Just Like the Med...

East Yorkshire Wildlife July 25, 2010

I've been down to Pat haven a couple of times this week both on glorious summer evenings with hardly any wind.
The main focus has been on gulls with an impressive amount including black headed, common, lesser and great black backed,yellow legged flyover little and my first mediterranean gull at this spot.
The wader numbers on the lagoon have been down due to the small tides, but still there has been a green sandpiper, greenshank,whimbrel and a brightly coloured black tailed godwit with a smattering of common waders.
Just for added interest there has been at least 5 little egrets and they have been active around the lagoon feeding on small fish and shrimp.

Mediterranean gull

Black -headed gull

Common Gull

Lesser black backed gull

Little egret

Black-tailed godwit

Oystercatcher

Whimbrel

Shellduck

Mid Summer at Pat Haven

East Yorkshire Wildlife July 18, 2010

I've been down to Pat Haven just lately and the conditions have not been great-hence no recent posts.
I was just browsing my archives and I found these that didn't get uploaded at the time.
The barn owl has been seen hunting regularly along the drain and posed beautifully in the evening light.
I took the shot of the sky looking down the lane from the car park and with some manipulation in lightroom created a nice effect.
Hopefully we might get some still weather soon for another bash at the waders.

Patrington Haven

East Yorkshire Wildlife June 30, 2010

Been down to pat haven a couple of times this week first on Monday night, the first thing that struck me was the dramatic increase in waders since the following week.

In total there were 14 different species including a single green sandpiper, 2 curlew sandpipers and a small flock of golden plover.The black tailed godwit and knot in summer plumage were stunning.Also little egret and a very vocal cuckoo,but no raptors or owls.There was also a hare that tokk a short cut across the lagoon temporarily flushing the waders.

I went back again last night and the conditions were perfect, hardly any wind and perfect light.

There was another good showing of waders, a marsh harrier, long eared owl and barn owl.

A good flock of gulls but nothing out of the ordinary.

there was quite a bit of disturbance from walkrs on the bank so the wders were a bit more wary thanthe night before, but still gave some superb views.

Other birds included grey heron, yellow wagtail and kingfisher.