Rats! Is that the best you can do?!!

21st February

Roving along the clifftop at Flamborough east of South Landing looking for lapland buntings that were no longer there!! Made do with yellowhammers, tree sparrows at Bempton and my first kittiwakes of the year on the cliffs... Yellowhammer Yellowhammer Tree Sparrow Kittiwake

The bird station at Bempton has a healthy scattering of rat traps. Not quite sure what they are going to achieve... The rats seem unconcerned...

Rat

26th February

A blustery day, it felt very cold even though the temperature was about 11 degrees. Sheila and I completed the North Cave circuit. Little of especial note: just my first 2017 chiffchaff. Kestrel, red kite, sparrowhawk and buzzard all seen either on site or during the drive.

28th February - I can do better!

Part One: Gosh!!!!!

After reading Nigel Stewart's latest blog with confirmed sightings of goshawk in Troutsdale I decided to go see as things were pretty quiet otherwise. [See Clifton birding if you don't know it]. 

I drove down into Troutsdale. A kestrel flew along a stone wall beside me before Tiggy dropped down into the valley itself.

A short iphone video of the valley taken from the raptor watchpoint later that morning. It takes a few seconds to load. Troutsdale A buzzard was soon seen in the sky. I carried on, stopping from time to time to scan the area. At SE 934 899 I saw this in the distance. Goshawk Goshawk What a beast. A first for me: my previous goshawk encounters had either been fleeting or very distant. What a treat. 5 sightings all told and at least 2 birds as I saw 2 at once. Let the pictures take over! Goshawk Goshawk Goshawk Goshawk Goshawk Goshawk Goshawk Goshawk Goshawk Treecreeper seen too: first of 2017.

Part Two: despatching a few decapods!

I headed down to Scarborough for a stroll round the harbour before heading home. The black-necks were hiding - under the pontoons I expect - but the great northern was feeding constantly. This sequence features one bird [obviously] but about 4 different crabs! Great Northern Diver Great Northern Diver Great Northern Diver Great Northern Diver Great Northern Diver In the next photo a crab is in the bird's throat just left of the lower mandible: you can see the lump. It went down in one!

Great Northern Diver Great Northern Diver Great Northern Diver

That's it for February. March should be interesting........

Postscript from the useless information department!

As a linguist and former latin student [grade C 'O' level!] I was fascinated to learn that the word Volvo means 'I roll or tumble.'

It's not Swedish for anything!

164 UK 2017