Welcome to my birding blog - first launched 12th March 2012...
19th-23rd August 2017
The Colour Purple
Before we get to the purple bit I took Sheila on Saturday 19/8 to Helmsley to see some owls. We just took Sheila's Canon with a modest zoom lens and set on automatic. Here are some of the shots...
Steller's sea eagle
Yellow-billed kite [if my memory serves me well!]
Griffon vulture
Snowy owl
Common buzzard
Flight shots of a race of eagle owl
Barn owl
Harris hawk
These place certainly provide a good opportunity to practice flight shots with several flight sessions per day with a variety of birds. On our visit the eagle owl was relatively easy to photograph, the barn owl was faster in flight, the buzzard flew into a tree and refused to co-operate [!] and the lanner falcon was impossible without a big lens as it flew out a long way at incredible speed.
Back to the real thing - wild birds!
Next day we went up to Silverdale to try to photograph the purple heron at Leighton Moss. The Grizedale hide was packed but we waited and stared at a patch of thistles and I got really frustrated as people said they could see the bird's head and I couldn't see anything even though I knew I was looking in the precise place!! Some black-tailed godwits dropped in.
After an hour or so we were promoted to the front row as people left either in exasperation or to get lunch. We stayed on. After about two and a half hours the heron walked into full view.
So here it is.
Monday 21st August: a trip up to Saltholme area hoping for whinchat and maybe a roseate tern. Neither seen. Phil Stead hide was quiet and the reserve wasn't yet open. I drove slowly down the Zinc Works road. Plenty of young stonechats [about 15 stonechats seen!] but no whinchat.
The dell at the end of the road held a good range of butterflies: painted lady, whites, peacock and these...
Common blue; small copper; red admiral; wall
Out at Seaton Snook there were plenty of sandwich and common tern. The light was difficult. I approached the birds carefully but a couple with a dog scared everything off. I did snap this young kittiwake on the water's edge.
A very nervous wheatear [my first autumn sighting this year] lingered along the fence line behind the dunes.
248 UK 2017
6th-18th August
August sleeps!
I am still here and pottering about in Yorkshire! Not much cooking, really. Anyway, here's my latest report.
August 6th: St. Aidan's
Little owls tempt us back to St. Aidan's.
August 9th: Blacktoft
Very quiet, just somewhere to go. One of the few occasions [the second ever, I think] that I didn't see a marsh harrier. Little egrets still impress even though we take them for granted now.
Sitting in Marshland, after about 20 minutes I spotted some...well, can you see them?
Yes, snipe.
August 13th: in the garden and St. Aidan's again!
What is this? Any suggestions welcome. It may be some sort of hawk moth but I can't find a caterpillar photo to match. Spotted by Sheila on the edge of a compost bin!
It was actually rather small!
In the afternoon we went to St. Aidan's - my third attempt to see the clouded yellow butterfly that had been reported a few times. Previous visits were either windy or a bit cold. This time we struck lucky: lifer butterfly for me. We walked from Oddball to the Astley Lake causeway to spot it but, thanks to another visitor who encouraged us to keep going, we caught up with it as I suddenly saw it drop down quite near us. [He had a bike!!]
Hand-held 500mm lens - it works for me. I find quite a few insects don't let you near enough to use the macro lens.
The little owls [2 seen] performed well for us - much to Sheila's delight.
August 15th: Saltholme
Deadly quiet there too and the white-rumped sandpiper flew off about 40 minutes before I arrived. So instead here's more snipe and more egret!
August 18th: Nosterfield
A little stint was reported at Nosterfield a couple of days previously. Then, yesterday, great excitement as it was decided it was either a western sandpiper or a semipalmated. I got up early but not as early as Alan Whitehead who trekked it from Holmpton near Spurn to spot it. However by lunchtime it had been decided [from photos] it was a little stint after all. Not even a year tick. Sad face...but that's birding. If we saw what we hoped to see every time it would all be pretty pointless, wouldn't it?
Anyway, here it is. Distant record shot of the former semipalmated sandpiper then western sandpiper and, ultimately little stint! Still a pretty bird.
Stuck on 247 UK 2017
27th July 2017
Spotshanks & Spoonbills!
-well-known birders' expression of utter amazement when finding a really rare bird...
This particular trip made little sense geographically as I drove over the Humber Bridge to Alkborough, then back east again to Far Ings, then back west to Blacktoft. The order of events being dictated by the birds not by sensible route planning.
So, I'll start at Alkborough Flats. No sign in the strong breeze of any bearded tits. Plenty of young reed buntings about.
A drake common scoter was distantly in front of the hide.
Some spotted redshanks were quite close.
Spoonbills too. With a bill like that you sometimes need a mate to help you preen the bits you can't reach!
A juvenile white-winged black tern was showing at Far Ings. On the Pursuit Pit. Persistently a long way away too. Still it was a challenge to get these images.
Had enough? Yes - couldn't hold the camera steady any longer. Perhaps I should use a tripod...but don't really want to...
I headed west for Blacktoft Sands. I headed for Marshland hide for the waders. As I entered the hide I immediately spotted a group of roe deer off to the left. Quickly swinging into action I took some nice photos.
They soon galloped off and melted away into the reedbed.
There were plenty of spotted redshanks here too. Alkborough and Blacktoft share the same species pretty much.
Spotshanks and spoonbills here too!
I've even designed my own spoonbill wallpaper...
I sometimes wish the marsh harriers came closer at Blacktoft but, to be fair, they are even more distant at Alkborough. Here's a few Blacktoft views. All the images are the right way up - one bird did some aerobatics as you can see!
Twisting and turning.
My favourite images from Blacktoft were, unusually, of ruff...
...and in particular of this bird from Townend.
I'll finish with a few other birds: black-tailed godwit.
Heron.
Something rather nice, I thought: little little grebes!
Since then I've had a quick morning trip to Saltholme for egyptian geese. Four seen but scope only views.
247 UK 2017
22nd-23rd July 2017
1: Garden Bits 'n Pieces
A few photos from the garden. First off, Sheila looks after the garden hedgehogs and sometimes we get good views. They do well thanks to her care and are now so big they are becoming a problem for Network Rail!
I spent part of an afternoon messing with the macro. Here's a few of the results. Hoverflies and other flies and bees.
Small white butterfly
2: A day in East Yorkshire
Barry and I headed for Spurn hoping for a white-rumped sandpiper which didn't turn up until late afternoon - well after we'd left for North Cave. We did see a little stint with a dunlin and a common snipe.
Two wood sandpipers were present.
House sparrow and reed bunting were feeding in the wheat field adjacent to the path to Beacon Ponds.
Three species of tern and a good selection of waders were seen at the ponds. We headed to North Cave after scanning the Humber estuary a while. North Cave was quiet and rain wasn't far away. Something spooked the lapwings [plus a couple of starlings, I think].
I enjoyed photographing these bully birds - lesser black-backed gulls.
They are very smart birds.
246 UK 2017
18th-19th July 2017
Local gems
18th July - Fairburn Ings, New Flash. I saw the cattle egret on the 17th after a rush from home without camera. It was [relatively speaking] quite close on Spoonbill Flash. Following day I saw it distantly with Sheila on New Flash. Photographed from the road, I gave it, as it were, my best shot!
19th July - Swillington Ings, Alkborough Flats and North Cave. Barry and I headed first for Oulton part of St. Aidan's [or Swillington Ings as I'm used to calling it] to see a caspian tern. Big bird but not quite close enough to photograph. We headed east to Alkborough Flats...
Lots to see from the hide. Waders including curlew, black-tailed godwits, avocets.
Any opinion anyone of the identity of the bird in the centre of this next photo?
A little egret flew over, a dunlin wandered the shoreline too.
At first the light was quite poor - dull, overcast sky. For a moment I thought I saw a spotshank and told Barry but in the poor light I changed my mind. This photo has been brightened up in Photoshop. Spotted redshank.
Crowd scenes - and introducing the dozen or more spoonbills we saw.
Nothing like an alarm flight.
Spoonbill dossier!
More wader shots including avocets, godwits and greenshank.
The little birds in the reedbed were difficult to capture in the steady breeze. Here's a few shots of reed warbler and juvenile bearded tits.
We headed over the Humber Bridge to North Cave. I hoped to photograph some dragonflies. A combine was at work in North Field.
Empress dragonflies were ovipositing.
Joke photo amused me...
Black-tailed skimmer
Four-spot chaser
Common darter
This man means business. Approach with care!!
