from the purple heron onwards, and some great conservation works with the new Hempholme Meadows project and sand martin colony. Big thanks to all the volunteer teams and individuals that have helped out in umpteen ways over the year.

Hopefully 2012 will be equally good...

Birding off the Christmas dinners

2011-12-28T08:50:00.002Z

Big thanks to both HVWG and John H for their updates from yesterday at Tophill:

Female type goosander flew south over car park and 12 pintail flew west there.

Green-winged teal, smew, male pintail and two black-tailed godwit were on Watton NR along with c800 greylag geese and 70 (visible) white-fronts. At dusk 34 white-fronts flew toward WNR from a Field E of D res outlet (where earlier they could not be viewed because they were too close to the River Hull bank) therefore logged 104 min. 60 Curlews were also E of River.

Shooting disturbed the south end of the complex sending many extra ducks onto D res, including the green winged teal and for its only view today the garganey.

Three short-eared owl were about at Hempholme and ring-tailed hen harrier was logged ranging river bank to North Marsh at 15.00 – check out Rory’s updated blog for more owl pics here.

A 1st winter mediterranean gull flew onto D res for a while; translocating to O res prior to dusk. A female pintail was also on D res.

The tally of great-crested grebe was two. One per Res!

Another reminder; please remember the Jan 1st year listing event is cancelled – the reserve is still open and we’ll be hoping to get some kind of count – the new events programme should appear in early Spring.

Photo'ing out of the box

2011-12-27T11:14:00.003Z

Thanks to HVWG for the boxing day updates:

Green winged teal still present on Watton NR with the red head smew, 2 black tailed godwit and approx 50 white fronted geese. Another new species for the moment was a female garganey courtesy of John.

James has some more shots of the green winged teal on his blog here

At least 1 short eared owl was on the wing at Hempholme, and on d res the roost returned 11,000 common and 6,000 black headed gulls with 670 great black backed and 275 herring - but no white wingers - though the two little egrets made their daily commute back from work at Hempholme home to Watton at dusk.

And lastly Tony escaped the Christmas fever and got a great present as a result - check out the Flickr stream for the pics.

Not even for a stirring mouse…

2011-12-24T17:25:00.003Z

The night before Christmas at Hempholme remains not the best place if you’re a rodent. The short-eared owls have continued their erratic displays in the area and yielded some great views as here for David Ware. And who can forget the barn owls too? A pair gave great shows for Tony and Rory viewable on the Flickr Group here.

At the same time though we have had another glimpse of our long-eared too – apparently giving great displays along the concrete road on Thursday. Just further to the west of Struncheonhill on Tuesday Tom Lowe also had more nice raptors in the form of a female merlin, peregrine and juv hen harrier.

The green-winged teal has continued to show on Watton ‘til reportedly today, where the white-front flock with the greenland bird and this smew courtesy of Tom reside:

Thanks to Tom for also sending this video grab (below) of the glaucous gull which has given a spectacular performance; showing every night until Thursday, when it was replaced by a reported caspian gull – if anyone has more info on the bird that would be great. Thanks to Martin for the update which showed no sign of either on this evenings roost:

Merry Christmas to all…

Christmas greenery

2011-12-21T20:54:00.005Z

Highlight of the last weekend has been a green-winged teal on Watton NR found on Sunday and still present this afternoon – thanks to HVWG for this shot:

Obviously the main thing you're looking for is that vertical stripe on the flank -for more info on the subtleties of picking this out from a standard eurasian teal see here. As far as I am aware finder credit goes to Lee Johnson – well done.

The other highlight has been the glaucous gull, which after wowing us turning up twice in a month has now shown every night up to this evening on D res – thanks to HVWG for the pic:

(correctly identified as ‘the big white blob immediately behind the great black backed gull in the centre of the shot). Martin too has more from Sunday here.

A lone lesser black-backed gull was also in on Sunday – but is set against a general downturn in numbers of black-headed gulls over the last few days.

If we can be rude enough to dismiss them as ‘the usual,’ the short-eared owls have still been showing at Hempholme – generally two daily up to and including today. Likewise the seemingly sedentary eurasian white-fronted goose flock are still present (between 60-90 daily) along with their greenland pal.

A step down again and ‘just’ the red-head smew has been seen on Watton as usual; where Tony McLean got this unusal perspective:

and in the scheme of things a brambling with 4 siskin in the car park and lagoons area barley credit a mention.

Obviously a great range for your new years day year list; however – please note that due to unforeseen circumstances we have had to cancel the Warden led walk that day. The reserve will be open as normal, and likely our team will be on hand to point people in the right direction – apologies.

As an alternative if you do fancy starting the year in a good way though, then why not offer your skills to benefit the BTO:

Volunteers Wanted
The BBS is the most important annual survey the BTO undertakes and we need volunteers who are prepared to survey a square over a number of years so they can really get a feel about changing local bird populations and contribute to our knowledge of the national picture too.

Could you spare 2 mornings in April and May every year?
Can you identify birds by sight and sound?
Are you prepared to travel to a location?
Are you prepared to commit to doing the survey work?

If yes:
There will be Free BBS Training Days on:

Thursday 26th January at Waters Edge, Barton on Humber
Saturday 28th January at Top Hill Low

The training will be very practical, based on doing rather than listening and last from 10.00 a.m. – 4.00 p.m.

Interested?
If you have any questions or to book a place email donandchris@hotmail.co.uk
Note Places are limited and will be initially open to new BBS surveyors only
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Finally – at last we can show you some of Tony Simpson’s results from long hours in North Marsh; whether this is a good idea on the fox’s part is debatable – as messing about on ice for anyone is a stupid idea…

Santa Glauc’s pays a visit

2011-12-17T21:35:00.003Z

Our present this evening courtesy of Martin was this glaucous gull – likely a different bird from last weeks:

From the other side of Europe was a mediterranean gull last night – pictures on Martin’s site here.

Elsewhere over the last couple of days were the first brambling to be mixed in with the car park flock, hopefully keeping out the way of this sparrowhawk claiming another victim from the feeders:

A record tumbling 118 eurasian white fronts were present on Decoy Fields yesterday along with the greenland bird still present today, with two little egrets around Hempholme. The short eared owls were also on the go again today – 2 being seen around D res.
Again visit the Flickr page where there are some of the latest pictures on view such as Tony’s great pic here.

Polar conditions

2011-12-15T21:57:00.006Z

More a reference to the birding than the weather; first freeze on South Marsh East:

The cold weather has resulted in a trip to the extreme north or south for the wildlife at present. On the southern end of the reserve at Watton NR most of the geese and wildfowl have accumulated:

Trying to pick out the white-fronts is a challenge when sleeping or hidden from view:

But we have had the greenland bird reported yesterday again. Also reliably present is the red-head smew – will we see any more this winter?:

Curlew are always around the reserve:

And they can be seen from South Marsh West on Baswick Carr (along with Beverley Minster) now some of the big riverbank willows have gone as part of the Environment Agency tree management works. The screen around the marshes will remain, but most of the trees on the berm are being removed:

The work is being undertaken to prevent wash out behind the trees when in spate, stop root damage to the flood defences and reduce debris travelling downstream. The work is also advantageous for the reserve as it removes many of the big predator perches that have developed next to our breeding areas - and opens a line of site for migratory waders onto the marshes.

Apart from the wildlife centre feeders already supplying the sparrowhawk again, you then need to travel north for the other views. These two barn owls were preparing for a less snowy night’s hunting this evening:

As ever though it is short-eared owls which are flavour of the month – this is one of Tony McLean’s excellent recent shots which at last fully do these magnificent birds justice:

But more can be seen on the Flickr group here, and undoubtedly on his website soon here.

Michael Flowers too has been getting some great images here – and I am sure David Ware will follow on his blog.

Thanks to Brian Spence too for this picture of a choppy sunset on D res:

If you are looking to escape the family then we are open every day through Christmas – normal admission and opening times apply.

The next event on the calendar is the year listing day on the 1st of Jan. For all you keen listers – or just to walk off the night before – we will be doing two walks at 10am and 1pm to try and log as many bird species around site as possible in the day. With the variety of species about we should stand a good chance against 61 species 2011, 74 in 2010, and 69 in 2009.

Winter wonderland

2011-12-11T20:23:00.003Z

The winter specialities kept on snowing today; the first being a male and female pair of hen harriers quartering the fields over Easingwold Farm at 09:30 courtesy of Les and Margaret. This was followed by around 20 siskin in the car park with a mixed finch flock of up to a 100 birds on the tarmac.

By this time Jeff had already upped the white-front flock to 103 birds, 1 being the greenland bird. As ever smew was present on Watton NR all day.

It now looks like we may be keeping the wildlife centre building limping on into Spring at least – therefore we have decided to re-instate the bird feeders now we know we won’t be removing them mid winter. It took all of around 30mins for the birds to find them – including a robin with a ring – one to try and read this winter. Meanwhile Cliff and the team have prepped the woodcock meadow ready for trying to re-find them. All it needs now is me to clean the windows and we’re away…

The mammal safari turned up a bank vole in the longworth traps, along with the usual fox and deer tracks. Otter evidence is never hard to find – as exampled by this mound of spraints at Hempholme:

The biggest rarity though was this – which, whilst it may look like it has been chewed up and spat out by a fox (well, actually it had…)is actually the most uncommon mammal on the reserve sighting-for-sighting; water shrew. There have only been 2 other recorded live sightings in my four years at Tophill:

They are specialist swimmers and very adept at diving for aquatic insects. This was found on the north marsh bank – close to where the last two records have come from. To see the foxes in action visit Tony McLean’s latest blog entry here.

Later the day saw 3 short-eared owls again at Hempholme.

As dusk fell we managed this nice grey wagtail on D res wall – courtesy of HVWG:

2 pintail and 1 goosander came into roost, and the day nicely capped off with a glaucous gull – the second this year – found and photographed here by HVWG:

(the bird is the nearest in the picture - identifiable by its snow-white tail and wings and mucky grey neck)

All in all a good way to spend an otherwise miserable day…

ever expanding owls...

2011-12-10T19:06:00.003Z

A quick update just to whet folks appetites again; I undertook some construction work on the sluice at Hempholme meadows this afternoon and was therefore present to monitor owl activity. Prior to 14:15 there was no activity at all on the northern site with a succession of failed observers coming and going.

However regular Paul connected with – as suspected – three short-eared owls showing well from then onwards. Martin then arrived and with more pairs of eyes we could ascertain there were at least 4 short-eared owls present. Whilst none came particularly close to our observation point I could at least better my own shots as below:

Note the second bird top right here:

They are constantly on the move in and out of Struncheonhill shooting estate so there could easily be more. In addition we caught a brief glimpse of a smaller bird which had good potential for hunting long-eared. Also about were at least three barn owls too.

As promised follow the link here for a map of the location; the arrow shows the approximate epicentre of owl activity. Note the public footpaths marked in green and please stick to them. The area of woodland and scrapes the owls are hunting is in a private shooting estate (and a great example of how shooting when managed correctly can benefit conservation) – but there is a pleasant walk all around the perimeter which negates any need for anyone to enter the interior (from which people will and have been escorted off by the owners).

Also at this end of the reserve were two green sandpipers on the river Hull, and our greenland white-front and 69 eurasian’s successfully evaded the Watton Carr shoots, being present at dusk on D res.

If the rain moves through early enough for some daylight and it remains calm hopefully the owls should perform again tomorrow late on. A forecast windy week will likely force them into the grass again subsequently.

Short days and high ISO’s

2011-12-09T22:07:00.003Z

We may not have quite the volume spectacle of Worlaby Carrs (if you are not familiar see here); but East Yorkshire’s owls put on an excellent show this afternoon, whilst showing one of my Yorkshire Water colleagues our Hempholme project - and clearly sensing my lack of camera - they decided to fly around us around 30 feet away, and seemed entirely comfortable co-existing with a pair of barn owls also present.
Whilst I would happily take credit for our habitat management at Hempholme, in reality, it is probably a better advert for Higher Level Stewardship Schemes. The wet grassland at Standingholme entered last year by local farming concern JSR’s clearly supports a huge prey abundance to support four hunting owls and a kestrel simultaneously.

A return with the camera last thing revealed the owls but a lack of light – records here:

In addition I left two owls hunting Struncheonhill ponds, only to find another on D res near the gantry. Either an owl had flown very fast down the drain – or more likely there are at least three now present in the area – we’re catching up with the South Bank slowly! In fairness though they are ‘fair-weather owls’ – they do not show in high wind or rain – the calmness of this afternoon was great for them.

Folk are starting to return more pictures though – check out Mike Randall’s page for some great shots here.

Also about was the kestrel consuming small rodent:

The last couple of days are still returning the greenland white-fronted goose with at least 50 eurasian white fronts – art shot here:

For much better of all the assembled geese see Dave Ware’s blog here. A white goose in amongst prompted a look yesterday – but was just a farmyard goose. Never-the-less thanks to AWbirder for this guide bill profiles in ross’ hybrids – which may prove useful again one day.

Red-head smew still on watton, where a peregrine was sat on the deck yesterday.

A final word of note: Be careful on the access road to Tophill – with the first proper freezes it can be dodgy as it is un-gritted – and a light shower at dusk this evening will make it very treacherous tomorrow.

Gassed guzzlers

2011-12-07T21:06:00.005Z

The main highlight on the reserve remains the greenland white fronted goose – still present yesterday – and very likely today – but in all these winds the geese including the partially hidden white-front flock were keeping in the lee of the EA borrow pits hide. Perhaps a good excuse to visit if you’ve never been? – the easiest access is to park up at Wilfholme landing and walk up the west bank of Beverley and Barmston Drain. They are a bit flighty now as a gas gun has unsurprisingly appeared in Decoy Fields – a fair deal given the number of greylags present. HVWG sent these pics of it earlier in the week:

It is currently in the accompaniment of up to 74 eurasian white-fronts:

We also have a finder to credit – well done to Mark Breaks who was the first to log the bird and put it out on Friday – he also got the best photo yet of it at that time too:

Unfortunately he didn’t see the bonaparte’s gull…

Also around are these pink-footed geese courtesy of HVWG:

As was this picture of the continued whooper swan presence – getting seen off by the local mute swan here:

There have been up to 13 whooper swans on D res on Sunday. Another photo being on Martin’s blog here, and on James’s site here.

The best of the rest includes:
Red-head smew – daily on Watton
Grey wagtail – frequent around site in last 5 days
What must be a migrant flock of chaffinch in the car park – between 40 and 90 logged
Pintail on D res on Saturday.
Short eared owl – Saturday / Sunday – north site
Wintering green sandpiper – flying down the river on Sunday
A ringtail hen harrier at Hempholme on Sunday
An excellent 900 great black backed gulls roosting on O res on Sunday
Egyptian goose – Standingholme ponds – Saturday and Monday
Goosander – 2 females on D res – Monday
Peregrine on the approach road on Monday
Willow tit – Tuesday - woodland feeders
Barn owls – two present yesterday on north scrub – for photo see Rory’s latest Flickr entries here.
And likewise a sneak peak on Tony’s page for a cracking redwing picture – at last something is starting to eat all those berries still around!.
Also check out Brian Spence’s Flickr page – if only for his excellent gull roost pics here.

Thanks too to David Marritt for this great picture. Speaking to the regulars it transpires our kingfishers are actively targeted by the sparrowhawks – with repeated ‘range finding’ practices on the perches. Maybe it’s time for their winter quarters…

A final call too for the mammal safari on Sunday - book in adavance 01377 270690. Looking at the tracks in the snow can be great fun!...

Greenland white-front pics

2011-12-02T22:38:00.005Z

Big thanks to Martin for these pictures of the flavirostris race - or greenland white-fronted goose present both on D res and Decoy Fields this afternoon (the winter wheat fields to the west if you are not familiar with the name):

These birds can sometimes be 'a bit dodgy' as we've come to expect with our geese visits so far this winter - but this one does look very good for a gen. article - it being the bird much darker than its neighbours, with an equally nice big orange bill and the very bold belly streaking:

For more photo's check out Martin's site here.

As for the finder - read Martin's blog as it says it all; it appears our 'phantom' may have struck again...

...maybe they'll submit a report for that bonaparte's one day...

Regardless of that, well done whomever found it - and to Tim for re-finding it. As I am aware this may well be a new Tophill ssp. tick.

If you are viewing tomorrow on the fields please be considerate, as they can be flighty (and you can't see the belly bands as well when they've all fled onto D res!)

The shortage ends

2011-12-02T16:48:00.004Z

At last we have some photographs of the short-eared owls at Hempholme! Thanks to Michael Flowers for these pictures taken on Wednesday:

Visit his blog for many more here.

And this one by David Marritt yesterday – hopefully the first ones of many:

The next big news is on the geese front. The count yesterday saw us back up to 53 eurasian white fronts with an egyptian thrown in, but today we have had reported 69 eurasian white fronts – along with a single greenland white front – race flavirostris. A good bird for the area (if indeed 69 ‘standard’ white fronts isn’t!!). This has been apparently seen by several reliable observers today – but having not been there I will not stick finder credits on until we know them.

Other than that; red head smew on Watton today with two black tailed godwits yesterday and 7 Redshank + a pair of flyover goosander.

A reminder that the monthly reserve walk will be on at 10am tomorrow – and we’ll likely be looking at the geese and tracking down short-eared owls. Event free with standard admission.

Also we still have places available on the mammal safari next Sunday at 1pm – book in advance only on 01377 270690. An chance to look for otter tracks and trails, fox and deer prints and see what the trail camera’s found this week. Realistically whether we’ll get views of our native mammals like Brian Spence did on the 29th is unlikely!:

Or for that matter pictures like this by David Ware – visit his site for the full sequence!:

Windy winterers

2011-11-29T23:21:00.005Z

From the mist to the wind in the last few days - but I guess it could be worse; Short-eared owl has been seen irregularly again – on Sunday hunkered down 4 feet from the concrete road edge at Hempholme, and at 7:30 this morning hunting the side of D reservoir walls out the wind.

To complete the quintet little owl was also logged near Angram Farm at first light; so we’ve now had all the owls in the last two weeks (within 2 miles of the reserve at any rate!) – and still not a photo of any of them! I see Tony did manage a nice fieldfare though in his valiant efforts here…

The white-front flock reached a peak of 65 on Sunday – thanks to HVWG for this pic:

This had shrunk to around 46 over the last couple of days but I see birds are being logged at nearby High Eske too. Thanks to Ian Traynor too for these images:

Smew has been showing again well at Watton too – HVWG pic here – there is a suggestion this could be a young male:

Ian also got this pic:

And likewise of the curlew present too:

As too did HVWG:

Also on Watton yesterday were a little egret, and an otter apparently giving great views at 2:30pm in front of the hide. Luckily for the foxes the hunt today was on the east Hull bank!:

Amongst Ians’s other pictures is this very wintry South Marsh East – for more of his work check out his Flickr page here:

Gracing this scene on Sunday was female goosander – by HVWG – and latterly seen on D res roost with 2 males yesterday:

Seen too have been up to three pintail each evening, and the colossal winds this evening brought the gulls in nice and close:

Before they were blotted out by a very heavy squall:

The previous night HVWG managed a couple of argentatus herring gulls (back centre on top pic):

A mediterranean was on O res yesterday; a change of venue returning 290 great black backed gulls the same night and 2 whooper swans on Sunday afternoon.

This is what I am now sure must be the last dragonfly of 2011 - a common darter on the 19th - one of the latest yearly site records - just outliving a migrant hawker last seen in the car park on the 17th:

On the other hand a wintry but welcome sight was the bittern showing itself again – thanks to Dave Ruffles for the pic – as he points out – it’s not quite a partridge in a tree; but then we are not quite in the festive season yet…

A bit like buses...

2011-11-26T18:49:00.003Z

...you wait 50 years for a caspian gull then 2 turn up at once (or within a month of each other at any rate!). Again the bird was found by Martin and this time was an adult; it is believed it has probably stayed on the D res roost.

Further investigations of the gull roost suggest that at last light many of the larger gulls fy from the D res and then drop onto the O res for the night - which is relatively unobserved - with very little perceptible movement away from the reserve.

To accompany it was a yellow-legged gull too and 53 white fronted geese. 5 redshank have also been frequenting the reserve along with the red-head smew on Watton yesterday.

Meanwhile I ended up thigh deep in mud on a pursuit of owls. The long-eared owl report from Monday has now been vindicated - and was seen by a regular hunting a neighbouring site (with the short-eared's too). At some stage we will post details as it is on private land - in the meantime speak to one of the Wardens and we'll point you in the right direction.

As there are no pictures yet of any of them here is the last one from September 2008 by HVWG:

Lastly earlier this year we mentioned the informal photo contest to submit a picture for the basis of the 2012 membership card (and win a years' membership too). I will be shortlisting the best pictures on December the 10th - so that is the deadline. The rules are it must have been taken at Tophill over the last year, and have either been e-mailed or handed in. To keep everything above-board I will be taking the anonymous shortlisted pics to my Yorkshire Water colleagues who will vote on their favourite...

A mystigul experience

2011-11-24T22:10:00.009Z

If you’ve managed to see further than 20 metres through the mists of this week you may have glimpsed some of the continued winter delights.

This made no difference to viewing the greatest bird of the week as found - as often is – courtesy of Martin; Cetti’s warbler. Tophill Low a few years ago was honoured by housing the UK’s most northerly known breeding pair just near North Marsh hide, however it is usually an ephemeral number of wintering birds that we receive. We didn’t get any last winter, but the year before there were at least 3 birds around site – one near the back-to-back hides being the best to locate.

This year we have found one at South Lagoon in the reed and bramble thickets. It should now be pointed out that you won’t see the bird – they make a garden warbler look like a show off! And spend all their time creeping amongst the stems out of view – in my 4 years at Tophill I was honoured with a glimpse of an eye and a supercilium once! You need to rely upon sound – their call is explosive and obvious. Have a look on this Youtube link to get the idea.

Geese continue to delight – 55 white fronts still bring recorded regularly including this afternoon. No sign of the ross’ for a couple of weeks now but Egyptian still here, 2 pink feet have been about, and Tom managed to locate the years’ first bean goose – a tundra rossicus race from NW Siberia on Monday in decoy fields – where this assemblage was taken:

Remember they are mixed with a current 680 greylags though! 15 whoopers were on the river Hull on Monday too.

On the duck front the lone red head smew has been re-located regularly again back on Watton, along with up to 3 pintail. 2 female scaup were on South Marsh East on Tuesday briefly, along with a female goosander this evening – roosting on D res earlier in the week. Roosting between Watton and SME have been the curlew – hitting a high of 152 combined this evening, and possibly 3 little egrets who were lost in the darkness somewhere on site. This is one of a handful of black-tailed godwit still lingering on site – photographed by Maurice Gordon on his Tuesday course:

He also got these lichens – I dare not suggest a name for them – they are perhaps the next untapped frontier at Tophill?

Otherwise at least one short-eared owl still on Hempholme, and a long-eared was apparently reported earlier in the week? – again if anyone would like to shed any light on this one it would be appreciated – because as ever it will go the way of the bonaparte’s and great white egret if no further info is forthcoming…

On the subject of raptorish topics - check out the great new look Yorkshire Red Kites Page here.

Treecreeper in car park:

And common gulls in the mist:

Finally if you can’t see things through the mist you may as well take pictures of it! D res gantry:

Who needs the ‘mara when you have Watton Carrs?:

Hempholme meadows – an interesting snapshot – as next year it’ll be totally different again:

It's work is done...after three months of devastation we can now watch a whole new habitat develop for many years to come...

A short post

2011-11-17T23:35:00.001Z

No pictures I am afraid for a change – we should have had the camera though for the two short-eared owls which over-flew us at 30feet height late this afternoon though when working in Hempholme! A few people have been looking for them unsuccessfully since the weekends’ sightings – but today they initially appeared on the eastern river and then disappeared out of sight beyond Struncheonhill to the west – so whilst they are still there, they are clearly hunting a big area – patience necessary…

The other highlight has been the continued presence of white fronted geese – this time we’ve got the figure up to 53. Yesterday also saw the egyptian goose again – but no ross’ – has it gone on to confuse another reserve! - for the best yet of the geese photos visit Dave’s blog here.

Three pintail were on Watton yesterday, with a couple of barn owls on north scrub, a lot of calling water rail around the wetlands and damp woods, and a pair of kingfishers still in the north marsh area. A nice sighting yesterday was a female blackcap near the back-to-back hides – presumably a wintering continental bird? The curlew roost on Tuesday recorded 125 birds and 115+ yesterday - so still good numbers coming in.

Finally the otter piece scheduled for Monday has I am afraid been put back due to a feature on the red arrows instead! – in all likelihood it may now be after Christmas – but we’ll keep you posted…

Y-fronts or shorts? - what a decision...

2011-11-13T21:15:00.004Z

Geese continue to make the headlines this week – thanks to Alan Walkington for this pic showing the ‘re-naturalised’ greylag flock which is sucking them all in:

Starting on Thursday Jess and Derrick managed to find 22 white-fronted geese on Watton NR – an excellent count for the reserve (again pics are on pink cuckoos). However that number has continued to swell – small groups such as on decoy fields here found by Eric and Jeff being around the site all of today:

Later Martin managed to get today’s peak count of 52 white-fronts on D res, along with 4 pink feet and 2 whooper swans (and the ross’ type goose - see on).

We were planning to view these on the Robert Fuller gallery walk yesterday, however attentions were diverted. Earlier in the week Erich and myself had been discussing the potential of the new Hempholme meadow for short-eared owl and hen harrier habitat in future; and within a week we have had our first ‘shorty’ in several years hunting the margins of the meadow. Most of their attentions are over the river on the east bank of the Hull, where later two birds (plus barn owl and heron) were hunting. Today Les and Margaret managed a single bird hunting Hempholme meadow itself through the mists – a great endorsement. Here’s hoping they’ll stick around all winter…

No photo’s yet – but here is a library one from Spurn some time ago:

Incidentally it took ‘til today to get hen harrier – Martin recording one south – though not quite hunting Hempholme yet!

This delay meant a quick yomp to South Marsh East to look for the otters – predictably that meant no sightings when one goes specifically to look for the animal as on Thursday! – again see Jess’s blog – but as you’ll see from the Youtube clip there is still quite a spectacle…

Elsewhere we have had 250 fieldfare on the approach road, 2 little egret, 4 black-tailed godwit, calling jay on Watton, and a lone dunlin over. Yesterday also saw the reserve’s first recorded woodcock of autumn too in D woods, and possibly the very last migrant hawker at Hempholme. This inkcap was sent in by Alan, also looking a bit past its best:

And another last of is this feathered thorn in the moth trap which pretty much ends the season - a few mild nights in mid winter may turn up a december moth but that is it for 2011 trapping essentially:

Finally; what is hopefully a bit of closure on the ross’ type goose – James Harding-Morris is a Tophill member and 'Scarborian';

“It was first seen at Wykeham Lakes over a month ago, and I was pretty confident that it was a Barnacle x Ross' hybrid. A couple of weeks ago it turned up at Burton Riggs, Seamer, where I was able to view it a bit closer and it still seemed a pretty good fit for Barnacle x Ross'.

It was then seen at Filey Dams, and reported as blue phase Ross'. From the photo's on your blog I am pretty much 100% that this is our bird. A discussion of it, and a picture, can be seen here”

Many thanks James - I am glad the concensus opinion here too has tallied with ours! Just in case you want to see the bird again, check out Tony’s blog for another picture which is the best yet of the bill pattern. Perhaps it is time to send it on somewhere else to go and give some more birders some fun…

On an icy wind…

2011-11-09T21:20:00.009Z

The main news today was the discovery of the first smew of this winter – a red-head female on the favoured Watton NR. John Hirschfield was the finder and it was subsequently photographed by Dave Ware:

Usually we get 6 birds over wintering - the Tophill complex being one of Northern England's best spots to see them - hopefully they'll stay til March - and we'll get a drake this time!

Again for more great pictures visit Dave’s excellent blog here.

On the other hand John Hesslewood managed to record what must be the last swallow of the year over D res on the 1st of November. Other sightings from the last couple of days include two separate mediterranean gulls on D res. yesterday, 5 black-tailed godwit on Watton today, willow tit on the feeders, egyptian goose on Struncheonhill yesterday, and a dunlin on the south marsh roost.

Also check out Tony’s blog for foxes and a remarkable image of a goldcrest that isn’t blurred or behind a twig!

Now to all things geese…

It would seem the ross’ type goose has excited many folk! First off just to re-iterate – there is no suggestion that this is a genuine vagrant, and may have been logged at Filey last week. The bird was observed well today on Watton NR again and has been coming and going between here and Hempholme via D res.

It does have clean legs, but as explained by Major Tim Cowley who lived amongst them for two years – it is regarded in the US and Canada that out of a million strong ross’ population, there are reckoned to be only around 100 blue morphs – even the American birders get excited when they see one (see link)! – so the chances of one of them getting here are pretty mulch zilch.

Secondly the bird does not conform to a true ‘blue morph ross’ goose’ – these birds (which do exist! – we have had a few retorts of “you only get blue snow goose”! – again have a look on the blog above) are generally quite dark on the body with just a pronounced white upper neck and face – this bird is mottled white to a much larger extent.

Yesterday there was a concensus that the bird was a hybrid with at least a proportion of snow goose in it – however today most thoughts are coming back to a majority of ross’ – with very little snow goose, but perhaps with an element of barnacle or the like in it? There is a belief that ringed escapee ross’ geese have travelled north with populations of arctic barnacles and pink feet and interbred – possibly creating this – what we assume a 1st winter bird. Anway the debate will no doubt continue – but this is probably not one to add to your life list…

Make up your own mind on some of these photos; a distant digi-scope on D yest:

Jeff Barker’s (see his flickr page for more great pics)

David Ware’s

And HVWG’s

All sensible suggestions welcome…

The other interesting news is the arrival of a group of 13 whooper swans on D res yesterday afternoon – chiefly because we had precisely 13 in February too – the same group?:

HVWG sent these better photos:

But regular Tom Lowe managed to get a close up view of the birds from East Hide – revealing one of them was sporting a coloured darvic ring – yellow – T6H.

Submitting the details to colourmarkedswans@wwt.org.uk Tom has forwarded what must be one of the fastest ringing returns ever!:

It turns out the bird is of Icelandic origin like most which over winter in the UK – and was last seen in Brunahlid Adaldal, Northern Iceland on the 19th of April. The full details have been forwarded to James for inclusion on the ringing blog.

Isn’t that half way to Canada?...

Finally a quick plug for the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust’s ‘Nature on the Coast’ event which is running alternate Mondays – all the details are available here:

Also at Tophill we will be running the twice yearly ‘Reserve briefing’ on Sunday at 2pm – a quick lowdown on all the projects we are currently working on a round the Reserve and ask any questions.

Two new Tophill bird ticks in one day!

2011-11-06T23:49:00.002Z

Well we’re still ironing the creases out of the all-time Tophill list (we’re still checking out a few historic records to finalise the official site list), but Martin’s long vigils at the gull roost have finally turned up what was always hoped to be the next ‘Tophill tick’ – Caspian gull. This Eastern European species has finally made it to the roost and after careful evaluation and photographs Martin was prepared to make the call for which a full description will follow for the County Recorder. All the details are to follow on his blog. In addition were a yellow-legged gull and lesser black-backed.

A bit of a blast of north-easterlies today saw the anticipated arrival of further redwing and good numbers of fieldfare too. Early morning saw around 140 pink footed geese over south, along with 4 whooper swans which flew off in the direction of Brandesburton pits. However this goose was found on Watton NR this morning – initial thoughts were that it was a ‘blue-morph snow goose type’. Big thanks to Dave Ruffles for sending this pic across this evening which suggests it may be more along the lines of a ‘blue-morph Ross’ goose type’ instead:

There is a possibility it could be a hybrid of both too – check out this page on Surfbirds for more info on ID’ing the two. Whilst snow geese are generally regarded as ‘dodgy’ provenance wise, Ross’ geese have yet to be proven as genuine vagrants though evidence suggests a few could be – this blog entry has a useful run down of their recent history. The ‘blue-morph’ is even rarer – so this reduces its credibility more – so unfortunately whilst the pink-feet could well have been a carrier for the bird it is unlikely to be the genuine article and more likely to be feral. Undoubtedly it will be tracked in the UK and with such a distinctive colour combination it will be interesting to see where it goes next (and what others think of it). Finding credit goes to Mr & Mrs Barwick – and at the time of writing we think this is another Tophill tick (but currently in the ‘plastic’ section!).

Also seen were a black-tailed godwit on Watton, and a drake pintail there yesterday. A few migrant hawkers and common darters were still enjoying the warmish weather today too.

The walk for the Robert Fuller Gallery turned up some nice sightings again tonight – barn owls on North Scrub (with 3 seen later today). Subsequently we had a possible record breaking 140+ curlew roosting on South Marsh East, along with 2 redshank and a ruff in the darkness. To finish the day though we had the otter again – this time apparently duck hunting at 17:15. If you are thinking of looking then you need to be stealthy – if only to avoid disturbance to the curlew and ducks who are the best warning of its approach. Please note the BBC InsideOut featurette has now been put back to Novemer the 21st.

An impressive day all round...

The last glimmer of summer

2011-11-04T18:36:00.004Z

…was summed up by this down and out looking common darter on Wednesday at Hempholme:

Another migrant hawker was still lingering on Thursday afternoon too.

Also still about are a group of up to seven black-tailed godwits still commuting between Struncheonhill ponds beyond Hempholme and Watton NR.

Otherwise it’s the winter arrivals – Michael Flowers picked up these two whoopers today at Struncheonhill and latterly D res at dusk. You may need some imagination here though…

Yes the whoopers are the two on the right!

Otherwise kingfisher and water rail on North Marsh – pic no doubt to follow on Michael’s blog here. Otherwise most efforts are still being directed at Hempholme hence the bias on sightings from the northern site lately – here Cliff surveys our new ‘post apocalyptic’ habitat:

However it is nice to see the grey heron shares our optimism – fishing in the two week old scrape below!:

Otherwise the two kestrels are still hunting the meadow along with a pair of barn owls from north scrub, multiple mistle thrushes and a covey of red-legged partridges.

Finally if you're after something to do on these dark afternoons then why not book onto Maurice Gordon's photographic tuition courses which start on the 8th for four Tuesdays. All the details are on his blog here and the cost is £90 per person.

The heralds of winter

2011-10-30T22:49:00.010Z

Winter arrived last weekend in the form of the returning bittern. It is believed this may be a first year bird and likely to be a dispersal from the Low Countries. The bird will likely remain on the reserve until March – so hopefully we will enjoy many more views of it to brighten up winter.

On this occasion it was seen at South Marsh West in the same location as the jack snipe, where Jess managed to get the only picture so far for Pink Cuckoos. It was more than likely seen flying around the North Marsh area mid week too – something to look for if and when the kingfishers move off!

Les and Margaret managed to find the first brambling this winter on the D woods feeders on Friday, along with two willow tits – photo here – and hopefully better to come:

In addition this stonechat (another Tophill year tick) delighted many over this weekend – giving great views on North Scrub (apart from when the sparrowhawk nearly got it!) – it looks a bit washed out being a first winter male:

Alan Walkington sent these great pics of it across also:

Otherwise the seven day highlights include:

Pintail last Saturday and today - D res.
Black tailed godwits last Saturday and on Friday – South Marsh East
Little gull last Saturday – D res.
Water rail on Tuesday – South Marsh West
Ringed plover, dunlin, and ruff on Wednesday – South Marshes
Black-necked grebe - Friday - on and off D res
Hen harrier (female) this afternoon - D res
Egyptian goose – this evening – D res
Mediterranean gull (adult) – this evening – D res

Otherwise there has been a big build up of wildfowl – lots of well marked wigeon:

Along with teal – which are looking good again after moult:

Shoveler and gadwall:

Tufties:

And increasing numbers of goldeneye:

This evening we undertook the first of 3 roost walks. The next two are book-able via Robert Fuller’s wildlife gallery – details here.

The gulls put on their usual spectacle, along with a few corvids, groups of starlings moving through, and a cracking 68 curlew over.

A visit to South Marsh East was the last stop to see the assembled geese coming in to roost. Unfortunately they decided not to arrive before we packed up at 6pm in any great numbers. However a bit of a commotion amongst the ducks followed by a tell-tale bow wave delighted everyone, when up appeared the otter, 30yds away. Whilst dark it was silhouetted nicely against the moonlit water running across the mud island in front of the hide (and was likely a female or cub on size) – so nobody was particularly miffed at having missed the feral greylags!

For more on the otters there is scheduled to be a TV piece upcoming on BBC Inside Out – currently thought to be broadcast on Monday the 14th – so one to watch.

In addition we continue to embrace modern media by staring off our Facebook page - see right>.

Finally apologies for the lack of updates in the last few days – I have been checking out some Welsh specialties:

Likewise Martin has acquired guru status after finding Portugal’s second ever pallid harrier at Sagres – all the details on his blog here, and Likewise Tony has been getting some alternative pictures in Holland here. And I anticipate Rory's Welsh kite pics will be on anytime soon here. Normal service resumed…

Murderous mustelids

2011-10-20T21:22:00.006+01:00

The peace and quiet was disturbed on Tuesday by the cries of a rabbit meeting its end courtesy of one of our wildlife centre stoats. It proceeded to then carry it off into the undergrowth in the usual unlikely manner. I hasten to add that in all these pictures the rabbit was dead (in what was by stoat standards a very humane kill!):

The loft-space of the wildlife centre is home to our family of stoats who can often be encountered near the car park. The same day also saw a weasel near D res. For more stoat pictures, this time from North Marsh, check out Rory’s great pictures here including the first willow tit photos we’ve seen in a while (hopefully soon to be on the newly re-mounted feeders)

Attached are some pics courtesy of HVWG of Sunday’s highlights – egyptian goose:

This was seen the same night by Tony McLean (photo here) and also on D res wall yesterday by Derrick.

Also sent through was red-crested pochard:

Curlew flying to roost:

Barn owl on North Scrub:

Which Steve has been getting on his blog too here.

And those first three whoopers of the year:

Which incidentally were joined by a further flight of seven as seen by Michael Flowers today south over North Marsh. Michael also recorded further siskin and lesser redpoll in D woods, with an apparent highlight being a dozing fox for those first into the wildlife centre hide.

Hempholme meadows progresses – this was scrape one of four last week:

Incidentally we recorded our first wader feeding there on Tuesday night – curlew at dusk. 3 pied wagtails are virtually resident (along with two kestrels which I am surprised can fly given the volume of mice they have consumed now). Red legged partridge are common too but noteworthy were a covey of eleven greys on the flood banks on Tuesday.

And the sand martin colony now looks the business:

Thanks to Mark Hammond too for this nice take on the gull roost on Sunday:

Once again, roost walk event will be Sunday the 30th of October at 4pm – details on the events page above.

Rock ‘n wall

2011-10-16T22:38:00.013+01:00

The last few days has seen a selection of Tophill year ticks – first off was this rock pipit on D res wall on Friday night – far from common inland at Tophill. It briefly gathered flies before disappearing high east off to its usual stomping grounds:

Remember to check all birds like this carefully though – you never know what may be present and the differences between pipit species are slim:

Passerines have been the big story this week – lots of siskin (pictured here) have been feeding on the cones along with successive waves of crossbills:

Check all long-tailed tit flocks carefully too:

These goldcrest were some of at least ten in the D woods yesterday:

However with the number of yellow-browed warblers on the coast only ten miles away – pay close attention both for these and firecrests. A late blackcap was the best find yet.

A good tip for all those reporting rarities – get a picture regardless of the quality as Tom Lowe did here (behind the coot!):

Thursday’s garganey was only seen by Tom, but a picture is irrefutable. Seen by several though today were an egyptian goose on Struncheonhill and latterly D res found by Eric C, where a female red-crested pochard was observed most of the day found by John H.

We have also had golden plover over Watton and peregrine over North Marsh, along with four black-tailed godwit in addition to the usual curlew:

However likely the rarest bird this week was found on the WeBS count this morning by Dave Ware – a bar-tailed godwit resting on South Marsh East. They never normally stray in-land, although common on the coast, and this is the first record since D res was drained in 2007. Rather dodgy ‘phone-bino’d’ pic here:

Better may follow on Dave’s blog where he has pics from my old stomping ground at Normanby too.

Winter arrived truly in the shape of three whooper swans late on seen by Erich over D, and redwing and fieldfare are now widespread.

Both Tony and Rory have photos on the way from today’s activities – along with a sneak peak of some different takes of Tophill on Tony’s Flickr stream.

Here from Saturday were a couple of end of season moths – november moth:

And large wainscot:

The Tophill Low gull roost
Unfortunately though we didn’t make Autumnwatch on Friday, but the gulls should still not be snubbed. The main spectacle starts every evening around 3pm between September and March when a trickle of gulls start arriving from surrounding farmland, coasts and landfill sites in every direction:

After a brief wash in the reservoir they then congregate on the open farmland around the reserve to preen – Decoy fields next to D res are a favourite but it can move to the access road fields or East of the river on occasion:

Just before dusk we get ‘the big lift’ when all birds not already on the water for the night simultaneously arise in a great spectacle – turning the sky white…

…before dropping onto the sanctuary of the reservoir for the night:

And even when it’s frozen:

So here are the main players – common gull:

And black-headed gull:

Both these species make up the bulk of the roost – currently around 15,000 birds but this can swell to 40,000 in winter. According to WeBS league tables this puts us in the top 15 UK sites for black-heads and top 3 for commons. We also make the top 3 for our annual little gull passage – but this is a July/August phenomenon. However there are always other species mixed in – great black-backed gulls with their black uppers and pink legs are at their maximum now:

These birds are assumed to mostly come from Scandinavian breeding grounds – as evidenced by the ringing return from a deceased bird rung at Lista in southern Norway as a chick:

Lesser black-backed gulls are now sub-siding as most move south for winter – charcoal grey uppers and yellow legs:

We also get herring gulls too (pale grey / pink legs below) – with Scandinavian race fairly regular too:

Another infrequent (though seen this week) bird is the yellow-legged gull generally from Mediterranean regions – much like the pale herring gulls but with yellow legs like lesser-black-backed:

Kittiwakes occasionally drop in during summer, but mediterranean gulls are regular all winter – up to four mixed in recently. These demonstrate the similarity to black-headed gulls but note the erect stance, heavy set bill – and crucially white wings devoid of black markings bar a small leading edge:

Which brings us on to ‘white-wingers’; usually describing arctic species which we occasionally get on strong northerlies in mid winter – like this glaucous gull earlier in the year:

We have also had iceland gull this year – but beware of leucistic or albino birds like this tricky common gull last year:

This completes our line up to date excepting Terry Richardson’s franklin’s gull a few years ago – a trans-atlantic vagrant.

And obviously all this lot attracts the peregrine - primarily after black-headed's:

Leaving many 'angel-wings' everywhere on site:

They may not be TV stars - but the gull roost is there every night – often unwatched, so if you are getting withdrawal from the gulls of Bempton now they’ve left, why not sit with a flask and a scope and see what you can find?... After all caspian gull carries most bets here as the next addition to the Tophill list…

If you fancy an intro, on Sunday the 30th of October we will be running our popular 'roost walk' event starting at 4pm to look at gulls, corvids, curlew and geese.

And in addition if you want to stay warm then why not pop along to Beverley Naturalist's this Tuesday night (18th) for a talk from wildlife photographer Geoff Trinder. It starts at 7:30pm at St. Mary's Church Hall in the shadow of Beverley Minster - admission is £3.50 including refreshments - new faces are always welcome.

Grey days

2011-10-13T22:41:00.007+01:00

The last few days have seen a Tophill rarity – grey plover overflying D Res, courtesy of Michael Flowers group – all the details on his blog.

There is some thought that when we saw them again later they may have been attempting to land at Hempholme Meadow near the new scrape. In any event it has already pulled in three pied wagtails and one grey – indeed it might be almost as good as it looked in 1946!:

Thanks to Duncan at the works for this aerial photo of Tophill prior to the reservoirs – showing what an excellent habitat it must have once been. Hopefully we can resuscitate a small portion of this and the flora communities at Hempholme.

Still lots of prey around for two kestrels and a barn owl in the interim though:

Hobby seems to have moved on – no sightings for a couple of days and no great performance since last Thursday. Likewise jack snipe put in its final appearance on Saturday, (illustration on pink cuckoos) but crossbills are still moving through as per James’s blog photo.

Apparently the BTO are reporting a big influx of siskin and lesser redpoll this year – which we have also seen – and presumably the crossbills are tagging on. Winter has arrived in the form of redwing and mistle thrushes in number today – and regular Dave already has brambling on his feeders! We have now re-located our feeders to D woods pond for this winter pending wildlife centre works.

Incidentally the BTO are also after data on redwing and fieldfare this winter via birdtrack - all the details here.

Otherwise a straggler black tailed godwit has been on Watton most of the week along with little egret resident at the moment. This afternoon saw a late report of garganey too. South Marsh East on the other hand appears to have lost much of its interest now as levels reach their autumn low.

However at full height is now the sand martin colony of South Marsh West – render going on during Tuesday:

And ready for marking up yesterday ready for hole drilling today.

The job ought to be finished by early next week.

Still no come-back on bonaparte’s gulls. More certain though was a yellow-legged gull picked up by John earlier in the week. The gulls reveal their usual mix here – lots of black-headed’s and common’s in this photo:

With 3rd winter herring gull ssp. argenteus left, lesser black backed middle and a group of greater black backed right (commons at front):

We have done our best to try and make the most of what can be an impressive spectacle – whether the gulls did enough to make the final cut we’ll just have to wait and see…

Don't try this yourself! - we got permission from Natural England to film from the walls on the SSSI which is D res:

Even if we don’t get on it then tune in for Spurn Point tomorrow night (Friday)!

Waterloo

2011-10-07T20:57:00.002+01:00

No further news on the bonaparte's gull - or indeed on the sighting background so if you do know anything on the bird please get in touch with myself on the above e-mails, Derrick at Hull Valley or leave details in the reserve sightings book. Without these we have to unfortunately dismiss all records without further info - or send them to Elba...

This didn't stop our motley band of volunteers having a good look 'til dusk tonight. Unfortunately most of the gulls decided to assemble at Brandesburton early evening before returning to D res at dusk. Whilst the usual assemblage of 15,000 common and black-headed's were there, every cloud has a silver lining as we recorded a cracking 660 great black-backed gulls - the highest number I can recall in recent times, lesser black-backed's were down to 6 with a smattering of herring gulls.

Also present was a bizarre hybrid tufted duckxscaupxshovelerXeider - that no one was very sure on what it's exact make-up was.

Apart from this no jack snipe reported today - but the hobby, kingfisher and even an otter mid morning at North Marsh all seen.

Bonaparte's gull

2011-10-07T12:44:00.002+01:00

An update - you may have seen that bonaparte's gull has been logged on sightings websites. Currently we have no more info at the Reserve so I assume someone saw it as stated on Watton Carrs (the Tophill Access Road) on their way home from site early doors and put it out.

As you can see from the prior posts - the gulls are racking up some impressive numbers now and there is a lot of fieldwork on the land around us - so the chances of this (and other stuff) will be high on the D reservoir roost again tonight.

The Reserve will be open until nightfall this evening for anyone wishing to try.

Sightings logged so far today - 3 crossbill South East over the Water Works at 10am, hobby hawking over East Pond with common buzzard.

The jack snipe wasn't seen til afternoon last couple of days - so we await news today.

All crossed up

2011-10-06T20:08:00.003+01:00

Arriving on site at 8:20 I immediately heard the distinctive chip of crossbills – and sure enough – 6 (I think all males) went overhead. Five minutes later another 10 went south over South Marsh East – so a good start to the day.

It turns out Erich had the jack snipe again yesterday and despite a no show this morning, he again re-found the bird this aft – it was still present at 16:40 when I captured this ‘stunning image’:

If you use your imagination you can just see the distinctive yellow stripes. Again best viewed from back-to-back hides on the mud on the river-bank side of the marsh.

The afternoon again gave great views of hobby hunting on North Marsh and Derrick then managed to connect with another 8 crossbills in D woods – again all moving south with mixed tit flocks, along with 10 siskin and 2 lesser redpoll.

Thanks to Andy Nunn for this pic of a satellite moth taken on Sunday’s fungi walk:

And the gull roost again put on a good show with this white crop present at 17:30:

Falco fantasia

2011-10-05T21:25:00.008+01:00

Without doubt this weeks star birds have been the hobbies – hunting migrant hawkers they have been seen across the Reserve though best seen from North Marsh. We were treated to spectacular views this morning at Hempholme – where one bird landed on the ground 20 feet away from our contractors – wear high-viz and the birds just don’t seem to be bothered! – No camera then but I managed these yesterday:

Also yesterday Michael Flowers and his class set the bar that bit higher with this shot (and more on his blog):

Before Steve Brimble clinched in his words these ‘very iffy’ pictures:

For more ‘iffy pictures’ visit Steve’s website where he has others including this excellent kingfisher shot:

Remember if the kingfishers follow the last two years’ form then they will likely disappear by the end of this month – so get your pics now or wait ‘til next July (that is unless they per chance decide to roost or nest in the rapidly growing sand martin bank:

Kestrel too has been having a great time up at Hempholme with mice and voles a plenty:

The other star bird and Tophill year tick yesterday was jack snipe – found by Michael’s group and seen through the day. No sign today or I am afraid pictures – but a huge vindication for the ‘crake-trench’ in the centre of the picture below dug at expense to Volunteer Chris and myself in August – we’ll settle on a jack snipe as a suitable return:

Incidentally Michael’s new calendar is available now featuring the best of East Yorkshire’s wildlife and a great xmas present – available from the reserve priced at £7 – details here.

Elsewhere – black tailed godwit, marsh harrier and little egret have all been seen of late – the latter viewable on Tony’s Flickr stream here. Alan Walkington managed these great pics too of long tailed tit at North Marsh and curlew on the approach road:

Meanwhile the gull roost continues to expand – try and find a med gull in this lot!:

A short distance away were the ’heavy mob’ – menacing looking great black-backed gulls likely fresh from Scandinavian breeding grounds:

I hope to bring you more news on the gulls in due course…but in the meantime keep checking them out – you never know what nuggets you may find…

Batty over a natty

2011-10-02T20:44:00.004+01:00

It’s not every day we record a new mammal species for site but today was on of those days with Tony Lane and the East Yorkshire Bat Group discovering the first roosting natterer’s bat today:

Young female natterer’s:

We later found an adult male elsewhere and also present were nathusius’s pipistrelle for the fouth year running, soprano pipistrelle and this ferocious noctule:

Seemingly the Hempholme operations have had no effect on the bats and instead attracted a new one! This specimen sized common frog was again a welcome find too:

The best bird sightings have come in the form of two hobbies which have been putting on a great show all weekend catching migrant hawkers all over site and particularly well for the reserve walk yesterday. Unfortunately though no pictures so we’ll have to settle for Mike Day’s further great takes on the old faithful!:

Again a repeated presence of two or possibly more at the moment – triggering the usual scrapping:

Other than this five ruff were on South Marsh East today, with a black-tailed godwit about at first light. A couple of roe deer were present in the fields this evening with fox this morning. A rabbit made a lucky escape from the weasel today on the bat survey.

The other notable ‘sighting’ was various folk asking about a great white egret apparently logged at Tophill yesterday on internet sites – we do not know anything about it and certainly havn’t seen one - so if anyone can shed any light on this report it would appreciated!

Spring has sprung?

2011-09-28T22:12:00.002+01:00

Blue skies, temperatures in the 20’s and chiffchaffs singing – you’d think it was May! These two great spotted woodpeckers appeared to have the breeding season on their mind at North Marsh (pic from Mike Day):

Likewise Jeff got this pair of long-tailed tits against a blue sky on his Flickr page. Even more summery was this spotted flyctcatcher there this afternoon – two days off October! I usually bank on my last mid August!:
Congratulations to Rory who has managed an accolade in the RSPB’s Wildpix photo competition – details here.

Other than that a black tailed godwit was still on South Marsh East today. I forgot to post from Sunday the group of 56 golden plover which circled South Marsh East before flying on, and an interesting thread on the East Yorkshire Birding Forum shows the possible links between Tophill and Swinemoor, and the ringing team got the details of their sedge warbler return – not from far but an interesting observation on local migration routes none the less. The usual kingfisher was on North Marsh today along with plenty of grass snakes cooling off in the water and stacks of migrant hawkers.

This is brings us on to works in hand – we will be taking advantage of the weather and painting the North Marsh Hide and managing vegetation there tomorrow – so apologies in advance for the disturbance.

Likewise improvement works at Hempholme and South Marsh West continue foreseeably, with water treatment works improvements meaning disturbance to the lagoons tomorrow (29th). Next Thursday there may well be disturbance on Watton NR as we manipulate tern rafts.

Apologies for all the above – but the perils of working on a nature reserve dictate that we try and do all improvements outside of breeding season and before hibernation proper (and the apparent snows some folk keep telling me will come in October!)

Finally the fungi walk is now fully booked – so please do not turn up on the day hoping for a place.

Woodn’t be real wood they?

2011-09-26T21:53:00.005+01:00

Well after all the westerly winds we finally managed a trans-atlantic vagrant…ish. Jeff Barker and Dave Ware managed to find 3 female and 1 male wood duck on Watton NR on Wednesday morning. Certainly they are a very common escape and feral breeder, but genuine vagrants have been known to reach the UK. The consensus is that ‘someone left the cage door open’ as there is no way of proving them any other way.

Other than that the curlew sandpipers, osprey and black necked grebe all seem to have gone on their way – the latter presumably completing its moult and heading on. This group of pintail are new arrivals however – Jeff finding 5 on D res on Sunday and Frank and Jack re-finding two of them today on North Lagoon:

A trickle of waders continues with green sandpiper on Friday, 3 ruff on Saturday (pictured:) and three black tailed godwit on Sunday.

A late reed warbler was still on South Marsh West on Friday, chiffchaff still singing and a blackcap was gorging itself on elderberries today. Again lots of fly over passerines including more siskin and redpoll – a few stopping to feed on the alder cones.

Little egret has made a return to site with Tony managing one at Watton pictured on his blog and still present today.

Marsh harrier, hobby and buzzard have all been drifting through. And the kestrels - likely brethren of this bird pictured on East Scrub, have been having a whale of a time catching rodents on the newly cleared Hempholme meadows.

Martin continues his gull vigils – turning up another 4 med gulls on Sunday, and this afternoon saw a lot of great black-backed gulls arriving.

On Sunday afternoon (the 2nd) between 1 and 3pm local mycologist Mervin Nethercoat will be leading our annual fungi walk to look for some of the 250+ species now recorded. The event is strictly book in advance on 01377 270690 and is well recommended - free with normal admission.

Saturday morning also sees the monthly reserve walk at 10am taking in the best of the current widlife sights.

The strong southerlies originating in Eastern Europe forecast this week should liven things up all round – so after a quiet September I expect the next few days will see a fall of interesting birds both at Tophill and at other local reserves.

Our friends in the North Marsh

2011-09-20T22:50:00.009+01:00

This weekend saw the continued presence of wading birds on South Marsh East. Thursdays good weather predictably saw the final disappearance of the curlew sandpipers but the good showing of ruff continues with up to 11 on an evening and 5 present this afternoon:

Up to two greenshank, a water rail and a snipe have been present too:

This kestrel was hunting it today:

And strangely a black-headed gull decided it would have a go at this ‘hovering lark’ too in an obvious mimicry a few feet from the kestrel which it did to passable level:

This buzzard had a harder time though – why this individual deserved a battering from around a 100 black-heads when others pass with indifference is anyone's guess:

Meanwhile Martin recorded 5 marsh harriers through of at least 3 individuals – lending weight to our thoughts that the Hull Valley appears to be quite an important migratory route.

Thanks to Dave Croft of the East Yorkshire Chalk Rivers Trust (see link) who sent us these photos taken a few years ago of Tophill from altitude demonstrating just why it attracts migratory birds in an otherwise open landscape (note we do not advocate low level flight immediately over the Reserve for obvious reasons):

Flyovers have been a big story with golden plover, dunlin, redpoll, skylark, meadow pipit and even siskin all over as per Michael’s blog.

The D reservoir has seen the continuation of the black-necked grebe which has been in residence for around 6 weeks now. Martin recorded further good gulls with again yellow-legged and 4 mediterraneans over the weekend – as ever the illustrations on Jess’s blog.

But as usual it has been north marsh which has held most of the photographic opportunities. By all accounts Saturday was an excellent day in which most of the stalwarts came out to play – roe deer captured by Mike Day:

Fox pouncing on a vole sequence again by Mike:

And also courtesy of Alan Walkington at the same time!:

And a flyover common buzzard too:

Kingfisher from Mike:

Kestrel:

Along with osprey (again) – seen virtually every other day since late July:

Goldcrest:

And ‘moth of the moment’ – red-underwing in the hide:

Tony McLean too also has more stunning photos on his blog along with excellent grass snake pics. Rory too has many helpful tips on his blog – which perhaps enabled him to get this outstanding pic of both a kingfisher and a grass snake together viewable on flickr here.

Whilst tree felling at Hempholme is complete work has yet to start on landscaping. In the meantime we are just starting constructing a new sand martin colony on South Marsh West. This structure will be of block construction and will hopefully look similar to these structures at the Lancs Wildlife Trust Brockholes NR (well occupied despite only being finished in late May):

And the successful Lincs Wildlife Trust Whisby quarry:

Thanks to both these Reserves for their guidance in the spec. The finished structure should be viewable at close quarters from the ‘L’ hide giving some excellent photographic ops when (hopefully!) occupied.

As such there will likely be a lot of disturbance around that area in coming weeks. However views from the back to back hides may be productive for species like water rail this week as we are currently dropping levels by a few inches to ease construction of foundations so keep your eye on these margins again like last year:

If all these dark nights are getting you down then do what this herald moth is about to and go to sleep all winter and emerge in Spring!:

Well spotted

2011-09-14T09:03:00.007+01:00

Yesterday saw a brief visit from this juv. spotted redshank to the seasonal ponds on Watton NR. Being as they only recently re-filled it moved on after an unsuccessful forage and flew off south, but a year first for site none the less:

As usual we have continued presence of the mixed waders on the marsh up to and including yesterday – Ian Traynor sent this one of two of the up to three curlew sandpipers present, along with a ruff:

We have had some spectacular counts of ruff for our site on an evening with John L recording 11 on Sunday and the two Pete’s 13 on Monday respectively. Extra points for anyone who can find a buff-breasted sandpiper with them! Meanwhile Dunlin, ringed plover and common sandpiper are all in attendance too. Check out Jess’s blog for her latest artwork. The best trans-Atlantic vagrant I could find yesterday was this ‘snow goose’ on Watton NR – though I think its origins may be slightly dubious!:

Beware too when looking for ‘funny geese’ of some the hybrids present like this barnacle x Canada which has been knocking around for some time:

Better though came courtesy of John H who recorded the first pink-footed goose mixed with the greylags on Watton yesterday. Monday also saw another black tern on D reservoir in the morning, with the black-necked grebe still present. The occasional yellow wagtail and wheatear are still being found on the access road – Jeff Barker pic here.

Gull wise we have recorded up to 26 lesser black backed gulls now with Martin recording a 2nd winter mediterranean gull on D again on Sunday. Osprey was seen by several on Saturday and hobby hawking dragonflies over North Marsh yesterday. And driving home yesterday night I had a late swift at Hutton Cranswick.

Kingfishers continue their show – please note due to personal circumstances I have had to cancel the advertised kingfisher event for the coming weekend However it is quite easy to self-guide your own walk – simply do what I was going to do and sit in North Marsh hide patiently! Tony has another tribute to them on his site here, and Ian Traynor sent this great pic across from the weekend:

Ian has more great pics on his Flickr stream here. A couple of insects – birch shieldbug ID courtesy of Doug:

Painted lady on South Marsh West:

And a less welcome harlequin ladybird in the car park:

The weekend also saw a few more migrants – Bill C reported montagu’s harrier down barmston drain on Saturday, and a merlin was seen over site Sunday.

Finally these pictures really needed a merlin of a different type in accompaniment – thanks to John Coish for these great formation pics of the white-buzzard memorial flight over Watton:

No yellow tails, just legs

2011-09-09T21:55:00.007+01:00

After all the excitement of the yellow wagtail influx yesterday, 9am this morning saw 2 birds and a wheatear. A chat with the guys at Birdguides revealed that it was the same picture across the country – just odd birds here and there. Not much appeared to be moving passerine-wise with the ringing team recording a few more blackcaps and a couple of late sedge warblers – details here.

Once again we had the usual mix on the marshes – 3 curlew sands still present all day, 2-3 ruff, and later 2 black tailed godwit and a snipe. Likewise, the resident black-necked grebe was still on D res with kingfishers showing well again on North Marsh. Marsh harrier was reported twice, and another stalwart – the osprey - was upsetting the gull roost this evening before dropping down somewhere over north marsh – distant pic here:

The gulls yielded the most new interest today – a big influx of great black backed gulls on the approach road numbering around 80 birds. On D res both yellow legged gull and mediterranean gulls dropped in seen by Les and Margaret. There are also still good counts of lesser black-backed gulls too – this individual in decoy fields:

With this 3rd winter:

My efforts to find a sabine’s gull were fruitless! However these two common sandpipers were on D wall collecting flies:

Finally Rory snapped this pic of the kingfisher attempting to move its own perch! We have since helped it by ensuring all perches are now optimally placed for best photographic ops:

The chatering masses

2011-09-08T20:26:00.004+01:00

Again a trip first thing on the access road proved very fruitful. A proper count of yellow wagtails this morning revealed 52; but only a small portion of yesterday mornings count – which in hindsight I believe could have been closer to 200 if I had the time to count them properly. Certainly Rutland water has had a 250 yesterday, and Birdguides report a massive influx across the midlands and east coast – the possible theory being they are moving further north with climate change and farming practices – resulting in these new ‘passages’ not seen before. We see a lone citrine wagtail has been seen at Cley in North Norfolk – so maybe I’ll have a good look through them again tomorrow. Yellow wagtail this morning by Michael Flowers.

Anyway in amongst have been around 40 linnet, and this fine wheatear spotted by Jess and later photographed by Michael here. Visit his blog for the in depth review.

However I was pleased to find this whinchat – an uncommon tophill species on the roadside:

Again same story as yesterday – by midday yellow wagtails had dwindled to 20 and by 17:00 all that remained were five curlew.

We’ll see what tomorrow brings on the road, but around the site another productive day; black necked grebe still on D res. John Wilkinson had osprey over south at 10:30, also over but not stopping were two dunlin and three ringed plover reported by HVWG. The marshes still retain their three curlew sandpipers and late afternoon saw two ruff and a passing knot. Lesser whitethroat and willow warbler also seen.

Finally an ominous sign was the arrival of 5 early goldeneye – 3 females and two males – has anyone noticed a lot of hawthorn berries this year?...

Yellow fever

2011-09-07T21:44:00.006+01:00

The last few days have seen some good numbers of yellow wagtails on the access road; 30+ being best. However this morning I stopped and had a good look over the freshly drilled fields either side – where there were in excess of 100 from virtually grey juvs to birds so yellow it looked like they were just arriving for Spring. In addition were also around 30 meadow pipits and 20 linnet:

Later in the day Derrick managed another wheatear on the road, and HVWG around 60 mixed tree and house sparrows. At the end of the day I was looking forward, scope in hand to have a proper look through them all and see what I could find on the way home.

The count?... None. Just four curlew:

Whether that is it we’ll have to wait and see – maybe you just need to be there first thing. Or it could have been the hobby that Sue had half an hour earlier may have seen them all off.

That aside, three curlew sandpiper and one ruff still on SME – water levels dropped another ½” to keep them:

Also attracting a grey heron:

And black-necked grebe still on D quite close in:

Other sightings today included the kingfishers, several hundred hirundines over O wood, lesser black backed gulls on D, marsh harrier over Standingholme, and a mixed tit flock which again included willow warbler, blackcap and treecreeper – but only these two were photographable:

This comma managed to find a patch of sun outside the office window:

Finally you may have noticed the re-vamped blog header – thanks to Martin Hodges, Andy Marshall, Tony McLean and Alan Walkington whose great images I hope they don’t mind me pilfering to compose it.

Knot a lot to write about

2011-09-06T18:49:00.008+01:00

Despite the howling winds we still seem to have hung on to the wader interest. This knot is the first for some time at Tophill:

Two of the curlew sandpipers still remain – as per these great pictures courtesy of John Coish on Sunday:

Likewise we still have two black-tailed godwit:

And a lone ruff:

In addition today we have also had wheatear again on O res wall and a pair of water rail calling in the marshes – all sightings courtesy of Tophill stalwart Terry.

From Earlier in the week John has also sent these of a lingering sedge warbler on D woods pond:

A down at heel looking common darter:

And proof not all our ospreys are faked:

On Sunday night Martin recorded another three little gull on D and John also managed marsh harrier and an adult yellow-legged gull on the approach road. This menacing group of great black-backed were there tonight:

Again another 20+ yellow wagtails were on the approach road and fields:

Along with this linnet whose odd wing position got me double checking:

If you are viewing birds on the access road please remember to pull up sensibly not near the blind corners.

Hempholme is looking considerably more open now and was being hunted by a kestrel this aft:

Where these swallows are still rearing young (JC):

Finally another look at Mike Day’s kingfisher posting below with what I took to be a dismembered newt is actually a more intact marsh/pool frog tadpole as per this picture borrowed from the ‘European Amphibian and Reptile Blog’:

The curl of a sandpiper

2011-09-04T20:44:00.014+01:00

After an admittedly desolate period on our Southern Marshes despite everything looking well, since Thursday night they have really picked up.

Earlier in the week passing little-ringed and ringed plovers both suggested promise, but Friday saw the arrival of three curlew sandpipers which were merrily feeding ‘til at least 16:00 tonight:

These have been joined by up to two dunlin, two greenshank (as per photo above too) and up to four different ruff/reeves at any one time:

And today one, then this aft, two-black tailed godwits – of which Jeff Barker has a pic here. I am expecting further pics of the curlew sands as apparently they came to feed close in this aft. Meanwhile David Ware has photos on his blog of some of the migrants.

To promote this run of waders we have dropped the levels a further ½” and also re-dressed the north lagoon island with mud – so hopefully they will keep building.

Meanwhile this snipe was doing its best bobbing jack snipe impression on South Marsh West in the ‘crake trench’ – so if that is finding food then there is hope that better may too:

Elsewhere the resident East Yorkshire pair of black swans have given interest too, and a wheatear was enjoyed by many – picking grasshoppers from O res wall top on Friday - Reserve Volunteer Jess has a great field sketch on her new blog here. Earlier counts of yellow wagtails were this morning dwarfed by another 30+ on the access road first thing.

Despite trying raptors have been steady – these common buzzards were both on the move though – and getting a hard time off the local corvids:

An interesting look at just what is moving from Scandinavia is viewable on one of my old college friends blogs – based in Lista at the southern tip of Norway here.

At the tophill ringing station Graham and the team managed a kestrel today – a young male – possibly one of the local family. Likely it was after some of the many blackcaps currently on the move – but interestingly by 9:30 there was an absence of willow warblers compared to last week. We have had September swift though – the 2nd being the latest date yet.

Thanks to Mike for these shots too of juv bullfinch:

Scrapping sparrowhawks:

And goldcrest – both at North Marsh:

This sizeable ichneumon was in the south marsh hide – possibly Pimpla pedalis? – but I’ll try and get a confirmation on that:

As ever kingfishers have delighted the photographic fraternity – Mike Day again kindly donating these excellent pics – threat display here:

Goodbye cruel world:

And don’t look if you like newts!! A disembowelled smooth newt:

Likewise both Tony and Rory too have recorded it taking the same prey items.

So what happens round the corner? After an abortive attempt to burn some of the island reeds today we instead embarked on an ‘apocalypse north marsh’ journey where no boat has travelled. Leaving civilisation at the kingfisher perches – this is how the photographers are seen:

On the other side of the islands lies this hidden inlet:

At this point an inquisitive grass snake came to join us:

Perhaps it had heard of our reputation on boats and fancied an easy meal – as no one had gone overboard at this point it instead dived beneath the waters in a fashion similar to a sea snake.

These pics are courtesy of Mike again from earlier in the week too:

Journeying further the channel narrows:

Before meeting an island with two routes:

The right hand route carries on further past wooded islets:

Before eventually the route is too narrow for our vessel:

What you see of North Marsh from the hide is around 1/6th of its total – so you can see why it is such a haven for secretive wildlife.

Yesterday on the reserve walk we managed the still present black-necked grebe, before finding this ‘osprey’ across the fields:

However a niggling doubt remained and returning with the scope on 30x I realised I had been taken in as with so many others – the white buzzard again!:

Note the snow white chest and head – the black line is its moustachial stripe – but a great ringer for a dark eye-stripe at long range! So beware of any perched osprey – even if the warden tells you it is!

So what this week? Having just watched the Countryfile forecast I think we can safely forget all Eastern waders and raptors this week. Judging by the winds the marshes will be peppered with long-billed dowitchers and pectoral sandpipers by Tuesday evening!

Vis Mig

2011-09-01T21:14:00.008+01:00

The big thing to look for this week is raptors. A quick look on Martin’s blog from the 4th of September last year reveals why.

According to form the northern tip of Tophill at Hempholme has been best for observations on a reasonably warm day (tomorrow?). The flight route takes birds from the North East and out over the fields to the West of Tophill – meaning you really need to set up a folding chair at ‘Top Lock’ and watch the skies.

A quick visit yesterday turned up a passing hobby:

And hunting sparrowhawk – but Martin has had more by spending a bit of time.

Cliff’s efforts to create a man-made thermal today clearly managed to attract one or possibly two ospreys over (this speck actually is one over D res on my mobile!:)

We have had a continuing movement of ospreys now for a couple of weeks. This is one of Alan Walkington's much better shots from earlier in the year:

Chances are raptors will be the target of Saturday mornings' monthly reserve walk at 10am.

In addition to raptors many other species have been moving through. Waders including ruff, dunlin, golden plover and green sandpiper have all been seen flying over – but few stopping to feed:

The passerine movement has included some good numbers of yellow wagtails:

Yesterday I managed to bag all three species in a walk along D res with the grey too:

South scrub is currently alive with moving warblers like this willow:

And many goldcrests – now is the time to try and find something rarer in amongst:

A few late emergents include this brimstone found by Derrick Venus and looking smashing

And Jeff Barker picked up a grey partridge family on the access road viewable here.
No-one was going to sneak up on these marsh/pool frogs:

And John Coish has kindly sent these pictures which are the best yet of our black-necked grebe - here clearly attempting to hide from a tufted duck using an obliging pochard – still present to at least yesterday and looking more wintery each time I look at it:

Every cloud has a black lining

2011-08-26T22:47:00.004+01:00

Despite the terrible weather today – heavy cloud cover and rain often brings in good results. Regulars Ray and John yesterday managed to find a pair of black terns over the D res. Unfortunately no pics this time – the only I can find at the moment are from back in 2008 by Mike Randall here.

Another great result of the weather has been an influx of little gulls reported by John last night – 125 over D res. An excellent count which keeps our average on spec for the Wetland Bird Survey league tables.

Tonight saw neither – just a damp 350 swallows and a smattering of wagtails. Earlier in the week we saw a movement of yellows, along with a common tern passage – 8 last night over D res, including our two fledged chicks from South Marsh East. So as was hoped, that brings us up to 3 pairs fledging 6 young for 2011.

Black-necked grebe has still been seen most days this week and there have been a few more waders around too – up to three ruff present on South Marsh East / Watton NR, along with ringed plover, common sandpiper and upwards of 3 snipe daily. Snipe have been showing on North Marsh where regular contributor Mike Day got these great pics:

Likewise the ubiquitous kingfisher:

Tony too has been photographing them – pictures on his blog as ever. However as he tells us that he is running out of composition ops. it seems I’ll have to come up with something new…watch this space! Obviously Rory appreciates his assistance though – as per his kind words here.

Please note we may be undertaking some occasional management works on Thursdays or Sundays in coming weeks around North Marsh though. For one thing it needs painting as if the wasps continue chewing it at their present rate it will be a paper hide by next year!

Martin has a few more moth pics here – and also sent us these close-ups of one of the four spotted chaser nymphs found during last weekends pond dip during his valued assistance:

Finally thanks for ID help too from Richard K Broughton. You may remember Mike Day’s excellent ichneumon pic from two weeks back. Having looked at these we have found them very tricky in the past, but Richard used his contact Gavin Broad at the Natural History Musuem who has ID’d it as:

"Virgichneumon albilineatus, a nice big ichneumonid that attacks noctuid moth pupae. It’s seems to be very common.” So there you go – again thanks to both Richard and Gavin:

Scorched earth

2011-08-19T22:56:00.010+01:00

Devastating as this may look we have been doing a lot of reed bed management on the South Marsh West island. The burning helps reduce the organic content and stops the island from ‘drying out’ through litter accumulation whilst controlling succession admirably – we checked for sedge warblers first!:

Here is the end result – a patch work of open ground, dense reed bed and wet hollows that should favour views of many secretive species such as water rail, snipe – and maybe even a spotted crake. Just visible is a channel we have dug next to the tall reeds to help draw them out – one to keep an eye on:

This week has seen few waders – only a green sandpiper yesterday on South Marsh East. We are putting together a study on wader use and invertebrate life in the marshes – so any observations you have on wader feeding (or if they are just resting) are welcome in the sightings book.

This kingfisher was conducting its own survey on aquatic life – here catching a newt in Mike Day’s excellent photos. I don’t know whether it checked if it was great-crested – I’m not sure whether a schedule one species can be charged with eating a schedule five?

Apparently Mike had three kingfishers today – which looked more like a territorial dispute than a happy family:

Vince Cowell too has more excellent shots on his website here.

Mike also had this fine southern hawker:

The sparrowhawk family are also still present in D woods:

These fine butterflies were on D res on Wednesday – Painted lady:

10+ common blues:

And several wall browns:

Likewise David Ware shared many of these views which are on his blog here.

Lots of people have also noted the recent invasion of hoverflies – Martin has some of the 31 species so far recorded at Tophill Low on his blog.

Other bird sightings include black-necked grebe – still present this afternoon. Ospreys over daily from Sunday to Wednesday. The newly fledged common tern chicks on South Marsh East and a young hobby over D res.

This marsh/pool frog was below North Lagoon hide – for more aquatic life we are running the pond dipping event this Sunday at 1pm and there are still places available – phone 01377 270690 to book:

Also worth noting are Michael Flowers Birdwatching Courses restarting in September with places still available to find out all the best locations to bird in East Yorkshire. All the details are on his site.

Pulling the plug

2011-08-16T20:08:00.014+01:00

August sees the height of the wader passage so to try and better our chances we have been draining down the southern marsh to expose plenty of new mud:

Likewise the work by volunteers to prepare the mud island on North Lagoon has managed a common sandpiper as a good start:

Still on the marshes are the late common terns however – this ringed individual on O Res. gantry appears to be just passing through:

The two chicks are still growing well:

But their parents still need to make sure the coast is clear – particularly with the sparrowhawks about:

In case you were wondering just what the chicks were hiding in we left Botanist in residence Alan Marshall on the island whilst we were strimming the others last week - his haul included:

Water mint Mentha aquatica
Skull cap Scutellaria galericulata
Gypsywort Lycopus europaeus
Broad leaved dock Rumex obtusifolius
Field forgetmenot Myosotis arvensis
Water forgetmenot Myosotis scorpioides
Great hairy willowherb Epilobium hirsutum
Nodding bur marigold Bidens cernua (pictured below)
Clustered dock Rumex conglomerates
Water bistort Persicaria amphibia
Groundsel Senecio vulgaris
Prickly sowthistle Sonchus asper
Water figwort Scrophularia auriculata
Redshank Persicaria maculosa
Good king henry Chenopodium bonus-henricus
Eared willow Salix aurita

Another possible tern predator is the fox – seen here stalking ducks on the North Marsh yesterday. Thanks to Steve Reed for the photo:

Likewise in the past we have seen that stoats can climb vertical brick walls, swim the marshes and now they have mastered the art of free flight as evidenced by Mike Day’s great pic from North Marsh here:

Likewise he got these great pics of a young curlew over the car park:

An ichneumon sp.:

And evidence of breeding wrens:

Further work has been continuing with the volunteers – cutting the reed-beds here

This work should make for good snipe habitat – which are about if you look carefully:

But on a bigger scale we have started the Hempholme Meadow project today – already a few of the poplars down:

Hopefully a lot of the existing historic flora community will flourish – like this meadowsweet:

Unfortunately not to stay are these alder buckthorns – however we will endeavour to try and transplant them using a digger:

Thanks to John Coish for this pic of the black-necked grebe which was still on D res on the 9th:

And still here at 4pm today:

Along with the grebe the main interest has been ospreys – seen daily since Sunday all moving South. Once again though beware of the white buzzard (now family) – often encountered near Angram Farm. Martin meanwhile has been making an early start this year on the D res gull roost – already picking uo a med gull on Saturday. The kestrels have dispersed – photographed again by Steve Reed:

Both Rory and Tony have been getting further great pictures of the kingfisher.

John Coish also got another great pic of the humming bird hawkmoth:

This willow beauty was in the visitor centre this morning:

And some rather grisly proof that otters predate marsh frogs (I assume the slug did not kill it!):

Screamin’ sprawks

2011-08-06T20:36:00.008+01:00

The main interest in recent days has been the sparrowhawk family who have been showing excellently in D woods – we managed these snaps on Thursday:

And Mike Day sent these excellent pics from earlier that week:

Unfortunately they have been attributed to fewer kingfisher sightings – but Tony managed one for his site recently. Rory too has been snapping the last of the barn owls here.

Other notable young raptors include the peregrine which has been seen often on the Carrs. An unnamed regular managed to hit a rabbit on the approach road, which two hours later was apparently being scavenged by the peregrine. Presumably it is a youngster that is struggling to catch a square meal. Again it was hunting the Carrs on the reserve walk this morning.

Thinking these blobs may have been something interesting I took a picture and discovered they are a pair of white buzzards – the similarity between them suggests they could be siblings – likely the offspring of the white buzzard which continues to throw people:

Another interesting fledgling was a juvenile cuckoo at Hempholme this afternoon – perhaps suggesting breeding. One would hope so with the three calling earlier in the summer.

On the subject of Hempholme, work is due to begin next week on its restoration to a grazing marsh – hopefully a really interesting new habitat. If it had been completed as intended for this year I would have hoped for a quail with the dozens reported of late. All details of the project are on the conservation page above. That said it did turn up an interesting record this week of green woodpecker – likely a post breeding dispersal as per the nuthatch. As an unashamed reminder of previous improvements have a look at this picture of the 1991 mud bath which is now tranquil south marsh west. Note the portaloo which is sited next to what are now some of the best dragonfly ponds on site!:

Likewise this is the construction of wildlife centre pond – dug out of the former playing field!:

Unfortunately the black-necked grebe has not been seen since Wednesday when David Ware managed this great pic:

For more see his blog here.

Other birds this week have included common sandpiper on D res wall, a couple of flyover dunlin on South Marsh, and a couple of little gull over D res on Thursday:

Linnet on the pump house:

And a line of autumnal looking swallows:

Meanwhile as usual more insects to go at – lesser swallow prominent in the trap:

Along with this sextant beetle Nicrophorus investigator:

And this similar sp. of Silphidae:

And whilst we were looking for grass snakes unsuccessfully on the walk we found this remarkable substitute – an elephant hawkmoth caterpillar on O res:

A slow tern of events

2011-08-02T22:04:00.024+01:00

Pictured below are the last of this year’s common tern fledglings which have now all departed south – or maybe not?; An exceptionally late pair have just hatched their two young last week, which will likely fledge in September. Looks like this year not only will we have the reserve’s earliest but also latest common tern records. Hopefully that will mean this year 3 pairs of birds have raised 6 young – unfortunately down on the last three years for reasons unknown. Perhaps this late breeding represents some calamity on their Spring migration?

Other notable fledglings include the perpetrators of this massacre:

Our resident sparrowhawks are still making a huge racket in D woods – these youngsters on display this afternoon. Apparently mum has been dumping woodpigeons on the path giving a number of observers great views:

Kestrels still hanging about on ‘O’ res:

Meanwhile Tony has been waving off the barn owl chicks here which have appeared to all fledge this last week or so.

The best rarity of recent times has been the black necked grebe present on D res since Sunday - the first for over a year and pictured here:

Other visitors have included quail calling from the vicinity of the river on Saturday, wheatear on the access road, dunlin and snipe on the marsh, and this small group of six black-tailed godwit:

For those wanting to learn more about what was seen where and when of all forms of wildlife the Hull Valley Wildlife Group annual report has just been published and is available from the Reserve Wardens keenly priced at just £6 and is well worth it:

Alternatively it can be purchased by post from the group secretary or membership secretary.

I should also mention we also have copies of the 2009 Yorkshire Bird Report priced at £10 along with some of the 2008 report now available at £5 – see a reserve Warden:

Thanks to John Coish and HVWG for these photos of the humming-bird hawk moth still around and the work being undertaken by the volunteer team on Sunday to finish off the wader island on North Lagoon:

Clearly this has improved prey availability as evidence in Alan Walkington’s grey heron pic:

A fine perch being in its beak. Their smaller cousins were on South Marsh East again – three little egret courtesy of HVWG:

Alan also got these great snaps of an emerald damselfly:

And gatekeeper:

This red admiral was one of a conservative 56 counted present on the buddleias this afternoon at 4pm:

Other insect interest includes a digger wasp sp. in the Warden’s base:

This Cassida sanguinolenta was on the grass cutter – closely related to the aptly named ‘green tortoise beetle’

For more insects check out Martin’s blog for his excellent photographic sequence of a common darter emerging:

Despite a possible mink sighting on Watton NR last week we remain blissfully free in Tophill – this mink sampling bed showing nothing but water vole tracks and droppings:

An interesting find was this hedgehog skull.

Finally thanks to the Tophill and HVWG volunteers for their assistance in evicting the menagerie from Watton last week. The farmyard goose however remains at large and is followed with reverence by the assembled greylags and canadas, as at twice their size it is truly a king among geese…

Stripes and hatching

2011-07-17T09:50:00.019+01:00

First off after the little teaser last time here is Andy Marshall’s outstanding action shot of the peregrine on Tuesday over the Southern Marshes:

Apparently all the ducks and lapwings went up and the peregrine arrived three minutes later then spent a further few minutes chasing the inhabitants of the marshes around. The terns obviously were the biggest scrappers – but this one came a bit close in its mobbing! Luckily for it (and its chicks) it did get away though. Below is the preceding pic with the peregrine closing:

The biggest rarity by far this week has been on the moth front:

This spectacular striped hawkmoth – more commonly found in the Mediterranean and North Africa was caught in Richard Sears small 12w portable in his garden on site. A reserve first and probably a major Yorkshire record for the year (unless there has been a county influx?). The trap was one of the busiest yet and the torrential rain did not help matters. All pictures including much better posed hawkmoth shots are already on Martin’s blog here.

If you are interested in butterflies and moths you may be interested in the big butterfly count being organised by the Butterfly Conservation Trust which started yesterday and runs to the 31st. It is asking for 15min point counts and submission online to build up a UK atlas – all the details are here.

Now don’t laugh – but the next biggest rarity this week was a nuthatch! Whilst common in most of the rest of England and Wales, East Yorkshire is a renowned desert for them with only a handful of records each year. This is only the second ever at the reserve after the last four years ago – again in Richard Sears Garden. On this occasion the bird was calling in the trees around the car park with a mixed tit flock. Subsequently I obtained good views in the sycamore near the residential area. Unfortunately I lost it when I returned with camera – so you’ll have to settle for a shot from my past life at Normanby Park in Lincs in case you don’t know what one looks like (live in E Yorks and you may not!!):

Martin has now got the little gull maxima up to 37 on D res yesterday – again keep trying there are more to come yet. These two were distantly on SME earlier that aft:

With the little egret:

Also in the week has been three green sandpipers, dunlin and common sandpipers on the marshes. Kingfisher continues to show for those chosen – thanks to Barry Warrington for this one:

Barry also sent us this one of the hummingbird hawkmoth – again on the buddleias on Friday:

For those of you into photography you may be interested in this East Riding Council photo competition from their biodiversity team to capture the county’s biodiversity – click here for details.

Thanks to James from the ringing team for another pic of common frog – suggesting they have bred somewhere on site:

Still on North Marsh are the little grebes:

And also the kestrel family:

Thanks to Pete Drury for this improved pic of Rutpela maculata:

And this grey heron can be regularly encountered from the newly refurbished North Lagoon hide:

The party of the red sea

2011-07-12T21:45:00.022+01:00

The influx of waders continues – this wave of 15 black-tailed godwits resplendent in their red breeding plumage dropped in during a rain storm last Thursday:

Likewise lapwings continue to build with 160 present on South Marsh East and Watton this evening. Whilst stranded in the hide this little egret put on a fine show:

Three were still showing this morning on the marsh. For further tips on trying to get your exposure levels right check out Tony’s excellent recent barn owl gallery here. Hopefully our one remaining shelduck chick will make it this year – the sole survivor on South Marsh East:

One thing we would like you to look out for is little gulls. Tophill Low is ranked at number 3 in the UK for little gull numbers – after Hornsea Mere way out in front and Bewl Water in Kent according to the latest Wetland Bird Survey publication. To maintain this top spot we need to keep our mean up – so please be on the lookout for the next two months and log any good counts in the sightings hut. John Leason got us off to a great start last night with 19 birds on site, but we can get hundreds – often during a heavy rain shower when the birds pour down too on migration - particularly with an easterly like tonight.

The barn owl event was successful with sightings of a male out hunting whilst this bird was hunting the southern reserve last Thursday:

Grey heron over North Marsh:

Other birds this week have included 2 common sandpipers on the res walls, spotted flyctachers, turtle dove and the continuing kingfishers which delight and annoy hopeful photographers with their erratic showings – as per David Ware here. The little grebes have been making up for this though with nest number two very active near the hide, whilst brood one is still present:

Insects have been a source of great interest – the celebrity this week has been the humming bird hawkmoth found by Steve and Jess Stokes on Saturday providing photo ops for many in 'Margaret's garden' at the car park. I have tried – 1/3200th of a second and not fast enough:

And 1/4000th and not enough light.

But there are some great pics out there like on Martin’s site.

This ichneumon wasp was in the warden’s base this morning. I gave it up as a bad job but found this excellent site with a range of species on when attempting to ID it:

Brian Spence sent us these nice shots of the smaller wildlife – a grasshopper 'sp':

Meadow brown:

Large skipper:

And small tortoiseshell:

Incidentally there were many marbled whites on North Scrub and the second generation of brown argus were on the wing around the southern site.

North Lagoon hide is now open for business again – after much hammering from our Thursday and Sunday volunteers. Please thank them – they have done a cracking job – indeed shake their hands if they can still feel them! Marsh frogs ahoy...:

The ringing team celebrated their first catch of a non-Tophill rung bird on Sunday - a sedge warbler. It will take a while for the return to come through but when it does it will no doubt be on the blog here.

Finally the main news has been raptor fledging. Our sparrowhawks were practicing hunting around North Marsh on Saturday – mum having killed a woodpigeon. The local buzzard family have been up and about:

And this kestrel was one of three being tutored in hunting over the river and on D res today:

Not enough? – how about a close up of a juvenile peregrine falcon just missing a common tern by a foot whilst coming out of a stoop, flying upside down with its talons out? Maybe we’ll try and get a pic like that for next time…

The gathering clouds

2011-07-06T21:41:00.016+01:00

The warm weather may have broken today but Sunday saw the first clouded yellows on the site – part of an influx across the county and an uncommon visitor at Tophill. Jeff Barker has pictures on his Flickr page.

Butterflies have been quite abundant and, ringlet excepted, marbled whites seem to be nearly in greatest numbers this year – a spectacular count of 133 across site on Saturday. Thanks to HVWG for this pic:

A reminder too that there is still time to book on Sunday mornings butterfly and moth walk – 10am free with standard admission – 01377 270690.

This fine beast had unfortunately been clipped by a car in the reserve car park – a horntail or ‘woodwasp.’ Again a species not regularly seen:

Thanks to Andy Marshall for this shot of a Rutpela maculata - black-and-yellow longhorn in D woods:

Bird-wise things continue to progress with both greenshank and common sandpiper dropping in of late. Spotted flycatcher was still present around the water treatment works and another bird has been found near the back-to-back hides. Little gulls continue to grace us with the first adult bird going through on Sunday.

Of best note has been a party of little egrets seen around site and also down river at High Eske according to Derrick of the HVWG site with photo on Martin’s blog. A local family? It is certainly to be hoped. Other notable breeders include our barn owls – Robin Arundale of the Wolds Barn Owl Group here showing chick three of three during the annual ringing programme.

Another box locally also holds five young so things are looking up for them. Again - please remember they are a protected species - so the only people near them should be licenced like Robin. Saturday night’s owl walk is now fully booked – but we may put another date on subject to interest.

Another bounce back species has been kingfishers. These pictures were taken on the monthly reserve walk where we managed to see one at close quarters – the view cannot be that bad as this was taken using my mobile phone thru binocular eye piece!:

I am sure Mike Eggleton got better though:

A word of warning though – Mike had been there since 6:30am and it only showed at 11:00am. Another guy had given it up as a bad job after arriving at 5:30am – so lots of patience is still necessary!

Common terns are a little more showy – thanks to Alan Walkington for this one of the seven adults currently present – along with four chicks now:

His pal Mike Day also managed to get this cracking buzzard pic over the car park too:

Along with a Tophill rarity – the common frog – hunted to near extinction by grass snakes, marsh frogs, great crested newts, herons and whatever else you can think of. Records can usually be counted on one hand for a year and they appear to do much better in a garden pond!:

On the mammal front Alan Smith sent us this pic of a brown long-eared bat in one of the hides:

Finally this Phallus impudicus was in full show - I'll use its latin name and not that which HVWG did when sending it across!

The king and the emperor

2011-06-28T21:50:00.014+01:00

Autumn has started – it’s official. Nothing says it more than the first group of six passage black-tailed godwits on South Marsh East yesterday. Along with them have been a pair of green sandpiper Sunday, another yesterday on Watton, and a pair of redshank – one a youngster – there today. However, always present though are little gulls – it's fairly difficult not to pick up either a 1st or 2nd summer bird around the marshes or D res. at present:

HVWG sent us this nice array from South Marsh East last week:

On the gull front a 1st summer mediterranean gull was picked up over D res and on South Marsh East on Saturday afternoon. If you fancy your chances beyond this you could always try your luck with crossbills – you need to be right place right time, but sometimes it pays off like for Paul Ashton:

Paul also is area recorder for the British Dragonfly Society and runs the excellent East Riding Dragonfly atlas – so in this time of plenty please keep records of dragons and damsels and send them to his site. Our first emperor was seen on Sunday – see Martin’s blog for details again.

Best bird of the week has likely been a quail calling in the vicinity of South Marsh West (see Martin’s blog) – but don’t even think of trying to see that one!

Other highlight birds include the usual hobby, spotted flycatchers and common terns which now have 2 chicks each. Unfortunately both the little ringed plover and mute swan young have gone. Mink being largely absent at present points the finger at pike or more likely otters – you can’t have it all ways. Shark predation was equally feared – but Martin dispels this in his Saturday blog posting. Tony McLean has been pursuing barn owls too – more excellent pictures here, and Rory Selvey was hot on his heels with these great pics too.

Another of our young enthusiasts - William from the ringing team - heard two turtle doves calling in South Scrub for the first time this year on Sunday, and cuckoo was again seen on North Marsh on Friday. On the subject of ringing we thought it wise to clarify in light of recent rarities at the reserve this subject:

In discussions with the management committee and all involved it has been unanimously agreed that any rarity caught during the operation of the ringing site will be catalogued, photographed for records and then released. Anybody present at the time is welcome to observe. However we will NOT be conducting any form of staged release or photo ops. Viewers will subsequently have chance to observe from the paths as normal. We would like to make this clear and public at this juncture prior to it becoming any issue in future. As ever all recent updates on the blog.

Now for important note two – please ensure that when viewing any of the reserve’s wildlife you are doing so either safely from a hide or from one of the stone paths around site (or the only mown paths which are now the West side of O res and the North stretch of D res). Recently we have had a number of incidents of people leaving paths often for photo ops' and risking disturbance of breeding birds and other wildlife – and resulting in run-ins with our Wardening team. Please ensure you are being responsible around the reserve so as to avoid conflict and potentially prosecution. Remember many of Tophill’s favourite subjects such as barn owls, grass snakes and kingfishers are scheduled under the Wildlife and Countryside Act - so keep safe and stick to the way-marked routes – everything comes with patience…

Heavy stuff out the way here is an example of how it should be done:

Yes after a long wait the king lives on – at the favoured North Marsh perches as predicted in July (and on previous form will likely remain ‘til October). Martin Standley captured these outstanding pics on Saturday:

Along with the terns:

And reed warblers:

For more visit his site here. Subsequently I have lowered some of the vegetation in front of the perches (with the exception of three stands of the rare greater water parsnip – a good chance to see this too) and re-positioned the posts for maximum effect – taken up by Steve and Jessica Stokes who got more great shots too:

Finally the bin men left me a swift they had found last week. This was my first attempt to ‘fly’ a swift since reading about it as a child. Unfortunately much like a childhood glider it would only travel 50 feet before landing back on the grass so was clearly unwell. Michael Flowers’ group had the rare opportunity to witness it at close hand before I boxed it up with some flies swatted from the door ready to take home – pictures on his blog.

As I was about to set off it appeared quite restless in the box – so I got it out for one last attempt. Sensing the wind under its wings it lifted them before launching itself from my hand and flying across the car park into the woods. Not ideal swift habitat – did it fly out the other side? We’ll never know – but in any eventuality, a more fitting end for a swift than perishing in a cardboard box.

A little taste of summer

2011-06-18T19:48:00.012+01:00

Little gulls have been the main story this week - pretty easy to find either on South Marsh East or D res. Michael Flowers popped in yesterday and managed to get them plus a few more seasonal favourites for his blog including the first marbled white of the year.

Hobby put in a brief appearance yesterday, but the biggest rarity was the reserve's possibly only fifth ever lime hawkmoth:

Picture courtesy of Martin - more on his blog. Rarer than any of our recent avian rarities! On setting up the moth trap the night before this attractive orb web spider Araniella cucurbitina (Thanks Doug!) was creeping about:

John Coish sent across these pictures of some of the North Marsh inhabitants - little grebe family usually outside the hide:

Sedge warbler:

Reed warbler:

And the marsh frogs of North Lagoon which have been assisting with renovation works:

Alan Walkington sent us a picture of one of the reserve barn owls - interestingly unringed so unlikely to be one of our original birds - movement from the bad winter?:

Likewise Tony McLean has also been working on another pair nearby - more pics on his Flickr stream. Once again just a reminder of Tony's display as part of Driffield Photographic Society's exhibition at the Triton Gallery, Sledmere starting tomorrow and running til Saturday (with the exception of Monday).

Coming unsprung?

2011-06-15T09:08:00.004+01:00

A quick update is that the phalarope could not be refound despite a thorough site search on Monday morning. There is certainly a movement of little gulls however with at least two being seen every day since Saturday on D res.

Tony McLean had the first autumn passage green sandpiper of the year on Watton NR on Monday evening:

And there has been plenty of activity from the barn owls feeding young. We can come clean and admit now that there are spotted flycatchers on the reserve - unfortunately their nest has failed despite keeping it from public attention. However this happened last year too and they did get a brood off in August. Their unfound nest is now suspected to be within the Water Treatment Works compound - protected by Infrared security cameras 24 hours a day so we feel happy. If you want to see them the weeping willow in the works near South Lagoon is a good start.

Also there is a steady rise in Kingfisher activity of late - hopefully they will perform again as per the last two years in coming days, and the first mute swan cygnets have appeared - 2 on SMW from number 339 and 6 on Watton NR.

Also Tophill regular Alan Walkington contacted us to say that his excellent picture of long-tailed tits may be featured on Springwatch unsprung tonight at 8.30 on BBC2 - look out for it possibly under Alan's user name of 'Gannetal'.

As Alan correctly notes 'Tophill Low photographers rule ok!'