Tim's Birding Blog

General consensus on the pipit below seemed to be littoralis Rock Pipit, it was seen again the next morning by Chris but not since and all the pipits seemed to have cleared off! Bird number 124 for my York Area Year List, which will be taking a back seat for the rest of April as I'm not going to be back in area until two days on the 19th and 20th and then not back properly till the 30th!


After a good 2 days Sunday and Monday, the rest of the week was a lot quiteter, Twite still kicking about at Hes East, but very few other migrants. Highlights being 259 stunning Golden Plover in a local field whilst looking for a Crane!

Nice looking northerners as well!

Came back to Birmingham for Easter this weekend so here's hoping I don't miss too many good birds in the York area.


However more interesting was what happened on Wednesday on the local patch, Hes East.


After several emails to the Uni asking them if we could organise a work party on the site to try to encourage the breeding waders with some shingle and vegetation removal. After a meeting with the head groundsman on Monday, the first ever Hes East work party was organised on Wednesday!


The Uni ground staff were keen to do the work so along with me and a mate we got to work adding 7 tonnes of shingle in patches along the western scrapes, removal of low growing vegetation and improving of the fencing to try and deter the dog walkers. 

Shingle on the only island on the site

4 patches like this added should encourage some breeding

Fingers crossed our hard work will be paid off with a productive breeding season!