I had a bit of a dilema on Sunday. Do I go up to Scarborough for a smart red-breasted merganser in the harbour along with a great northern diver or do I put my faith in staying relatively local.
Well relatively local won and soon I was heading out to Skeffling. I’d heard that a flock of twite had been seen near the pumping station. Twite are a red listed species in the UK and unfortunately their decline continues. Breeding in the uplands they spend winter at lower levels either on the coast or in the rough grassland around the estuary. They could be confused with linnet but they have a shorter tail, brown streaks on its lower sides. The rump on the males is a nice shade of pink. The feed in tight flocks and make a cheerful sound as they flit to different feeding spots, never staying still for long.
It didnt take long to find them and whilst it was impossible to get close for detailled shots I was content to stand on the bank and photograph the flock in flight for an hour or so.
I expected the tide to push some waders and wildfowl close to the bank but a combination of a very small tide and a north east wind pushing the Humber back, it stopped short about 400 yards from the saltmarsh.
I chose to head for Stone Creek for the last couple of hours of daylight.
The hen harriers werent as obliging as they had been and it looked like the owls had moved up to the next field along. On closer inspection (and as you might expect) the ground was flooded so I could only conclude that the vast numbers of voles must have moved to slightly higher ground.
there were at least 7 owls in flight at any one time-mainly short-eared owls but there was a single barn owl as well as 2 distant hen harriers, 2 marsh harriers, 4 kestrels a common buzzard and a sparrowhawk.
There was a distinct chill in the air which was amplified as the sun went down. It looks like we are in for a spell of cooler weather. Dare we hope for snow?
