Quest for the rail

And hot off the press from this evening - some great pictures of water rail on North Marsh - thanks to Tony Simpson for all pictures:

... and the wail of a rail

A gradual movement of migrants has been noted in the last week, the first osprey of Autumn seen on Sunday / Monday.  Green sandpiper, dunlin, black tailed godwit and common sandpiper all through too at the beginning of the week.  The new meadow at Hempholme looking very appealing for this summer's wader passage - we'll be cutting it in a couple of weeks:

A change of winds to south east instead seemed to bring the insects in; humming bird hawkmoth near the garage and silver Y moths in abundance.  This common sandpiper was lacking sand at Hempholme on Friday:

The river Hull at Hempholme on Friday:

With a delay no doubt caused by the aquifer - here still rising 24hours later:

Luckily the avocets survived the weather - all four chicks present and correct this afternoon - see Alan's excellent pictures on Flickr and HVWG's here:

More kingfishers on North Marsh, up to three seen at a time over much of the northern site today.  Thanks to Steve Brimble for these great shots:

The otter is still perfoming for those members keen to put in an early morning.  Dave Ware has pictures on his blog and more photo's by Bill Eggleton here:


And also Tony Simpson:




However these are not the main interest at present on North Marsh.  Many photographers of the above will have listened to the pig like squeals of recent weeks just under the hide.  When activity had died down we carefully revealed this nest while clearing vegetation from in front of the Kingfisher perches:

That of water rail - apparently it is likely six chicks were seen swimming to the middle island where there is now much squealing and wailing.  A rare time when 'water rail showing well' was written in the sightings book - pictures by Tony Simpson:


And Mike Day:

These aren't the only family on the go - the common terns on Watton NR (HVWG):

More pictures on Tony's blog.  Grey heron and youngster (HVWG):

Swallows seemingly doing well under the lock at Hempholme - photo by Erich Hediger:

And HVWG:

And coming soon; some extremely noisy and bloodthirsty woodland residents - sparrowhawk barely visible at the nest platform.  Expect woodpigeons dumped on the paths any time:

We had a very good day with Yorkshire Naturalist's Union on Saturday - uncovering many more species inluding 42 new molluscs!  Members also uncovered the first brown argus and marbled whites of the year.  This latticed heath was on North Scrub last weekend:

Pammene aurana near the garage (Erich):

And yellow tail moth caterpillar at Hempholme (Erich)

According to the forecast we are due some notherlies this week.  This will likely see the wader passage start in earnest - we guess that many will be as fed up as these two pink footed geese found by Paul Mountain on Tuesday are - still present yesterday:

There are now masses of tufted duck - presumed all failed breeders back on D reservoir.

Another one to look out for is the red-footed falcon in the Wilfholme Carrs area - a probable sighting yesterday again by finder Ivan Nethercoat.

The wail of a quail

Highlight of this week has been a quail calling over the river from Hempholme Meadows.  Two birds were calling over each over on Tuesday and a single bird heard calling that night and yesterday afternoon.  Unfortunately it never piped up long enough to get an audio grab but an example is here if you're not familiar with the call. 

We had a walk on Hempholme Meadow on Wednesday for the first time in two months and realised why it is called as such:

This plant is large flowered hemp nettle and was ID'd by Jen Hunt.  It is already on the Tophill List but the meadow is awash with it - another photo by Roy Vincent:

It was always hoped that we might uncover some relic plants of the old meadowland formerly present before the poplars.  And great news is that the new meadow is carpeted with this plant.  According to Eva Crackle's revered book 'The Flora of the East Riding of Yorkshire' (see here) this plant is associated with moist peat soils and was formerly widespread on the cornfields north of Hull.  The species is now classed as vulnerable as it has been hit badly by modern herbicides.  The seed though obviously lasts at least 50 years in the ground, and the meadow should be carpeted by the looks of it in two weeks time, which may be a one off spectacle as it thrives on disturbed soil.  Hopefully cattle hooves may encourage the odd plant up in future years too.  This skull cap was also nice:

We have the Yorkshire Naturalist's Union visiting next Saturday so we hope we may uncover some more gems.  (please note as a consequence we won't be running the normal monthly walk on this occasion).

Birdwise the meadow looks excellent with many wet hollows and pools for waders.  Hopefully the first green sandpiper of autumn on there on Wednesday bodes well for this passage.  Whimbrel and Curlew also seen on Tuesday.  Skylark are now feeding young on the meadow and we suspect these yellow wagtails are on there too:

We'll be hay cropping the meadow in mid to late July to prevent the thistles going to seed.  Another feature of the meadow is regular kingfishers now - we've put some experimental perches in - but we don't want to remove the spectacle on North Marsh.  Some great pictures coming back now if you're there at the right time - Roy Vincent:


Thanks to Mike Day for these great pictures of hobby from Tuesday too - apparently doing its best to catch the kingfishers but settling for a four spot chaser:


Four spot chaser in better circumstances by Roy Vincent:


Along with azure damselflies:


And large red:

Roy also captured these great shots of the otter at ten past nine the other evening:


Barn owls on Struncheonhill between the showers:

Maybe the last adult cuckoo of this year on Wednesday?:

A couple of the Tophill team made a late evening visit to Wilfholme landing earlier in the week and caught a brief glimpse of a 'falcon that wasn't a kestrel' leaving the wires.  So there is still potential for the red foot.

Michael Flower's birdwatching group turned up a couple of sightings in the week also - crossbills and peregrine; all the details here.
Unfortunately the western conifer seed bug it transpires wasn't quite a first for Yorkshire - as it turns out Doug had one a year prior (a county second - viewable on Martin's blog).  A first for Tophill is a good result at any rate!  A couple of weevils ID'd by Barry Warrington and photographed by Pete Drury - Cionus scrophulariae:

And Cionus alauda:

The avocets still have their four chicks:

Doing a grand job seeing off the carrion crows - "they don't like it up 'em you know...":