Last day of summer, 1st day of winter.

 

The weather on Saturday morning was not good, so I was glad that I was inside. In the middle of the afternoon the weather improved so I drove to Wheldrake and walked to the Bank Island hide. Another birder was sitting in the hide waiting for a flock of golden plover to return. They did not so he left.

The golden plover returned.

The water is a fair distance from the hide so the photos are not good, but I think that you might get an idea as to the birds present. The golden plover left after a short while and did not return during my stay.

A pleasant end to my summer birding.

Sunday was my first shift of the winter, as the visitor centre is now only open on a weekend until some time in March. The weather was horrible. Strong wind and heavy rain. My first visitor walked over the floodbank!

it was a young swan and it just walked along the path. I followed at  distance but could not see any damaged wing etc, so it walked off and started feeding in one of the ditches. The rain continued until after lunch when it brightened up. A few visitors came, some to see Larry who obliged by preening in front of 1st hide.

a redshank was nearby

while a little egret had a preen

The visitor centre closes at 4pm and until dusk I joined Carl, Ian and Gerald in Singleton hide. We did not see a hen harrier but had wonderful views of marsh harrier.

I did not take my slr as the light was poor, I wished that I had taken it and tried to shoot in black and white. We had 19 marsh harriers in the sky at the same time. The above were taken using my phone.

the black blobs are marsh harriers