Eske and Leven Canal

May 21st, 2007 Nick

With the weather fine and calm it seemed a good day to go for a long walk along the River Hull. I wandered up to the lake at Eske. On the way up a pair of Mistle Thrushes were hunting on the polo club and Reed Buntings were calling from the reeds. The sunshine brought out the Skylarks, with three or four in song, along with a Meadow Pipit or two. I stopped to have a look at a wet pool in some set aside where a number of Lapwings were lurking and at least two chicks were feeding; a male Shoveler was also resting there, but stirred and flew off north as I was watching. Another migrant put in an appearance as I was watching these birds; a Common Sandpiper flying north along the river made a short landing on a lump of floating debris before continuing north.

A local farmer has put his cows out on the flood defences of the river and they look quite nice until they panic as walkers approach and then they stampede.

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With the fine weather one of the Little Owls was sitting outside its roosting hole, but this time it was asleep and didn’t seem to be watching me this time.

On the lake the usual birds were present; Mallard, Tufted Duck, Coot, Moorhen, Great-crested Grebe, Greylag Goose, a single Canada Goose, 2 Shelduck and one Gadwall. Two Oystercatchers are still present as are the male Wigeon and female Goldeneye.

Warblers were much in evidence today with many Willow Warblers and a Lesser Whitethroat easily seen and a few Sedge Warblers and a Reed Warbler noisily “singing”.

Walking past the lake towards the Leven canal a distant Cuckoo was calling and as I was looking at a group of Mute Swans a large ducklike bird flew north. After looking at it through my binoculars it was obviously an Egyptian Goose! I watched it fly north, almost out of sight, but then it did a u-turn and returned back south, giving me a second chance to see it properly.

A number of Linnets and Goldfinches were feeding in some weeds and as I was watching these a Common Sandpiper flew north along the river. Presumably it was the same one as earlier, and this time it attempted to land on a Mallard’s head!

Walking along the Leven canal revealed impressive numbers of both Sedge and Reed Warblers, so many that it was easy to get good views of these sometimes tricky to see species. Suddenly, a long overdue Garden Warbler came into song and very obligingly showed itself. A male Blackcap was showing off too and a couple of Whitethroats were also in song as were a few Chiffchaffs. Strangely there don’t seem to be many of this species around up and down the Hull valley, but there were at least three along the canal.

Also along the canal two encounters with Slow Worms made me jump; the first one I saw was about 1 metre long. A Kingfisher made one of those typical photogenic poses on a sign saying no fishing!

The return journey revealed a female Mute Swan building a nest; I took a few photos and a video clip of this – here is one of the pictures.

Back at the River Hull a distant Cuckoo made itself seen as some small songbirds mobbed it. It didn’t move far before resuming its call. A little further down the river a second Cuckoo came into view and performed some surprisingly acrobatic moves as it caught some flies. Immediately after this, a Barn Owl appeared almost at my feet, just a few yards away and below the flood defences I was walking on.

Back on the lake another migrant had turned up; a pair of Common Terns, with the male catching fish and offering them to the female. Last year a pair successfully raised two chicks and it looks like they will attempt to do so again. Another arrival to the lake was an immature Cormorant.

Yet another migrant was a pair of Yellow Wagtails, calling and perching on barbed wire. They didn’t seem too concerned with me and I managed to take a couple of reasonable photos.

With my stomach complaining at this point I marched back to the car with just a few Swifts, Swallows and a flock of House Martins of note, although large numbers of juvenile Starlings were everywhere!

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