Welcome to my birding blog - first launched 12th March 2012...
Wednesday 16th May
Well, as I always say, that's birding!
Given the forecast which suggested Wednesday might well be the best day of the week, I decided the night before to head for Spurn. However I was aware that a pallid harrier had been reported near Patrington at what I normally call Patrington Haven realignment but was referred to now as Outstray Wetlands. Anyway I went there first, saw a merlin straightaway, and waited a long, long, long, long time. Until with my sore throat I needed to go back to Tiggy for a drink.
Guess what happened? The harrier made its only, rather distant appearance that day whilst I wasn't there. I waited a while after my return and decided to give up. I never saw the bird although we did see good numbers of marsh harriers. I had seen a pallid harrier at Dorman's Pool, Cleveland in October 2011 so it wasn't the end of the world. My photo is a bit distant but here's a reminder of my cinnamon bird:
Dorman's Pool 21.10.2011 Record shot!
I had noticed that reed warblers were very easy to spot busily chasing in the very narrow strips of reedbed at the side of the Winestead Drain. They were so easy to see. So making the best of it and with reasonable light - although the sunshine was obscured at times by large white clouds - I set out to photograph reed warblers for the very first time. A selection of the ones I like follows.
After a couple of hours I set off for Kilnsea. In the car park I met two chaps who had been at the pallid harrier untwitch. We had all overheard a Spurn man say there was 'nothing at all at Spurn.' 'Something might turn up,' I said. They agreed. So we set off on our walk to Beacon Ponds. Changes are afoot here with various signs of new earthworks and new fences but I reached the hide and found it - to my surprise - full! Usually there's no-one there! And there were nice things to see. Lots of little terns, some on the ground in front of the hide. Summer plumaged grey plover and dunlin. Ringed plovers. I walked back alone but met the two chaps from earlier again. One had just had a message from a mate saying there was a golden oriole at Sammy's Point!
I set Tiggy into scamper mode and set off. The other two came along later after visiting the small brick building in the car park. They had told me the bird was at post 45 which worried me considerably as post numbers are more associated with Spurn Point but I walked on. No sign of life ahead. Eventually I saw the two chaps who hurried along. 'Sorry,' one said 'but I misheard the voicemail, he said posted at 14.45 Sammy's Point.' So we were in the right place. Whereupon a turtle dove quite simply appeared from one of the hawthorn bushes to our right. Great. Think of the diesel that has saved!!!
The men went over the stile into the bush field. I stayed on the path to watch for any disturbance. As I walked along I saw another man signal to me to work round to him. He had the bird in view. Eventually I had cracking views of the bird. The day wasn't just looking up it had reached for the skies!! Something had turned up.
2 ticks, nice pics and a nice contented drive home. 223. Yorkshire 102.
Postscript
Over the last week we have had some four-legged visitors The roe deer were in the potato field across form our house for two days. The hedgehog [there are two of them] call nightly to feed on some of the dropped birdseed at our feeders near the house. A few pictures tell just how close the deer came - taken with a 100-200 zoom.
Saturday 12th May 2012
Opportunist Photography
On my way to Cowpen Bewley for another look at the nightingale, I called first at North Gare access road where I was pleased to come across a group of whimbrel which I managed to photograph from Tiggy [my VW Tiguan!]. However a dead piece of reed seemed to mar an otherwise good picture. Certainly this one seemed sharp and was a nice pose in rather harsh light.
As you can see the grass passes right in front of the bird's bill. Then I had an idea. In Photoshop6 I cloned the bird's bill colour and then using a very fine tool I 'painted' over the grass where it crossed the bill so that now it appears the grass is behind the bird. I think it works really well as shown by the next photograph.
I still had the car window down and I could hear very loud hirundine-type noise nearby. A group of house martins were nervously trying to get near some mud by my car. I switched the engine off and picked up the camera...
After the access road I drove slowly along the Zinc Road. A group of four wheatears were on the security fence. Three insisted on facing the wrong way!
Cowpen Bewleyy had become very muddy. The nightingale was still singing well but I failed to get any photos as he remained very skulky - providing glimpses deep in the undergrowth. He could well argue he didn't need to appear: surely the wonderful sound was sufficient?
So I made my way to Dorman's Pool and walked from the car park along the path that runs beside the railway. It was alive with sedge warblers and whitethroats. Spring was in full swing.
I had been told that garden warbler and whinchat could be found but I didn't stumble on them. However various birds provided nice images. Not just close-ups but rather nice photographs that place the birds in their immediate environment.
I particularly like the next image:
Eventually I did get to Saltholme where the best birds were, apparently, a pair of drake garganey on fire station field. I could only see one when I first arrived. A pair of avocets were asleep on the fire station pool too.
A reed bunting was singing in the car park. A mute swan attempted to decapitate me!
Back by the Phil Stead hide and the fire station pools a grey heron was fishing.
A couple I had met a couple of weeks ago at Hummersea said they had been trying to photograph both garganeys but there was always one with his head underwater. I like a challenge. I have to admit I took a huge number of photos - many with both heads underwater! However this was my best shot!
Walking back from the visitor centre with a woodpecker under my arm I saw a dog on the footpath in front of me walking, as it were, ahead of me. I stopped amused and amazed. It was a fox in the car park. There were people around, young children. One couple were staring at the fox who continued to stroll unconcerned. I walked quickly to Tiggy; grabbed my camera from the boot.
Tried to stalk around to get a shot of the fox. He didn't mind. 'It's a nature reserve', he said. 'I'm safe here!!!'
Then a woodsand came up at Boldon Flats. I drove there and saw the bird quite easily thanks to the friendly birders there. It was trying to rain and although good views could be had in the scope it was too far to photograph so this is the only photo not taken on the day:
219 birds 2012.
Sunday 13th May & Monday 14th May
The Big Fight
Sunday 13th May
Barry and I decided, given an uncertain forecast, to try Skipwith Common for wood lark and then to go and shelter from the coming rain in North Cave's hides. Skipwith was not at its best and we found no wood lark. We tried to change a mippit into one but failed. Two cuckoos heard. So on to North Cave. The avocets quite like the current workings and waders can be found there at times including the LRPs.
A few warblers could be heard and chaffinch often dominated the background. This one allowed me very close to him.
A coot was being very solicitous of her two youngsters. The young frizzyheads look quite cute.
'Have you tried spinach? That'll sort your silly hairstyle!!'
The sacrificial crop field is now heavily fortified against rabbits. A lone oysercatcher had the field to himself. Old Knobblybill seemed quite happy there...
The highlight of our visit to North Cave for me was the battle royal between an avocet-exocet and a black-headed gull. Let the pictures tell the story.
Frampton Magic
Monday 14th May
Another of my favourite early starts [especially on these light mornings] as I scampered off to Lincolnshire down the A1. Thanks to local birder Andy Simms for his help - we soon had three little gulls and a little stint. The reported curlew sandpipers were not immediately visible so we moved - a long walk is the norm at Frampton - to East Hide. We saw the curlewsands immediately - as they flew off!
Altogether there were 9 of them. We later relocated them back at the 360 hide. This distant view shows all nine - two blocks of three on the left and three singles. It's one of my very poor record shots beyond my camera's range and ability!
A little egret was nearby and a confiding reed bunting allowed some close views. Both shots are the same bird.
A great crested grebe came clos on my walk back to the visitor centre.
Common Tern were on the shingle banks...
...and proud parents took their goslings for a swim!
The swifts were flying very close, so I tried to get a decent shot. I don't think I'll ever achieve the result I have in mind - but I'll keep trying!!
221 birds in 2012
Wednesday 9th May
The Cuckoo and the Nightingale
George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) Organ Concerto No 13 in F 'The Cuckoo and the Nightingale'
The plan was to get up really early and go to Scaling Dam using the back roads across the moors. Saw lots of pipits and red grouse. Once I was in the hide I saw the wood duck straight away. Shortly after a cuckoo began to call. I spotted him in a tree at the far western end. Scaling reservoir is very deceptive: it runs east-west, not north-south as the main road at this point although taking you north or south is actually running east-west. The Yorkshire-Cleveland boundary is roughly where the lane to Scaling village meets the main road.
Back to the point. I am sure many of you [if anyone at all reads this!!] are tired of great close-ups of birds and long for more distant views. So especially for you here goes. No laughter, please. First of all the wood duck is on the bank asleep behind the three gulls!
And my first cuckoo of the year, at the Cleveland end, is in the centre of the picture:
Can you see it? My cuckoo shots need further work I think!!
The morning got off to a good start. It was quite pleasant. The black-headed gulls thought it was all right.
A mistle thrush was in a nearby field and tree sparrows were on the grass in front of the hide.
A couple of lady birders from Cambridgeshire said that they had to go to special places to see tree sparrows whereas they said that everywhere they had been birding this holiday in Yorkshire they had come across tree sparrows. I said they started coming to my garden in the first bad winter but they have remained and are still seen most days on my feeders here in York.
I spotted a distant greenshank on the far bank. A cormorant - they remind me of broken umbrellas - was hung out to dry in the sun.
I had spotted a common sandpiper soon after my arrival. Soon I had at least three in view and possibly two pairs of little ringed plovers.
They all came quite close eventually.
Eventually as the wood duck refused to come closer I decided to go down to the Yorkshire end. Another cuckoo appeared in the pines beyond the car park. It was being hassled by a group of small birds. Time for another distant [i.e. rubbish] photo!
A redshank and a lapwing provided better views, as did a nice peacock butterfly.
Finally I was entertained by a couple of willow warblers who were busy pairing I assume. Certainly there was a lot of chasing about. They didn't want to sit still for a photo!!
Saltholme & Cowpen Bewley
A man in the hide at Scaling Dam reminded me there was a nightingale At Cowpen Bewley. I decided to go for it. Saw it quite soon deep in the dark undergrowth on the floor. Good views but impossible to photograph. It sang off and on quite wonderfully. Garden warbler was heard by some. I wasn't sure. Certainly there were blackcaps, chiffchaffs and whitethroats.
Before coming home I went to North Gare area looking for whinchat. By the electricity substation at NZ511261 I saw two smart male stonechats.
Then I called at Saltholme before setting off home a little earlier than usual. It had been a long day. Two drake garganey were on the pool by the Phil Stead hide.
All photos taken 9.5.12 except the last two. The stonechat is Welsh and the garganey was in Scarborough earler this year. See blog post 20.03.12
4 ticks. 218. Yorkshire 100.
Sunday 6th May & Monday 7th May
Up & Down the Gorse Field and other stories
Sunday 6th May
Sunday was to be a Flamborough trip as I really wanted to see a spring wryneck. I arrived by 8am and joined a small group of birders. One chap had seen the bird '20 minutes ago along the south hedge, close in and on a post.' I spent 3 hours trying to see this bird. I fell down a bank [unhurt]; I put more cash in the meter. I even gave up and went to Thornwick Bay to look for Thornwick Pool. To look for a woodsand. A big chap in red told me how to find the 'pond.' No sandpiper but I now know for future reference. Then back to the gorse field. It had been seen, again up against the south hedge. A group of men were up on the bank looking. I walked closer. Clearly they could see the bird but the small section of bank that was accessible seemed pretty full. A man grabbed me under the armpit and hauled me up!!! There to my left about 6 or 8 feet away was a wryneck anting quite happily unfazed by a group of elderly nutcases. We watched for a good 5 minutes until he flew casually away west but not very far. Eureka!
I also saw whilst doing all my gorse watching a whitethroat, a lesser whitethroat and a song thrush which initially was mistaken for the wryneck. I feel sorry for the chap who shouted: 'There it is!!' There it wasn't.
I then went on to Tophill Low hoping I might escape the rain away from the coast. This proved correct. Lots of blackcap everywhere. Reed warbler seen at South Marsh. LRP at the Borrow Pit. Lots of house martin and swift too.
Monday 7th May
Barry and I made a leisurely start at 9am, heading for North Cave YWT whilst the fair weather held, planning to move on to Blacktoft Sands later. No sign of corn bunting but a few whitethroat were seen and some willow warblers were chasing in some small hawthorn bushes, giving good views.
The birdsong was dominated by chaffinch, willow warbler and blackcap. The birds were high up in the trees in the woodland area of North Cave so views were not the conventional pictures you might expect. Here are a chaffinch and a blackcap both singing their hearts out on a lovely morning:
Eventually we headed off to Blacktoft whilst the weather held. As we passed the feeder station with its resident tree sparrows, a pheasant reared its head from the long grass to bark hello.
He has a rather sardonic look on his face don't you think?!
Although I didn't add to my year list that day, we had a good day's birding and some of the photos , if not masterpieces, proved quite an interesting record...
...such as the harriers, marsh and ringtail hen harrier. One very smart male proved obliging.
For once the konik ponies [not chronic ponies as I overheard - or perhaps it's my hearing!] were quite close.
They have an almost prehistoric look to them and they move as if of great age. But, back to the birds.
Swifts were overhead, swallows low over the water or resting on last year's dead reeds.
Geese were plentiful including this feral white goose:
There were avocets, of course. Aways belligerent but usually flying fairly low, one pair went on a high level mission to see off a crow who, they thought, was getting too close. Not so much avocet as black and white exocets, they attacked!
Then they returned to base, like victorous fighter planes:
Shelduck did a fly past.
And before we left a collared dove cooed goodbye. Quite a nice image of a bird we are not especially fond of!
