Friday 13 November 2009

What Bad Weather?

Green Woodpecker (c) 2009 Tony Robinson
Whooper Swan (c) 2009 Maurice Gordon
Rook
Rook
Juvenile Moorhen
The weather forecast had been pretty dire for today, so the trip to Brough Haven was altered to North Cave Wetlands. In all we saw 48 species in the morning, but most of them were pretty ordinary. A Siskin flew over the car park before the morning session started. A Kingfisher whistled & took off from the side of Carp Lake & flew towards South hide. We later saw a flock of 30+ Snipe flying high, but failed to see that they had been flushed by a Peregrine! There were plenty of the expected wildfowl, but all pretty run-of-the-mill. The afternoon session had better sightings of the Bullfinches, and eventually had good views of the 3 Whooper Swans which flew off north. The Snipe seemed to have returned to the lake in front of Turret Hide as we saw at least 10. In the little hide back towards the car park a female Green Woodpecker flew past and landed close by, and gave several participants the best views of this species they’d ever enjoyed. It was a fitting climax to the day – and we completely escaped any strong winds or precipitation.

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