North Cave Wetlands
On Saturday I had a trip out eastwards, starting at Thorne to finally pick up turtle dove, a species that has managed to elude me up to now, despite several attempts. After a few laps of the rhododendron path we finally heard one calling, and got brief views of two tiny doves, wing-clapping softly as they took off, flying over our heads. It’s a “tick”, but I still want better views!
From there on to North Cave, where apart from three avocets, a couple of common terns and some oystercatchers, there wasn’t too much of interest bird-wise, so we moved on to Blacktoft Sands, picking up bearded tit for the year as they flitted around the bases of the reeds, as well as black-tailed godwit, spotted redshank, ruff, dunlin, ringed plover, little egret and the obligatory marsh harrier. I did see one interesting looking wader at the back of the Marshland hide that looked promising for wood sandpiper, but it vanished before I had chance to scrutinise it fully to rule out juvenile redshank. Ah well.
As always this time of year, the most photographic subjects were the insects…
Emerald Damselfly (Thorne)
Large Skipper (Thorne)
Four-spotted Chaser (North Cave)
Comma (North Cave)
