February 2025
A new month and some more species for the 2025 photo challenge - with a dull and dismal 1st not a lot to add but a sunny 2nd brought the chance to add some real padders so here goes with some of those missing common or garden birds and a few follow ups
Male Blackbird but note the brown wing feathers indicating that it is a second calendar year bird but from where? local or a winter migrant from the East?
All the greater coverts have been replaced by new black feathers
Another black bird with a slight twist a white winged Carrion Crow - feathers suffer from leucism in Carrion Crow’s wings on a failry regular basis but tis may also be due to poor diet during their formation in the nest
Green Woodpeckers - maybe seeing this nest box occupants as a threat so need to bring it down!! - 50
51 slightly different to the usual hovering shots a perched adult male on the patch this afternoon
a scenic tree albeit dead makes a better perch
52 Redshanks at high ide roost on the wreck of an old ship on the Humber at Goxhill
53 a flock of Turnstones - only 12 this morning but 70 at low tide yesterday was a decent count in recent terms though up to 400 used to winter on this stretch of the Humber
winter Turnstones reflect the umber colour of the Humber water
perched on some Scunthorpe slag
loved how the colours of this Yellowhammer were repeated in the surrounding trees and lichen - I continue to photograph this amazing species as it seems to be another one we are certain to loose sooner rather than later
54 Mute Swan cygnet taken through a film of reed that again complemented the colour of the bird and the warmth of the low winter sun
Cob just after sunrise
55 Whistling Wigeon - we have about 40 tame Wigeon locally now accustomed to people walking past them on the Humber bank so spoint for choice really
The problem with the birds omn the Humber is the closer they are the worse your angle looking down on them from the raised embankment
more appealing to me bird and light
56 Great Tit - the light at this time of year is superb, when its not cloudy! so making the most of the common birds
another of those had to be done at some point Canada Goose 57
58 Magpie and Woodpig
One of the Waters Edge specialities cracking male Bullfinch
male Chaffinch in winter hues - the quality of the relatively inexpensive Canon RF 200-800 lens continues to impress me with the R6II
59 up with the local flock of Curlew - always tricky getting a flock of birds with no overlapping individuals so this was a nice series in lovely early morning light - a declining species we have a flock of c45 locally but had up to 300 at Goxhill at the weekend where the species has always been in considerable numbers.
some individuals hold winter territories and this bird is highly tied to the area around Barton Haven where it feeds daily and is presumably the same bird seen in that area for a few winters
Probably a male from bill length but a tricky individual
60 Gadwall with male in head throw back display - in 1970 when I was just starting submitting records to the Lincs Bird Report my record of a pair of Gadwall in Goxhill Marsh at Quebec tileyard was one of very few records in that years county report - now there are up to 250 on my local patch and up to 450 at Alkborough a massive change in status
Gadwall drake in different light
but up
61 House Sparrow - considered a pest species when I started birding in the late 60’s and through to the late 70’s we used to get a notable westerly passage of birds up the Humber in September and October - nowadays I have a few spots locally where there are small numbers but flocks in fields in the autumn are a thing of the past
The flock at Waters Edge survive because there are old pan tiles rooves in the houses along Waterside road and the birds have easy access to a good insect food supply in the Wedge reedbeds in the summer when feeding young
Who can resist one more Long-tailed Tit shot
62 maybe pushing it a bit with this Tawny Owl shot but didn’t have one in January and found it because the resident pair of Stock Doves were sat outside the box looking non too happy
63 Blue Tit in a reedbed a major wintering habitat around the edges of the Humber - with a lot of imagination it could be an Azure
not really qualifying as 64 but a Dark-bellied Brent Goose on my local patch this morning was a rare bird so it makes the secondary grade and I am sure I will improve on it coastal later in the year
65 my first patch Little Egret of the year in a ditch by Wedge - I hammered my local patch at Barton in January walking about 150 miles and finished January with a total of 94 species seen the highest for eight years but my all time January max was 104 in 2008. In the last two days I have added five species, Tawny Owl, Little Egret, Treecreeper, Stonechat and Dark-bellied Brent Goose and I have still not had Barn Owl. All time February max was 120 in the record breaking year of 1996 when I managed 184 species in Barton something that will never be beaten given all the species that we no longer get and losses of species like Turtle Dove and Willow Tit.
66 Treecreeper in a regular local spot in the clay pits but a site where I had not managed to see or hear a bird throughout January but today a male was singing and a second bird calling - photographing them in hawthorns with lots of branches is never easy
a really bright looking bird in the February sun
67 Raven with nest lining material - it was only in 2003 that all the Lincs listers headed to Belton Park near Grantham for the first twitchable Lincolnshire Ravens now they are seemingly commonplace or at least very widely scattered
A Raven pair collecting linings yesterday - always an early breeder
68 Nuthatch - we lost our breeding birds from Baysgarth Park at Barton three years ago for some reason butr elsewhere in North Lincs they still seem to be doing OK; When I started birding in the late 60’s and through to about 2000 Nuthatches were restricted to woodlands south of Lincoln in the county but the northward spread was remarkably rapid for a sedentary species
another species I had few images of so yesterday’s collection were welcome
69 Dunnock
Had to make 70 with a decent bird and this second calendar year female Northern Goshawk fits the bill nicely - spent 5 hours with nothing to show but two minutes of close encounters made up for the stiff but
Will be putting more images in the Goshawk gallery when I get them processed
A good selection of padders on Waters Edge this morning including a decent flock of Goldfinches 71
I tried different shots of this Great Spotted Woodpecker male as he moved between drumming branches in the early morning sunny spots
And the feel of the morning - Robin and reed
reflected Coot
around 300 Jackdaws roost in Barton town and before sunrise they assemble in the trees behind our house before dispersing for the day 72
Jackdaws from the back garden
Jackdaws in the cow shed
73 Lesser Redpoll - in the whole of 2024 I saw one Lesser Redpoill on my local patch and that was a fly over in fact I only saw 4 birds all year including numerous visits to Laughton Forest so the 5 on Waters Edge yesterday were already more than last year and included a nice pink breasted male
Frosty Robin - they seem more prominent this winter but is it just people feeding them?
74 female Teal
Tufted Duck pair
Flying Yellowhammer -
75 Jack Snipe - there has been a long spell of truly dismal weather with zero light but found 5 Jack Snipe with the aid of a thermal imager of which this was the most visible
Another Jack Snipe keeping its head down
76 Hen Harrier - taken a while to catch up with one in almost decent light here having a tussle with a crow
Tufted Duck eye
Tufted Duck landing
Different take on Tufted Ducks
and Little Grebe throwing droplets
77 Great Crested Grebe
78 Stock Dove
79 Eastern Yellow Wagtail - certainly not a species I expected to be adding to the annual challenge particularly just seven miles from home and a first for Lincolnshire - click the image above to go to more on a blog post about this exciting find
80 Tree Sparrows at Bempton where a Saturday visit added a few more species - a thriving Tree Sparrow colony is good to see as we seem to have lost all our small colonies at Barton in the last two years
81, 82 and 83 Guillemot, Razorbill and Gannet - there were masses of auks on the sea in huge rafts with plenty of Razorbill and Guillemots visiting the ledges
Many of the auks were distributed in wavy lines
the light at this time of year is better than mid-summer with a lower sun and more subtle shades - partially bridled Guillemot
Guillemot from above
Razorbill incoming
Conscious effort to try and get a slightly different Gannet image
Plenty of nest site agro already under way
Nicer tones on the white plumage than in June
84 a pretty standard Fulmar - there were no Kittiwakes back and didn’t see a Puffin
Couldn’t resist the eyes of a Jack
85 Woodlark - full blog posit about first encounters of 2025 linked by clicking above image of a dust bathing male
Ending the month on 86 with a flying Common Snipe