White-tailed lapwing

 I received a message from Blacktoft this morning to say that a rare bird had been seen on the reserve. Due to prior arrangements I was not able to go straight away. It was after our evening meal that I was able to go and look for the bird. The traffic was busy, and you can tell that it is harvest time by the number of tractors on the road.

The car parks were not full so parking was ok. I made my way to Townend hide where I managed to squeeze into the hide. Lots of scopes and tripods, which took up a lot of room and were not needed as the bird was right in front of the hide. 

Two birders left so I was able to get a seat. Not easy to get a clear view of the bird as it was close to edge and was partly hidden by the grass. I did manage a few photos and then I left so as to give others a chance. I will be helping on the reserve for the next three days, so may get the chance to see the bird again.

"Friends Corner"?

 My day out birding ended up a short distance from home near a Park & Ride site. On twitter the bit of water has been called "Pool of Destiny, Puddle of Destiny and Lago del Luigi's!" For me tonight is was like "Friends Corner" as Mike and Jim were there when I arrived. Just before I left Dave, Tom, Jane and Rob turned up. We had all come to see the curlew sandpiper, tick 162 for the year.

I started the day at Filey. I parked in the Country Park and as I was sorting out my equipment etc, Mark James Pearson was packing his away. I asked him if he had seen many birds from the Brigg. It was fairly quiet he told me , perhaps the most unusual bird being an avocet. I thanked him for his help and set off for a couple of hours seawatch. Oystercatchers were on the rocks below and an avocet was flying about, I was then joined by a birder from London who was on his way home from the Lake District via lots of East Coast birding spots. He left after an hour to go further south. A small group of common scoter flew north but no new birds so I went to Filey Dams.

The car park at the Dams was full so I drove around the corner and went to East Lea. Here I joined a couple from Switzerland who were trying to identify the waders.  I allowed them to look through my telescope and they were able to see a wood sandpiper, ruff, dunlin and ringed plover. I left them in the hide and returned to the Dams, where I was able to park. I went to the central hide and sat and ate my lunch. Dunlin and ruff came close to the hide. After lunch I retuned to the Country Park and was torn between sitting in the car and listening to the test match or doing another spell of sea watching. When I spoke to Mark in the morning, he thought that the wind might pick up in the afternoon.

I went back along Carr Naze and looked for birds. Fulmars, kittiwakes and gannets were flying about but not many birds on the Brigg due to the number of people walking along. A few oystercatchers were on the rocks that were being exposed as the tide went out and I saw 2 knot, my first of the year. One still had a touch of red left from its summer plumage. A female wheatear landed next to me for about a minute before flying off.

I then returned to my car and listened to the cricket as I drove home and to see the curlew sandpiper.

A very pleasant day.

Local hot spot

 I have often read "tweets" about local birding spots, and often wondered where this one was. My friend Chris sent me a text message a few days ago to say that he had seen a lot of birds very close to his house. The site he was at is near a park and ride on the western edge of York. He kindly gave me directions and I visited some time later. As you can see from the above picture it is a small "flash" of water at the edge of a field.

On my first visit I saw 2 young shelduck, several black headed gulls, magpie, pied wagtail and swallows were flying low and having a drink. Earlier today there was a message on bird guides regarding a little stint, so I paid a visit. Another birder was there looking through his telescope and was able to tell me where the bird was. It was at the far side of the scrape and was slowly walking right as it looked for food so it was easy to see, a nice tick for 160 this year.  A ruff was also there as well as lots of black headed gulls.

Saturday and Sunday I was at Blacktoft Sands. I t is very much wader time at the reserve. Although there were somewhere between 10 and 12 different types of wader it was the number of waders that impressed visitors. Most people had not seen as many snipe. Green sandpipers were very mobile and would fly from lagoon to lagoon, calling as they flew. This made counting difficult, but I saw 12 at Townend Lagoon on one of my visits.

Marsh harrier numbers are very low at the moment, but one family put on a display for visitors. Lots of people visit Blacktoft in the hope of seeing bearded tits and water rails and none went home disappointed. Several visitors came back to say goodbye and how much they had their visit as they had had excellent views of lots of birds. Will the wader numbers hold up for the coming weekend and will we get some curlew sandpipers? Time will tell.

Ruff feeding at Marshland.

Remembering Shetland

 No laptop at the moment, so no photos.

Last  weekend was spent at Blacktoft. Upto 10 species of waders present to keep visitors busy, although some had problems sorting out the green and wood sandpipers.

Thursday was a day out with Chris, slightly different to our usual  days out as we went in our own cars. I dropped the granddaughter off at the station so I arrived at Saltholme after Chris. I joined him in the Wildlife watchpoint, where he was sat hoping to see a water rail.

The water rail did not know we were waiting to see it so it stayed in the reeds. We then went to Greatham Creek in the hope of seeing whimbrel.

Lots of curlew, little egrets, lapwing, redshank, ringed plover and terns flying about. We then walked towards Seal Sands. Seals, more redshank and curlews. Chris found some black tailed godwits and then a peregrine landed on the sand and disturbed everything. We then returned to Saltholme to look for a water rail. I left Chris in the hide as I had seen water rails and young at Blacktoft. I called in at the Phil Stead.hide just in time to see three great white egrets.

I was in the area to visit Seaton Snook in the hope of seeing skuas. High tide was at 8pm so I arrived about 5pm. I was not sure where to go as I did not want to get cut off by the tide. So I turned right and followed the path towards the sound of terns. I was then distracted by the sight of 5 tugs towing in a rig. I watched them manoeuvre the rig upstream and then turned my attention to the birds. 

I was in the wrong spot, so walked across the sands to the shore. On the way a small group of ringed plover and dunlin dropped down in front of me. As I got close to the shore I saw arctic skuas chasing the terns. I saw three skuas, 1 light  phase and 2  dark phase. The skuas were flying around and when they had seen a tern plunge dive into the sea and catch a fish they would chase the tern. It reminded me of trips to Shetland. On one trip to Unst, Chris and I would sit eating breakfast while watching bonxies chase gannets Happy days.

Here and there

 Birding at local places due to time constraints. North Duffield Carrs was my first choice on Tuesday but on arrival I discovered that the walkway to the hides had been removed and a new one was to installed. The walkway had developed a "list" over the years, so I am glad that it is going to be replaced. I was told that it will take about 3 days to put the new walkway in place. So I decided to carry on to North Cave Wetlands.

South hide was my first stop. 2 cyclists were in the hide. They had taken their bikes into the hide with them and one of the cyclists was fast asleep. A lady with 3 very noisy children was in the other part of the hide. Luckily for me both the cyclists and the family left, so I was able to enjoy the peace and quiet. Several mute swans and a black swan were busy feeding.

Several young tufted ducks were dashing about before diving for food.

A pair of common terns were also looking for food

I then went to Crossland hide from where I could see lots of greylag geese. An adult marsh harrier was mobbed by carrion crows as it flew across the water. One or two sand martins about but nos sign of swifts, swallows or house martins.

I went to Nosterfield on Wednesday and met Chris. He had at last managed to see the osprey.

Lots of butterflies and dragonflies about.

 this caterpillar was crossing the path

This was a view from the North screen

looking in another direction I could see at least 100 curlew.

I saw a single swallow, which made me wonder if all of the hirundine have left already?

There were still young lapwing, mallard and shelduck about. The rain started so I left for home.

Sound of Autumn

 At this time of year when I arrive at the reserve early in the morning I can usually hear bird song.

Now that the breeding season is now over and the cetti's warblers are not singing I can hear other bird calls. The noise that the lapwings are making is the one that fills the air at the moment. Each visit the number of lapwings on site increases. Talking about an increase in numbers I was most surprised to see 31 little egrets from Xerox hide on Sunday morning.

I remember having to go to Poole Harbour to see these birds years ago. Now they are every way, a sure sign of climate change.

As well as lots of lapwings there were other waders on site. Black tailed godwits, greenshank, green sandpiper, ruff, redshank, spotted redshank, ruff, little ringed plover and snipe. I visited Marshland hide where the birds were early in the morning and just before the reserve closes, and the light at both times was not good for photos.

young marsh harriers are now starting to hunt for themselves and disturb the birds as they fly low over the water.

there are still a few young warblers on site

the visitor centre is currently closed so we are greeting visitors outside and in between visitors I was able to watch other wildlife.

Today I paid a visit to Fairburn Ings and managed to see 2 cattle egrets. They were 2 far away for any decent photos.