We took part in the Global Big Day on May 9th which has been organised by ebird http://ebird.org/content/ebird/. This is the first time a world wide event like this has been attempted and it will be interesting to see what the grand total of species seen on the day will be, log into the above link to find out more. The rules state that you could spend as much or as little time on May 9th as you wish so we thought that we would incorporate this as part of our annual 24 hours Bird Race that we undertake every year. This year we thought we would cover North Lincolnshire, limiting ourselves to the Scunthorpe recording area which uses the Humber as the northern boundary, the Wolds as the eastern boundary, the Lincolnshire County boundary in the west and the A631 road as the southern boundary.
Weather
The forecast was a bit iffy stating heavy rain Friday night into early hours Saturday morning, 12 mph winds with some strong gusts and a max temp of 12 degrees. In reality it proved to be much worse with strong winds, cold temps and overcast during the early hours resulting in an almost silent dawn chorus and then the wind just got even stronger making the location of some small passerines virtually impossible. On a plus note the evening brightened up and the wind dropped to almost nothing allowing us to catch up on a few species missed earlier in the day.
The Big Day
Left the house at mid-night with light rain and blustery conditions and drove along a few back roads on the way down to a large local forest with the hope of catching up with a few owls. The rest of the darkness hours through to dawn was spent sauntering around the forest listening to nothing but the wind blowing through the trees although the local Tawny Owls did give up their silence eventually and went on the list. Dawn broke quite a bit later than normal due to the heavy dark clouds and I had almost given up hope of Nightjar when I thought I caught a snippet of distant churring but couldn't be 100 percent and was left wondering was it or wan't it. A few long minutes went by and then the wind actually helped for once drifting the distinctive churring sound to me much clearer this time and then a second bird got up off the ground and had a little fly around at the same time as a very early rising Buzzard drifted over. This lifted my spirits and stirred me into action as more and more species began to sing and the time came to move onto the next site.
Having bagged quite a few woodland birds at the last site it was time to visit a wetland area where new species came thick and fast and by 08.45 a total of 85 species were on the list. This was my main site for Willow Tit, in fact my only site but the four known pairs were keeping their heads down in the strengthening wind and I had to leave with not even a whisper from them as time was pressing on.
So it was on to Alkborough Flats where we had great hopes of adding a good number of waders but we were a little disappointed with no sign of the Ruff or Spotted Redshank that have been present for a number of weeks, no doubt someone leaked that we were doing a bird race and they duly went to hide on the other side of the river at Blacktoft Sands. One thing you can guarantee with a bird race are the ups and downs as one minute you seem to be missing everything going that appeared stitched on only the previous day and then things switch round and you start seeing species that you never dreamed of seeing such as the Whooper Swan that dropped in. A long hard search for the Green-winged Teal that had been present for a few days eventually located it a sleep with Eurasian Teal out near the breach and then it was a quick sprint to the Trent bank for Wheatear before it was time to move on. On the way back to the car two Greenshank were located tucked a way on a small pool which brought the tally to the magic 100 mark and it was just about mid day, the half way mark.
We rushed up to Read's Island and on the way the sun decided to make an appearance for the first time in the day which couldn't be worse as the slightest rise in temperature brings out the heat haze and makes identifying those distant waders on the mudflats impossible. I had no worries of that though as 1st the sun swiftly disappeared again and 2nd there were no waders out there to try and identify. It is amazing how this site has changed so much so quickly, for years there were vast mudflats covered in good numbers of Dunlin & Curlew with smaller numbers of Redshank and at this time of year up to 300 - 400 passage Ringed Plover but the changing deep water channel has eroded much of these mudflats away along with most of the waders. A little compensation though came in the form of a fine Spoonbill seen feeding in pools on top of the island.
The rest of the day was spent chasing after odd birds here and there before I realised I hadn't seen Nuthatch, I couldn't miss this species especially as one had been feeding in the garden only the previous evening so it was off to a known nest hole and within seconds of arriving a bird exited the hole. A quick revisit to the Willow Tit site but with no luck even though the wind had begun to ease as the sun began drop. I was beginning to enter another one of those down moments that had hit me many times during the day and nearly gave up and went home but it was turning into a lovely evening with the sun out and the wind dropping to virtually nothing so I pressed on to my last site. This proved to be an excellent move as I added no less than four new species in the fading light which included Bittern, Grasshopper Warbler and Long-eared Owl. It was 21.40 and the Long-eared Owl was the last addition of the day and a quick count up revealed the grand finishing total to be 116 species, what a day. Sunday will be a day of rest and gathering our strength back after nearly 22 hours in the field as well as reflecting on the day seeing where I could make improvements ready for next year.
A beautiful but moody picture of Alkborough Flats
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