23rd April 2022 ff
Tractors, Diggers and Cranes
I forgot to photograph the tractors and diggers but here are the nine cranes I saw in a field east of Swinefleet!
I called briefly at Blacktoft and saw my first house martins, a single swallow and a greenshank. The weather seemed rather bleak and wintry.
Shovelers
25th April - a trip up to Saltholme and surrounding area. Sedge warbler briefly at Dorman's Pool in a cold wind. I headed to the tip at Seaton Carew as 2 wood sandpipers had been reported on a pool opposite the tip entrance. Along with a couple of wheatears everything was too far away for a decent photograph. But I tried!!
One woodsand centre image!
One wheatear centre image!
Blackhall Rocks: reed bunting and stonechat. No sign of gropper. my deafness is probably a major problem in terms of spotting a gropper!!
Linnet
kittiwake by the lifeboat station...
Doing its own version of gymnastics!
Eider were busy displaying and the males were chasing each other whilst females looked on disinterestedly. [6 syllable word! I don't use many of those...]
Fox interlude
Hope you like these from our garden this week
April 26th - an early morning start at Wheldrake Ings. Willow warbler eventually spotted in a willow tree! Doing what willow warblers do - with what I always think is ''that dying fall'' described by Count Orsino in Twelfth Night. [Do they still have Pseuds Corner in Private Eye?]
Then I spotted my first whitethroat of the year.
A garganey from Pool Hide:
Near there sedge warblers were busy singing and performing display flights.
A swallow perched on an information board outside Tower Hide...
...with blackcaps close by.
I was thrilled to see snakeshead fritillaries growing in the wild - something I grow at home but never seen before in their natural surroundings...
...and here's a view of my own fritillary patch this year.
I wandered slowly back towards the car park passing the old wind pump which suddenly began to creak as it began to turn in the wind.
Sound on!
