Welcome to my birding blog - first launched 12th March 2012...
22nd-23rd April 2017
Cetti's Part 2
If you haven't read my most recent blog you may like to start there! Not only had I had really good views of these secretive birds but I had my first photos ever. So, unable to resist I went back.
Thought of calling this blog: Black to Backtoft! Probably best not. Anyway, the birds were still showing well. Here they are.
This bird was on the right hand entrance pool. Sedge warblers were showing too, doing little song flights.
Turning left by reception this bird showed quite confidently a few meters further on.
I must admit I like this rather different view of a Cetti's! I'm sure you know that feeling when you just have to scratch your chin with your right foot!
Carrying on round the reserve...
Some people claimed this as their Cetti's - birders like a bit of wishful thinking...
A couple more distant views of Missus Monty [see last blog for better shots].
Some nice duck shots: garganey, pochard and shoveler.
Avocets were mating at Marshland.
Then a snooze.
Finally from by the toilet block I snapped a tree sparrow: a bird we are lucky enough to take for granted: in many parts of the country this is a pretty rare bird.
Next day I went back in the afternoon. The cetti's were still showing but seemed more restless - maybe there were just too many people about. This dunnock posed for me...
...and a male marsh harrier flew overhead by Xerox.
The drake garganey showed in good light and I was lucky to catch a display shot.
Chiffchaff sang from the main path.
20th April 2017
Togging along again!
April 20th was an unusual day. I got off early to Wheldrake to see if some common cranes were still around. They weren't so I thought I'd just check North Duffield but no sign. However a couple of whimbrel showed - one on the river bank and one in the field in front of the Geoff Smith hide.
I then went home to take Sheila shopping!
After that Sheila [who although not a birder loves to read the pager reports to me] suggested I get off to Swillington [can't get used to calling it St. Aidan's - nor can the pager!] and then on to Blacktoft for the female Montagu's harrier.
Wistful willow warblers, chiffchaffs but the causeway was dominated by this fellow's song. It's not that tuneful is it?!
The local Swillington birders up on their viewpoint pointed out an arctic tern. My photos only caught the commons.
Handsomely coloured blackwits distantly from the causeway.
Eventually I headed east to Blacktoft. Couldn't believe my luck by the entrance pools a little brown job crossed my path, settled in the reeds very close to me in full view and began to sing like only a Cetti's warbler can!
I headed for Singleton for the Montagu's harrier which showed regularly but, as usual, a long way off. Mobbed by a crow, here's a selection of my photos.
Incoming crow attack... [plus giant greylag!]
194 UK 2017
13th-16th April 2017
All [fairly] Quiet on the Eastern Front!
April 13th: Saltholme
Sheila and I went up to Saltholme for the afternoon after working at home. We soon had an alert spoonbill in our scope, swishing its yellow-tipped spoon back and forth before lapsing back into sleep mode. Photographically things were very quiet but here are a few shots of a pair of great crested grebes from Dorman's Pool. It was very breezy and the sun was playing hard to get!
April 14th Blacktoft
I went to Blacktoft just before lunchtime to see what was about. Six warblers heard [sedge, willow, blackcap, whitethroat, Cetti's and chiffchaff] but only sedge warbler seen. Must admit I didn't really bother looking for the willow warbler and chiffchaff as they were singing all around me as were a good number of Cetti's across the reserve. Again, few photos. A konik loomed out of the reedbed...
...and there were a few avocets chasing round Marshland..
Feeling Micawberish: something's bound to turn up soon!
Whistle-stop Yorkshire! - 16th April
I began the day at North Cave. Lots of sand martins, a few swallows. Buzzards; ruff x4; avocets and best of all a single yellow wagtail. Spent a long time getting these sedge warbler photos near the bus stop hide.
I moved on to Blacktoft after circuiting the reserve. Twelve spotted redshank scoped from Reception flew off before I got to Xerox for a photo! So here's some avocets coming in to Marshland.
I was aware that a red-rumped swallow was near The Cut at Fairburn so decided to try for it even though rain had now set in. In the rain and poor light the bird was difficult to:
a: pick out from the sand and house martins
b: hard to get a focus lock on the right bird
c: hard to then follow the right bird which seemed a black silhouette on a grey background
Here's a few which record the fact that I picked the right bird, as one book says, ''with its stuck on tail''.
188 UK 2017
3rd-7th April 2017
Sometimes lady luck is on your side...
...and sometimes she can't be found anywhere!
It's been a bit like that recently: highs and lows. I'll start with a high: my second visit to see the Tophill Low kingfishers on April 3rd. Male and female this time. Male first.
Then the female showed up. As well as the diffferent coloured lower mandible she seems not quite so brightly coloured - more of a blue-green almost.
A brief detour to our garden. Remember the two really harsh, cold winters about 9 years ago? Well, our tender mimosa tree was cut to the ground by the long periods below freezing and the tree disappeared completely as we had to fell it. From below ground it has slowly regrown about 8 feet from where it used to be. Something of the root system enabled it to come back. This April it flowered magnificently once more - a touch of the Mediterranean in Acomb...
Sheila is also very pleased with her sarracenia sp. pitcher plant. Watered daily from below with rain water it has produced a fantastic flower.
Back to my feathered friends...
A couple of days after the kingfishers I went to Freckleton, Lancashire to see a group of seven cattle egrets. I parked off Poolside Lane and headed off along the Lancashire Coastal Mudbath, sorry, footpath to find the Naze Pools. I obviously went about it all wrong, walked twice as far as I needed to and totally exhausted myself. The coastal footpath is a disgrace in the Freckleton area: it is unmarked, covered in rotting timber, piles of plastic and is knee deep in oozing mud. It should have a health warning. There was little evidence this section is much used and I learnt that I approached the pools from the wrong direction. Guess what: by the time I got there the birds had flown off [other words crossed my mind] to Martin Mere. Very tired I trudged back along the roadside round the perimeter of RAF Warton Airfield. Some plane spotters assumed I was a planespotter too with my camera and told me excitedly about Hawks and Typhoons and a Saudi jet. I staggered on hoping for a seat where I could rest a while. One hove into view if seats can do that.
The only photo I took that day.
April 7th: Tophill Low for warblers and a nice duck. Willow warbler, blackcap, chiffchaff all seen; several Cetti's heard. Here's a pair of red crested pochards.
An early orange tip but not the first of the year - we've had three in the garden now.
Wren, treecreeper and pheasant all from Tophill Low.
In the afternoon of April 7th I went to Fairburn Ings and walked the Coal Tip Trail hoping to see the spoonbill down on the Moat. Here's a short video from 'up top'. Sorry it's a bit jerky - my fault in the wind.
Reed bunting and moorhen to finish. Lots of warblers again, including more Cetti's plus a few swallows. No spoonbill, alas.
180 UK 2017
25th-28th March
A March Miscellany
March 25th took Sheila and I to Fairburn Ings, calling first at Acaster to see if the shrike was showing. I wanted photos in better light than last time but although the light was fine, the bird remained tantalisingly distant.
At Fairburn little was seen but here are a couple of views: robin and egret.
On the following day we both went to Tophill Low. We failed to find any red-crested pochard on D reservoir but explored the new visitor centre. It looks good and is well landscaped. A tiny room to one end has opening windows to watch birds. The main room is well equipped with permanent scopes and huge glass windows. Through this glass you can see lots of birds and you can play a game of 'what blurred bird am I looking at?' For keen birders it's useless and birders will be queuing up to use the two slots that open in the annexe. I'll say no more: no doubt it ticks lots of boxes...
At the normal hide where I've watched kingfishers in the past we were recommended to go elsewhere - so we did. Elsewhere was amazing: kingfishers nesting 3 metres away! Here's just a few of the many photos I took.
This pheasant was obviously used to people.
March 27th and an early, misty start to Kildale hoping for wheatear and ring ouzel. Both were seen eventually: the ouzel kept us waiting a long while. The grouse found us humans quite approachable and actually came close to inspect us. One shot makes me smile...
Wheatears x2 plus ouzel very distant [and a mipit].
Finally March 28th at Old Moor - I saw little gull and sand martins a-plenty. Here's a sand martin attempt plus a lesser black-back.
Spring is bursting with goodies. I'm ready for more!