A Circular Tour

First stop was North Cave to [not] see the reported pair of redstarts in north hedge. We couldn't find them. On the way to the hedge in question a small tortoiseshell posed for me.

Small Tortoiseshell The reedbed lake was fairly quiet with only one large gull present. I wanted to get a little nearer.

Yellow-legged Gull Barry spotted a greenshank coming in close. Before I could focus on it, it was off again. This led to some 'different' rear view photos of the greenshank tail and wedge. Interesting in their own way...

Greenshank Greenshank We wandered along looking into the hedge. We even turned a bench round [naughty!] to watch the hedge in comfort. We put it back later [the bench, I mean]. Goldfinches, blue tits, a party of juvenile willow warblers. No redstarts. The birds were very active and hard to track in the dense hedge.

Willow Warblers Some were more recently fledged than others, I think.

Willow Warbler

Willow Warblers They were quite jumpy and wouldn't stay still!

Willow Warblers Willow Warbler Eventually I got better views of the gull - which we were thinking might be the reported yellow-legged gull, seen by others that morning. For once we didn't need to pick it out from a lot of other gulls.

Yellow-legged Gull Yellow-legged Gull A black-headed gull decided however to chase off this much bigger bird. There ensued quite a chase, which produced these shots.

Yellow-legged Gull Yellow-legged Gull Yellow-legged Gull Yellow-legged Gull Eventually the yellow-legged gull decided enough was enough and flew off.

Yellow-legged Gull Further on butterflies and dragonflies attracted my attention. Another gatekeeper.

Gatekeeper Scalloped oak moth.

Scalloped oak moth Two ruddy darters.

Ruddy Darter Ruddy Darter Blue tailed damselfly and a common blue mating.

Blue-tailed Damselfly Common Blue Damselfly

A kestrel screeched noisily before we saw it. Briefly it landed but I had to photograph into the sun.

Kestrel It was time to move on. I had heard about red kites at nearby Drewton Manor so we went to have a look. We only saw a buzzard overhead.

Buzzard We didn't stay long. Our next stop would be Alkborough Flats where we saw yellow wagtails, three spoonbills and another greenshank. Plus large numbers of avocets, shelduck but no sign of the ruddy shelduck we hoped to see. No complaints, however - we were doing well. So we got to Blacktoft Sands RSPB after the 16 mile drive from Alkborough [it's 2.45 km as the bittern flies]. There were good numbers of waders at Blacktoft. Here's a few of them.

Ruff

Ruff Green sandpiper

Green Sandpiper Greenshank, trying to hide from the lens.

Greenshank Redshank

Redshank Another ruff

Ruff Time was drawing on and there are 32 photos for you to look at. On the walk back to Tiggy a sedge warbler performed for me.

Sedge Warbler Sedge Warbler A wren was less co-operative. I only got its bottom cleanly. If you see what I mean!

Wren

There will be no more posts on my website for some time. I expect for about a fortnight. If you want to know why, keep checking on the site from the 17th onwards.

                                                                                         There may then be new stuff...