Reconnoitring Sunday!*

*English etymology:

From French reconnoître (obsolete spelling of reconnaître), from Latin recognoscere (“to recognise”).

Verb (transitive, intransitive, military) To perform a reconnaissance (of an area; an enemy position); to scout with the aim of gaining information.

Ok. Enough of that. We went to check out the tides on a day when the tidal interface would most closely resemble that of the day next year when the school [I used to work at] was planning to take a whole year group on a Geography field trip - hopefully full of loads of rigour! One thing we needed to check was whether the beach would be dry at both 11am and 3pm [did they take account of BST I wonder or perhaps they'll be back in BST by then]. Oh, mystery upon mystery. Anyway, Barry went up and down the steps to weigh things up and down. He even went into the narrow Gove, obviously now renamed the Michael Gove, to see what that was like and to check the eau levels!! I stayed at the top and watched. Being a very fit young man Barry, well, e bac very quickly! We did a bit of a seawatch and we also popped into Bridlington. I took some ipics on my phone of the tidal status.

Quite interesting to watch the changing state of the tide over the four hour period. Birding was quiet: a few sandwich terns moving north for some reason, a few wheatears on the cliffs together with a linnet flock. We went into Bridlington: that was quiet too but I watched a few gulls, icluding this herring gull who was tackling a crab.

Herring Gull Herring Gull Herring Gull Turning it over didn't seem to help.

Herring Gull A house sparrow looked well as he shouted at me from his lobster pot. House Sparrow And a redshank outside the harbour looked well in the sunshine too.

Redshank

Herring gulls are often dismissed as unpleasant birds...

...as witnessed by this sign in the harbour. Immature gulls don't get a second glance but they are quite attractive really. Textures always of interest. When landing, keep your wings dry!

Herring Gull Herring Gull Herring Gull A barnacle goose was in the harbour - it's been there a long time - as were redshanks out on the mud.

Barnacle Goose Redshank A great black-backed gull was tugging at something buried in the mud. God knows what his mother will say when he gets home! Imagine: 'Where on earth have you been? You went out in your Sunday best! Have you seen yourself??'

Great Black-backed Gull Just outside the harbour wall some oystercatchers were feeding on mussels.

Oystercatcher More came to join them.

Oystercatcher Turnstones were feeding between the boulders - also on the mussels.

Turnstone

For those birders who take to the seas every autumn for the RSPB Skua and Shearwater cruises from Bridlington, here's a nice shot of the Yorkshire Belle coming back to harbour from a trip to Flamborough Head.

A dig-ression

Over the last few days I've bee messing with my old Nikon 4500 camera to try digiscoping again. I gave it up some years ago but would like to produce acceptable images of birds that are beyond the reach of my 400mm lens. Here's an early experiment taken in the garden.

Collared Dove

Ferruginous Monday: Far Ings and somewhere in Yorkshire

I set off for Far Ings, crossed the Humber Bridge, paying my £1.50, and was soon at the LWT reserve. The ferruginous duck was on the pool next to the approach road last winter: it seems likely the same bird has come back again. Here it is.

Ferruginous Duck

Ferruginous Duck After that I went somewhere else. I saw a swan goose...

Swan Goose Swan Goose ...and this nice bird with the grey bill - when it's still in eclipse mode. The big black shadow could have been cropped out but I wanted to show the trials and tribulations of the persistent birder! It's the back end of a cow that wouldn't move out of the way!! You'll understand if I don't say where I went, I hope.

Ruddy Duck Ruddy Duck Ruddy Duck Ruddy Duck Ruddy Duck 263 UK; 126 Yorkshire