Alkborough and Barton....

A trip out today to a couple of sites in the north of the county,saw Dave and myself getting a few good birds to put in the notebook.Our first destination was a very cold and blustery Alkborough flats,with the best bird being the drake Green-winged Teal which was watched swimming around with his european cousins,giving pretty good views.This bird hasn't aquired his full plumage quite yet and was not as smart as his relatives,but a good bird all the same.Also seen in the vicinity of the teal flock were a group of smart Spotted Redshank,with 4 birds being present,a solitary Avocet,2 Ruff mixed in with a flock of 244 Black-tailed Godwit,at least 12 Marsh Harrier on and around the reserve and a single juv. Peregrine putting the frighteners up every single bird on the reserve!.So after this good few hours,we decided to move onto Barton and see what we could find.

 Just as we were arriving at the new visitor centre at Far-Ings,a flock of Whooper swans had just taken off from the pursuit pit and started to head towards the humber bridge,a good start,just as it started to tip it down.After the rain had stopped we walked down to Chowder Ness,with a few birds present which included 8 Bar-tailed Godwit,162 Dunlin and 6 Ringed Plover,the latter species didn't at one time be present in winter,how things are changing!.After our look on Chowder we made our way through the reserve to Ness lake,where the best birds were 2 differant Bittern a briefly singing male Cetti's Warbler and 2 Water Rail which decided to have a bit of a territorial dispute and gave decent views on the edge of the reedbed.As the light started to go we walked back to the car and took a few shots of the mill-pond like Pursuit pit before heading home.A decent effort today,with a few good birds seen.