Welcome to my birding blog - first launched 12th March 2012...
September 25th -October 5th
Good stuff!
I'll be quite brief and let the pictures tell the story...
2nd October: Bempton and Thornwick holiday park
Pale-legged leaf warbler was my target bird and it would be lifer 451. If I saw it its name would have to be Fahrenheit. It was seen a few times without me getting a clear stationary view. Until...
Tree sparrow too.
Thornwick Bay holiday park had an elusive olive-backed pipit that hid in leaf litter and under a fence.
It was good to see Sam West trying to remain unnoticed in the crowd. Our paths have crossed a few times: Staveley when he came for a pec sand last year [or the year before] and a good few years ago in Lincolnshire when we were looking for a nesting Montagu's harrier. We never saw the bird. Rumour had it that a RSPB team went in to ring the chicks and a fox followed the scent that night and wiped them out. I don't know if it's true.
4th October: Bempton
Daurian shrike - a very pale bird. First views were tricky as it was hiding in a prickly shrub. Eventually it flew to a much better position and showed as shrikes often do.
5th October: Bridlington Harbour
I joined Carl Dutton and Mark Coates down by the harbour entrance. The bird had just flown off further into the harbour and I was told it would soon reappear. It did and was very flighty and difficult to follow against the background of the waves. Grey phalaropes are very small and I was concerned the big gulls might make a meal of it. First views were distant but it came much nearer.
198 UK 2024
18th September ff 2024
Through the cracks in the concrete!
September 18th to 24th
Greetings to Rob Grant if you're reading this! You certainly made my day.
September 18th: Fairburn Ings
New Flash report of cattle egrets.
Also present- a great white egret and a fly-over swan.
September 19th: Saltholme and South Gare
Saltholme seemed very quiet but it was nice to see a kingfisher perched up on a board through the visitor centre glass.
However news from South Gare prompted a change of plan. Barred warbler near the bomb hole. It took a long time plus the efforts of Peter Garbutt to persuade the bird to show for us. When it did it posed nicely.
September 21st: Hartlepool Headland. I knew I should start by the bowling green and immediately saw a plentiful scattering of birders. Some were looking for the great grey shrike - others hoped for a yellow-browed warbler down Olive Street. I spotted Barry Bishop heading towards me and we soon had the shrike in view. My camera couldn't 'see' the bird as it looked like a patch of light coming through the undergrowth [I think] so it's quite blurred.
The light was poor and we didn't fancy our chances of spotting a tiny warbler in the gloom. I drove down to the putting green where we saw a pied flycatcher and then a red-breasted flycatcher. My attempts to capture this highly active bird proved frustrating. I could hear other birders' shutters firing away. Were they on the bird or just firing away in hope to make others think they were ace photographers with amazing eyesight? Eventually I got a partial view.
We went off to the Headland itself to stare into the mist. Plenty of gannets, occasional sandwich tern and cormorant but eventually I was pleased to spot an arctic skua heading out and northbound. Barry set off for Saltholme whilst I decided to have another try for the red-breasted flycatcher. The bird can look quite different in different lighting conditions.
And then a while later on different bushes near the gate to the putting green.
A few from Phil Stead hide at Saltholme before I set off home. Ruff and redshank.
September 23rd: Stamford Bridge
No, not that one. Although I did hear the story of two girls in a Mini who set off from somewhere in London to see a football match. New to satnav they told the machine to take them to Stamford Bridge. To give the girls their due they were astonished at how long it took them to get there...
Hoopoe reported on a nice estate with open plan lawns near Huntsman's Lane, After a good walk round and a loiter the bird was seen and it showed nicely. Here it is.
September 24th: Hartlepool Headland
Determined to get a decent view and photo of a yellow-browed warbler I drove north to Hartlepool. The Putting Green is an unpretentious looking patch of grass surrounded by shrubs but it is nonetheless a most wonderful magnet for special birds at certain key times of the year. This month and the next are not to be missed. Yellow-browed warbler thrilled me.
I heard that the shrike was still around in the Ferry Road area so I headed that way. The shrike duly appeared on a wild buddleia that had grown through the concrete of this abandoned industrial site. While watching the rather distant bird through a wire fence a fellow birder asked: 'Were you a teacher?'
I confirmed.
'French?' he asked.
At this point I felt I knew what was coming. Should I run?!
'Yes.'
'QEGS Blackburn?'
'Yes.'
'Are you Chris Downes? I'm Rob Grant you taught me once.'
I left Blackburn in December 1976, 48 years ago. My gob was well and truly smacked.
Oh, and here's the shrike.
Back to the Putting Green! I don't know why but I thought my yellow-browed photos were no good. Turns out they were ok. Lesser whitethroat this time.
Wild goose chase to Zinc Works bushes for a bird that wasn't there. Saw this flower. Any ideas? I think it might be some kind of rocket but I'm not sure.
194 UK 2024
24th August to 16th September 2024
I think I've been estivating again!
I suppose this quiet patch occurs every year but this year it seems to have been especially long. I've been busy at home with courgettes, French and runner beans to harvest along with greenhouse tomatoes and cucumbers. The lawns have not been cut very often due to the lack of rain here in York. I'm pretty sure the rain goes round us at times as if it follows the course of the river and rains north and east of York missing our western area. So quite a while since my last post.
I'll begin at Blacktoft and North Cave on August 24th: There were a couple of curlew sandpipers present at Singleton along with spotted redshanks and black-tailed godwits.
Elsewhere on the reserve were greenshanks at First hide and avocet and yellow wagtail at Marshland.
Lapwings in flight at Blacktoft
I drove to North Cave which was quiet apart from innumerable geese. This is convolvulus arvensis or field bindweed.
I thought this information board was interesting - some new names and locations to remember!
September 5th: a trip to Saltholme and Seaton Snook. Moorhen and water rail followed by migrant hawker dragonfly.
Sedge warbler and then sandwich terns at the Snook [followed at the back by a common tern].
Samphire - cheaper than Waitrose!
September 6th: St. Aidan's, Oulton near Leeds. Focus on juvenile great crested grebes.
Also seen: another migrant hawker dragonfly and the little owl.
September 10th: Adwick Washlands: lesser yellowlegs. A personal favourite.
September 11th: Saltholme and Hartlepool Headland. Saltholme Pool where there is not much water as the levels are kept low while work continues to provide new islands. Consequently ringed plover and little stint were some way off out on the mud.
On the Headland: pied flycatcher and garden warbler.
September 12th: Blacktoft and a pectoral sandpiper. It looks a very small wader alongside the lapwing! Water rail photobombed the sequence.
September 13th: Pugney's Country Park, Durkar. Juvenile black tern.
188 UK 2024
16th June to 5th July 2024
Mainly Blacktoft - and mainly Green!
I've been there a lot recently. In fact 5 times in the period 21st June to today - 8th July. I was trying to see 2 waders:
green sandpipers and greenshanks and get decent photos of both. Here's how it went...
...but I need to begin with a day up at Saltholme.
Saltholme June 16th
Saltholme was quiet. Stock dove.
A couple of little gulls were on the pool opposite the tip on Seal Sands Road but were quite distant and tricky to photograph due to the haze. I went to Seaton Carew to see the little terns again.
There was plenty going on.
June 21st: Blacktoft part 1
It was very quiet. Only common redshanks and this lapwing on Marshland.
June 22nd: Blacktoft part 2
Distant green sandpipers, little egret, grey heron and a teazel.
June 26th: Blacktoft part 3
Mallard with a single duckling, green sandpiper in challenging light and a chiffchaff on my walk back to the car.
July 2nd: Blacktoft part 4
Green sandpipers and beautiful calystegia sepium. It has another less flattering name.
July 5th: Blacktoft part 5
Just an observation: each time I've been recently I've met a different person on Reception and also someone I'd never seen before. It's as if Blacktoft has an endless supply of volunteers. They all ask if I've been before.
A wood pigeon by my car. Then more waders: green sandpipers; greenshanks; spotted redshanks and a ruff.
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June 6th-8th 2024
So this is summer!
Been rather quiet on the birding front. Malcolm [younger son] helped me rebuild our decking down by the pond as old age had induced a lot of rot. All done now. Also, I endured the nightmare of getting a new phone that didn't want to talk to my old phone. Still, got there in the end. No really exciting birds since the indigo bunting.
Blacktoft Sands - June 5th
A quiet afternoon's birding. I tried to photograph swallows and swifts. A wood pigeon was desperate to be included too!
As I reached the car park at the end of the afternoon a pied wagtail was ushering two youngsters off the main driveway to the safety of the roped off grassed area.
South Gare, Redcar - June 6th
On June 6th I went to South Gare to see some sandwich terns - or so I hoped. I chose a time when the tide was high and the birds would be pushed nearer the shore. And so it was but the terns were on the rocks on the seaward side and getting a clear view proved tricky. I sat on the uncomfortable rocks and waited. A ringed plover came to see what I was doing.
Although the bird was quite a long way out in the bay a sandwich tern did oblige and put on a nice display for me. I liked the pastel colours of the background of buildings at Marske.
Walking back to the car I could hear [new hearing aids] a skylark somewhere above me. Directly overhead as it turned out.
Saltholme - June 8th
I walked a very long way to the location of the pool that the night heron was frequenting. About a dozen birders staring at the reedbed. Plenty of house martins to watch and it did make a pretty picture . Only downside: the night heron was hiding somewhere out of view.
I walked back with Peter Garbutt and I commented on the display of marsh orchids on the meadow.
