Welcome to my birding blog - first launched 12th March 2012...
Scarborough 24.11.2016
A day in Scarborough
I began down by the harbour hoping for a great northern diver. A winter 'guilly' showed nicely...
...as did the returning black-necked grebe.
At first the great northern was hiding among the marina yachts but Carl knew roughly where it was and it duly reappeared.
A red-throated diver had been seen just outside the harbour but suddenly reappeared in the middle of the main harbour.
These images were very monochrome so I converted this one to black and white and increased the contrast.
Last harbour shot of a great black-backed gull.
Holbeck for possible mediterranean gulls. Any regular reader will know I can't resist snapping a med. gull. Here's a few!
I rounded off my day by calling at Victoria Road as two women birders stopped to chat and told me they'd been photographing them opposite The Spa pub. They only appeared fleetingly when I called but I managed a few shots.
Finally, here's one I failed to notice among some rather blurred photos taken from the car last March approaching the Lochaline ferry on the A884 en route to Mull.
19.11.16 ff
Flash! Bang! Wallop! What a picture!
Well, it would be nice, wouldn't it? 'What a photograph!' Tommy Steele sang in 1963 in Half a Sixpence. Sadly, the year is now dying down, I feel but there may still be some thrills in store. That's if you're prepared to go out and get them. In the meantime here's a few from close to home.
First off, a moon shot in daylight a couple of days after the Supermoon on 19th November.
Sheila spotted that the deer were back [21st November] but the light was awful and shutter speeds of 1/20th at 1000 ISO!
The same 3 deer appeared on the 22nd November in better light.
11.11.16ff 2016
Bits and Pieces
Originally a song by the Dave Clark Five, it seems the different [and dreadful] song by Artemisia and others is much better known... it may be my age...
1: The Light that Failed
Takes me back too - a book I had to read at school by Rudyard Kipling but it's a decent title for the first segment of this blog. Friday 11th November I decided to visit the Nunburnholme red kite roost. I set off from York in sunshine but clouds darkened the wooded hillside as the birds came in low. Photography against this back ground was tricky and any birds that came in high were silhouetted. Interesting afternoon however.
What on earth is this?
I saw a white pheasant.
I've avoided using the word albino as I saw 6 white pheasants including three at once.
Buzzard and red kite.
The moon rose behind me. It seemed unusually big...
2: Sunny Burniston
Reports of lapland buntings and a short-toed lark drew me to a Sunday afternoon visit [13/11] to the stubble fields north of the observatory. I could only positively id skylarks: those trampling the field may have flushed other birds but in flight [and into the sun a lot of the time] I couldn't tell. It was very reminiscent of a previous visit. A curlew called and I swung the camera and pointed. The 5D and 500mm lens seem to be suiting me well enough.
3: Supermoon
From the back garden a couple of hours apart - I had to grab my chances in between periods of cloud cover - on Monday 14th November. Hand-held 500mm lens; 800 ISO
Later...
4: Egrets, I have a few...
Tuesday 15th November: off to Lincolnshire, starting at Skidbrooke for a couple of cattle egrets. First time I'd ever seen more than one cattle egret at once.
Local birders sent us to Horseshoe Point for the pallid harrier. Waste of time! Immediately reported at Donna Nook! Chiffchaff at Horseshoe Point.
Quite a few little egrets out on the marsh.
I drove off to Donna Nook. Although it was a weekday, the car park was overflowing. I had to go to the overflow car park, pay my £2 and walk all the way along the seal colony. It was very busy with school parties and the elderly who all wanted to go 'Arrrr' at the seal pups. I can't imagine why...
I plodded on towards the realignment where everybody had been watching the rough-legged buzzard. I never saw it although I walked right out to the north end of the realignment where I did watch the pallid harrier cruising distantly along the shoreline - which was a long way away across the saltmarsh.
I headed back. The RAF got very busy and the noise was deafening. The jets came quite low and it has often surprised me that it's much easier to 'kill' the movement of a fast moving jet than it is to 'kill' bird flight...
Not rotated by the way.
This stonechat stood its ground in spite of the racket overhead...
...and 'Am I bothered!' said this egret.
The teal were more easily spooked.
Spot the wigeon in the first photo!
07-08.11.16
The Hawthorn Connection
Sheila found this on the windowsill on November 7th. It's a hawthorn shield bug - about half the size of my little finger nail. Macro lens really shows up the detail.
I set off early on the 8th November for South Landing to look for little auks. None present on the very calm flat sea but one soon zipped past me about 100m offshore. Also seen were a few red-throated divers, lots of scoter and rafts of wigeon too. Selection of waders included sanderling, turnstone, curlew, redshank, oystercatcher plus rock pipits.
From there I headed south to find out if any of the recent quality birds of prey were still about. I approached Spurn via Holmpton just to browse the country lanes [red-legged partridge the only birds of note]. As I passed a farm where I knew little owls could sometimes be seen I slowed down. I had done this many times without luck. Amazingly a little owl was sitting in a barn window in the sun.
Apparently the pallid and rough-leg had disappeared south so I decided to just linger in the area and see what I could find. Canal Scrape was quiet. A fieldfare dropped in...
It came closer.
...and a robin was feeding on crumbs near my car.
Driving between the Blue Bell and the Crown and Anchor a couple in a stationary car pointed into a bush as I drew near. I stopped a bit further on and grabbed my bins to have a look. Waxwings - shots quite distant.
The birds flew off and I prepared to drive on. The other car stopped again so I decided to turn round and see if I could get some shots from the car. This is where the blog title comes in. Hawthorn fest!
Things don't always go right! Damn, I dropped it!
Later I popped up to Tophill Low and watched a distant grey phalarope on D reservoir - miles away on the far side it looked pretty tiny even with the scope fully zoomed up.
271 UK 2016
3rd November ff 2016
It isn't all over yet!
Lightning strikes twice!
Hartlepool Headland announced another eastern black redstart on November 3rd whilst the Skinningrove bird was still present teens of miles away. Sheila and I packed a lunch and headed north. Bird was 'missing' when we arrived but I was pleased to be the one who relocated it by the Heugh Pier play area. Here it is!
The background comes from an old brick wall behind the bird.
Although Sheila is only an occasional birder, her lifers list for 2016 is quite impressive: penduline tit; spotted crake; western purple swamphen; red-flanked bluetail; red-breasted flycatcher and eastern black redstart!