Exciting times

August 16th, Blacktoft

Quiet. Another water rail jaunt but this one was successful! A  juvenile not quite bold enough to pose for a photo however. So had to settle for a greenshank, snipe and a ruff.

August 24th: Poppleton P&R; South Gare; Cowpen Marsh and Seaton Snook

Started at the Pool of Destiny as it has been named locally [amongst other names] In the last month I have seen on this 'puddle' a remarkable list of birds: gulls; moorhens; teal; mallards; green sandpiper; 5 greenshanks at once; willow warbler; pied and grey wagtails; swallows; little stint, ruff and curlew sandpiper. On this occasion it was quiet but I was very happy to see about 12 grey partridge!

On to Redcar for a look around South Gare. The highlight for me was a group of bottlenose dolphins.

Cowpen Marsh common terns

Seaton Snook to see the arctic skuas. My first visit wasn't really successful as the tide was coming across the sand rather fast and I retreated to the dunes section of the Snook and admired the Robinson Crusoe 'hide' overlooking the tern roost.

One skua departed out to sea.

Rather worn wall and common blue butterflies on the walk back to the car.

August 26th, Blacktoft

White-tailed lapwing/plover on Marshland. Saw my first years ago at Leighton Moss. [2007 apparently] 

August 29th: Saltholme and back to Seaton Snook

For me this was a very exciting day - one of the most exciting experiences I've had when birding...

I began at Saltholme as I had driven north to see a couple of juvenile black terns. Finding them was easy. Getting a lock on them with the camera [using 100-400 zoom lens] was another matter! And when you did get a focus lock, was it on the right bird...

No

No

Yes!

Seaton Snook, second visit to try for skuas...

Sandwich tern

On more than one occasion the skuas dropped the fish they had stolen. This sequence of silhouettes [due to shooting into the bright light] is all of the same bird/fish and probably only lasted a few seconds...

Damn! Dropped it!

Fish still visible...

Got it!

August 30th - taking a break

Sweet peppers and aubergines doing well in the garden this year...

...and a daisy to brighten your day after all this constant cloud!

Last lap: September 1st

Hornsea Mere to see the little gulls and an arctic tern...

The little gulls were numerous - over 250 when I arrived and I think there had been even more earlier.

A black-headed gull serves to show just how small little gulls are.

Juveniles can be very smart.

There was no sign of an arctic tern until, quite suddenly, it materialised on the jetty with the little gulls. Amazing looking bird!

In flight it was remarkably easy to locate and keep track of.

Later I headed for Blacktoft hoping for better/closer views of the white-tailed lapwing. Closer it was at Xerox but too much vegetation clutter made the results disappointing.

159 UK 2021