17th-19th January 2020
East coast birding!
17th January 2020
I began at Hartlepool Headland hoping to finally see the long-tailed duck after a few misses when the bird had disappeared due to disturbance by incoming boats. Today my luck was in. Never really close but good enough I thought. Also featured: eiders.
From there I went to North Gare car park just to see if there were any skylarks hiding in the long grass. I'd seen them there a previous winter. To my surprise I found a pair immediately.
On to the old River Tees at Middlesbrough Morrisons supermarket looking for green sandpiper. No sign just this redshank.
19th January at Bempton Cliffs RSPB
It was one of those days when there were thousands of guillemots on the cliffs...
...and small numbers of gannets out at sea.
I always think that Filey Brigg [or properly Carr Naze] looks man-made when seen from Bempton.
I hoped that the short-eared owls would appear in the afternoon. A kestrel showed first...
...then the shorties - 2 of them.
Roe deer came bounding into view, but weren't noticed by passing birders!
More owls. They were spotted!
24th January: Scarborough
I began at Filey looking for an elusive firecrest. It remained elusive. Bempton was quiet this time - no guillemots on the cliffs or on the sea. I tried for peregrine on Marine Drive as a volunteer I know at Bempton said: 'Just park at lamppost 60 and look around you on the clifftop.'
It really was that easy! Fulmars first, but en route I called briefly at Holbeck Cliff car park. I do like gulls and I hoped to see a med gull or two...
There were harbour porpoises just offshore.
Just below the rock armour on Marine Drive I spotted a splodgy looking duck.
A long-tailed duck juvenile I presume - with not much tail!
I'll finish this post with the peregrine late afternoon on the clifftop photographed using my car to steady the camera as it pointed up at a steep angle.
