A marvellous sunny morning with a light and balmy south westerly breeze stirring the tree tops.
A walk along the south side of The Mere to the hide at Wassand then back past Weatherhill Farm and on Southorpe Road was a good way to spend a few hours in the sun 😊
A few
Meadow Pipits flew from the fence by the water's edge over the footpath and onto the rough meadow where the goats and sheep graze. Good numbers of
Wigeon, Teal, Gadwall and 5
Shoveler were just off shore.
Into Snipe Grounds where a
Cetti's Warbler was doing its best to deafen me as it was very close to the path - but as usual with these birds, you hear them but seldom see them.
Another field further on and the set aside flowers are still looking pretty good, as well as providing much-needed food for the birds through winter.
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| Sunflowers in wild flower set-aside |
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| Wild radish in set aside |
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| Musk mallow (I think) |
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In the hedgerow by this field were
12 Reed Buntings, 2 Yellowhammers and a large flock of
Goldfinch - over 170 Goldfinch have been seen here in the last few days.
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| A charm of Goldfinch |
I walked on through the wood to the hide by the Mere at Decoy Plantation and as soon as I walked in there were
2 Little Grebes and a
Grey Heron right in front of the hide. The Grey Heron flew off straight away but the grebes stayed while I slowly and quietly opened a window.
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| Little Grebes - one on right is one of this year's chicks |
While photographing the grebes I heard a distinctive sound from the other side of the hide which is described in the bird guides as a "ping". To my ears it doesn't sound like a ping at all, but anyway the bird is the same, however its call is described - a
Bearded Tit, or more correctly these days a Bearded Reedling. No apologies for adding so many photos of this bird as we don't get many records of them here at The Mere.
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| First sight of the Bearded Tit |
Looked like a female as a male would have a black moustachial stripe and a young bird would have a black back and black edges to its tail. Please comment below if this is incorrect
It stayed in view for about half a minute and then flew into the reeds at the right of the hide before flying off east. This was the best view of Bearded Tit I've had in Hornsea and the first time I've managed to get reasonable photos too.
The Bearded Tit had just flown off when a
Kingfisher appeared! It perched on a bent reed stem to the left of the hide and stared intently at the water, looking for food.
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| Kingfisher from Wassand hide |
It dived into the shallow water and came back up with a tiny fish.
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| Kingfisher bashing fish to kill/stun it. |
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Unfortunately as the Kingfisher was in the shadows, the photo is blurred because I couldn't get a fast shutter speed. After it had eaten the fish the Kingfisher flew off west over the reed bed.
As if all this wasn't enough, the
Great White Egret that has been here since 26 August was also looking for food over by the far reed bed opposite the hide.
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| Great White Egret |
All I needed now was for the Otter to make an appearance and I would count myself the luckiest bloke on the planet - it didn't, but I was still grinning from ear to ear after my best hour in the hide this year 😃
The walk home was a bit of an anti-climax, but I still saw a
Roe Deer, a
Small Copper butterfly and
2 Common Darter dragonflies to add to the day's wildlife tally. Only 5½ miles walked today but packed with interest and delight.
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| Common Darter dragonflies |
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| Small Copper |
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