Sunday 21st April ff
All's well that ends well...
Sunday 21st April: I missed one out!
Hark back to Saltholme. I saw a few yellow wagtails but forgot to include this photo.
Tuesday 23rd April
Ok. Next was a disastrous trip to Gibraltar Point to see a lifer: a western subalpine warbler. Got there 7.30am. Never saw the bird. The place has let me down before: once for a sora and once for a dowitcher. Gibraltar Pointless for me. Very disappointed birders all round. Picked up a lesser whitethroat tick taking me to 197 for the year. Here's a few photos.
Some shelduck were having a real fight. Caption: [Tufted duck speaking] 'Gosh, this is exciting!'
You know when there's a fight in the playground and everyone gathers round? Well, this tufted duck was actually applauding the combatants. Look!
Called at Blacktoft on the way home feeling rather dispirited. More conventional shelduck portrait.
Wednesday 24th April
Needed to have a break. Photographed some wild flowers locally.
Lady's smock or Cuckooflower Cardamine pratensis
Marsh marigold Caltha palustris
Wood anemone Anemone nemorosa
The true wild daffodil - Narcissus pseudonarcissus - short stemmed with generally paler lemon yellow flowers
Celandine [technically lesser celandine] in an unusual double form: Ranunculus ficaria flora pleno. Ranunculus tells us it's a buttercup really!
Fritillary Fritillaria meleagris or snake's head fritillary. One of those plants for which we don't really have an english name other than a form of the latin one.
Friday 26th April - Will Spurn deliver the goods?
After the disappointment of Gibraltar Point I was unsure whether to get up early and head for Spurn - feeling the Rufous-tailed Rock Thrush would be long gone by the time I got there. But I decided it would be silly not to try. After all a lifer was at stake.
Now a female rufous-tailed rock thrush isn't as pretty as a western subalpine warbler: in fact it's a bit like a cross between a juvenile starling and an overweight female redstart. Behaves a bit like a redstart: jumps up and down from fence to ground and back and - you guessed - I saw it. Always a bit distant for my lens but clear enough I think. Here she is: on the boulder clay.
On the fence. I like this picture because you get three for the price of one and good size comparisons too! Reed bunting and meadow pipit included for good measure.
Putting aside rumours of a hoopoe that had flown off in the direction of Beacon Ponds I headed for Canal Scrape where, someone said, a long-eared owl was showing. Although well inside the hawthorn it was easily spotted.
Whilst sitting there I watched some pied wagtails suddenly I realised one in front of me was quite unusual - although clearly a white wagtail I have never seen one with so little black, especially on the head. Looking at other photos in other books etc. this bird is very grey and, I think, very smart.
I've included a rear view to reinforce the point!
More wagtails flew in. It became a bit of a wagtail-fest as they strolled about in front of the hide. Lovely photo opportunity!
Kilnsea Wetlands was very quiet. Dandelions were in flower and a meadow pipit posed nicely.
Saturday 27th April: scamper to Wales!
Another western subalpine reported in a field at Uwchmynydd near Aberdaron in North Wales. A phone call to my mother-in-law and I was expected for the night. Leaving York at 4.30am I was parked on the grass by the sheep field where the bird had been reported. What's more, I had parked there many times before. I knew the place well. I watched the linnets, wagtails and meadow pipits round the car wondering just where the bird had been seen. It was cold and the sun was shining so the temperature was slowly rising.
I spotted a chough digging at the far end of the field.
Navelwort was in flower. This succulent perennial grows well in North Wales. The leaf explains the name and the latin name is telling too: umbilicus rupestris!
Took me some time to track this plant down. I believe it is Alexanders, smyrnium olusatrum.
I watched a man with a scope on his back as he headed down the road from the summit.
'Seen the warbler?' he asked.
'No,' I replied. 'I've been photographing the chough and the wheatears.'
He spotted the chough I meant. The bird had plastic rings. 'Just need to get the detail of those rings,' he said. 'Right, follow me!'
Wheatear everywhere. The patch birder said there had been a fall of well over 80 Greenland wheatear and they were literally on every bush and on the grass around us. And quite skittish too. Only my second fall ever, the previous one being of siskin at the Crown and Anchor pub, Kilnsea.
Whenever something moved it was a wheatear or, once or twice, a dunnock. Then the birder said 'There!'
Lifer 392. Eight more for the magic number...
I went back east towards Llandudno to go up the Great Orme and see what was about but I called first at Dinas Station on the Welsh Highland Railway. No trains were due but I took these photos.
Awaiting restoration but with a brand new tender, this South African NG15 class 2-8-2 was in the yard.
Once I made it to the Great Orme there were more wheatears on the limestone pavement. They camouflage really well. Spot him?
Snowdonia from the limestone pavement.
Jackdaws are the most common bird up there but a change of tone alerted me to another bird.
There was still snow on the mountain tops.
The rest of the day passed uneventfully but pleasantly. I was very happy I had decided to go for it - just a pity my friend Barry couldn't come. I headed west for Llanengan via the Foryd Bay coast road. I spotted some waders out on the mud some way off. That beak shape was unmistakable. Four whimbrel. [Only one in the photo!]
The Rivals from Foryd Bay
Sunday 28th April: homeward bound!
The weather was deteriorating into rain but I called at Conwy RSPB in case the reed warbler I had heard the previous day was showing. No: still singing deeply hidden in the dead reeds that haven't shown any signs of regrowth yet.
Cowslips - primula veris - were in flower. This clump was most impressive.
My first swift of the year flew past at lightning speed. I decided to try a bit more swallow catching. So to end the pictures of this blog here are some more swallows...and a sand martin.
Sometimes the shapes the swallow can assume are amazing.
Monday 29th April
A sad day. We went to Leeds to call on our son. On the journey back Tiggy fell ill and her on-screen announcement sounded bad. 'Engine fault. Workshop!' We left her at the VW dealership and went home in a courtesy car whilst we waited for news.
An afternoon trip to Fairburn to look for a wood sandpiper - driven there by my wife in her car - was unsuccessful. Hopefully my next blog will have better news of how Tiggy is feeling. Perhaps she'll go somewhere nice to recuperate!
UK 2013: 203
Lfe list UK: 392