Migfest day 3

 

Ringing starts at 8am and conditions were more favourable . Redwing, Blackbird, Song thrush, Dunnock, Chiffchaff, Goldcrest  and long-tailed tits.

After ringing we walked down to the beach. Dunlin, redshank, little egret, arxtic terns. After lunch we went to Thornwick Pools.

Stonechat, starling, teal, snipe, linnet and corn bunting.

Flamborough Migfest

 

Bird ringing started at 8am this morning. The weather was not brilliant , cloudy and a strong wind. However the team found a few birds in the mist nets. A blackcap and the above redwing. After ringing finished we walked down to the beach.

Bar-tailed godwit, curlew, dunlin, ringed plover, oystercatcher.

After lunch we went to the Lighthouse area.

We spent the afternoon in the seawatch hide. Lots of comic and arctic terns along with kittiwakes, red throated divers and guillemots. A message came through about a grey phalarope so off we set, but it was lost to view, however we saw grey plovers, another year tick for me.

We returned to the hide and saw more terns, auks, gannets and 2 long tailed ducks flying south and 2 caspian gulls.

An excellent day, will we be able to see the Northern Lights tonight?

RSPB Bempton Cliffs

 

Flamborough Migweek. I called in at Bempton on my way to meet Stu, Suzanne and David.

I was surprised to see lots of gannets flying over the sea and on the cliffs.

A young gannet

Plenty of activity at the pond at the feeder station.

Hoping for better weather tomorrow for the ringing session.

York Environment Festival

 

My week began at RSPB Fairburn Ings on Monday morning. The hard work that the team has put in is working as water levels are rising. I had the pleasure of guiding a school party who were undertaking their Duke of Edinburg Bronze award. The students were keen to see the birds and took pictures and made sketches.

 This month is York Environment Festival and as part of it we organised a Community Bird Watch in Museum gardens. 13 people attended and the highlight of our walk was watching a tree creeper on one of the mature trees. We are holding another on October 21st in Homestead Park.

This afternoon I spent a couple of hours at North Duffield Carrs. Alan (Duffbirder) was in the hide. 

 

The water level in the scrape is about the same as on my last visit. Perhaps the rain today will help keep it at this level until the river floods. 

A male pheasant walked across the scrape while the female remained partly hidden in some vegetation.

Perhaps she had seen the buzzard on the hedge.

A flock of pink-footed geese flew over.

Flamborough Migweek starts tomorrow. Will the weather bring us some nice birds?

Pickup Hide, RSPB Fairburn Ings

 

The tem have been working hard and this is the result of their efforts in front of the Pickup Hide.

More open vista and surprisingly for the time of year more water!

4 buzzards high over the Moat and then they slowly drifted towards me. Several Jays flying back and forth, possibly hiding acorns.

A robin

Lots of dragonflies over the water.

Black tern and pectoral sandpiper.

 

After completing the H&S checks at St. Aidans today I walked onto the reserve in the hope of adding to my year list.

Lots of grest crested grebes about.

A greenshank

grey herons waiting for food to swim past

great white egret 

I spent some time at the causeway looking over the main lake towards Caroline bridge and saw a black tern swooping low to catch food and then been chased by black-headed gulls. I then joined Charlotte at the viewpoint looking over Astley Lake. We joined a group of birders looking at a pectoral sandpiper on one of the islands. One birder allowed us to look through his scope. My second year tick for the day. The bird was not as close as this one at Margrove ponds last year.

On my way back to the car park I came across whinchat and stonechat

chiffchaff

the final bird on my list was a hobby near the car park.

North Cave Wetlands.

 Tuesday the 22nd I spent the morning with Stu and Catherine at this Yorkshire Wildlife Trust reserve near Market Weighton. Stu arrived first, and reminded me to log in to pay for the car parking. This was our view at 0730.

As you can see it was still misty, so we hoped that the sun would soon burn it off. As we waited for Catherine to arrive we heard a greensank call it flew over the water. From the East hide we could just make out a couple of waders near the Turret Hide. The green sandpiper remained feeding in the shallow water while the common sandpiper flre towards us and landed on the tern raft.

By the time that we had walked to the Turret Hide, the mist had mostly gone. A young water rail was feeding on the open bit of mud to the right of the hide.

Not a brilliant photo due to the distance. Snipe were closer as they fed.

Common gulls flew in to have a preen.

A curlew was feeding in the shallow water

Linnets, dunnock and goldfinches were flitting in and out of the north hedge as walked along the path.

We met several people who Stu knew and they told us that a little stint was on West Holm  so we walked to the viewing screen.

This is a heavily cropped photo of the little stint as rested on a rock near the waters edge. We also saw a ruddy shelduck as it lifted its head above the vegetation. This was a lifer for Catherine, as she had visited the reserve several times and had not seen them.

Egyptian geese were having a preen

The Dennis Wood hide was our next stop and we added ruff amd little egret to our daylist. 

A few sleeping mallard were all we saw from Crosslands hide and the lagoon in front of South hide had mostly coots. Stu and Catherine bought something from the Little Butty Bus for lunch. A pleasant morning with 45 birds on our list. I came home via North Duffield Carrs.

I was surprised to see that the water level had not gone down. I could just make out a single sipe through the reeds.

A plane flew over and disturbed a covey of grey partridges.

A grest white egret landed on the otherside of the river bank.

 In the copse of trees to the right of the hide a blackbird was making an alarm noise and then a female sparrowhawk flew across the front of the hide.

Aire Valley for the next few days.