Black Tern made my day! (1 Viewer)

Hello,

On the spur of the moment I decided to have an afternoons birding, sent a text to pal asking if he wanted to come, he did. Picked him up at 3.00PM. Our first port of call was Normanby Park Industrial Estate, there are a few ponds at the northern end. Other than seeing a Green Sandpiper fly over there was nothing else. We called at Winterton Floods, now this was more like it, plenty of birds to mull over. We saw the following:
Grey Wagtail - 1
Mute Swan - 3
Great-Crested Grebe - 7 + 2 juvs
Little Grebe - 3
Greylags - 100+
Pochard - 12+
Common Gull

Then drove to the southern end of Barton upon Humber, to the Sailing Pits and Barrow Mere. At the S. Pits we saw:
Ruddy Duck - 6
Mute Swan
Common Gull - 1
House Martins
Great-crested Grebe - 7
Little Grebe - 1

While scanning over the pits we were also looking over the Mere, and we spotted two Black Tern, for me at least this was a first ever sighting of this bird, it was in it's winter plumage. I was punching the air with delight. Also at the Mere we saw: a Cormorant fly over, along with 40 Lapwing and lots of House Martins. I got good close ups of the Tern in the scope, and even if I hadn't the two of them put on a good show while we were on the grassy bank, and they can't have been any more than fifty feet away!!!

Next we checked the Humber Foreshore and this proved worthwhile as well. We saw:
Redshank - 13
Mute Swan - 31
Knot - 5
Grey Heron - 1
Curlew - 4
Widgeon - 26 over

At Bonby Top we saw a Kestrel.

Considering the birding trip was at short notice we both said we had a damn good half day, with the Black Tern being the star turn.

Ably assisted by Dave Johnson.

Regards :clap:

Nice one Intellectual....packed quite a few birds into a short space of time there.

Only just seen my first Black Tern a few weeks ago, so it's all still fresh in my memory too!!

Hi Intellectual,

"Normanby Park Industrial Estate ponds" is that by the big Morrisons at the east end of Scunny? Was there a Great Northern Diver there last year?

Tom.

I saw my only black tern many years ago at Dungeness - lovely birds.

I agree, Black Terns are brilliant little birds. Glad you found them.

tom mckinney said:

Hi Intellectual,

"Normanby Park Industrial Estate ponds" is that by the big Morrisons at the east end of Scunny? Was there a Great Northern Diver there last year?

Tom.

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Hi Tom,

The ponds by the side of Morrisons are called Ashbyville Ponds. If your familiar with Scunny, at one time of day there used to be Normanby Park Steelworks. Over the years this has all been flattened, and now it's a industrial estate.

There are lots of ponds in the Scunny area. A Grid Ref ' for the Normanby ponds is SE 88 14. If you want spot on directions, I'll tell you.

Yes I believe there was a GND at the 'ville, but I didn't get to see it.

Regards

Dave B Smith said:

I agree, Black Terns are brilliant little birds. Glad you found them.

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Hello Ruby, Richard and Dave,

Thanks for the comments.

Regards