Tag Archives: Whimbrel

Hobby – 23rd April

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Early this afternoon a Hobby was seen hawking butterflies around the Large Gravel Pit and a Whimbrel settled briefly on the Wader Scrape. RW.

There were also at least five Little Ringed Plover and a Common Sandpiper on the Wader Scrape and two Common Sandpipers and two Yellow Wagtails on the river bank. Twelve Peacocks, three Green-veined Whites, three Commas, three Small Tortoiseshells and two Brimstones were also seen. PS.

Also early afternoon four Yellow Wagtails were on the Wader Scrape. JMD.

Whimbrel – 12th August

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During the course of the afternoon three separate Whimbrels flew through the site, going south. There were also a Ringed Plover and a juvenile Little Ringed Plover on the Slurry Lagoon.The flock of Lesser Black-backed Gulls contained a Yellow-legged Gull, and several Yellow Wagtails flew through. In the Deep Pit at least two, possibly four, Cetti’s Warblers were heard giving their ‘tack-tack’ alarm calls. PS.

Whimbrel – 7th August

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This morning a Whimbrel flew through and there were two juvenile Little Ringed Plovers and a Green Sandpiper on the Slurry lagoon. Later two Snipe and another Green Sandpiper came in.

The Pond Dipping session netted several interesting creepy crawlies and included a Three-spined Loach and a Ten-spined Stickleback. PS.

Marsh Harrier – 22nd April

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This morning a pair of Lesser Whitethroat were found on the corner of the Slurry Lagoon by the steps. On the river near the bend a female Goosander was resting on the bank and a Curlew, followed by a Whimbrel flew through. A female Marsh Harrier appeared over the Slurry Lagoon, alarming all of the ducks, before quartering the reed beds. After a while it landed in the reed bed but was seen leaving the site a few minutes later. A Yellow Wagtail was also seen and the Cuckoo returned to the Deep Pit fence posts. PS. RW.

In the early afternoon a Hobby drifted through to the east. RW.

Lincolnshire 2010

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After having picked up various passengers the two cars left Nottingham at about 8.15 am and we made our way to Whisby Nature Park near Lincoln for 9.15 am were we met up with Jack Driver. The early rain that fell on Nottinghamshire was now falling on Lincolnshire so we donned our waterproofs and set off to find our target bird of the day – Nightingale.

According to the sightings board there were six singing males on the site. Looking on the nearest lake Pete found a pair of Little Ringed Plovers changing over nest duties while in the background a Nightingale was singing. A Sparrowhawk shot past the group so fast that not all of us managed to see it. We looked for the singing Nightingale without success so it was decided to go to the area where I had seen them on previous visits.

Having turned the corner at the northern end of Coot Lake we were deafened as one was singing very close to the path and it wasn’t long before Pete had found it. What a stunning bird – in full view. The problem was that not all the group had seen it and nobody had brought a camera as it was thought that they would only be heard and not seen.

We moved on, hearing three or four more before Pete again located one competing with a very high pitched Grasshopper Warbler, that not all the group could hear, and a Garden Warbler. The Nightingale was about 50 metres away over the railway. After watching the Nightingale I decided that I would leave the group and see if I could see or hear the Grasshopper Warbler on my own. I managed, after a few minutes, to get a short snatch of its song before the Nightingale drowned it out again. We made our way back to the car park, the sun shining now. Three Nightingale were seen with at least a further five heard.

With the trip list now standing at 26 we said our goodbyes to Jack Driver and made our way to RSPB Frampton near Boston, seeing Red-legged Partridge and Hare on the way.

The first birds seen at Frampton were a pair of Black Swans, obviously escaped from a collection but seemed to be doing well in the wild. We were surprised to see that the Brent Geese were still in the area as we had expected them to have gone to their breeding grounds by now. After a break for lunch and a cuppa we set off down the path towards the hides. On a small tree a Corn Bunting was singing while a Whimbrel was seen to land on the wet meadow. Steve spotted a Stoat as it ran from the meadow and over the road – our second mammal of the day. As it tried to rain again we made our way towards the first hide but stopped again as a photogenic Corn Bunting sat on a post for us. As we were about to go into the hide several Twite were seen on the wires. In all we counted 15. We were told that during the winter there were several hundred on the reserve. Also seen from the hide were two White Wagtail, Ruff and Black-tailed Godwit. Meadow Pits were singing as we left the hide to go back to the cars. Jackie spotted a female Wheatear on a fence post. From the car park I looked at the Barn Owl box through my binoculars and thought I saw part of the face of the Barn Owl. Sure enough as soon as a telescope was trained on the box the head of the bird could be seen. We were doing well as we had seen 63 species on the day.

We made our way north of Boston to Freiston RSPB reserve. Upon arriving we noticed a Pale-bellied Brent Goose in among the Dark-bellied. Although only a sub-species I would not be surprised if it is not split in a few years time to be a species in its own right.

We made our way to the sea wall as high tide was due at about 4.00 pm. The tide didn’t cover the marsh but birds were being moved all the while giving reasonable views of Knot, Eider, Curlew and Grey Plover. A Peregrine was seen as were two Fulmar. Near the car park the fields were scanned and Jackie spotted a fairly distant Yellow Wagtail.

Overall 81 bird species were seen taking the year’s list to 137 compared with 102 this time last year. The mammal list is at 6 (5 in 2009). Only one butterfly has been seen that of a Large White. This time last year 8 had been seen.

Cricket and Grasshopper Walk – 18th August

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Six people turned up for this walk, despite the threatened rain. As they collected by the foot bridge first a Migrant Hawker flew overhead and then a Southern Hawker came to check us out, before settling on the hedge. It was mainly green and black but the blue on its last two abdominal segments showed it to be a male.

We entered the reserve and went up the steps to the seat. Just by the seat we found the first Long-winged Cone-heads and soon had one in a viewing pot for everyone to see. Although superficially like a grasshopper the incredibly long antennae suggested its true affinity to the bush-crickets. We then caught our first grasshopper with much shorter and thicker antennae and were just getting to grips with its pronotum when the first shower struck. The group dived under the nearest bushes and tried not to get too wet, peeping at the glowering sky from time to time and saying encouraging things like, ‘It’s getting brighter over there.’, ‘I think it’s slackening off.’. When we were all soaked the rain stopped and the sun came out. We identified the grasshopper as a Meadow Grasshopper by the shape of its pronotum, which is the armour like scales that cover its neck and shoulders.

As we walked along to the Causeway the sun warmed our backs and we began to dry out. On the Causeway we located several Roesel’s Bush-crickets, but could not actually see any. Three of our company had ears that could hear them, but the frequency was too high for the rest of us so Alan got his bat detector out and soon pointed out two or three. They are very hard to approach and tend to go silent long before you are close enough to see them. The distinguishing mark on the Roesel’s is a yellow line all the way around the border on the side of the pronotum, but we were unable to point this out. However we did manage to connect with another species of grasshopper, the Field Grasshopper. Again it is the pattern on the pronotum that gives the most significant clue to its identity, followed by the fact that it has a hairy chest. We now began to realise the difficulties involved in identifying grasshoppers as we found several small chestnut brown ones. These were assumed to be nymphs although they were seen to be stridulating like the adults, one even seeing off a much larger adult Field Grasshopper. The pronotums on these nymphs were not well developed or marked so they gave few clues to the species. The other problem with identification is the fact that the same species of grasshopper comes in two or three different colour ways and all can be present on the same site.

We dried out in the sun as we struggled to get to grips with orthopteran identification and were all completely dry when the next menacing black cloud sailed overhead. ‘It won’t rain on us.’ and ‘Look its raining over Carlton’ soon gave way to ‘Let’s go to the railway bridge’ and ‘Run’. The front-runners made it to the bridge still dry but the rear guard were soaked as they staggered through the downpour into the shelter. Even the swallows were staying on their nesting shelves under the bridge. Coots were diving by the bridge and surfacing with large round items in their beaks, surrounded by a screen of water droplets as the raindrops bounced and shattered on the river surface around them. I wished I had a camera with a telephoto lens. Soon the rain abated and we came out from under the bridge. We were just about to go up the steps by the Deep Pit when a Whimbrel called as it flew overhead on its way to the south. This encouraged us to go to the Causeway again so that we could see if anything else had been brought down by the rain onto the Slurry Lagoon. We found three Wigeon that had not been seen before the rain but nothing else. The grass was quite wet now and it was noticeably cooler so that there was little insect activity to detect so we called it a day and went home, having identified four orthopteran species.

Marsh Harrier – 2nd May

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This morning a female Marsh Harrier was watched for nearly an hour as it hunted over the Slurry Lagoon. It very nearly caught a Moorhen, which had to dive repeatedly to escape and was saved in the end by an angry Coot. Several times the Harrier settled in the reed bed and was still there when I left. A Cuckoo sang from the Deep Pit posts and at least three Garden Warblers were also singing. (All ten breeding species of warbler can be heard.) On the river a Common Sandpiper and two Kingfishers were seen and possibly another two were heard and the tern rafts are occupied by up to ten terns. PS.

The Marsh Harrier was still present late morning, showing very much the same behaviour as earlier, and 25 Swifts were seen. In the early afternoon a Kittiwake flew through to the east and a Whimbrel to the north east and at least 120 Swifts passed through. RW.