Scarborough birding

 Took the grand daughter back to university at Scarborough and then spent a couple of hours birding.

Nice sunny weather but a bit on the cold side. The harbour was fairly quiet bird wise. This could have been due to the fact that the tide was out. However I managed a few shots of the divers. They were not as obliging as on past visits and seem to be spending a lot of time under the water and they would surface a long distance away from where they dived!

a single turnstone on the mud, a house sparrow on some fishing pots and a great black backed gull on a mooring post was the sum total of birds. I drove to Scalby Mill where I saw my first oystercatcher of the year.

a redshank was feeding nearby

small groups of wigeon were also present and lots of black headed and herring gulls. Time was getting on so I stopped at The Mere on my way home.

These birds were part of the welcoming party as I got out of my car.

Just time for a stroll as far as the first bridge and back to the car. A few new birds for my year list including moorhen, little grebe and siskin. A pleasant couple of hours near the coast helped my list grow to 58 birds and I have walked just over 11 miles so far this month.