Here, there and South Gare.

Sunday was spent at Scarborough.

Very windy with heavy rain showers, Not much activity on the bird front.

 Monday afternoon was good weather wise so I decided to go to Bank Island.

A bit more water than on my last visit. About 100 wigeon on the water

Black headed gulls were also present, and as time passed by more gulls flew in. 4 common gulls also flew in but no large or white winged gulls. 4 shelduck were also on the water. It was fairly quiet until a marsh harrier appeared.

There were 2 birds and between them they managed to scare all the lapwings and get 20 snipe to fly about looking for cover.

I am still trying to reach 200 birds for my list this year, so today it was a trip to Redcar to try to see velvet scoter.

The tide was just starting to come in but there were still plenty of walkers on the beach. I set up my scope on the footpath and could see, ringed plover, sanderling, oystercatcher, turnstone, cormorant and herring gull. Looking further out to sea I could see more gulls, eiders and common scoters. Scanning further left towards the wind turbines I saw a pair of velvet scoters, tick number 192 for the year. Time was up at my parking spot to I drove the short distance to South Gare.

Not a lot of bird activity, starlings on the wires

a goldfinch was having a drink of fresh water

Further out there were snow buntings. I walked along the path and stopped when I reached the rocks. After a while I saw snow buntings and they were not bothered by my presence as they got so close at one point that I could not take any more pictures.