Blacktoft Sands, near Ousefleet on the river Ouse

[rolf]

Blacktoft Sands

Dropped by this superb RSPB reserve Sunday morning on the way back from Yorkshire and was pleasantly surprised by the viewing facilities available.

There is a large reception hide with plate window and five more comfortable hides all with opening glass or plastic viewing ports and a couple with two floors, birds can be seen even in the worst of weather. All of the hides bar one are approached by level pathways and ramps and are easy to access with wheelchairs.

The site also has male, female and disabled toilets, overall a great place to visit.

On the day of my visit the weather was overcast and very windy, so a lot of the birds were huddled together to shelter, most being out of reach of my 500mm lens, but still saw a wide variety, including a couple of firsts for me. A good scope would be an advantage for the more distant subjects.

• Marsh Harrier
  
• Redshank
  
• Ruff
  
• Little Egrets huddling
  
• Variety of sheltering birds
  
• Teal
  

[ladylouise62]

That sounds like a well-serviced place. Although, in an area like that I suppose that it would be pretty vital if you want anyone but really hardcore watchers to come along - even the birds are suffering

[rolf]

It was really funny, the little Wagtails were hopping around the mud bank and getting blown sideways as they hopped.



Also I think there's a Snipe amongst the Lapwings in this distant photo.

[ladylouise62]

You can see how blowy it is by the Wagtails' 'bad hair day'

[Catherine]

Looks a great place to visit, Rolf!

I particularly like the first pic of the Redshank and the second one of the Ruff. Nice to see a group of Little Egrets together. Only see one at a time here just now, though in 2007 we often saw groups!

(P.S. Had to look up 'Blacktoft Sands' on the RSPB site as there are so many rivers called 'Ouse' in this country - Sussex, Yorkshire and Cambridgeshire, etc. Looked up the word, and Wikipedia says this; 'The word 'ouse' is a very common name for rivers in England - it derives from the Celtic word 'Usa', from *udso-, which simply means 'water'. 'River Ouse' therefore actually means 'River Water', etymologically'

'Avon' is another river name common throughout GB. I guess it has a similar meaning.)

[rolf]

Yes, I put a link to the RSPB page for the reserve, as I didn't know there was an Ouse there, thought it was on the Humber before going there.

[ladylouise62]

That's interesting Catherine, I didn't know about the meaning of the name "Ouse". That means that the origin of the verb "to ouse" is the same then.

That made me look up 'Avon', and the Warwickshire one is a version of the welsh for river "afon", although I suspect that he origin of the "Avons" in Scotland are a little different

[Vastra]

Great Shot of Redshank, a Prizewinner for sure!