Welcome to my birding blog - first launched 12th March 2012...
Sunday 4th August 2012
A Circular Tour
First stop was North Cave to [not] see the reported pair of redstarts in north hedge. We couldn't find them. On the way to the hedge in question a small tortoiseshell posed for me.
The reedbed lake was fairly quiet with only one large gull present. I wanted to get a little nearer.
Barry spotted a greenshank coming in close. Before I could focus on it, it was off again. This led to some 'different' rear view photos of the greenshank tail and wedge. Interesting in their own way...
We wandered along looking into the hedge. We even turned a bench round [naughty!] to watch the hedge in comfort. We put it back later [the bench, I mean]. Goldfinches, blue tits, a party of juvenile willow warblers. No redstarts. The birds were very active and hard to track in the dense hedge.
Some were more recently fledged than others, I think.
They were quite jumpy and wouldn't stay still!
Eventually I got better views of the gull - which we were thinking might be the reported yellow-legged gull, seen by others that morning. For once we didn't need to pick it out from a lot of other gulls.
A black-headed gull decided however to chase off this much bigger bird. There ensued quite a chase, which produced these shots.
Eventually the yellow-legged gull decided enough was enough and flew off.
Further on butterflies and dragonflies attracted my attention. Another gatekeeper.
Scalloped oak moth.
Two ruddy darters.
Blue tailed damselfly and a common blue mating.
A kestrel screeched noisily before we saw it. Briefly it landed but I had to photograph into the sun.
It was time to move on. I had heard about red kites at nearby Drewton Manor so we went to have a look. We only saw a buzzard overhead.
We didn't stay long. Our next stop would be Alkborough Flats where we saw yellow wagtails, three spoonbills and another greenshank. Plus large numbers of avocets, shelduck but no sign of the ruddy shelduck we hoped to see. No complaints, however - we were doing well. So we got to Blacktoft Sands RSPB after the 16 mile drive from Alkborough [it's 2.45 km as the bittern flies]. There were good numbers of waders at Blacktoft. Here's a few of them.
Ruff
Green sandpiper
Greenshank, trying to hide from the lens.
Redshank
Another ruff
Time was drawing on and there are 32 photos for you to look at. On the walk back to Tiggy a sedge warbler performed for me.
A wren was less co-operative. I only got its bottom cleanly. If you see what I mean!
There will be no more posts on my website for some time. I expect for about a fortnight. If you want to know why, keep checking on the site from the 17th onwards.
There may then be new stuff...
Friday 3rd August 2012
Have you met my gatekeeper?
I had no intention of getting the camera out today but my gardener [my wife] called me to say that there was an interesting butterfly that wouldn't leave her alone while she was cutting the yellow privet hedge. I put on the macro and followed, expecting to be told it had gone. No, it was still around. It settled on next door's lawn. Then it came back over and sunned itself for a good ten minutes on some miscanthus leaves in our grass bed area.
Our first gatekeeper ever seen in the garden and, also, the first of the year for me anywhere. It stayed motionless for so long in the sun - had it just emerged?
Well, the camera was now out, so I strolled around the garden. A white tailed [I think] bumblebee was on some inula florets - as was a worker bee. They focussed well, bless them.
White stonecrop sedum album flowering on the conservatory roof.
Finally a specimen of veratrum alba in flower. It took me many years to get hold of this plant and this year it has done me proud. The light was just right this morning!
Tuesday 31st July 2012
Our grand day out
This was a special day. Sixty-five species of birds; five locations. Two ticks for Barry; one for me - and a good one. And, a special treat, one of my cuckoo type photos. [For new readers this is a rather distant photo of a bird, not even quite good enough to call a record shot!]
First we called at the bus stop lay-by just before Saltholme RSPB [never seen a bus there!] to see if the white-winged black tern and the red-crested pochard were around. We saw both quite distantly. Then we drove up to Bishop Middleham to see the pectoral sandpiper on the A1 flashes. We walked bravely past a somnolent bull and then crossed the wall to follow an invisible path up the hill through thistles and nettles, heading parallel to the A1 and not going to Castle Lake hide.
In future stick to the cart track!!!! - but still walking south parallel to the A1. We saw the pecsand plus common sandpiper and juvenile ringed plovers.
Next we planned to sea watch at Hartlepool Headland but some roseate terns were reported at Seaton Snook. So we headed there, parking at the end of the Zinc Road at North Gare. From there we headed to the sands until Barry spotted birders south-east of us. We then headed to a rocky spit - clear of the water at this time - at NZ541268. Eventually after dancing clumsily on the rocks we spotted a roseate tern. This heavily cropped photo shows the bird far left with sandwich and common terns; juv. sandwich partially obscuring the roseate.
Here's an even bigger crop.
That's not going to win any prizes! But it was year tick 251. Four species of tern so far that morning!
We walked back to the dunes below the power station. A meadow brown butterfly was feeding on thistle heads.
After that thrill we eventually did get to the Headland and started our seawatch. This was probably the best bit of the day for me. No ticks but lots of birds - some most obligingly close at hand. The photos of juvenile common tern were especially pleasing. But let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start...
Two common scoter were by the breakwater. I ran back to Tiggy for the camera.
This is the other one.
Lots of eider were close inshore - one was even on the beach. These portraits show the eclipse detail well.
Angelic pose!
And a female: feathering nice and sharp.
For me terns are always superstars. This individual juvenile - 6 of this bird from a continuous burst - is a stunner. I think these are what makes photography so exciting for me. Just look!
There were adults too - resting or bringing back the fish.
As we started to head back, turnstones joined us.
A raft of eclipse eiders drifted past...
...and a fishing boat was returning to the fish dock with gulls in tow, like the confetti of a bridal march.
We headed for our final call - the Phil Stead hide at Saltholme. A greenshank gave me some good 'photopportunities.' New word. Six syllables!
I like birds in context. It doesn't matter if a bit of weed gets in the way: their world is like that.
I had seen some snipe some way off but Barry had to point this one out to me. It was much nearer.
Then the fox appeared. Sorry - couldn't resist all these.
Yes, it was indeed a very good day out.
Monday 30th July 2012
An afternoon at Blacktoft Sands
I had to go to Worksop in the morning, so once that was dealt with I headed for Blacktoft, getting there before 2pm. The spotted redshanks [13 I counted] were at Marshland. One came reasonably close again, producing very similar images to my last visit.
There were at least 10 common snipe to the left and right of the hide.
Greenshank, ruff, dunlin, water rail were also seen. Eventually I walked down to Singleton hide to watch the harriers. As I settled in a female tufted duck flew across. I would like confirmation of the identification!
Juvenile marsh hariers were plentiful and came quite close. I never seem to capture the level of detail I hope for - but the light was poor. It would be nice to shoot at 100 ISO and a fast shutter speed!
Finally you can't fail to notice the incredible [and uncommon] marsh sow thistles sonchus palustris which grow to 2.5m. Astonishing plants.
Saturday 28th July 2012
Good afternoon!
The morning was spent metal detecting in the garden trying to find something we'd lost. In the afternoon Barry came round to check a few Unst things over. That was all resolved pretty quickly so we decided to go off for a few hours - to North Cave . The better birds [yellow wagtails and common sandpiper] stayed out of camera range but others were photographed. Just a few photographs this time.
We wondered if this was a yellow-legged gull but it seems rather dark backed and is therfore a lesser black-backed gull.
There were a number of juvenile shelducks on the main lake - only British ducks with red bills are red-crested pochard and shelduck.
Common terns were present on all three lakes we visited during the afternoon.
The resident greylags are making the most of the farmer's maize/sweetcorn crop. They gave me a flypast in nice light...
A kestrel hovered fairly close in the hazy light but not really quite close enough.
A caterpillar caught Barry's eye. I put the macro lens on. I'll put this image on ispot and update this post if I find out more...
Apparently it's a peacock larva inachis io. Thanks to Vinny and chrisbrooks on ispot.
This is what it will become. Photographed at North Cave last year.
Finally I fired a few optimistic shots at the swifts. They won't be with us for much longer. I'll miss them.
Not too bad, I didn't think!
All photos 28.07.12 except the peacock butterfly.