East Park and Rockford Fields LNR in October

 

A warm and sunny mid October day, my initial plan today was to get the bus to Asda and walk to Noddle Hill to survey bush-crickets, but the bus strike put an end to that, and I decided to walk to East Park instead. A Black Swan had been in residence since Thursday, and I had never had one in Hull, so that was the excuse, and also, who needs an excuse to go to East Park, there is always something interesting going on.

The pair of Great Crested Grebes are still about.

Two Shovelers by the central island.

There were two Mute Swans looking ill, this one swam with eyes closed and neck feathers raised. A juvenile didn't look well either. I wonder if bird flu?

Ill juvenile Mute Swan.

Black Swan close up.

The Black Swan, which looked like a juvenile was interested on the Mute Swans.

The long resident drake Gadwall was easy to find today as it was very vocal. It was calling next to a female mallard, who was keeping a close eye on a passing buzzard.

Gadwall and mallard.

The fly-over buzzard with a very full crop.

I was surprised to see a Goosander, looking like it was still moulting, maybe a juvenile?

The only ringed gull I saw today was a Black-headed Gull from a Danish ringing scheme, previously seen by Wes Payne at East Park 'ZKC - ringed in 2009 as 3y+, making it at least 17! It looks like a true urban bird with all 38 previous sightings in Copenhagen during spring/summer.'

Three Migrant Hawkers were active by the boardwalk.

Red Admiral on Ivy blossom.

I checked for terrapins in the usual places, but it was only at 13:25 when I was on my way back that I spotted a male Cooter on an old Coot's nest by the central island.

As I headed back it was balmy, had to take my coat off. I peeked behind the tree trunk at Rockford Fields and counted 12 Long-winged coneheads, most of them females, basking, also a few Lesser Marsh Grasshoppers and Roesel's calling, although I failed to see any.

Long-winged conehead.

Lesser Marsh Grasshopper.

Long-winged Conehead inspecting her ovipositor.

Long-winged Coneheads.

Two Pied Wagtails by Wilmington Bridge.

Sculcoates and the Speckled Bush Crickets

A sunny morning walk around Sculcoates. It was a glorious blue sky and very calm weather, in all contrast with yesterday's gale. As I get to the playing fields I realise there are many Pied Wagtails, I count 7. One of them walks in front of a Magpie, and both make like a comical mirror image of black and white birds with long tails

Magpie and Pied Wagtail.

Pied Wagtail.

It's a perfect day for soaring and two Sparrowhawks take to the wing, first they are pursued by Starlings and Goldfinches, then a Carrion Crow, at least the gulls now don't care much about Sparrowhawks. The Pied Wagtails take to the air too, they look like they are in passage.

As they are several skeins of Pink-footed Geese.

Pink-footed Geese.

I move onto the river. The tide is ebbing and there are only a few gulls, including this Common Gull. A single Redshank is on view. In the last few weeks there hasn't been a roost by Wilmington Bridge.

Redshank.

It is time now for the cemetery. I take the bat detector out and locate some Speckled Bush-crickets after the 'roundabout', There are at least 3 responding. The sun shines and it is quite mild, there seem to be more bush-cricket activity than last week, with a Long-winged Conehead calling too.

The speckled are calling from here.

Volucella zonaria.

I try to spot a speckled, but no luck. I move to the drain, to the spot where I heard one faintly last week. This time there is more than one calling, the sound is loud, and I spend some time scanning the brambles with the binoculars.

A speckled cricket is calling from this patch of brambles.

This time I find a male!

All stretched out, catching the sun, finally! I would have never found this species at the patch without the bat detector!

At the cycle track by the drain, a few Migrant Hawkers and Common Darters are active, chasing each other. One stopped to bask in the sunshine.