5 tick day

 My day out with Stu  doing a recky for his forthcoming trip was rewarded with 5 year ticks.

Our first stop was Thornton-le-dale. We had just crossed the road and Stu looked up stream and saw a dipper on the left hand side. By the time that I had picked my bins up, the bird was flying rowards us, followed shortly by another. We crossed the road and walked a bit further upstream past a thatched cottage and saw a third dipper. Year tick number 1.

We then drove to Pickering and followed the route that Stu is going to take on his nature tour.

At least 5 mistle thrushes, several dunnocks and chaffinches and then year tick number 2 red-legged partridge. Up onto the moorland now where Stu spotted a red grouse, year tick number3. No suitable place to stop so we continued until we reached Goathland. After a short break we drove to Fen Bog.

We walked down the path until we came to a part that was flooded and returned to the car. This will be the last place on the visit for Stu and his party. We decided to head for Scaling Dam. 

Stu had not been here before so we visited the hide and joined 6 other birders. Nothing special to see and viewing was made difficult as we were looking into the sun. Lockwood Beck was next and there we watched locals carrying out a bird ringing session. Goldfich, greenfich, chaffinch, siskin and great tits had flown into the net and were then handled by the ringers. We went and sat watching the bird feeders.

We walked to the edge of the reservoir and Stu spotted a grey wagtail, year tick number 4.

From Lockwood Beck we drove to Kildale where we spotted year tick number 5, a meadow pipit.

Lots of grouse on the moor.

A pleasant day with excellent company.

Sand martins at RSPB Fairburn Ings

 

Spent some time ar RSPB Fairburn Ings after completing the weekly H&S checks. This view is from the viewing platform along the main road, looking across to the riverside trail. Lots of pochard, goldeneye, tufted duck, displaying great crested grebe and several sand martins, my first of this year.

This grey heron was in front of the Pickup hide and had just caught a frog. This female chaffich has some kind of disease on her feet.

North Yorkshire Moors with Stu tomorrow.

Lower Derwent Valley.

 After a hectic day at the football club yesterday, time for some relaxing bird watching not far from home. Thorganby Ings viewing platform was my first venue. A mother and son from Selby had been looking for the 2 bewick swans that had been reported yesterday. They had seen swans in the distance but could not identify any as bewicks through their binoculars. I had my scope with me and they looked at the swans in the distance but even through the scope it was not possible to identify any swans other than whoopers.

They left to go to North Duffield and I stayed a while scanning the birds on the flood water but was unable to see anything different.

We met again in the car park at North Duffield. They told me that there were not many birds to be seen.

I walked to the Geoff Smith hide and looked out over the water.

There is still a lot of water on the reserve and the garganey hide still has water in it.

looking through my scope I could see greylag and canada geese in the field behind the hide and 2 egyptian geese to the right.

A chiffchaff was busy hunting food to the left of the hide. It flew from branch to branch and did not settle long. I managed a few shots.

It has some king of growth on its beak!

Cormorants and wigeon were on the river bank.

A wren was singing from the top of some brambles.

Mr & Mrs mallard were hiding in the vegetation

while a great crested grebe dived for food

Male goldeneye were displaying to females.

A small party of whooper swans were on Bubwith Ings.

Two little grebes were fishing

I think that this one caught a newt!

A pleasant afternoon with a list of 34 birds.

6 birds of prey at RSPB Fairburn Ings.

 

A distant shot of some of the grey herons nesting at Fairburn. I was involved with a heron Experience walk on Friday and Saturday. 29 people from different parts of the country joined the walks to get a closer view of the grey herons and cormorants nesting on the reserve.

Great white egret and cattle egret were also seen by the visitors and today we had 6 birds of prey.

A pair of displaying buzzards were attacked by a sparrowhawk, then we saw several red kites circling over the reserve. A kestrel flew past several times and then a female marsh harrier and finally a peregrine.

Luckily we managed to avoid the rain.

Signs of spring

 

Wednesday afternoon was spent taking my daughters dog for a walk. A little cooler and more cloud cover than previous days, but plenty of birdsong.

In between meetings and H&S checks I managed a spot of birding from the Pickup hide at Fairburn today. The wind was blowing in through the windows and blowing the feeders about. Lots of the usual birds about.

Signs of spring in the vegetation.

Heron experience walk tomorrow, will I see my first spoonbill of the year?

"Sunshine"

 

I spent this morning helping in the visitor centre at RSPB Blacktoft Sands. Lovely to see some sunshine and lots of visitors were taking the chance to visit the reserve. A lot of their comments reminded me of the words in the song "Sunshine on my shoulder" by John Denver.

By mid-morning the car parks were full as visitors enjoyed either walking around the reserve or sitting in the hides looking at the birds. Several visitors came to see the large flock of lapwings on the reserve and they were not dissapointed. The marsh harriers were very active, at one point there were 5 in the sky outside the visitor centre. They kept disturbing the lapwings and as they took to the air you could see dunlin flying with them.

The sunshine seems to have woken up the tree sparrows who were chirping from several bushes. A skein of pink-footed geese flew over the reserve, a reminder that winter is still here.

Chiffchaff

 

This was my view over the "Big Hole" at RSPB Fairburn Ings this morning. I had a meeting at 1pm so I arrived early and did some birdwatching. I started at the Pickup hide, from where I heard a green woodpecker calling. It sounded close so I  walked around looking for it and got as far as this. No luck in seeing the bird despite it calling frequently.

Back at the Pickup hide, dunnocks were displaying to each other, 2 males and 1 female.

lots of wing and tail feather flicking. A single goldfinch came to the feeders.

A party of long-tailed tits paid a visit,

Mrs Chaffinch just sat and watched

Lots of seeds were falling onto the floor and this short-tailed vole was eating some.

Time for my meeting. After the meeting I drove down to the Lin Dike end of the reserve and had just sat down in the hide when it started to rain very heavily. Black-headed gulls on the tern posts and a lesser black-backed gull.

A gret white egrewt flew in

a male goldeneye was fishing

The rain stopped and the sun began to shine.

I decided to walk back to my car before the heavy shower of rain arrived. On my way along the path I noticed some movement in the trees on my left.

2 chiffchaffs were flitting about in the trees catching insects, my first warblers of the year. I just got back to my car when it started to rain. As I was sorting myself out I noticed a bird on the nearby feeder.

A female great spotted woodpecker. A very pleasant way to end my day.