Welcome to my birding blog - first launched 12th March 2012...
3rd July 2018
A few images from Bempton Cliffs
I went hoping to catch up with a grasshopper warbler but I was obviously in the wrong place at the right time as it was seen nearby. I had gone to where I had been told it liked to show. Oh well, that's how it goes sometimes.
Settled for one of the many whitethroats around.
Reed bunting
I decided to try my hand at a few flight shots as the birds were shooting past quite high which makes for nice photos if you're quick enough.
Puffin on the cliff.
Puffin departing - feet of razorbill, kittiwake and puffin all visible!
Razorbills and guillemots
Razorbills squabbling and then flying off.
Razorbill flight shots
Ringlet and large skipper butterflies
27th-29th June 2018
Record shots
1: St. Aidans around Oddball - June 27th
Sheila and I went to see the little owls. Eventually we saw one owlet - a bundle of fluff really.
2: Kilnsea Wetlands - June 29th
My phone app told me the squacco heron which had ''flown north'' earlier was back in the Holderness field on the east pond. It was nice to escape the heat and enjoy fresher conditions of 15 degrees. Slight mist. Bird soon seen. Always some way off but no complaints: great scope views eating newts, frogs and eels.
Popped into the hide on the way back. Sandwich terns out on the spit. Yellow wagtail juvenile outside the hide.
217 UK 2018
17th-21st June 2018
Rocking horse droppings!
17th June - Scaling dam and Wykeham Raptor Watchpoint
Common buzzard, wren and linnet
Wykeham - tree pipit, showy garden warbler
19th June - Wykeham, Ellerburn Bank and Fen Bog
Spotted flycatchers in the car park when I arrived. Two honey buzzards wing-clapping plus goshawk, tree pipit and garden warbler still.
Speckled wood on walk back to car park in the dark wood as lit by shaft of sunlight.
Ellerburn Bank YWT - first meadow brown of the year. Fly orchid still hanging on; most had finished.
Fen Bog YWT - small pearl-bordered fritillary in good numbers till the sun went in. Wonderful rare butterfly.
21st June - Washington WWT
Semipalmated sandpiper on the wader scrape.
Webbing clearly visible in this shot. Another bird I hadn't photographed before - #331!
As I headed back to the car park a birder said to me:
''Nice bird'
I replied: 'Yes. Very good'
He added: 'Pretty rare. About as common as rocking horse droppings!'
I guess he was about right!
216 UK 2018
6th-13th June 2018
From Blacktoft to Boghouse!
...calling at other stops in-between...
June 6th - an afternoon visit to Blacktoft. Plenty of house martins which was good to see.
Otherwise very quiet. The usual suspects appeared.
June 8th: in the garden before storm Hector ran amok.
June 11th: Scaling Dam and Lockwood Beck
An osprey or two were in the neighbourhood...spotted in the pines on the far side of the reservoir.
Going fishing: hovering high over the water looking for fish.
Caught a fish!
Flew off with it onto the moor.
Decided to go to look for spotted flycatchers at Lockwood Beck. Found one near the bird feeder station on the reservoir edge.
Found another in a different area atop some conifers.
June 13th: back to Scaling Dam to walk down Boghouse Lane looking for whinchat was the plan. Thought I'd sit in the hide first and see if the ospreys turned up. Hide empty unlike last time apart from two birders. One said: ''Terry says it's still around. Shall we try?''
They left without saying what was still around.
A bit later another birder came in. ''Have you been for the shrike?'' he asked.
''What shrike?''
''Woodchat shrike down Bogside. Are you coming?''
We set off and eventually saw the bird. Curlews in the air around us.
No sign of whinchat. Anyway here it is - a super male woodchat shrike.
Willow warbler.
Camera battery failing, I headed back, swapped batteries and rested in the hide. Ringed and little ringed!
Others had seen whinchat so I decided to do the walk again. Linnet.
Stonechat - never saw a whinchat.
The shrike was still present.
So, considering the plan, the day was a complete failure. But a glorious one.
212 UK 2018
29th May - 1st June 2018
The Sublime and the Ridiculous
Plus a few other Odds and Ends
1:The Sublime
May 29th: a new destination for me, the Rivelin Valley west of Sheffield. Barry and I hoped to see wood warbler, a bird I haven't seen locally for a couple of years. I did see one near Aviemore last summer but decent photos have eluded me. The area allegedly had six territories this spring. We found two of them without too much difficulty. All thanks to a contact on Twitter who provided site info and a map.
Here I am courtesy of Barry Bishop looking for our target bird. Amazed how young I look.
First bird was singing in and around a rowan tree.
Second bird was in a much gloomier location and photography was a struggle with very high ISO rates and low shutter speeds.
This one is just what I hoped for.
We moved north slowly, calling first at Anglers' Country Park. Some nice marsh orchid types were seen - some looking very robust.
This one looked a bit different - a bit of a hybrid maybe.
Out on the water a pair of mute swans were showing off their cygnets.
Cygnet #1 had the bright idea of hitching a ride!
Final port of call was at St. Aidan's RSPB where we saw a single black tern [no decent photos this time - but here's a poor effort]...
...a shoveler...
...and little owl....
Not a bad day at all!
May 31st: Sheila and I drove up to Hartlepool to see a quail on the bowling green! Sounded a bit ridiculous... No sign although it was evidently still somewhere in the bushes round the green. We decided to go and see the little terns at Crimdon Beach and call back later.
A sea fret had rolled in. We could hear the terns as they headed out into the mist. To give you an idea of how bad it was here are a couple of photos of the birds in the misty conditions.
As I shoot everything in RAW it's amazing what you can achieve by processing your images carefully. One thing, however, was apparent: somehow the mist particles in the air did seem to impede pin-sharp focus. Here's a set of photos that I worked on.
First common blue of the year in the dunes.
2: The Ridiculous - a quail at Hartlepool Headland
We returned to the Bowling Green. Eventually the quail came out onto the outside of the green from under the fence.
June 1st: Flamborough, Bempton, Hilla Green and Fen Bog
Thornwick Pool was very quiet. Reed warbler from the hide; wall butterfly outside the hide.
Flamborough - I went to have another look at the lesser whitethroat.
Common whitethroat too.
No sign of spotted flycatcher at Hilla Green but I may not have been looking in the right place. I explored the area near Dipper Bridge [as Nigel Stewart used to call it] - grey wagtail with food for its young?
It was a quiet day overall but I went to nice places that I love. A tree pipit [I think] at Fen Bog. If it's just a mipit then that's fine too.
