That Was The Week That Was

 Tuesday 22 October

An early morning walk to Rolston and a lovely sunrise to accompany my footsteps. The area is wonderful at the moment - full of autumn colour.

Sunrise

Spear thistle covered in cobwebs

 Thursday 24 October

 This morning's walk took me north along the sea front and back the same way then along Stream Dyke. Not much to see I'm afraid.

Great Black-backed Gull

The highlight of the morning was a flock of Greenfinch by Stream Dyke, 14 in total.

Greenfinch feeding on Rosa rugosa

Half of the Greenfinch flock

 Friday 25 October

I walked along the south side footpath to the hide this morning. Plenty of birds about in the early morning sunlight but not many came within camera distance.

 In Wassand Wood I found a species of fungi I'd not seen before and as it looked quite different to others, I checked its id. I decided upon Rhodotus palmatus (Wrinkled Peach), but I wasn't really convinced so I posted it on the Yorkshire Naturalists Union page and asked for either confirmation or an alternate id. Confirmation came back which really pleased me as it was not only a new species for me, but also it is not common. It is found on elms which of course are disappearing far too quickly, but there are currently plenty of them in Wassand wood.

Wrinkled Peach (rhodotus palmatus)

Cormorants from the hide

Saturday 26 October

Back to the Mere again this morning and one more very pleasant morning in our local beauty spot. A single Lapwing flew over me heading north.

Lapwing showing the wide wings that enable its aerobatic displays

There aren't many mammals on show these days (apart from rabbits and squirrels but I mostly discount them) so a Roebuck was good to watch as it browsed the field edge.

Roebuck

The best place for passerines at the moment along the south side is the set aside field and its surrounding hedgerows. A large flock of about 100 Linnets and some 30 Goldfinches is building well and hopefully numbers will swell to a couple of hundred birds soon.

Also in the hedgerows are Yellowhammers, Reed Buntings and Chaffinches. No Brambling yet for me.

Yellowhammer

In the large reedbed at Heslop's there are nearly always Bearded Tits to be seen and/or heard. This morning was no exception with about 10 of them calling and moving through the reeds. They didn't come near the footpath so I made do with heavily cropped shots from about 150 yards.

Distant Bearded Tits

On the water there were nine Whooper Swans, including a single young swan.

Whooper Swans with a Cormorant spectator

Greater Scaup visit frequently through winter and two were found by Jon, luckily for me they were pretty close in so I didn't need the scope to get them.

Greater Scaup

While watching the Scaup, 24 more Whooper Swans appeared from the north and a few landed close by the other nine Whoopers. The young ones among them didn't make elegant approaches to touch down 🤣🤣

A young Whooper Swan looking ungainly

Sunday 27 October

As I enjoyed the previous two days at the Mere I made it a thrid consecutive visit to the Mere this morning. It was colder than the other days at 7 degrees C but it soon warmed up once the sun got a little higher in the sky.

I caught a fleeting glimpse of a dragonfly as I went through one of the gates but not enough to have a guess at id I'm afraid. The sun also brought out plenty of hoverflies with Tapered Dronefly the most numerous.

Sysphus sp. hoverfly

Tapered Dronefly

Common Green Bottle Fly (Lucilia sericata)

In the largest hawthorn by the set aside and Heslop's I found six (six!) Tree Sparrows. They have been hard to find around the Mere this year and although there are plently of them nearby and in Hornsea as a whole, they are very scarce at the Mere.

A Mere Tree Sparrow

The local Kestrel was up and hunting over first field. Great to see but I do wish it would turn and face me sometimes. Yes, I know the wind direction controls the direction it faces while hovering, that doesn't stop me wanting it to do an about face 😀

A Wind Hover (old English name for Kestrel)

What's In A Name

It's been a good week, rounded off nicely with a few warm days, mostly calm too. The Mere looked just beautiful with a mirror-like surface reflecting the blue sky perfectly.

Yesterday I walked south to north along the sea front and then back, ending up at Rolston after trudging on the top of South Cliffs. I used to love walking on here when we had a caravan at Longbeach, and then afterwards when we moved here and could see the cliff tops from our bedroom window. In years past the habitat was good and supported many species of birds but now the owners don't give a damn as long as they are making money developing the land, or can make it look tidy 😢😵‍💫

The long grass at Hornsea Lakes has been cut to within an inch of its life so the habitat is just naff now. Short-eared Owls were in there last year when the grass was long - can't see any hanging around now though.

Grass cut (to make it look tidy for the visitors?!?)

Nice patch of brambles cut down to tidy it up

Apart from Skylarks and Meadow Pipits (and a passing Wheatear) there were no other birds along here. A few Linnet were further along towards Rolston though.

Skylark

A teasel that the tractor missed

Sanderlings are back on the beach now and it's good to see them again. Along with Turnstones and Purple Sandpipers they are our only regular waders.

Sanderling

Sanderlings

The warm sunny weather tempted a few insects out of their torpor and they really brightened up the place.

Marmalade Hoverfly on a Prickly Oxtongue

Common Darter

At last I saw a Wheatear. I thought this would be the first year since my records began that I'd miss seeing one through the year. A late arrival was very welcome.

Wheatear at last

Today I walked to North Cliffs to see what had arrived or was passing through. Lots of Pink-footed Geese were seen and heard all morning, as is usual this time of year, and very grateful I am too for their company. I much prefer North to South Cliffs now as the lodge and caravan developments are much less in evidence.

 Along North Cliffs there were plenty of birds to see and hear. Bullfinch, Reed Buntings, Tree Sparrows, and a dozen or so Long-tailed Tits were chattering and flying past three Stonechats in the hedgerow.

Long-tailed Tit in early morning light

Stonechat female

Stonechat male

Stonechat, looking like it was leaning into the wind

Pink-footed Geese on the ground

Chiff Chaffs are still around - some singing but most not. This one was in the boat yard willows.

Chiff Chaff

 Autumn is the best time to go fungi spotting. I tried it for a couple of seasons but largely gave up on it as there are too many similar species, and it's frustrating when you can't differentiate between them to put a name to them. I think this one is Yellow Fieldcap, a common enough species that I see most days as I walk through the fields.

 When I first started off in the world of fungi ID the first question I researched was to ascertain the difference between a toadstool and a mushroom. The answer, which took some finding, is that there is no scientific difference between the two. We Brits took it upon ourselves to generally call edible fungi "mushrooms" and poisonous fungi "toadstools". This is a sweeping generalisation that doesn't work on many levels so it's best to avoid it. Me? I just call anything in the field "fungi" and anything in my dinner "mushrooms". I don't use the word toadstool at all 😂

Bolbitius titubans - Yellow Fieldcap

Pull Out The Stopper, Let's Have a Whooper

 Stanley Holloway's rendition of "Get Me To The Church On Time" was suitably amended to provide this post's title. Burger King would obviously go with his original version 😂

Whooper Swans arrive at the Mere through Autumn while on passage, but they don't often stay more than an hour or two; sometimes they land and almost immediately take off again; if we're lucky a small flock will arrive at dusk and stay overnight, before leaving early on next day.

 

Eight Whooper Swans on Wed 9 October

Same swans above but zoomed in

As above, leaving after 15 minutes

22 Whoopers flew over Southorpe Road on Fri 11 October

I am still awaiting the first winter thrush of the season. Redwings and Fieldfares are arriving but not in my vicinity yet. Even the local Song Thrushes and Mistle Thrushes seem to be lurking out of my sight 🤣 Meanwhile Goldfinches are scoffing the hawthorn berries as fast as they can.

Goldfinch munching hawthorn berries

In the past two years I have seen dragonflies up to 8 October, but not this year. Last year I saw a Common Darter on 13 October, but not this year. It may be part of the overall decline in insect life - or it may just be too damn cold for them now.

Autumn is a time to pick out seeds that are everywhere you look. I think this is a desicated Hogweed umbelifer with some seeds still hanging on.

Hogweed past its best now, but looking beautiful in a different way

Squirrels are quite active now, rumaging in the leaf litter for whatever they can find. I watched one this morning as it seemed fixated on one particular piece of wood. It was chewing it at the end, along its length, at the other end, dropping it and picking it up again and again.

Squirrel chewing on a twig

In Wassand Wood another large branch has fallen from a tree and made life interesting for those of us who walk down to the hide. I'm just glad I wasn't under this one when it fell. It hasn't been particularly windy recently so it may just have been the rain and accumulated weight that did the damage.

A large branch takes its final bow