Will's bird blog: Volunteering at Tophill Low

The day got off to a great start with a Marsh harrier on the access road. Once there I went and had a look on D res where the winter Coot numbers were starting to pick up. The first task of the day was getting rid of some Himalayan Balsam an invasive non native plant. The next task was surveying for Great Water Parsnip, a very rare water plant which was once extinct in East Yorkshire. We managed to find quite a lot. After doing this I spent the afternoon with another birder looking for birds and seeing what was about. The first things we saw were four Green sandpipers on North Lagoon, they were accompanied by a lone Common sandpiper. A Kingfisher then flew through. We then walked around O res. There were lots of Butterflies including Painted ladies and Peacock. Then a large raptor flew over, we were incredibly surprised as it was a Goshawk, an uncommon species for the site. Unfortunately I didn't manage a picture as it flew over within a matter of seconds.We also saw a Hobby hunting Swallows. On South Marsh East we saw loads of Green sandpipers, Little egrets and a Greenshank. Once back at the visitor centre my dad had arrived, he told me about a 2nd winter Mediterranean gull on D res, after many attempts this was the first one I had seen at Tophill itself (but I have seen lots in other places). After this I went to catch up with my dad and saw a female/juv Garganey. All in all a good day.