Leap year day birding, or the correct way to eat fish!

I decided to go out birding, even though the weather forecast was not brilliant.
In the end the weather was not as bad as I had expected.
I went to North Cave Wetlands, an apt name in the current weather!

It was certainly welly weather

As it was raining I parked outside South Hide and joined other birders, They were hoping to find the green winged teal, but without any luck.
The rain stopped so I ventured out and decided to walk around the reserve in the hope of seeing a brambling and a siskin, but no luck.
Crossland Hide was my last stop. On my last visit I was lucky enough to see a scaup and a male pochard close to the hide. Today it was a great crested grebe that chose to fish near the hide. The following photos show how it dealt with the fish.

I then went to the "Wild Bird Cafe" for a cup of tea, after which I walked around the reserve again as the sun was now shining.
Outside the Turret hide teal were sleeping.

black headed gulls were starting to occupy nesting sites

a few curlew were sheltering from the wind

tree sparrows were busy on the feeders

a rook watched from the fence

Back in Crosslands hide and a male gadwall was close to the hide

about 40 redshanls were on the bank

I decided to leave and go home via North Duffield Carrs. The last time I was here the River Derwent was flowing over part of the bank onto the reserve. The river level has dropped a bit, but there is still a lot of water and the birds have few bits of dry land to feed on.

 A wren was in front of the hide

A pleasant days birding.

Forest and coast birding

Chris and I decided to have a days birding on the East Coast, and to call in to the Raptor Viewpoint on the way. However before we left York, Chris sent me a message to say that the waxwing was back along his road, so I quickly drove to his road and took this picture. A good start to a days birding with a waxwing.

We had some snow on Monday and it soon melted away, it would appear that in the forest they had had more snow than us. Just before we got to the part of the forest we were going to visit, Chris stopped at a small lay by as he had seen crossbills at this spot before, There were at lest three birds, They were either in the trees, feeding in the grass or having a drink. We watched them for a while and they did not seem to object to our presence, so we carefully got out of the car, got our cameras and managed a few shots. Not brilliant photos as we did not wish to disturb the birds.

This was our view from the raptor viewpoint. There were 4 other birders at the viewpoint when we arrived and they told us where to look for the displaying goshawks. We had good views of them, the plans forthe day were going well. We saw more red legged partridges as we drove to our next destination, the day list was growing.

Along Forge Valley we stopped at one of the car parks where there are bird feeders and added blue, great, coal, marsh, and long tailed tits to our list and nuthatch and treecreeper.

Mandarind duck on a lake was another year tick for us and then Chris took us to "Dipper Bridge", where we found the water flow on the stream was covering the rocks in the water, so no dipper. However on the far bank was this dipper.

Another bird for our year list.Scarboro was our next stop. We did not find the peregrines sat on the cliifs below the castle, but fulmars were sat watching us.

Nothing special to be seen in the harbour.

Turnstone, redshank and Chris. Chris then drove us to the Holbeck area of the town where we found the resident med gull. Another year tick for me.

RSPB Bempton Cliffs was our last stop for the day. Gannets, fulmars and guillemots on the cliffs,

My first celandine of the year.

We saw a small group of seabirds on the sea and when we looked at them through our binoculars we could see that they were kittiwakes. One of the volunteers at the reserve told Chris, that you can identify them from a distance as kittiwakes as they form a tight little group and all face the same way.

Time to head for home. Chris had set our target for the day at 42 birds and we managed 53, of which I added 8 to my year list.

My thanks to Chris for doing the driving and finding the sites forthe birds.

Last Sunday before Lent

I listen to Radio 4 when I am in my car. On a Sunday on my way to Blacktoft I listen to a variety of programmes depending on the time I am travelling. This Sunday I left home a bit later than usual and listened to a church service. I was pleased to hear that they are suggesting people "Care for Creation" for 40 days of Lent.
It is also a sign as to how quickly the year is passing by.Last night is was still light when we closed the reserve at 1730.
Sutton Coldfield RSPB visited the reserve for the day and they were treated to some good views of marsh harriers flying close to the hides.
More signs of spring about the reserve that visitors may not notice. Six pochards are a good number for us, plus oystercatchers have returned.

Meanwhile on Marshland some goldeneye were displaying. There were three birds, 1 male and 2 females.

They need to sort out partners before they fly north and start raising a family.A kestrel was finding life difficult in the strong wind, and could not perch on a bush outside reception hide.

Marsh harriers were very active flying low over the lagoons, disturbing the black tailed godwits, redshank, and dunlin. This snipe was sheltering in the reeds.

The barn owls were thinking about coming out hunting about 1630.

Local birding

A late Friday afternoon birding session with Chris. Bank Island was our first stop, but due to the very high water level there were few birds about. Mallard, teal and a coot.
West Cottingwith viewing platform was stop number two. Again lots of water and very few birds. A kestrel flew up from near the viewing platform. A few teal and wigeon were sheltering from the wind and Chris spotted a few greylag geese.
North Duffield Carrs was stop number 3. A sparrowhawk flew near the hide, a year tick for Chris.
More water than on my last visit, but as with our previous stops not many birds, so we decided to pay a flying visit to North Cave Wetlands.
Southland Hide was our first hide from where we saw a buzzard, marsh harrier, cormorants, wigeon, teal, lapwing, little and great crested grebes.
Crossland Hide was our last stop. Oystercatchers, redshanks, teal, wigeon, tufted ducks and coots. A male pochard and a male scaup came close to the hide, so I managed a couple of photos.
A pleasant few hours.

A wild goose chase!

A day out with Chris in the Ripon/Northallerton area.
Nosterfield N.R. was our first stop. We were hoping to see a lesser yellowlegs, but could not find it.
A local birder told us about an area close to the reserve, where he had seen pink footed and white fronted geese. We travelled up and down the road he told us about but did not find the geese.
Later on the chap was parked on the road and we stopped and looked through his scope at some pink feet, but no white fronted geese.
Ellerton Lake was our second stop where we added ring necked duck and scaup to our list.
Not far from here was our last stop, a Yorkshire Wildlife Trust Reserve, Bolton-on-Swale Gravel Pit.
A cattle egret is often present but it does not come into roost until later in an evening so we left.
A lot of goldeneye were present, including this one.

A great white egret was on the other side of the water.
A good day out with Chris.