Welcome to my birding blog - first launched 12th March 2012...
1st-6th January 2020
2020 Vision - a new adventure begins!
Happy New Year to everyone!
January 1st: Hartlepool
January 1st is not really a day for photos it's an attempt to boost the New Year's birdlist with a good first day's haul. It has to be admitted, however, that this particular day was not one for a large number of sightings. Probably because I wasted time in Thirsk looking for waxwings that sadly must have been having a lie-in!
I continued to Hartlepool picking up a selection of members of the crow family en route. Ward Jackson Park was parakeet free. Moorhens and coots enjoyed the winter sunshine.
I snapped this great black-back at Newburn Bridge.
A glance at the pager when I was cruising along the Old Cemetery Road came up with the unlikely announcement that there was a woodlark on the seaward side of the cemetery wall. Next I saw a birder with scope running. I followed suit with camera. Pretty good bird for January 1st!
Diagnostic eye-stripe wrapping round back of head.
January 1st total 56
January 3rd: Sandtoft, Stainforth and Blacktoft
Sandtoft to try to find a pair of common cranes. I had more or less given up when I spotted a car parked down a side road. I turned in and saw a scope on a tripod. The cranes had moved about half a mile to a sweetcorn stubble field. Nice views.
On to Stainforth to see the rough-legged buzzard again if I was lucky. Maybe get some flight pictures. I saw the bird within seconds of setting off on my walk. Later views were difficult as the bird spent a long time flying around with the sun behind her. Anyway, here are my photos - I was very pleased with some of these!
Then on to Blacktoft. Good to see the Spavins.
There were 2 whooper swans at Marshland hide.
A green-winged teal had drawn the visitors to Ousefleet.
A posing common buzzard at Townend hide...
...and a kestrel there too.
Late afternoon moon!
January 5th: Prestwick Carr and Hartlepool.
A return visit to see the eastern yellow wagtail in 2020! This time the sheer number of pied wagtails plus a few mipits made the EYW much more restless and distant. Still, it was good to see it again.
Newburn Bridge, Hartlepool for lunch. A good mix of waders near high tide.
January 6th: St. Aidan's RSPB
Very quiet. Goldeneyes and goosanders distant from the causeway. A kestrel hovered close by and then landed on a reserve sign. Nice image to finish this post with.
Funnily enough, I haven't seen a collared dove yet. what's happened to them?
81 UK 2020
23rd-25th December
The last hurrahs?
I expect so. The year is drawing to a close and after several weeks of a heavy cold plus general scarcity of good birds locally I decided it was time to venture north for the eastern yellow wagtail. I had been to Prestwick Carr on a couple of previous occasions and soon found the crossroads where there is enough parking space for a few cars. The bird in question had been in the flooded horse field for a good few days so I was surprised to see about 6 birders already on site when I arrived at about 9.30 am.
I had to walk no more than 100 yards to see the bird pottering about in the mud about 3 feet from the hedge. The main problem was getting all the bird in the frame! These are uncropped images.
Last photo shows the very long hind claw.
Well, that was soon done and so I wondered where to go next. I headed back south calling at Hartlepool. Newburn Bridge had some nice waders in the sunshine. Here's some of them - notably oystercatcher, knot, ringed plover and a favourite, purple sandpiper.
A mediterranean gull looked well in the sunlight.
Christmas Day. Sheila suggested that I go to Stainforth to try to see the rough-legged buzzard, as the day would be the best day weather-wise for some time to come. I struggled a little to find the correct place but once I had got there I soon saw the bird perched a good way off in some distant trees.
I met some other birders on the tip [formerly part of Hatfield Colliery] and we waited for the bird to fly around. A robin kept an eye on us.
Eventually I got some flight shots. Kestrel also got in on the act. Here they both are: rough-leg first.
251 UK 2019
30th November 2019 ff
A day in the Sunshine!
At last a bit of brighter light on the last day of November. I started at Albert Park, Middlesbrough, hoping for jays but saw none. Only photos were of this squirrel.
I headed on to Seaton Snook to walk out to see if the twite were performing. They were very mobile, often landing almost hidden on the saltmarsh.
Eventually they landed on the fence where I was sitting nearby on a sea-washed driftwood log waiting for them.
Lovely little gold-billed twite!
Next I went to Hartlepool Headland to look for the female long-tailed duck. Scanning with my scope I found her well out between the pilot pier and the lifeboat station. In harsh light I struggled to get any decent images.
The eider were close in and much prettier too!
December 2nd I went to Donna Nook to the grey seal colony but my target wasn't the seals themselves but a lingering pomarine skua that was enjoying a feast of seal afterbirth close in near the crowds of visitors - most of whom remained unaware that the bird was of any interest.
Grey seals first.
For me the skua was definitely the main attraction.
250 UK 2019
11th November ff
The Persistent Birder Rides Again!
After my last trip to Hartlepool when I dipped on the barred warbler and then abandoned the day's birding to go home early I decided to try again as the bird was reported as still present by the outer bowling green. And that's where it was when I saw it as soon as I arrived on Monday November 11th.
It then flew across the road to the small apple tree in a garden facing the bowling green. Eventually it showed nicely for the small group of birders present.
November 19th: I drove to Bempton Cliffs specifically to try to see the Hume's warbler which has been resident in the overflow car park area for quite a few days. Very luckily I soon made contact and within half an hour I had a pleasing number of images. The best ones follow:-
Now that's a leaf warbler!
Next stop at Holbeck car park just to see if there were any Mediterranean gulls about. Two landed instantly by the car!
I suppose that's a Mediterranean diet!
The hope was that there might still be a couple of divers in Scarborough harbour. There were! Turnstone first, however.
Red-throated diver found first but then, mysteriously, it disappeared and resurfaced as a great northern!
Great northern. The divers had learnt where the fishermen dumped undersized crabs they had caught. Easy feastings!
I said farewell and headed home. A good day!
Next day I decided to explore an area near South Kirkby [West Yorkshire] and try to find Johnny Brown's Common Pond. Well, eventually I did although the walk to the pond was a mudbath I prefer to forget. The muddiest birding experience of my life!
Anyway, the walk was worth it! Here's the duck.
249 UK 2019
2nd November ff
Quiet times in the North-East!
A nice bird in Redcar
November 2nd and I decided the weather might hold long enough for me to try to see the Kentish Plover on Redcar beach. A huddle of birders drew me to the bird very quickly. Never close and the birders were all careful not to disturb the group of ringed plovers with which the bird was associating. Easily separated: paler and smaller.
Otherwise things were pretty quiet. Curlews flew past...
The Year isn't over yet! November 9th I headed up to Hartlepool to the Bowling Green on the Headland. I spent some time with a group of birders waiting for a barred warbler to appear. It never did. However a Pallas's warbler was 'showing well' apparently down at the Putting Green. I headed there.
then I went back to look for the barred warbler until a phone message that our missing cat had been found and I set off for home. I didn't see the barred warbler but, as they say, that's birding!
243 UK 2019