August WeBs count - record counts

For the last 20 or so years Wayne has undertaken monthly WeBs counts http://www.bto.org/webs/about/core/(wetland bird surveys) on the Humber Estuary for the BTO -  the area he covers is from Winteringham to South Ferriby on the south bank.   Today was the designated August count day and the usual post breeding flock of Avocet along with Dunlin, Curlew, Redshank, Ringed Plover and Shelduck were found around Reads Island.  Interestingly there were record numbers of Avocet and Shelduck present with 1089 of the former and 1551 of the latter.  Hidden in amongst the vast numbers of Shelduck were 2 Ruddy Shelduck.

Collared Pratincole in Lincolnshire

Just got back from Frampton Marsh where luckilly yesterdays Collared Pratincole reappeared.  We had great views of it both flying and on the ground.  Here are some trully awful digiscoped photos.

Spurn Point - Long-toed Stint?

We decided to visit a new RSPB reserve down in the wash today, Frampton Marsh but wouldn't you know it the bird pager went off just as we were setting off - a possible Long-toed Stint had been seen last night and again first thing this morning at Patrington Haven so off we went.  By the time we reached Patrington we had missed high tide so we carried on to Spurn Point  with plans to go back to Patrington at the next high tide at about 7.30.  So we decided to look for the juvenile Marsh Warbler down Beacon Lane which had been seen yesterday - after about an hour of looking we finally found the bird, surprisingly this was a lifer for me so I was happy.  To cut a long story short we saw the stint or a stint which turned out to be a Little Stint not a Long-toed Stint and to add insult to injury for Wayne at the same time it came through on the pager that a Collared Pratincole was at Frampton Marsh a new Lincolnshire 'tick' for us.  We had a lovely day at Spurn though with thousands of waders and dozens of terns and 3 Emperor Dragonflies - I wonder though where we will be tomorrow.

Alkborough Flats - Peregrines and Egrets

This is one of the young Peregrines we have been watching down on the flats for a while now - we have seen 2 maybe 3 juveniles one being fed by an adult.  I would like to say that I took these photos(2nd photo Little Egret, 3rd photo snipe) but I didn't I have never managed to get any thing like these image sizes with my little canon  ixus but my brother (Shadoxhurst Nick) managed these on a quick visit on Sunday morning, Nick uses a SonyA700 with a Tamron 200-500 lens - thankfully he's now back in Kent!