Urban birding at Hull: Albert Dock

 I spent some time at Albert Dock this morning. It is really surprising how this heavily industrial area with little green space has a surprising array of birds. Of course, it is not surprising to find Herring Gulls and Lesser Black-backed gulls, which nest on the roofs of the dock's buildings.

Two Lesser Black-backed gulls on docks warehouses.

Or cormorants...

A cormorant roosted on a light by the locks.

But there is more. Around the lock-keeper cottage, four house martin pairs were busy building their nests. When I visited a couple of weeks ago the old nests were gone, so they haven't wasted any time rebuilding them!

One House martin from the inside and the other from the outside. Not long to go!

The shadow of a landing House Martin by another collecting mud from a puddle.

Three House Martins collecting mud.

Family of Starlings.

A starling on a vent by house martin nest.

Although I had seen Shelduck flying close to shore in the site, I was most surprised to see a family of Shelduck, with the adults leading 9 shelducklings. After some excitement, I realised this might not be the best habitat to raise the ducklings. The sides of the dock are sheer, and they might not find enough food to eat. As I looked to Google Earth later at home, the dock might have some derelict areas that might allow the ducklings to climb up to get dry and be brooded. The question is, will they survive?

Many birds visit the sea wall. A Collared Dove:

Starlings seem to find plenty of food for their hungry chicks.

Pied Wagtail.

A Goldfinch fed on Stagshorn Plantain seeds, and then...

it moved to the bladder wrack, to eat what? I observed a similar behaviour last week.

The tide was ebbing, revealing a sand bank. As I scanned the water, I spotted a porpoise, my first Humber cetacean, but I couldn't find it again with my camera.

Walking the Humber. Stage 15. Kilnsea Wetlands and the Spurn Triangle

A sunny, warm day I headed to Kilnsea for the penultimate stage of Walking the Humber, featuring the area south of long bank: Kilnsea Wetlands, Beacon ponds and the 'Spurn Triangle' up to the Warren, including the new YWT Spurn Discovery Centre.
 I park at Kilnsea Wetlands and walk to the hide. A Four-Spotted Chaser is hunting and resting on the drain by the path to the hide.

Kilnsea Wetlands
This is a very new nature reserve managed by the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, only a few years old, but that has developed and matured quickly. It consists on several scrapes and is grazed by sheep, including a Hebridean flock. It was created to compensate for the loss of wetlands in the area due to coastal erosion. Many birds use it, including waders at high tide. Today it was busy, with families of starlings feeding on the edge of the main pond. A pied and a yellow wagtail hovered just over the water surface capturing insects. The Yellow Wagtail was carrying food for young. There were at least two pairs of Avocets, and two chicks. Mute Swans, Teal, Gadwall, Wigeon, Greylag and Mallard, the last two with young, were about. Skylarks sung over the reserve.
As I left the hide, a Painted Lady was sitting on the path, and a Large Skipper and a Wall Brown butterfly were also about.

The only Black-bellied Brent Geese I saw today was grazing at Kilnsea Wetlands.

This Little Egret was very successful fishing Sticklebacks.

Painted Lady, this individual with tattered wings is likely to have travelled from the Mediterranean. My first one of the year.

 

Hovering Yellow Wagtail.

Now with a bunch of insects for its brood.

Yellow Wagtail and Avocet chick.

Wall Brown.

Beacon Ponds

This set of lagoons and sand dunes, now being eroded by the sea has held a Little Tern colony for over a century. The colony of about 25-30 pairs is wardened and surrounded by an electric fence to protect the nests on the ground. Beacon ponds often has  and many other birds. Today there were some Sandwich Terns, several Avocets, a Cormorant, a Dunlin and two Oystercatchers, in addition to the Little Terns of course!

Blue-tailed Damselfly.

Two Little Terns by their sand and shingle colony.

Sheep grazing by a scrape covered on flowering crowfoot. The sound mirror in the background.

Beacon Lane

I move onto Beacon Lane, usually really good for invertebrates. There were several patches of Bird foot trefoil in bloom, with several Common Blue butterflies on them.

Male Common Blue

Reed Bunting singing.

Female Common Blue.

Spider for ID.

The Triangle

I walk east by Easington Road towards the Crown and Anchor to walk by the Humber towards Canal Scrape. Families of starlings feed by the sea wrack. The tide is quite low and it is starting to get warm.

A Small Heath on the Blue Bell car park.

A family of Starlings feeding on flies on the sea wrack.

Emperor dragonfly on Canal Scrape.

A large and stunning soldierfly, a female Flecked General Stratiomys singularior (confirmed by Ian Andrews on twitter). It is a species found near wetlands, with a preference for grazing saltmarshes.

Four spotted chaser on Canal Scrape.

The Mute Swan pair of Canal Scrape had 8 young.

A rabbit in the Warren.

Canal Scrape and Clubley's Scrape

After lunch in the cafe of the Discovery Centre, I spend some time watching dragonflies around Canal Scrape Clubley Scrape (above) and the newly dug ponds near the Discovery Centre. Black-tailed Skimmer were very obvious, I only saw males, some immature. The Four spotted Chasers fought them off repeatedly. There was a resident male Emperor in at least 3 of the ponds. I found a darter but I couldn't get a good view or a photo. 

Black-tailed Skimmer.

Male Emperor taking a break on the edge of the pond.

An ovipositing Four spotted Chaser female. She dips her abdomen in the water repeatedly and you can see the ripples on the water where she just did.

A view of the Discovery Centre from the sea bank.

As I returned to the car, pairs or trios of Swifts, probably non-breeding individuals, were already migrating south.

Next and final stage will feature the lighthouse and Spurn Head peninsula.

Today's walk, about 9.6 km.