I hadn’t been to Welton Waters for quite some time; it can be quite a good place for birds so I decided a visit could turn up something interesting. The weather turned out to be quite hot and there was not a breath of wind, possibly the warmest day this year.

The birds were a bit thin on the ground to start with, but good numbers of warblers were lurking around in the bushes, feeding young. I saw 2 female Blackcaps foraging and a male feeding on crab apples. A young Chiffchaff was easily separated from its parent by its fresh plumage in contract to the scrffy appearance of the adult. Other small songbirds included Wren, Dunnock and Robin.

On the main lake quite a few Little Grebes were busy tending their young and a group of 4 Cormorants were perched on a dead tree. The water of the lake was so calm it looked like a mirror until some noisy water skiers began creating a noise. There were very few other waterbirds present, just 5 Black-headed Gulls, a couple of Mute Swans and a couple of Coot and Moorhen. However, the waterskiing made a Common Scoter come quite close to the bank – a female which spent a long time preening itself.

The nice thing about Welton Waters is that there are a variety of habitats and the mud alongside the Humber turned up a few other birds; 6 Curlew, 24 Lapwings and numerous Black-headed Gulls, Great Black-backed Gulls, Common Gulls and one or two Lesser Black-backed Gulls and Herring Gulls. Then into a patch of woodland where a couple of Goldfinches were shading themselves and a juvenile Robin was being fed by a parent.

The sun was actually getting pretty hot, so I walked back via Brough Airfield where haymaking was in progress. Quite late for cutting the hay, but that is great for the Meadow Pipits and Skylarks to fledge their chicks. Catching the insects coming from the hay were 6 Swallows and 13 Sand Martins whilst in the marsh on the airfield a couple of Gadwall, Mallard, Tufted Ducks and Great Crested Grebes were joined by 3 Grey Herons.

By the time I got back to the car I was quite hot and 2 pikeys on motorbikes were spoiling any chance of seeing more birds. The guy back at the railway crossing asked me if I’d seen anything interesting then told me he’d seen 2 Ruddy Shelduck crossing the road on foot! Now that sounds like stringing at its worst!