Late start, black start

                                        - and other tall tales!

Saturday 29th March

Barry and I squeezed [if freeze is froze, why isn't it squoze? Sounds nice!] squoze in an afternoon at North Cave. General birding, general bird photos...the grebes were showing signs of courtship... Great Crested Grebe

...the long-tailed tits were exquisitely difficult to lock onto as a party hurried through the trees. I was very pleased with this one...

Long-tailed Tit

...and a couple of types of sparrow...

House Sparrow

House Sparrow

...house and tree!

Tree Sparrow

Sunday 30th March

During the morning we were amazed to see two new birds for the garden. The weather had not been extreme in any way [which normally brings something different such as brambling or reed bunting] but suddenly we had siskin [the first for many years], lesser redpolls [never seen before in the garden and upto 6 present] and a pair of bullfinches. I grabbed the camera and sat some way off the feeders in my dark green hat and anorak....

Lesser Redpoll

Siskin

I missed the bullfinches - they proved too cautious.

In the afternoon Sheila and I drove to Boston Park Lake near Hatfield Woodhouse in the hope of a reported pair of garganey. After ten minutes we found the pair swimming happily around just beyond the central island that splits the lake into two halves. The birds were well seen in a scope but too far for our lenses. We decided to finish the afternoon at Blacktoft. It's always a good place to end up!

For some time a flock of twite have been in and around the car park at Blacktoft. We caught up with 19 of them.

Twites

Monday 31st March

Flamborough was calling us - in fact deafeningly so as we stood near the fog station looking for the black redstarts. We set off quite late because of the fog. No sign: the birds probably couldn't stand the noise either! Walking back I peered into the big hole on our right as we headed back up to the lighthouse. Something flicked. Movement. Bird!

Black Redstart

Black Redstart

Black Redstart

Next stop: Bempton in the fog! Foolishly we walked all the way to Buckton Cliffs looking for the reported lapland buntings. We found a man asleep on a bench by the Heligoland trap. Lots of reed and yellow buntings [aka yellowhammers!]. I took a few holiday snaps in the fog.

Fulmars

Might as well sit it out!

Guillemots

Gannet

Back at the visitor centre things looked relatively normal.

Tree Sparrow

Wednesday 2nd April

Black-necked grebes were the order of the day. A relatively local sighting at Southfield Reservoir spurred me on with Covenham Reservoir as a a back-up. Southfield proved barren however so I drove on to Covenham. Thick fog there made the situation look hopeless. I climbed the steps up to have a look anyway. Lots of tufted ducks near the shore. The odd gull loomed out of the mist. One bird looked different and swam differently. I put the scope up. I had only walked perhaps 200m along the reservoir's north side and I was watching a black-necked grebe in summer plumage. Lucky me!

Yet again I finished the day at Blacktoft where I took the only photo of the day.

Pheasant

Friday 4th April

Another redpoll session in the garden.

Mr. Orange

Lesser Redpoll

Mr. Pink

Lesser Redpoll

Love this photo!

Lesser Redpoll

Whilst I was sitting photographing the redpolls a female blackbird was drinking in a stone trough just in front of me.

Blackbird

Blackbird

Saturday 5th April

Barry and I set off early for a trip to Spurn but starting with an hour at North Cave. We saw the LRPs but no sandpipers. The great crested grebes were sending out a heart-shaped message...

Great Crested Grebe

Between the Crown & Anchor and the Blue Bell Cafe we viewed a wryneck. Good start. I pulled the car over when I spotted a deer.

Roe Deer

After a good look round at the normal sites and spending some time looking at the damage from the winter storms [see Barry's blog at http://barryjohnbishop.blogspot.co.uk/ Just click on this!] we walked to Kilnsea Wetlands and Beacon Ponds.

On our walk I spotted a white wagtail.

White Wagtail

I spotted what at first I thought was a marsh harrier heading towards the wetlands. Barry confirmed it as a red kite. The geese and waders were off!

Brent Geese

Curlew

When I said the waders were off, the avocets had slightly different ideas. The exocets as I sometimes call them went on the attack!

Red Kite

Red Kite

Red Kite Red Kite Red Kite Red Kite

Right at the end of the sequence another avocet joined in the act - I only noticed this one when reviewing the photos later.

Red Kite

Good day!

Afterthought: whilst thinking of avocets and exocets I remember once [I think Barry was there so he may remember where this was] a lady told us how much she liked the ocelots [meaning avocets] - so clearly a bird of many names but a bird instantly recognized by birders and non-birders alike.

173 UK  2014