Just bumbling along for a week...

Saturday 18th July began at Old Moor with a very distant wood sandpiper. A heron watched the greensands which were much closer to the hide.

Heron The light was bad to catch the greensands well but a bit of raw processing helps...

Green Sandpiper

Juvenile avocet and... Avocet

...a pair of lesser black backed gulls.

Lesser Black-backed Gulls

Barry and I walked back to the visitor centre. The gatekeepers were everywhere. Butterflies I mean! Gatekeeper In the garden hide by the visitor centre a bullfinch came so close I had to step back inside the hide to get a focus.

Bullfinch

We drove on to Frampton Marsh which proved a disappointment: we couldn't locate stints or other rarity sandpipers. We made do with a ruff and a godwit! End of story!

Ruff Black-tailed Godwit

Sunday 19th was another anti-climax. I joined Barry at an RSPB Peregrine event at York Minster. As I arrived a peregrine flew past the twin towers and vanished within a fraction of a second. That was all I saw. Certainly left me scratching my head...

Gargoyle, York Minster As for bird photos, well, feral pigeons don't often get a look in but this male was certainly strutting his stuff!

Feral Pigeon

Which brings me to Tuesday 21st July when I met Barry at Blacktoft some time during the morning; left him as he had to be elsewhere in the afternoon and moved on to Alkborough and, finally, spent half an hour at North Cave. All in all a very good day! Let's start at Blacktoft with a black-tailed godwit.

Bar-tailed Godwit

Black-tailed Godwits One juvenile black-headed gull amongst the godwits. Little egrets marching in time... [black and white image]

Little Egrets ...and a distant male Montagu's harrier.

Montagu's Harrier Later, I saw some green sandpipers.

Green Sandpiper Green Sandpiper Green Sandpiper Spot the snipe! No, that's not its name! I mean can you see his beady eye?

Snipe We had a slightly better view later. Snipe

Spotted redshanks flew off from Marshland.

Spotted Redshank They came back later and came close.

Spotted Redshank Spotted Redshank Spotted Redshank Spotted Redshank Four spoonbills were feeding at Alkborough. Unusual to see them awake!

Spoonbills Spoonbills

Avocets, avocets everywhere!

On the deck and in the air! Avocets

Avocets Avocets Butterflies at North Cave. Male small skipper.

Small Skipper Small Skipper Small Skipper Gatekeeper.

Gatekeeper Commas.
Comma Comma This is why it's called a comma. See the white mark? Could have called it a fish hook or an apostrophe or just a squiggle!

Comma Red admiral.

Red Admiral

Meadow brown. Meadow Brown

July 22nd: Saltholme. Common tern juvenile begging for food and getting it!
Common Tern

Common Tern

Great crested grebe juvenile at Paddy's...

Great Crested Grebe Great Crested Grebe

...along with barnacle geese... Barnacle Geese ...and at Saltholme hide a little ringed plover along with a sand martin that somehow crept into the shot - in focus too!

Little Ringed Plover with Sand Martin Common sandpiper there too.

Common Sandpiper As I walked back a mippit was collecting food for its moppets.
Meadow Pipit Friday 24th July 

En route to Bempton from Forge Valley I spotted a field of poppies at Folkton.

Poppies at Folkton

Bempton Cliff. Saw a whitethroat and a big bee! Am I bothered? Doesn't look like it! Whitethroat Whitethroat Like me, he was just bumbling along too.

Gannets cannot be ignored even when I say I've taken enough gannet pics. Problem was they were flying temptingly high, right in front of me!

Gannet Gannet I was really planning to try to get some nice juvenile kittiwake shots. These two fulmars looked good.

Fulmars Eventually I got quite a few kittiwake photos. Here are the best of the bunch!

Kittiwake Kittiwake Kittiwake Weekly round-up nearly done. Last entries in the diary relate to Saturday July 25th

Barry and I paid our first ever visit to Ogston Reservoir in Derbyshire. We haven't really been to Derbyshire much if at all. I knew an osprey was lingering there and we saw it within minutes of our arrival. It never came close however and after things had gone quiet we left for Wragby and Chambers Farm Wood. Never lets me down even if I don't quite see what I hope for. We had fleeting views of 3 white admirals between us, lots of squiggles - here's some... Comma Comma Comma A small skipper decided to give itself a home on Barry! Small Skipper Here's a beautifully marked female large skipper.

Large Skipper

We saw a few brown hawker dragonflies but Barry cleverly found one perched. Very nice.

Brown Hawker

For me, however, the find of the day [again all credit to Barry] was this fabulous beautiful demoiselle - my first ever. Always end on a high note! Beautiful Demoiselle

Beautiful Demoiselle

Birds 2015 UK: 244