Welcome to my birding blog - first launched 12th March 2012...
20th January ff
Consolation Prizes
By that I mean that sometimes you go off for the day hoping to make contact with a particular bird. You don't but instead you find another different bird. A consolation prize, so to speak.
There's been a few recently.
January 20th: Morning at Old Moor. No sign of bearded tits. Consoled myself with a few photos at Tree Sparrow Farm.
Afternoon visit to Blacktoft to catch up with the hen harrier. No show - or we ran out of time before they locked up! Consolation prize: two views of merlin.
January 23rd: East Yorks tour began well at North Cave with a couple of lesser redpolls. One was especially well-coloured. I went on to Hornsea hoping for a long-tailed drake. No sign but consolation bird: red-crested pochard. Same day Barmston beach as a Kumlien's gull was reported: no sign but a solitary grey plover lingered on the beach till the dogs came! So on to Flamborough for the Richard's pipits. What glorious mud! Nothing quite like it. Quagmire was putting it mildly. No Richard's but meadow pipits and a nice black redstart just north of the car park at North Landing. Excellent consolation prize that one!
January 24th: Spent the morning on The Ridge at Saltburn hoping for a hawfinch which appeared after I had left. Quick drive down North Gare access road. Curlews flying in.
Went to Jackson's Landing for another look at the glaucous gull but it was Sunday and the jet skis were displaying their acrobatics. Consolation?
Finished the day as the light failed at Ward Jackson Park trying to get a parakeet in flight. They are so damn fast!! I think they must gather to roost: over 18 birds seen.
Best effort...
I'm not complaining but for the photos a bit of cold, blue sky, frosty weather would be nice. It's so dark at times!
UK 128 2016
16th-17th January 2016
You can't always get what you wanna!
As the Rolling Stones said in that song off the 'Let it Bleed' album...
You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometime
You just might find
You get what you need
January 16th
I set off for Wroot to try to find the wild swans. Alas there was no sign although I knew I was in the right area near Alderfen. Five mute swans were present, that's all. I moved on heading for Worlaby and Bonby in North Lincs to look for short-eared owls. Two seen, but distantly - one I then disturbed off a fence post when it would have made a great photo. Decided to end the day at Blacktoft hoping for hen harrier. A robin said hello when I arrived...
...and a magpie basked in the sun as I walked towards Singleton.
A few snipe were in front of Townend hide...
...and wigeon swam and whistled while they worked...
... some greylags flew past.
Lots of marsh harriers seen...
...but I had to leave before the hen harriers showed.
Meanwhile, back home, my wife was photographing starlings outside our house...
January 17th
A trip north, starting at Morrisons car park by the Old River Tees. Green sandpiper easily spotted on the far bend - but skittish. I headed for Saltholme hoping for a redpoll but failed to find any. On to Seaton Snook. A brisk walk out onto the rock bit brought views of a great northern diver. The sun was behind it and refused to budge!
Curlew flew over.
Twite showed eventually - and three or four of them were really co-operative.
You're my favourite!
Walking back a long-billed oystercatcher seemed unaware of me and came incredibly close. Talking of long-billed birds...
Still plenty of daylight left I headed north to QEII country park at Woodhorn and treated two car loads of birders to scope views of the iceland gull that's been around quite a while. I had hoped it would be closer...
...on then to Cresswell. A marsh harrier, some crows, a kestrel and a barn owl entertained us. One birder then pointed out a water rail running around in front of the hide. Eventually the long-billed dowitcher appeared. It only comes in front of the hide when I'm not there!
Not a bad day at all: 5 year ticks and some nice twitepics!
121 UK 2016
11th-12th January 2016
Just pottering along...
January 11th saw me on the road to Hornsea Mere where I soon made contact with a slavonian grebe followed after a long search by a red-necked grebe. No sign of alleged long-tailed duck however. Bempton produced gannets, fulmars [lots of them] and my first shags of the year. On to Filey Bay where a single drake common scoter was easier to find than the surf scoter which I did eventually locate while scanning from the paddling pool, south end of the promenade. I have found this a good viewing spot before.
Next I called at Scarborough Mere to meet the unbelievably tame whooper swan mixed in with the mutes and taking feed from children.
At the harbour the black-necked grebe was hard to get close to until suddenly I had it literally at my feet - after criss-crossing the harbour several times as it tried to elude me!
More conventional views followed.
Guess what this turnstone got for Christmas! Jewellery!
A great black-backed let me get very close.
Some cormorants were drying off on one of the harbour ramps...but this isn't a cormorant. Shag.
An unusual opportunity presented itself although it took some time to get myself into a position where I could get both birds in shot. Cormorant and shag: nice size comparison.
January 12th took me to Old Moor for a couple of hours.
A few siskin were visiting the feeders.
UK 2016 115
Jan 1st 2016 ff
Happy New Year!
I haven't pressed the shutter button yet on my camera so dull and damp has the weather been! However Barry and I got out on January 1st and managed 72 birds including quality stuff like snow bunting, scaup, smew, 3 species of diver [you'll guess correctly which 3!], med gull, purple sands and [because I like them] parakeets. Since I had decided to try to see my fastest first hundred birds I had been shocked to discover looking back at past records that I would have to get there before January 8th.
Since then we had an afternoon at Blacktoft experimenting in seeing how wet we could get [marsh harrier and fieldfare seen] and I drove round the back lanes of Poppleton [4th January] and picked up rook, mistle thrush and barn owl. So, 79 so far.
Still so very dull, dark and damp. On the 5th I had a good day split between Fairburn and North Cave. Highlights were nuthatch and willow tit at Fairburn and white-fronted geese, brambling and little owl at North Cave. Eleven year ticks in all that day took me to 90.
A day with Barry on the 6th wandering around some of our favourite haunts in the Middlesborough/Hartlepool area proved rewarding. We saw shore larks, pinkfeet, spotted redshank plus a few other more common birds all of which took me to 95 by the time we arrived at Saltholme. 5 to go!
Saltholme: stonechats, pintails, barnacle geese and long-eared owl. 99!
The pager announced a glaucous gull at Jackson's Landing but the sighting was not new and the day was declining into darkness. We decided to go see. Barry spotted the bird straightaway. So record achieved on January 6th. I took the camera from the back of Tiggy and pressed the shutter at last...
Targets 2016!
I promised to announce my targets for 2016 just in case anyone [which I doubt!] is remotely interested. It's all a personal motivator really...
Here they are:
1: See 40 species in/from the garden.
2: See 281 or more species UK.
3: 10 lifers in UK in any combination of birds and butterflies.
4: Website hits to reach 30,000.
5: Go on 2 more birding adventures.
6: Fastest hundred [8th Jan target to beat]. Achieved 6th January!
29.12.15
Goodbye to all that!
A farewell to 2015
Afternoon at Blacktoft waiting for the roost. Goldeneye at Xerox. Here's a photo-copy!
Plenty of marsh harrier activity. The male hen harrier came in and showed well but too far and too dark for pictures. Not bad marsh harriers though.
The Top 15
Looking back over the year I decided to select my top dozen favourite photos. Ended up with 15! Here they are: no dates or captions, just the photos. They can speak for themselves. I just hope 2016's cohort can be as good!
