A Wetland Bird Survey full of surprises at Pickering Park

An early walk to Pickering Park, mild and unexpectedly sunny. At the Western Cemetery, two Mistle Thrushes rattle and chase Redwings from the ground, I wonder if they have decided on a nest site. Soon after arriving to Pickering Park, as I was counting the geese, the first surprise, an Oystercatcher, new for my Hull year list and a site tick too. It fed on the grass for a while, moving to the other end of the field avoiding the dog walkers. It finally left as the football teams assembled on the field just before 10 am.

 

Oystercatcher.

Not your typical Pickering Park sight!

The female Pintail was still about, very actively feeding.

This Treecreeper stopped for a bit, it was constantly singing near the small pond area.

And then the biggest surprise was to find six Waxwings on a lime tree! No berries around, they sat there, high up, basking, occasionally moving to the next tree. Two of them gently billed each other and exchanged food. After a while one flew up and down, and they started trilling and left east, then after a few minutes returned to the same area. What a treat to be able to watch

I wonder if the Waxwings are interested in the buds, as they appear to nibble them, they are as red as berries.

This pair looked very cosy, I thought they were billing every now and then, coming together and then jumping away, but there seems to be a round item, possibly a bud, being transferred between them, which I only noticed after checking the photos. This is a behaviour called 'gift passing' part of pair formation and bonding which can involve either a food item or an inedible item.

The last photo of a Waxwing.

The single Goosander today.

A few Siskins were on the alders at Priory Cycle path.

Pied Wagtail, Anlaby Road.

At home, a Buzzard soared over the garden, chased by a Carrion Crow, while the Herring Gulls alarm-called, another new species for the year.

And a Chiffchaff made an appearance in the garden too. There has been one in our street for a couple of weeks, it's nice it popped in the garden, and stopped long enough for a photo.

Sparrowhawk over the garden.

Why would I want to go birding anywhere else!? The low carbon birding year for the city of Hull now stands at 76 species, 3 added today.

Waxwinging it

I got alerted by Helen Bovil on Twitter about the presence of a flock of Waxwings at Sainsbury's in Hessle. It appears to be a Waxwing irruption winter and watching them again was top in my birding wish list, so I got in touch with Robert Jaques to see if he fancied some waxwinging early in the morning. It was still dark when I got up, but the forecast was for sunny weather later. There had been some rain in the night and then a frost, so it took a while to scrape the car windshield and get going. A very cold morning, with a northerly wind.
 We arrived at Hessle after 8:00 am. The car park was quite slippery with ice. We walked about but the trees looked stripped bare. A single rowan at one end appeared to have some berries, which were being dealt with by a couple of squabbling blackbirds.
 We then went for plan B, which consisted in visiting the several supermarket car-parks frequented by waxwings in previous irruption years. We drew a blank at Asda in Hessle Road, the rowans there also completely devoid of berries. On the way to the Park Street by Tesco we drove past a line of rowans that were loaded full of berries a few weeks back, near Hull Royal Infirmary, and incredibly spotted a waxwing on one, crest erect, from the car! We swiftly and eventfully parked in a nearby side street, nicely called Linneus Street, and skidded on the pavement toward the said rowans. There was a nice flock of 18 of them. Some feeding on the rowans, that still held some fruit, but most were intent in drinking from a puddle just by the side of the road. They would start alighting on the tarmac when a bus or a car would go past and send them scampering up the tree again. At last they managed to stay long enough for some shots. At some point the whole flock left to a nearby tree top and eventually flew off south. The trip was made even nicer by the fact that joining the waxwings there were many Blackbirds, a couple of Mistle Thrushes, a Song Thrush, and, feeding on the many fallen berries Black-Headed Gulls and Feral Pigeons. The total tally of 23 bird species for a cold winter morning by a busy urban road is not bad at all

Drinking from a puddle.

One of the waxwings checks the sky.

The whole flock on a tree before departing.

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