A crest, a pair of long legs and a violent end...

First stop on Monday, after an early start, was to be North Cave where I hoped to catch a corn bunting. It's a long story but some months ago I helped a men find a red-necked grebe outside Scarborough harbour that was proving extremely elusive. Not the harbour, the bird. Harbours don't usually hide. Anyway a week ago I met him at North Cave and he remembered me [I didn't recall him at all until he told me where we had last met]. To cut a boring story short he told me where to look early on in the mornings. QED. Bird seen. Blackcaps, chiffchaffs but still no whitrthroats.

The plan was to then heasd south over the Humber Bridge and sto pat Far ings to see if I could catch up with the red-rumped swallow. A few other friendly birders had similar ideas but there were very few hirundines to be seen and I don't think the bird was seen again. Nice view of a sedge warbler from Chowder Ness hide.

Final destination was to be Frampton Marsh RSPB to see the long-staying black-winged stilt. Or so I hoped. Having arrived safely I was told to go down the far end near the sea wall. A crowd of scopes could be seen down there. En route I was distracted by a reed bunting and a confiding skylark which I photographed through the rails of a fence. I think it felt safe with the wooden fence between us.Reed Bunting

Skylark

When I got there I saw the stilt distantly immediately. I was distracted by a commotion beyond the stilt. It seemed a very large bird was attacking some coots. The stilt flew off high. 'That's the last we'll ever see of him!' someone said. Everyone set off to climb up onto the sea wall and walk round to see what this big bird was. It was soon apparent it was a great skua and it was thrashing around killing a coot.

Then it took off and landed again near another coot. The coot dived under water but the skua grabbed it and killed a seond coot. This caused a degree of horror and disgust among the birders present. One man went on and on about how awful it was as he continued,nonetheless, to watch. In the end I said: 'It's nature. It's only doing what it was made to do.' 'But it's cruel,' he continued. Finally, before leaving him to it I said: 'You can't impose a human set of morals on a wild bird, you know.'

Here it is, a bit battered and the worse for wear may explain why it came looking for easy pickings: Great Skua Great Skua Great Skua As it seemed to mantle its prey the black headed gulls tried to attack with diving swoops over the bonxie.

Great Skua

So on I walked. You can walk a long way at Frampton Marsh. A little egret flew past...Little Egret

... as did some Brent Geese. It was a very pleasant day. Even the wicker spoonbill was happy!Brent Geese

When I was approaching the centre again having done a circuit of the reserve by then, a man said the stilt was quite close to the reception hide.

The next shots made my day!

Black-winged Stilt Black-winged Stilt

Black-winged Stilt 205 and counting.