My only free day of the week and the weather forecast looked reasonable with a wind from the east, so birding at the coast could be good. I arranged to meet Stu at the Country Park.
We parked at the top of the park and noticed a few birders from FBOG were ringing not far away.
We strolled over to speak to them, The wind was a bit strong and not many birds were on the move. They had managed to trap blackbirds, goldcrest and greenfinches.
We walked off around the small copse of trees looking for birds. As we got to the end of the path we came across several greenfinches, goldfinches and redwings. Further along the path we saw this deer in a field.
We then walked along the cliff top path and met two birders who had seen snow buntings further along. So off we set but could not find the birds, and the number of dog walkers was increasing. The wind was quite strong so we assumed that the birds would be sheltering rather than feeding in the open.
Not many birds to be seen on the sea so we decided to check out the trees etc near the ravine. A few birds about mainly goldcrests hiding from the wind and rain.
We walked back up towards the ringers and came across more redwings etc. when a message came in about a merlin and a short eared owl on the Brigg. We walked there but could not see them. We discovered later that the birds were flying high overhead, whilst we were looking on the ground!
Stu found a stonechat
It was approaching lunch time and the ringers had stopped as they had not managed to trap many birds, so we decided to go to Filey Dams.
We sat eating our lunch, socialy distance of course, watching teal and a black tailed godwit.
I cannot work out what is in its beak, but the bird is covered in mud.
Male mallards and teal are starting to look smart now in their breeding plumage.
As birdlife was quiet we decided to go to Scarboro to look for med gulls so Stu could add them to his year list.
On previous visits with Chris, we have seen black headed and med gulls in the car park area. However we could not see any gulls at all. Stu noticed some gulls on the sea, so we walked down the hill for a closer look.
As it was nearing high tide the waves were starting to crash against the rocks.
We could see the gulls more clearly now, but they either disapeared from view when a wave came or flew off a short distance.
Next problem was trying to find a med gull with my camera
none there
at last
these turnstones were dodging the waves.
Stu decided to head home and I went back to the Dams for half an hour and was able to add wigeon and these snipe to my day list.
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