Other than the South Hide - next to the parking lot - the reserve was very quiet, people-wise. In contrast, the cacophony of several hundred Greylags and Canada geese from East Hide was incredible, it was hard to make out other birds in the village lake. I had a brief stop on Turret hide and pressed on. As I searched for Golden Plovers unsuccessfully amongst a group of Lapwings, I saw a Green Woodpecker feeding on the grass. So, cryptic I would have easily missed it if I hadn't been looking thorugh the binoculars. Further ahead, flocks of finches: Goldfinches, Siskins and some Lesser Redpolls fed acrobatically on the alder seeds in the north side of the reserve. This wintry scene was topped incongruously by four swallows feeding overhead, despite being so chilly I didn't see many insects at all.
While I was looking at an information panel by Dryham lane, a Stoat came trotting along a grassy path with a mouse in its mouth. I froze, but the Stoat might had already noticed me, as it promptly dropped the (dead) mouse a couple of meters away from me, turned round, run away and hid in the bushes. I clumsily switched my camera on, focused it on the mouse and hoped that the Stoat would come back. It promptly did, running towards me, fetching the mouse and disappearing from view, but not before I had managed a single shot!
I was grinning all the way to South Hide, as it is the first time I see a Stoat and the whole experience was exhilarating. I joined a few birders in the hide, which told me I had just missed a Kingfisher. We waited a while hoping it would turn up, though it didn't. We were enternained by the Little Grebes fighting and diving by the hide. The usual mix of Great Crested Grebes, Coots, Black Headed Gulls and Tufted Ducks joined in.
Overall, a lovely morning at North Cave Wetlands.
Dunnock
The view from South Hide
Believe it or not, there is a Green Woodpecker in this shot.
Wigeons and mallard
Singing robin
Bird list
- Black Swan
- Black-headed Gull
- Blackbird
- Blue Tit
- Canada Goose
- Carrion Crow
- Chaffinch
- Common Gull
- Coot
- Dunnock
- Feral Pigeon
- Gadwall
- Goldfinch
- Great Crested Grebe
- Great Tit
- Green Woodpecker
- Greenfinch
- Greylag Goose (a few hybrid geese CanadaxGreylag, plus a couple of white domestic greylags as well)
- House Sparrow
- Jackdaw
- Lapwing
- Lesser Redpoll
- Little Grebe
- Long-tailed Tit
- Magpie
- Mallard
- Moorhen
- Mute Swan
- Pheasant
- Pied Wagtail
- Pochard
- Redshank
- Reed Bunting
- Robin
- Rook
- Shelduck
- Shoveler
- Siskin
- Snipe
- Song Thrush
- Starling
- Swallow
- Teal
- Tree Sparrow
- Tufted Duck
- Wigeon
- Woodpigeon
- Wren
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