Will's bird blog: Afternoon at Tophill Low Nature Reserve

Lapwing

Today was a teacher training day at my school, meaning that I had the day off. Until lunch time I sat in Hull University whilst dad was working. After this we went to Tophill Low nature reserve. We firstly went for a walk at the north end of the reserve, where we were followed by an amazingly confident Pheasant! As well as this there was some great mammal activity in the form of four Roe deer. On D res(evoir) we saw lots of wintering ducks: Wigeon, Tufted duck, Goldeneye, Pochard, etc. but we didn't see any Scaup. We then carried on walking towards the top of D res. At the feeders we saw lots of small birds including lots of Chaffinches, this was pleasantly interrupted by a Sparrowhawk flying over. We then carried on walking towards the very top of D res only to find that the hide was closed. However on the way back we did see a Marsh tit. On D res there were also many gulls coming into roost. We looked for Mediterranean gulls but only saw Common, Black-headed and Herring. We then walked back through the carpark to the south end of the reserve. On O res we saw more wintering ducks. I briefly heard a Cetti's warbler, but it was hard over the sound of the screaming Black-headed gulls! The Black-headed gulls, to their annoyance, were accompanied by a Great black- backed gull. As well as the gulls there were some Teal and Shelduck present along with a distant Redwing. On the access road out of Tophill we got brilliant
views of a Barn owl. Then just outside of Wold Newton, a bit closer to home, we saw a pair of Little owls. A productive afternoon of birding!