Another chilly trip to Swinemoor this morning turned up some more nice birds. The, by now, customary Redwings greeted me as I walked through a copse of hawthorns, accompanied by a few a Long-tailed Tits and Chaffinches.

Out on the floods the numbers of gulls are still building up with around 150 Black-headed Gulls and 20 Common Gulls. Lapwings were also obvious and at least 70 were present across the common. A group of 30 Golden Plovers were increased by arriving squadrons and eventually they totalled at least 200 birds, but again they were very nervous and flew into the air at the slightest disturbance by horses or crows. I then came across a Greenshank feeding on the mud and 2 Redshank. I didn’t get long to look at these before they flew to another section of the floods.

Walking further along a spotted 4 Curlews feeding with a large group of Moorhens alongside a reedy ditch and when I reached the River Hull flood defences I noticed 2 more; a total of 6 birds with at least 2 juveniles easily identified by their shorter bills and buffy colouration. I agian saw the Greenshank, this time in company of a female Ruff and at least 31 Snipe all feeding together in a compact group.

After counting the Snipe I began heading back and came upon 2 Mistle Thrushes which seemed extremely startled by my presence. By the time I reached the northern end of the common, 4 more Redshank had joined the original 2 and a group of 6 Teal were also feeding in the shallow floods. Suddenly the Pasture Master drove along in his tractor, shouting and tooting his horn at the horses for some reason and scared away all the birds – my cue to go home.

birding, birds, nature