Gamebirds, Rails, Crane and Bustards

Red-legged Partridge Alectoris rufa

This distant relative of the native Grey Partridge was introduced to Britain in the 18^th Century. It remained rather uncommon until the 20^th Century, spreading north through Yorkshire during the first few decades of the 1900s. Red-legs reached Hull around 1910 after a decade of expansion through the East Riding and breeding was reported close to the city in that year. By the 1960s Red-legs were resident and breeding around the northwest suburbs of Hull, roughly where Orchard Park lies today, and one was even found wandering down Spring Bank. Birds were also seen around Kirk Ella and Carr Lane in the late 1970s and early 1980s and had probably been present there long before that.

Red-legs were probably breeding around Cottingham in the 1980s and no doubt before, but were less common than Greys. A pair or two were also nesting around the eastern docks around the same time and a pair of adults with three young were behind the ferry terminal on King George Dock on 18^th September 1985. Singles were seen all over the eastern waterfront during this period, from the tidal barrage at Sammy's Point to the chemical works at Saltend, with a covey of nine at Saltend Marsh on 13^th November 1985. Breeding was also occurring in northeast Hull by this time. As a boy in the late 1980s and early 1990s I occasionally found the egg shells of Red-legged Partridges in the fields around North Bransholme, though I rarely saw more than one or two pairs of adult birds. Red-legs can still be found there, with two males calling at the Holderness Drain near Carlam Hill Farm in October 2000, but the largest recorded covey contained just seven birds on 14^th November 1992. In the summer of 1990 an adult Red-legged Partridge was picked up, apparently uninjured, in the fields where Kingswood is now being built. It was very docile and was thought to have maybe been a recent release for shooting purposes. After a night in an aviary it was very flighty and flew past my head and out over Bransholme as I opened the door the following morning. It was later recaptured and released in the more suitable surroundings of High Bransholme Farm.

Paul Milsom's study of the birds on Priory Road fields in 1995/6 found larger numbers of Red-legs than at Bransholme and confirmed their continued presence around Cottingham. Up to 12 were regularly seen on Willerby Carrs and others were noted on the Loatleys and West Gengs fields. A pair of adults with a couple of juveniles in July 1995 suggests continued breeding there. The Priory Road fields are probably the best place to find Red-legged Partridges around Hull, with this northwest corner being the stronghold since they first arrived in the area a century ago.

Grey Partridge Perdix perdix

Very sadly the Grey Partridge is in deep trouble in Britain. Once one of the most common birds in the lowlands, numbers have tumbled to less than half of those in the 1970s. The population seems to be in freefall, with a major reason being modern intensive farming depriving the chicks of vital insect food. Several authors have questioned whether the Grey Partridge is in the process of following the Corncrake to near-oblivion in Britain. The decline is in the opposite direction to that of the Corncrake, however, with eastern England, including East Yorkshire, remaining something of a stronghold. At the beginning of the 20^th Century Grey Partridges could often be heard calling from the fields on the margins of northwest Hull. On 14^th December 1901 a lone bird was seen flying over gardens on Park Grove, off Prince’s Avenue, between two open spaces. Gamekeeping and predator control in the estates surrounding Hull probably meant that overspilling Grey Partridges were pretty common in the area up to the Second World War at least. Even during the 1960s they were reported to be breeding in small numbers in the Hull suburbs themselves. This was probably in the arable fields and rough undeveloped ground around places such as Sutton and Stoneferry, before the building of the massive housing estates in the 1970s. The expansion of Hull merely pushed the Grey Partridge back to the fringes of the new developments and it remained a resident just within the new city boundary and beyond, as it is today.

Grey Partridges seem to prefer a mix of arable land and rough grassland and anywhere where these elements combine in the Hull area is likely to hold birds. Numbers around Cottingham and the Priory Road fields have remained fairly constant since 1980, despite the crash in the national population taking place during the time, with coveys of up to a dozen birds regularly seen in winter. A survey by the Cottingham Bird Club of the 10 km square centred on Cottingham (TA03) in December 1983 found 30 birds, but there was no mention of breeding between 1980 and 1986. Paul Milsom's survey of the Loatleys, Gengs and Pickhills fields, south of Cottingham, between 1995 and 1996 found coveys of between two and eight birds throughout the year and a maximum of 12 in December. Milsom also suspected that up to two pairs were breeding in the area. In the mid 1980s birds were present in all suitable weedy habitat along the eastern waterfront, from Sammy's Point (the site of ‘The Deep’) to Saltend. Favoured areas included rough ground near the Holderness Drain at the eastern docks, Saltend Marsh and the Saltend Chemical Works site, with coveys of up to half a dozen birds being seen almost daily in these areas. Small groups still occasionally wander up the old Hull to Withernsea railway line in southeast Hull as far into town as the Hedon Road Cemetery, indicating the continued presence of a small population around the eastern docks. Indeed, M. Flowers saw a small covey at Victoria Dock in March 1997.

Two to three pairs of Grey Partridges were breeding within the city boundary throughout the early 1990s between North Bransholme and the Holderness Drain. Male birds, giving the characteristic call that sounds for all the world like a squeaky door hinge, were noticeable here between February and May when pairing was taking place. Coveys made up of family groups or amalgamations of families were regularly seen between September and January, usually numbering between three and eight birds in size.

Late autumn and early winter is when the largest counts of Grey Partridge occur in the Hull area as birds gather together and winter has not yet taken its toll. Notable counts at North Bransholme included 24 from three coveys on 31^st October 1992, 21 a month later and 40 on 17^th December 1993. Two coveys of 10 birds each were a mile and a half away near Swine in August 1997, indicating the continuing survival of Grey Partridges east of Bransholme. Grey Partridges have the largest clutch of any European bird and a pair with 10 half-grown young were at Bransholme on 2^nd August 1992, while an adult at Saltend had 12 chicks in tow on 21^st August 1997. It was at nearby Paull where the largest gathering of Grey Partridges in the Hull area, an impressive 67, was recorded on 27^th September 1986. While the national decline has yet to bite hard around Hull, numbers as large as this seem rather unlikely in the years to come.

Quail (Common Quail) Coturnix coturnix

Quails are scarce visitors to the Hull area, as in the rest of Britain, and are only occasionally heard calling from weedy arable fields in spring or summer. In 1994 a male was heard giving its characteristic ‘wet-me-lips’ call from a field of linseed on Wawne Common, north of Hull, from the 8^th until at least 20^th July and it was flushed on one occasion. By imitating the song it was possible to draw the bird within 20 feet of the sitting observer, though it never left cover to show itself on the ground. The following year another male was heard calling from a weedy field of wheat at Carlam Hill Farm near North Bransholme. It was present from at least the 25^th until the 30^th of June, calling persistently during warm weather. There is another anecdotal and undated record from near North Bransholme during the late 1980s and others have no doubt visited the cereal crops or fields of rank grass around the city outskirts in other summers, possibly staying to breed. A Quail that set up home near Cottingham in 1947 didn't get the chance, however; it was shot.

Pheasant (Common Pheasant) Phasianus colchicus

Introduced by the Normans or perhaps even the Romans, Pheasants are such a familiar sight in the countryside of East Yorkshire that it is easy to forget that they are not native. Pheasants are still bred for the shoot on many estates surrounding the Hull area, such as Risby and Burton Constable, and there are also rearing pens in many of the woods and copses around Wawne, Swine and Cottingham. The sound of shotguns across the fields in September and October is a familiar one to residents in the outskirts of Hull and the villages. In addition to these released birds, many of which probably don't live long or wander far, there is a healthy wild population of Pheasants in many parts of the Hull area where organised shooting does not occur. The rough grassland and arable fields around Bransholme and East Hull, with their hedgerows, marshy areas and copses, holds many Pheasants. At least five males crowed each April and May between North Bransholme and the Holderness Drain in the 1990s and females with young were a familiar sight from June to August. A loose group of 22 Pheasants were in this area on 27^th December 2000. It is not uncommon to see the occasional bird picking over grassland just yards from the houses of North Bransholme, or even among the shrubbery on roundabouts. Pheasants are also common around Cottingham and the Priory Road fields, with 10 together at the latter site in December 1995. One was in a garden on the edge of Kirk Ella on 16^th December 1989 and birds are occasionally seen in nearby Kerry Woods. In the mid 1980s at least three females were rearing young in the swath of land bordering the Humber from Sammy's Point, at the mouth of the River Hull, to Saltend. A total of 16 young were reared here in 1985, with birds favouring the areas around Saltend Marsh, Holderness Drain and Victoria Dock. The latter has since been developed for housing.

Pheasants will freely wander quite deeply into built-up areas if there is a corridor of sufficient cover to draw them in, with the railway lines and the banks of the river and drains being good examples. Several lone cock Pheasants have been seen in the Hedon Road and Preston Road Cemeteries after wandering up the old Hull to Withernsea railway line. There were seven sightings in dense cover in the Avenues in 1996, birds that had no doubt wandered down the Hull to Beverley line and then further along the east-to-west freight line. The occasional Pheasants in the scrubby corners of the Bransholme Sewage Works probably found their way there via the banks of the River Hull. Pheasants are quite tolerant of development as long as they have cover to retreat into and I regularly saw them strutting round the newly-created cul-de-sacs of Kingswood before the landscapers moved in.

Most of the male birds seen in the Hull area are of the Chinese races, the white-collared torquatus group, although a few resemble the nominate colchicus group from southwest Asia which lack the white collar.

Golden Pheasant Chrysolophus pictus

A common aviary bird, the Golden Pheasant also occurs in very small numbers in a feral state in several areas of Britain. Golden Pheasants have been part of the East Park menagerie since at least the 1980s, being kept in the aviaries and also in the open-topped animal enclosure. Although some of the birds in the latter are pinioned and flightless others certainly are not and two timid males rushing into the shrubbery some distance away from the enclosure on 9^th March 1994 had clearly 'jumped the fence'. It is possible that such escapees could live for some time in a wild state either in the Park or beyond it if they decided to roam, though the densely urban area surrounding East Park and the attentions of urban foxes or cats means that freedom is probably short-lived for these birds.

Water Rail Rallus aquaticus

The Water Rail was no doubt a fairly widespread breeding bird throughout the marshes and carrs of the Hull area before wholesale drainage in the 18^th and 19^th Centuries, though Nelson (1907) mentions that they were common on the sedgy margins of the River Hull. Now apparently just a winter visitor around Hull, I have not once heard of breeding being even suspected in the area although their skulking nature may mean they have been overlooked. The earliest report of a Water Rail in the Hull area concerns an injured bird found walking down a street near East Park on 15^th October 1951 that was taken into Malet Lambert School and later released. Another quirky report comes from October 1953 when a Water Rail was brought into Hull on a ship after coming aboard off Portugal. It was fed by the RSPCA before being released locally but, as Mather (1986) puts it in his The Birds of Yorkshire, a trip in the other direction would have been more beneficial to it! Another at Albert Dock in 1954 may also have had an unorthodox journey into the city.

The very severe 1962/3 winter produced a flurry of Water Rails in the Hull area as starvation forced birds out into the open to feed on any unfrozen watermargins they could find. A total of 10 birds were recorded by Boylan (1967) at this time, mainly close to the city centre on the Barmston and Cottingham drains and the now filled-in stretch of the Foredyke Stream that ran from Bransholme to New Cleveland Street. A couple of Water Rails even resorted to foraging among the waders on the West Hull foreshore. As Saltend Marsh became established on The Growths (reclaimed mudflats between King George Dock and Saltend) in the early 1980s one or two Water Rails regularly passed though between October and late March, sometimes staying for several weeks at a time. During the early 1990s I saw single Water Rails creeping though dense cover alongside Old Main Drain at North Bransholme on four occasions during the winter months. What may have been the same long-staying bird possibly accounted for three of those sightings between late November 1993 and mid February 1994. Saltend was still attracting Water Rails up in the late 1990s. At least one bird present between April and July 1998 maybe indicated a breeding attempt, this being the only report of summering that I have come across in the Hull area. Others at Saltend were seen in the more typical months of November and December.

Any watery habitat around Hull with lots of marginal cover may, therefore, attract an occasional Water Rail anytime from October to late March, very rarely at other times. Their secretive nature means they are unlikely to advertise themselves and are thus surely under recorded. Just how many skulking birds go unseen in the reed beds fringing the River Hull or hidden among the herbage of the many drainage channels, large and small, throughout the area can only be guessed at. On the basis of the above records, however, the species appears to be a regular, if thinly distributed, winter visitor to the Hull area.

Spotted Crake Porzana porzana

Spotted Crakes possibly nested in the marshy ground bordering the River Hull and elsewhere up to the late 1800s, though there are no specific records for our area. The only documented occurrence of a Spotted Crake around Hull concerns an immature killed by a cat in a garden in "the heart of the manufacturing district of Hull" on 5^th September 1917, this being reported in The Naturalist soon afterwards. Besides being extremely shy and unobtrusive, the Spotted Crake is also very rare in the East Riding these days so the chances of seeing one in the Hull area are rather slim.

Corncrake (Corn Crake) Crex crex

During the 20^th Century the Corncrake underwent one of the most spectacular declines of any British species, with the blame being placed firmly at the feet of modern agricultural methods and the resultant habitat loss. Corncrakes are summer visitors to Britain from wintering grounds in sub-Saharan Africa and they were once common throughout the country. Rarely seen, they were nonetheless well known to country people due to their nocturnal calling, a dry double rasp that gave the bird its scientific or Latin name of Crex crex. The birds bred in hayfields and meadows and it was a switch to mechanised cutting of hay, cutting earlier in the season for silage and the conversion of many meadows to arable crops that sent the population into freefall; nests were crushed, adults killed in reapers or their meadows were ploughed up. The British breeding population is now largely restricted to the Hebrides where traditional hay meadows persist, although a handful of pairs occasionally nest elsewhere.

Writing in The Naturalist in 1901, John Nicholson described the birds that could be seen around and about his Hull townhouse near Pearson Park when it was just two or three streets from open country, and he noted the Corncrake among them. Nicholson spoke of how the rasping call could be heard in summer, saying nothing to contradict the assumption that the species was a regular member of the local avifauna. The Corncrake bred not uncommonly in the meadows and hayfields throughout the Hull area, particularly northwards along the River Hull, during the first decade or two of the 20^th Century. It was noted to be getting scarcer in the East Riding as early as 1907 and by the 1940s the Corncrake was extinct within the Hull area. They were also very rare throughout the East Riding by then, with around four calling males around Beverley being the only ones left. Once regular breeding had ceased later that decade the Corncrake was reduced to being only a rare passage migrant in East Yorkshire, mainly on the coast, and it remains so today.

The only records of the Corncrake in the Hull area in the latter half of the 20^th Century concern several remarkable sightings from the private grounds of Holderness House, the Georgian mansion at the corner of Laburnum Avenue and Holderness Road, in the inner suburbs of Hull. The former Assistant Head Gardener at Holderness House saw what he identified as a Corncrake skulking around the paddock on 8^th July 1986. The bird was seen again on the 13^th and 16^th July and may have been summering in the grounds. Interestingly, a Corncrake was reportedly heard calling throughout the breeding season of 1986 in a secret location in the east of Yorkshire. Calling was heard again in 1987, with breeding suspected, and that year a bird was photographed "in a garden" at the site. These records may refer to Holderness House. Incredibly, the same Holderness House gardener reported another Corncrake in the grounds on the 1^st and 2^nd August 1997.

Moorhen (Common Moorhen) Gallinula chloropus

The Moorhen is a common and familiar species on any stretch of open water in the Hull area that affords it enough cover along the margins for shelter and nesting. Even quite small ponds and narrow ditches will usually have a few birds. The Moorhen is much shyer than its cousin the Coot, but in the Hull parks and Queen's Gardens it becomes relatively tolerant of people and will occasionally take food offered to the ducks.

East Park has long had a contingent of Moorhens among its waterfowl and Boylan (1967) put the usual figure at 20 to 30 during the 1960s. Twenty-five were counted in February 1967 and this is still about right for a winter count today. In the 1980s Bonavia (1990) described the Moorhen as being a "common breeding resident wherever there is water present" in the dykes and ponds around Cottingham and northwest Hull as well as on the River Hull itself. I have often seen Moorhens on the river as it passes through northern Hull but never with young, assuming that the strong tidal flows were too much for such delicate chicks to cope with. Bonavia's area of concern stretched as far as Beverley, however, so perhaps Moorhens have more luck on the higher stretches of the river where the current is weaker. At least three pairs were breeding on Saltend Marsh in the mid 1980s and the 15 or so birds present in winter often moved onto St. Andrew's and Alexandra Docks when the marsh froze. In the early 1990s a pair or two usually bred on the sludge pits at the Bransholme Sewage Works. I counted as many as 22 there in February and March 1992, but the pits have now been filled in and Moorhens are quite scarce there these days. In the same period up to 10 pairs could be found breeding on the Old Main Drain, Holderness Drain and marshy pools east of North Bransholme, with the squeaky calls of the young coming out of the reeds from mid May to August. Young Moorhen chicks are often very naïve, as well as extremely cute, and they will sometimes come to people if the parent birds are out of sight. Chicks of this age are very vulnerable and I have seen them in the possession of local boys who seemed to be enchanted by their new pet, not knowing they would invariably be dead of starvation within a day. Throughout the 1990s breeding has occurred in the Pickering, Pearson and East Parks and at least one pair still breeds in Queen's Gardens. Four young were seen there in April 1999. Several pairs also nest at Thwaite Hall Lake in Cottingham and I counted around 30 birds there in December 2000.

During calm, warm nights in spring and early summer Moorhens occasionally take to the skies and go on aerial display flights, circling high over their territories while uttering a repetitive, almost mechanical "kip…kip…kip" song. This can go on for half an hour or more and the strange calls fade in and out as the bird circles towards you and then away again, but it is oddly hypnotic. Another slightly quirky habit of the Moorhen is its tendency to dive when surprised and then seemingly disappear as the observer waits for it to resurface. I have seen them do this several times and at first I was perplexed over how they appeared to completely vanish. On one occasion, however, the mystery was solved when I saw a Moorhen dive below the surface of a small pond at Bransholme and spotted a red beak under the water at the spot where the bird had dived. Looking more closely, the bird was among weed at the bottom of the pond and, thinking it might be trapped, I reached into the water and fished it out. There was nothing wrong with it and I concluded that it had simply been sitting tight on the bottom and waiting for me to leave. On another occasion I saw a Moorhen dive below the surface of Foredyke Stream as I appeared on the embankment. This one had a different strategy, and a trail of cloudy water and bubbles showed that it was walking along the bottom of the drain completely hidden from view. A minute or so later it popped its head up at the far bank some 10 metres away before creeping off into cover. Such observations go to show that even the common birds have the power to surprise you.

Coot (Common Coot) Fulicra atra

Bold, aggressive and noisy, the Coot is present in the Hull area wherever there is sufficient open freshwater with enough depth to enable them to dive. They will also nest on quite shallow pools if there is sufficient cover for them to hide in when danger threatens. Coots may also be found on the Humber in winter. East Park is probably the best place to see Coots in the Hull area with several breeding pairs, a fairly large wintering population and confiding resident birds. They were not always so frequent in the park, however, and Boylan (1967) states that they were only scarce winter visitors during the 1960s, adding that they had bred but the implication being that this was unusual. They have been anything but scarce for as long as I can remember, with five pairs tending 13 young in May 1994, between 30 and 50 birds throughout 1997, 63 in January 1998 and 75 in October 2000. Breeding also occurs in Pickering Park, albeit in lesser number than East Park. There is apparently been no breeding in Pearson Park or on Thwaite Hall Lake in recent years, although two pairs were present at the latter site during 1984 at least.

Up to three pairs bred around Saltend in the mid 1980s, at 'First Pond' and on the Saltend Marsh, with up to 10 birds on and off. Up to two secretive pairs bred on the shallow reedy pools between Foredyke Stream and Bransholme Road, east of the Bransholme housing estate, throughout the 1990s. The creation of the Bransholme Fishing Pond at this place in the late 1990s provided a more suitable habitat for the local Coots and up to four birds quickly took up residence there. A juvenile in July 2001 confirmed that the pond was now a new breeding site. In 1992 three pairs attempted to breed on the Bransholme Sewage Works reservoir, building their precarious nests on the concrete ramparts of the sluice gates. Choppy waters whipped up by the wind, combined with a lack of anything to anchor the nest to, led to all the nests being washed away and the Coots subsequently gave up. Two pairs tried again the following summer, however, and kinder weather conditions during the egg stage allowed the chicks to hatch safely in July, with five young eventually being reared to maturity.

Coots are more abundant and widespread around Hull in winter while passage birds also inflate numbers in spring and autumn. A total of 32 were at the Bransholme Sewage Works in September 1976 and 26 were counted in March 1993. In December 1962, during the big freeze, 26 Coots were seen among waders on the ice-free mud of the West Hull foreshore. Another freeze in February 1986 pushed 65 onto the Humber near the eastern docks. During less severe winters during the 1980s the breeding birds from Saltend Marsh would relocate to St. Andrew's and Alexandra Docks during cold snaps. Strangely, however, I have never seen Coots on either the Barmston or Holderness Drains or the River Hull.

Crane (Common Crane) Grus grus

Cranes are huge, stately birds with a bugling voice and an impressive wingspan. They possibly bred on the carrs of East Yorkshire in medieval times, as hinted at by the village name of Hutton Cranswick (i.e. Crane's Wick), but they are now very rare vagrants after flying off course on their annual migrations to and from Scandinavia and northern Europe. They seem to be occurring in Britain more frequently of late, however, and have recently begun to breed again in Norfolk. They are still a rarity in East Yorkshire and just four have been claimed for the Hull area. On 16^th May 1986 an adult Crane was observed by M. Lambert as it flew down the Humber past Saltend, with an immature seen on the mudflats there by another observer 11 days later. Neither of these records was submitted to the regional or national Rarities Committees, however, and the adult bird at least was allegedly not specifically identified as a Common Crane. There is an outside chance that it may have been an escaped Demoiselle Crane, a couple of which have turned up in Yorkshire over the years, though Common Crane is probably more likely.

On 10^th May 1987 K. and M. K. Rotherham saw a Common Crane at Willerby, this record being accepted by the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union Rarities Committee. Another was in fields between Paull and Thorngumbald on 14^th November 2000.

Around 11 pm one May night in 1996 I was walking back to my student digs in The Lawns, Cottingham, when I heard some obviously large birds giving trumpeting calls overhead. I cannot be sure, but they sounded very much like Cranes to me, perhaps two or three of them. Cranes are daytime migrants, however, so one would not expect them to be on the wing well after dark at 11 pm. It is possible though that a small band of migrating Cranes may have gone astray on their spring migration and found themselves over the North Sea as the sun set. Faced with no other option, they would have been forced to carrying on flying through the night before reaching England and passing over Cottingham in the darkness. Yet again, as so often happens in birding, there’s no way of knowing for sure.

Little Bustard Tetrax tetrax

The Little Bustard breeds from Iberia, through France and Eastern Europe to Kazakhstan and it is a very rare vagrant to Britain. On 20^th November 1956 an adult female Little Bustard of the eastern race, Tetrax tetrax orientalis, was shot in a field of barley stubble undersown with trefoil near Preston, north of Hedon. Incredibly a first-winter male of the western race was shot outside of the Hull area at Aldborough, only six miles from Preston, just ten days before. That these two very rare birds from opposite ends of the species' range and two different continents managed to make it to our island and settle down in more or less the same place at the same time is truly mind-boggling. What is especially sad though is that both birds were shot. This was not the unenlightened Victorian age of the 'sportsman naturalist' and those responsible really should have known better. Both birds were sent to A. Hazelwood of Bolton Museum for racial identification, this being confirmed by Colonel R. Meinertzhagen, and both specimens were residing at the Bolton Museum when John Mather inspected them prior to his 1986 The Birds of Yorkshire.