Pocklington Canal 22nd July

Fifteen Club members met at Hagg Bridge, between Sutton-on-Derwent and Storwood, at 6.30 for an evening walk down the west side of the Canal.

In pleasant sunny but slightly cooler weather, and having split into two groups, we started rather quietly and, apart from a kestrel, and then a kingfisher just south of the bridge, we seemed to be having to work hard to find our birds and the ones we encountered were mostly of the commoner species though we briefly glimpsed a small and distant flock of airborne lapwing to the south (the only wader species encountered) and, closer to, proud and slightly wary mute swans parents with seven well-grown cygnets on the water. More than one of us mistook the quiet calls of the young birds for something more interesting.

Other than that, the Canal itself yielded only the usual suspects: mallard, moorhen, grey heron, with black-headed being the sole species of gull spotted, plus a cormorant overhead.

Land birds were fairly limited in their variety with a few finches, linnet, reed bunting and skylark, together with one or two reed and sedge warblers and a handful of swallows and swifts. Willow warbler and chiffchaff were also noted.

Buzzards were present, visible and/or audible for much of the walk.

Scanning the farm buildings to the east of the Canal towards Storwood Grange we saw no more than a few corvid species but the absence of any livestock in the fields seemed to have ruled out the prospect of any wagtails.

There was an interesting selection of wildflowers but perhaps a little late in the day for many butterflies, and dragonflies, too, were in short supply.

Plenty of hares and a single buck roe deer.

It wasn’t until we reached the furthest extent of our walk at the northern edge of Storwood village with clear views westward to Wheldrake Ings that our fortunes improved.

We first found treecreeper and great spotted woodpecker in canal side trees; there was a gadwall in flight, and then, just in front of Tower Hide at Wheldrake, and therefore at some distance from us, we picked up hunting barn owl and marsh harrier.

In addition, numbers of swallows and house martins were building up as a steady stream of birds appeared to be coming in from the east to roost somewhere near Pool Hide and one of our number then picked out a handsome-looking peregrine perched in a fairly distant tree and, thanks to Paul’s ‘scope, most of us were able to get a good view.

The walk back to Hagg Bridge was pleasant but relatively uneventful and we finished at about 9 having seen a total of 43 species.

Jonathan