A very sunny day was made surprisingly cold by a brisk north westerly wind, but I managed to find some sheltered, warm spots at the lake at Eske this morning. Although bird activity was not at its most spectacular today I noticed that there were still quite a few flowers around. I decided to see how many species of flowering plants I could find still flowering in mid October. I managed to find 14 species and here is a photo gallery of those that I found.

From top left to bottom right they are Dandelion, Selfheal, Red Clover, Ragwort, Teasle, Thistle sp., White Clover, Mayweed sp., Red Campion, Common Catsear, Bramble, Black Knapweed, Daisy and Large-flowered Hemp Nettle.

On the lake there seemed to have been another arrival of wildfowl with well over 100 mallard, 24 Wigeon, 16 Shoveler, 45 Tufted Duck, 12 Mute Swans including 2 juveniles, over 200 Greylag Geese and 2 Pink-footed Geese. Also present were 14 Great Crested Grebes, 1 Little Grebe, 34 Coot, 4 Moorhen, 5 Cormorants, about 80 Black-headed Gulls, 7 Common Gulls and, today’s highlight, 1 male Pintail.

A Grey heron was fishing beside the lake and large numbers of Redwings were feeding on hawthorn berries all around the lake. Lots of small passerines were feeding on seeds and lurking around in the willows including a Chiffchaff which was persuaded into song by the sunshine and a group of about 30 Goldfinches typically feeding upon teasle seeds.

Making my way back towards my car I flushed a lone Meadow Pipit from under a bush, but a few Skylarks were attempting to break into song, also confused by the sun. In one of the more mature hedges it was noticeable that the number of Blackbirds had increased, not quite to the winter peak, but most certainly in higher numbers than in the summer.

With the northerly winds there should be a further influx of winter migrants soon I hope.

With the excitement of the good birds at Swinemoor yesterday, I took a quick look again this morning. Despite there being plenty of flooded patches for feeding waders the numbers of birds had decreased from yesterday.

Numbers of Lapwing were down to about 60-70 along with about 20 Black-headed Gulls and at first I didn’t find any of the smaller waders at all. However, after a bit of scanning I found a single female Ruff alongside the Curlew Sandpiper from yesterday. Whilst watching these a group of Golden Plovers circled around at height and gradually made their way down to the common – for some reason though they decided not to land. Further along a Grey Heron was lurking in the reeds and I spotted some more smaller waders: 4 Dunlin, which had been joined by the Curlew Sandpiper, and 3 Ruff – 2 females and 1 male.

Across the common large numbers of Meadow Pipits were bathing in the pools and chasing each other around. While there are always loads of Meadow Pipits at Swinemoor, today there seemed to be more than usual. I also came across 2 Skylarks and at least 15 Snipe. Walking alongside the River Hull a flock of about 80 Fieldfares moved in and I also flushed 12 Redwings from a hawthorn tree.

Back on the floods another bird had arrived, and a good look revealed it to be a Greenshank – another nice bird to see here; I have a few records of this species over the last few years, but all in spring.

Amongst the grass and dung I spotted loads more of the white fungus I found yesterday, having looked at an old book I have I think it may be Coprinus niveus, but I’m not at all sure. I also came a cross a rather nice example of another, rather phallic, fungus – and took a few pictures. If anyone knows anything about fungus I’d appreciate some help with id – cheers..

Well, this wasn’t so much a festival as a “small gig at an intimate venue”, but for this location the number and variety of waders present today was quite impressive. A misty start to the morning turned into a pleasant, sunny day and having seen a good number of birds on monday at Swinemoor I thought it would be worth another look, particularly as the rain on tuesday was likely to have increased the flooding; and it seems I was right.

First of all I came across a few Redwings and some Blue Tits, then I found an attractive white fungus which I took a bunch of photos of.

After this artistic moment I walked along to view the birds on the floods. At first the bright sunlight made viewing the birds a problem and I could only make out the larger species – about 250 Lapwings and 32 Golden Plovers, along with 37 Black-headed Gulls and 4 Common Gulls. Moving along a little a flock of Starlings moved off and amongst them I could see at least 7 Ruff, so I moved off after them.

At Swinemoor there is a stone bridge which crosses the Beverley-Barmston Drain and as I approached this some horses disturbed the group of Ruff which flew off in the company of a Curlew Sandpiper – I could easily see the white rump. I followed the Curlew Sandpiper until it landed where it joined a group of other small waders. These birds were close enough for me to make out that the Curlew Sand was an immature bird along with a dozen or so Dunlin. Scanning to look for other species I came across 2 Little Stints foraging alongside each other, these too were juveniles and I was becoming quite impressed how many good birds there were. From my right I heard the call of a Curlew and quickly spotted it coming in to land followed by a Sparrowhawk! The Sparrowhawk, however, was chased off by a Lapwing – if only I could capture these moments on video.

Well, whilst these thoughts were in my mind I had an amazing stroke of luck: 2 birds came in to land about 40 feet away from me. I raised by binoculars to see that one was a Ruff and the other a Pectoral Sandpiper! I took a good look at this bird, making sure that I’d identified it correctly before realising I had my camera with me. Hastily I took a couple of shots through my binoculars before studying the bird in more detail.

After a few minutes of this both birds flew off and I followed them to their next resting place. The Pectoral Sandpiper began feeding alongside the Dunlin, Little Stints and Curlew Sandpiper so for a short time I had all these species in my field of view.

Whilst watching these species lots of Snipe were busy chasing each other around and a pair of Mute Swans crash landed in the floods, which I guess they thought were a little deeper than they really were.

Walking around the common I continued to get views of all these species and kept flushing up large numbers of Meadow Pipits and a few Skylarks. At the far end of the common I found another Ruff; this time and adult male in winter plumage – and that was about it as far as birds were concerned.