Going the distance...

Not a reference to the miles travelled [although quite a lot were needed in fact] but to the challenging nature of working at the very limits of what my big lens can do. I'll begin with the bird that came closest...

May 18th: South Gare suaeda

A red-spotted bluethroat was reported so I set off north to Redcar. Only a small group of birders staring rather forlornly into the little suaeda glen out on the clinker field. I set off with bins and camera. Apparently the bird had been seen but was proving elusive. I crossed a few metaphorical fingers. After a while, a glimpse and then back into the vegetation. Photos began to flow as the bird would disappear at one point and reappear elsewhere , somewhere completely different without being seen to fly. It must have run along under cover! Here's the bird - a young male.  A red-backed shrike was reported at Noses Point near Seaham so I decided to try for it. Before I left I scoped the beach at South Gare and was rewarded with a nice group of sandwich terns - my first of the year.

Although I saw the shrike, I got no photos and had to settle for this mipit.

May 21st - a trip to Lancashire

To Lunt Meadows, a Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside Wildlife Trust reserve for the most distant of the three key birds. Now there's a mouthful: the L,M & N.M.W.T!! Formerly the Lancashire Wildlife Trust but local government reorganisation seems to have led to a rather complicated name! Still, a stilt sandpiper was attracting large numbers of birders and the car park was overflowing.

A view of the reserve And the bird itself - always very distant and often hidden. It accompanied a black-tailed godwit - they were inseparable, so if you lost track of the sandpiper as it moved among the reeds, finding the blackwit always helped you track the stilt. Here it is.

Also seen: a friendly magpie who let me get very close... ...goldfinches... ...and a four-spotted chaser dragonfly.

May 24th: Saltholme

I've dedicated a lot of time to great reed warblers this month: 3 trips to Wintersett to listen to a great reed warbler  and possibly glimpse it [but it was probably an ordinary reed warbler] but I'm now well used to the song and call of this species. Then one turned up at Saltholme. First trip it disappeared into the main reedbed fifteen minutes before I arrived. However they don't call me the persistent birder for nothing. When it showed well on the fringes of the Main Lake, I tried again. This would be the middle distance bird but given its size [even a great reed warbler isn't exactly huge] and the constantly moving reeds in quite a breeze, this was quite a challenge and I'm quite surprised to have a few nice, usable images. I stood in the long grass with three friendly birders and waited, and waited and... There, it's coming up...

The location The bird

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Under the weather...

Feeling listless and I ache all over - probably just a spring cold [I hope]. Still I don't feel like doing much other than sitting at the laptop and updating my blog and current photo book.

So, let's make a start.

May 12th: Great Cowden and Kilnsea: I was up very early to see the smart looking brown shrike at Great Cowden. Not to be, alas. And I had a fall in a nasty little greasy dip en route not to see it. Determined to make something of the day I headed for Kilnsea. Wryneck seen distantly on a wire then flew off bouncing its way down the road towards the Crown & Anchor. Then someone spotted a yellow wagtail in the field diagonally across from the old Blue Bell cafe.

I was somewhat puzzled by this bird: it seems rather bright for a female. Is it just a female yellow wag? Anyway, here's the male.

Swallow on the wires by the Blue Bell.

May 14th: Appleton-le-Moors & Hawnby

I visited two sites that over the years took me a long time to identify - that I found them at all was mainly thanks to poor old Nigel Stewart - much missed. The targets were butterflies, rare ones, at both sites. First site took me a long time to find them as they had moved further down the glen and, maybe, I was a bit early and it took a while for the optimum temperature to be reached. Still they did appear and lots of them - 50 or more. They were everywhere and very active. I despaired any would ever land anywhere near me. Patience paid off!

For a while I satisfied myself with a few chiffchaff and yellowhammer photos.

It was easy to get excited whenever a small tortoiseshell flashed past.

Now for the pearl bordered fritillaries [not the much more common small pearl-bordered - they appear a little later]

One of the diagnostic features is the ''duck's head'' on the hind wing. Look for the orange head with a black eye and a white bill!

Then it was on to Hawnby Hill for the Duke. Leaving Appleton-le-Moors I spotted a hare in the middle of a field. I drove on a 100m or so and walked back staying behind a stone wall as much as possible.

View looking south from my climb up the northern flank.

The heavy booming thud thud of a large helicopter filled the air and 2 chinooks came into view low over the village.

Eventually I reached the gates to the Duchy of Burgundy. Green-veined white on a solitary greater stitchwort, I think.

Primroses flowering quite late up here - they are the Duke's key food plant. 

Dukes are tiny - wingspan about 3cms. I was very lucky to see this pair and I took 3 shots whereupon they fell off the blade of grass and disappeared in the scrub below!  Tree pipit just outside the site on my walk back.

I called at Sutton Bank for the early purple orchids.

May 16th: Fairburn

Little seen. Here's a dog rose.

Unusually, although I would normally end my blog with a full stop I've broken with tradition. I've used a comma instead

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South Gare, Crook Ness and Heslington East

April 6th: I drove up to Redcar to try for terns at South Gare. It was raining so I walked down to the shore with just my bins to see what was around. Encouraged by at least 4 little terns resting on the wet sand I made my way back to get the camera.  Also on the beach: dunlins... ...ringed plover... ...and common gull.

April 7th: Crook Ness farm, following the first hedge after the Burniston observatory hut. I hoped the woodchat shrike would still be around. Only three birders visible as I approached but the bird performed pretty well. A good morning's excursion!

April 8th: in heavy rain I parked at the University Hes East car park and walked to the lake. Large numbers of swallows and a very welcome black tern for my York list - certainly the best York species so far this year. Only took bins as it was raining really hard.

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