Welcome to my birding blog - first launched 12th March 2012...
26th November 2017
A Cautionary Tale!
You can't ever get a day back again once it's over. I know that but I decided to try. I gave it my best shot!
Let me explain. Friday 24th November I went up to Saltholme. I took some great pictures: post-mounted stonechats, some lovely twite flight shots, long-eared owl, flight shots of green sandpiper and shore larks a-plenty. I stopped on the way home to sort out everything in the back end of Tiggy so I could unpack quickly when I got home. I made a coffee. Not unusually I took the memory card from the camera to put in my wallet.
Somehow it never got there. I was mystified when I got home that I couldn't find it. Anywhere. Eventually I came to the conclusion I must have dropped it in the lay-by where I made the coffee. Saturday Sheila and I did gardening at our son's in Pontefract but at the end of the day we drove up to the lay-by to see if the memory card was there. It was. It was wet and had clearly been run over. Smashed. If you've ever wondered what the inside of a compact flash card looks like, now's your chance!
So I decided to go back again on Sunday [26/11] to do it all again.
Stonechats still at their posts.
A pair in fact. First target nailed!!
Remember my last posting with this photo of the Snook?
Well, this time it was very much as I'm used to seeing it.
The twite performed so I met my second target. Most were hiding in the samphire but a few had ventured onto the causeway rocks.
I had to hope that the long-eared owl hadn't dropped down out of sight. The Reserve has provided what is described [jokingly, surely?] as a new viewpoint. Here it is: a squelchy mud pile retained with a couple of planks. It is slowly getting lower as the mud spreads out into the brambles! New facility this week: a chicken-wire covered step!!
Wellies recommended.
The owl was there.
Ok. We're not doing badly. Walking back I saw some barnacle geese not far from the path. They're usually much further away.
Lost in my thoughts and walking in the heavy shade of the banking near Paddy's hide I suddenly noticed a kestrel hovering in front of me. Normally when this happens I'm looking at the back end of a kestrel. This encounter was different and rather special. I don't think it had spotted me hidden in the shade.
Bonus session that replaced the green sandpiper shots. I did see the greensand at Phil Stead hide but it was in the shade and so no photos this time.
I had tried North Gare for the shore lark first thing but no sign. So, after lunch I went back. The light was full of a mixture of harsh contrasts and shade. Late afternoon sun was slowly fading. Slowly but nonetheless quicker than I expected. I sat down on a rock and looked at the tiny samphire area the larks seem to prefer. Nothing. I reviewed the kestrel photos. Suddenly I heard a bird call. They had come for me.
Mission accomplished. What was lost was found.
Don't drop your memory cards - be more careful, Chris!
18th November 2017
All's right with the world!
Saturday 18th November. Phil Stead hide, Salholme. Arrived 9.05. Amazing light. Waited 2 hours for water pipit - not photographed one properly before. In the meantime took a few photos of other birds.
Redshank
Black-tongued carrion crow
Common snipe kept us guessing by bobbing like a jack. Eventually came out into the open.
Some greylags flew over.
A green sandpiper treated us to ultra close-up views!
Eventually a water pipit appeared reasonably close to the hide. Success!
I walked out to the new viewing mound for the long-eared owl but it had dropped out of sight. A male stonechat let me get ridiculously close - I took a few shots, walked a bit closer and so forth until he was very near to me.
A bit closer
The North Gare shore larks had unfortunately crossed to South Gare. A walk out to Seaton Snook was pleasant enough but the tide was very high and the twite had dispersed. The causeway out to the Snook had been breached by the tide.
A bit of shopping at Hartlepool Tesco then I called at Newburn Bridge. Not many waders about - mainly sleepy ringed plover.
I called this post ''All's right with the world.'' It isn't really. When I see the persecution of birds of prey on supposedly protected land; the damage plastic is doing to our oceans; the way big business 'forgets' commitments it made when planning permission was granted and the way that in general mankind is happily trashing the planet I wonder just when we will learn or be forced to learn.
In the meantime little old me can mourn when I can no longer find wood warblers or lesser spotted woodpeckers but, on Saturday, I called at Newburn Bridge in the hope a med gull might appear. No sign on the 2 previous visits.
Herring gulls on the lamp-posts; black-headed gulls out on the water. A great black-back flew around over the car park.
Wait a minute! What's this coming in?
And so, just for a moment, I did feel indeed that all was all right with my world.
A great day's birding!
11th-15th November 2017
When you wish upon a star...
Maybe something wonderful can still happen. In the improbable meantime I carry on birding. A trip to South Landing, Flamborough [November 11th] produced little more than a meadow pipit...
...and tree sparrows at Bempton...
...or perhaps my heart wasn't quite in it. However a determined drive back to St. Aidan's did get me brief and distant views of a dartford warbler. Rather good Yorkshire tick!
Not getting out so much lately - only because there's not a great deal tempting me - but on the 15th I went to Alkborough Flats hoping for bearded tits. Unusually, none seen. Place was full of chattering wrens. Seems like it is the season of the wren at the moment.
Spotted redshank outside the hide plus posing snipe.
Distant marsh harrier in dead tree.
Carried on to Blacktoft to see a green-winged teal. Not a year tick [saw one January 11th at North Cave] but hoped for some photos. Sadly it was on the far side of Marshland hide. Here's the best of the crop. Crop being the appropriate word!
Shovelers
Walked down to Singleton for the harriers. Really good scope views of a perched merlin.
Lots of waders including blackwits [I'm really good at pressing the shutter just as they all bury their heads in the water!] and about a dozen ruff.
Nothing flew close so I'll end with a couple of harriers waiting for the roost.
270 UK 2017
7th November 2017
Wrens!
Well, I think I got the title about right...
Two wrens and an interloper were involved in producing this little posting. All taken at Skinningrove when a pied wheatear failed to turn up. However I am really thrilled with this set of photos.
5th November 2017
Blinded by the light!
Squeezed in a visit to Castle Howard Arboretum yesterday before going to a family Bonfire Party in the afternoon. Couldn't stay long but the hawfinches did appear much to the delight of the many birders present. From the state of the car park and adjoining roads the arboretum must have had a financial field day! [£7 per head]
Any attempt to photograph the hawfinches high up in the hornbeams was a battle against the light which was bright and harsh. Someone moaned: 'The sun's in the wrong place!' I replied [to a complete stranger]: 'No, it's in the right place. It's either the birds or us who are in the wrong place!' Some of the crowd laughed.
A pair of bullfinch were in a small tree and were nicely lit. When one took off I kept my finger on the shutter - I always shoot in al servo mode...
I thought this photo might be improved by straightening the bird up a bit!
That's better, isn't it?
Ooops! It's gone!
Some photos make me smile. I think it's a cannonball finch!
Pointing a 500mm lens [700 mm with extender] hand-held up into a fairly distant hornbeam into the light is tricky. Here's a few of my reasonable efforts. I have used photoshop in some cases to lighten the shadows without over-exposing the whole image. Others worked all right as they were.
Call me Bill!!
