The week after Cleethorpes we headed east again, this time to Blacktoft Sands and then North Cave Wetlands.

At Blacktofts we stopped in the reception first and had a chat with the wardens there. A Wood Wasp was on the window, they are amazing looking wasps and I thought i'd taken a photo but I can't find one!

Wasps had also taken up residence in a large nest by one of the paths so they'd had to arrange a slight detour as the wasps can get a little irate! There is also work going on at the Ousefleet end of the reserve to clear a build up of silt and though it didn't really affect us much.

The difference though with the view from the Ousefleet hide compared to the last time we were here in April is immense, not a drop of water to be seen and the only birds we saw were around half a dozen Yellow Wagtails following the Konick ponies around.


The field by the Ousefleet trail was being plowed as we walked along and there were a lot of Gulls in the area, mostly Black-headed but a few Herring and Lesser Black-backed too. There were a few butterflies along the trail, Small and Large Whites and Speckled Wood, it wasn't the sunniest of days though.




On the lagoons we saw amongst others Avocet, Black-tailed Godwit, Dunlin, Canada Geese, Snipe, Green Sandpiper, Pied Wagtail, Stock Dove and a Cetti's Warbler called briefly too. I didn't take a lot of photos as the birds were distant.









Onto North Cave Wetlands, it's not much of a detour to visit here, we only discovered it about ten or eleven years ago thanks to my Uncle who lived in nearby Gilberdyke. He decided the family weren't seeing enough of each other and arranged a yearly get together, it was for one of these that we discovered the Wetlands, sadly both he and my aunt have passed away now but I always think of them when we visit the wetlands.

It was quiet people wise and had been all day really, we had picked the weekend of the Birdfair so i'm thinking a lot of folk where there instead! There were however birds in abundance including a lot of Greylag Geese everywhere!


There were a few dragonflies on the paths, they didn't stay still for long but I grabbed a couple of photos.



This fly settle on my husbands hand for a couple of minutes, it's quite a beauty as flies go!


A few more photos from the walk.

After a couple of hours at Walton Colliery we moved on to the Country Park which was bordered by a large field of rapeseed, something that always draws the eye. After inhaling an ice cream cone we took a walk around the lake. It does get busy here but most people tend to skip right past the hides which works out quite nicely for us!


On the lake were the usual Canada Geese, Swan, Mallards, Coots, Moorhen with plenty of Black Headed Gulls flying over and settling on the water.




The first two hides were very quiet, Robins, Chaffinch and Reed Bunting to be seen and more Chiffchaff to be heard.


In the large Shallows hide overlooking the lake it was a little busier. Canada Geese, Sand Martins, Oystercatcher, BH Gulls, Wigeon, Common Sandpiper, Redshank, Lapwing, Gadwall, Tufted Ducks.





A Whimbrel had been spotted over the past couple of days according to the sightings board and I spotted what could have been a possibility, I couldn't quite make out if that's what it was or if it was a Curlew as it flew off pretty quick but i'm thinking Curlew after looking at the heavily cropped photos.



Another Buzzard was flying high above the lake at the top end and a Blackcap was singing loudly in the trees. A Pied Wagtail flew right in front of us as we made it back to the entrance and a tree in the car park was full of Greenfinch.

Long hot afternoon but that is not a complaint!