Notts Adventure!

Notts Adventure!

We arrived at Finningley Gravel Pits at around 5:30am in hopes of seeing a rare bird. As soon as we arrived, we made our way to the pool where it was last seen at. We noticed a few Sand Martins  feeding over the lake, as well as a Little Egret. We then met a birder who had just arrived, named Nigel. After a bit of waiting, a large flock of Lapwings flew in. I scanned the flock and noticed a slimmer, smaller bird at the bottom of the flock. It was getting mobbed by the lapwings and suddenly dipped just below the horizon long enough for me to see its plumage. It was our target bird, the Black-winged Pratincole! It soon separated from the flock and flew in the direction of another pool just further down the track. We then made our way down the track, when suddenly we were met with a few cows in the middle of the path. Nigel quickly dealt with them, and we reached a viewpoint overlooking a large gravel pit. After a brief scan, we noticed around 200 Sand Martins feeding over the pool, along with a large raft of Coots and a few Egyptian Geese. Nigel then pointed out four Black-necked Grebes at the back of the pool. They were very distant, but unexpected and nice to see.

Nigel then took us to where the Black-winged Pratincole was first found. We did a quick scan and found two Green Sandpipers and four Avocets. We also heard a Corn Bunting and many Chiffchaffs. We made our way back down to the first pool, when we met Bob (who we met at our very first twitch who pointed out a pair of distant Common Scoters. 

We then waited around for the Black-winged Pratincole to make another appearance. We spotted a flock of Lapwings roosting on the bank, however our target bird was not amongst them. Suddenly, Bob pointed out the Black-winged Pratincole as it began to fly around the pool. 

Eventually, it got tired and decided to land on the bank. At first, it was in amongst the vegetation, but it eventually began to come out from hiding and gave excellent, albeit distant, views! Through someone else's scope, I managed to make out its facial patterns, including the black line around the chin. Happy with our morning so far, we then set off to a large nature reserve in hopes of getting some more year ticks.

We arrived at NWT Idle Valley NR at around 12:00pm in hopes of seeing a Wood Sandpiper. As soon as we arrived, we noticed the lake that the bird was reported on was for fishermen only, so we decided to walk along the river to try and find a few butterflies and dragonflies. The first butterfly we saw was a Gatekeeper, which was my first one of the year.

We also spotted numerous Common Blue Damselflies as well as one or two Blue-tailed Damselflies and Azure Damselflies mixed in with them. I was then startled by a Brown Hawker which zipped straight past me!

I noticed something fluttering above me. It was a Banded Demoiselle! This was my most wanted damselfly and one I had dipped once before. Upon closer inspection, I spotted quite a few of them. high up in the treetops and along the river.

Suddenly, a large dragonfly flew right in front of me and started doing loops around me. At first, I thought it was a Brown Hawker, but I soon realised it was a Southern Hawker. I waited patiently for it to land. Just as I was losing hope, a strong gust came in and it decided to land on a branch, allowing me to finally get a photo of this hawker, which is renowned to never land.

We then decided to check a nearby lake, in hopes of re-finding the Wood Sandpiper. Surprisingly, even though we were far away from the river, there were still many Banded Demoiselles, including this male which was right next to the footpath.

I then spotted a damselfly, which at first I thought was a Common Emerald. However, it looked a bit odd, so I decided to ask an expert and to my delight, it was not a Common Emerald, but a Willow Emerald, a new damselfly for me and one I did not expect to see.

Along with all the dragonfly and damselfly action, we were still seeing plenty of butterflies. The two most common ones were Ringlets and Meadow Browns, however there were a few Gatekeepers in with them. However, I had not seen a single butterfly with their wings open so far.  Fortunately, this Gatekeeper landed right besides me and opened its wing, revealing its beautiful, orange upperwing. 

After reaching the end of the footpath, I spotted a small raptor dash overhead and land in a tree. It was a Hobby. This was a raptor which I had hoped to see as the habitat was perfect and there were plenty of dragonflies about. However, it only landed in the tree briefly, so I was only able to get a poor record shot of it, before it flew off. We then set off to try and find a new duck for the year list. 

We arrived at our next site at around 4:00pm. Upon entering the site, I noticed a moth fly into a nettle patch. A closer look identified it as one of my target moths for the year, a Yellow Shell. 

We then walked towards a nearby lake, to try and find the exotic duck. Once at the lake, we spotted a female Tufted Duck as well as a flyover Buzzard. We also saw a few Cinnabar caterpillars feeding on ragwort. All of a sudden five ducks swam into view, all showing vibrant, red bills. They were our target duck, the Red-crested Pochard. I had seen this duck twice before, once at North Cave Wetlands and a year ago at this same site. 

We finally decided to end the day at a site both Nigel and Bob had recommended for Nightjars. As soon as we arrived, I spotted a Green Woodpecker as it flew past me and landed on the edge of a nearby field. We arrived at the viewpoint for the Nightjar at around 8:30pm and waited for a few hours. At around 10:00pm, we decided to give up as it was getting very dark and we hadn't heard anything. On our way out however, we got lost and took a few wrong turns (in the dark woods with no torch)! Thankfully we eventually found our way back to the car and made our way home.

Overall, a great day with one lifer (Black-winged Pratincole) and a few new dragonflies/damselflies.