Location Summary
RSPB Nature Reserve with several lakes and hides. Trails linking the hides.
Visitor Centre, shop and cafe.
Short and long trails. Print off trail guide (from RSPB website). They are also offered free at the entrance.
Possibility of seeing: Bittern, Marsh Harrier, Avocet, Heron, Egrets, Coot, Cormarant, Great Crested Grebe.
Website: RSPB Blacktoft Sands
Car Park: Free
Fee: Free
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None
Captain's Log
Snipes
27/07/22
First Visit
I nearly drove past the entrance to RSPB Blacktoft Sands. It is certainly a secluded place. It is situated on the River Ouse a few miles eastwards from Goole. The area is pancake flat and crisscrossed with rivers and canals. You rarely get a glimpse of one though since an embankment usually runs alongside them. 10:00 am on a Monday morning and the carpark was nearly full; it is a very popular site. The hides are situated along a linear path that runs parallel to the River Ouse. They overlook several lakes and reedbeds.
I headed off to the most easterly hide, the Singleton hide. The viewing benches directly in front of the windows were all full and so I took a cheap site on a bench behind them. I still got a decent view using my binoculars. I perched on the bench like a vulture, waiting until somebody moved off to another hide. Eventually they did, and I swooped to their vacated position with the agility of an Osprey catching a fish. There was plenty of activity on the lake including lots of Black-tailed Godwits with their lovely coppery colours. The RSPB trail guide highlights the Singleton hide as a good one for spotting Marsh Harriers. Sure enough, one eventually appeared. I was surprised to be the only one taking photos of it; their presence must be so common here that the watchers had enough photos already. After an hour or so, I decided to move on to the other hides.
Marching Egrets
Marsh Harrier
The other hides also provided good viewing opportunities. In the Marshland hide I had an excellent view of several Snipes having a preening session. A woman asked me to identify one of the birds. I always dread this, since I invariably get it wrong and am usually then humiliated by somebody more learned correcting me. Better to succumb to the lesser humiliation of admitting that you don't know. For the record, they looked like Common Sandpipers to me...although they might have been Greenshanks.
The Ousefleet hide is at the far western end of the site. I was thankful to get there just before a heavy shower swept the area. The surrounding flat land looked very dramatic during the downpour. The hide didn't really off that much while I was there. I could see a couple of Marsh Harriers hunting in the far distance, but they were too far away to get a good view. There is a screen at the side of the hide that looks on to a lake, but its solitary resident was a bored looking Coot. The clouds were gathering again and I started to head back to the carpark. It was bright sunshine by the time I got back there.
It is a good site with great viewing from the hides. It is obviously popular and so it is best to get there early. It provided my first sighting of a Marsh Harrier. and so that was an added bonus.
Marshland Hide View