"The bog and the Winter Beast"

 Not sure if the content of this post will match the title!

Saturday afternoon I went for a walk around Askham Bog. I met Chris and Anne LLoyd and then Mark.

Birdwise is was fairly quiet, the usual members of the titmice family and a couple of noisy jays.

Round the pond area some one has kicked the end pieces off the board walk and thrown them into the water. Now that nature is acknowledged as something that is good for people, why do people destroy it!

Sunday morning at St. Aidans

This was my spot where I was acting as a marshall for the "Winter Beast", a 6.66 miles run through mud and water around St. Aidans. During my 2 hour stint I collected 17 birds onto my list including black headed gulls harassing a peregrine.

On my way home I called in at Fairburn Ings and added great white egret and little egret to my year list and near Ulleskelf I saw a red legged partridge which took my year total to 102. 

St. Aidans and Fairburn Ings.

 

I am volunteering as a marshal for a run at St. Aidans on Sunday. I went today to check out where I will be helping.

The sunshine helped to give the area a touch of spring after the past cold weather. I walked to my marshalling point and on the way I saw my first great crested grebes of the year and a covey of grey partridge, ticks number 97 and 98.

I called in at Fairburn Ings on my home and saw a green woodpecker near the Pickup hide, tick number 99 and just as I was leaving the village a collared dove, tick number 100.

East coast birding

 

After taking granddaughter shopping I went to Filey.  It was breezy and then started to rain as I walked along Carr Naze. Very few birds to be seen. A couple of meadow pipits near the pond and a couple of carrion crows looking for food. Herring gulls were flying low over the sea and a single guillemot flew out to sea, year tick 95. I walked back to the car and drove to Filey Dams.

Still a lot of ice on the lagoons

these mallard were standing on the ice, while lots of teal were sheltering on the lee side of the bund. 

The rain was now very heavy, and most birds were trying to shelter, so I left and drove to RSPB Bempton Cliffs.

I was the only person out on the clifftops in the rain. It was nice to see lots of fulmars, circling out to sea and back, it reminded me of the hours I spent watching the fulmars on Foula. (Year tick 96.)

By the time that I had walked down to the far end of the cliffs the sun had started to shine

A barn owl was hunting near Staple Newk and as I walked back towards the visitor centre the owl was slowly hunting near the centre. A pleasant end to the afternoon.

More local birding

 

My first visit of this year to Askham Bog. I took along some bird seed, and placed seed on the top of several posts.

and fairly soon I had blue, coal, great, marsh and willow tit coming to feed on the seed. I walked around by the pond and was able to add siskin, redwing and mistle thrush to my list.

Further round on the board walk I saw this jay feeding, I cannot say that it was recovering buried acorns. My 5th tick for the year. After 3 circuits, I left and drove home, calling in at Chapmans Pond on the way. Still some ice on the water, so only 2 mallards and a single moorhen. In a bush I saw a pair of bullfinches.

After lunch I drove to Moor Lane, Naburn, and walked along the Selby to York cycle track. Lots of redwings and fieldfares in a field where the sheep had been and in one of the trees along the track I saw 2 goldcrests, my 6th tick of the day, to take my total for the year to 94.

Local birding

 

Pleasant morning, so I decided to go for a walk in between doing various jobs. It was nice in the sunshine without the recent cold. Th railway pond still had a lot of ice

but a few coots, mallards, moorhens and a single black headed gull were on a stretch of open water.

A few signs of the coming season

Managed to add two new birds to my Inner York list. Hope to visit a couple more local sites tomorrow.

Warm welcome at Blacktoft

 My first day on duty on the reserve this year, and it was a cold but sunny start.

Daz and I soon got the fire going

and scraped the ice off the windows and made some hot drinks for the first visitors.

The lagoons are frozen over, apart from a small piece of open water in front of Reedling the new hide.

A pair of mute swans were occupying this bit of water and between them and the marsh harriers any ducks that landed were soon seen off.

The marsh harriers were very active all day long, and they "wowed" a lot of the visitors.

Goldfinches were eating seeds just outside reception

A barn owl was seen hunting about 3pm. and landed on a post near reception.

A pleasant way to end the day.

Birding around Hartlepool

 A foggy day in York so I decided to go to Hartlepool area bird watching. I followed a route similar to the one that Chris and I have done many times over the years.

My annual visit to Ward Jackson Park to tick off ring necked parakeet. Hartlepool Headland was my second stop. Not a lot of birds round the headland but I had better luck from the Pilot Pier.

Rather distant views of red and great northern diver, and a long tailed duck was even further away in a corner of the fish quay. 4 more ticks including eider duck. The car park at Newburn Bridge was full, so I managed a quick look over the sea wall and saw these ringed plovers, another year tick.

I then drove towards Saltholme and parked in the Greatham Creek car park. From the second view point a few seals were on the mud.

Lots of black tailed godwits

as I walked towards Seal Sands hide, a pair of red breasted mergansers were swimming up the river.

another year tick. Lots of shelducks in the distance at Seal Sands, so I walked back to the car and drove to Cowpen Bewley Country Park. The car park here was nearly full, so I was a bit worried in case there were lots of people at the bird feeders. When I arrived, I was pleased to find no one there. Lots of activity, blue, great and long tailed tits

a male bullfinch was looking very smart

a great spotted woodpecker turned up

another year tick. Time to go to RSPB Saltholme. The Phil Stead hide was empty, probably due to the fact that the water was frozen and no birds in sight, so I was able to eat my lunch before going into the visitor centre. The ladies on reception told me about a bittern and a water rail at the Wildlife Watchpoint.

The bittern was sheltering in the reeds but was not easy to take a picture of. Time to go home. I needed to wear my sunglasses on the way home as the afternoon sunshine was very bright, however when I got to Thirsk the mist started and when I reached home it was still misty. So my decision to go had proved to be a good one, my year list now stands at 88.

North Cave Wetlands and North Duffield Carrs

 

The weather forecast was for a touch of winter so I decided to go to North Cave as there are several hides to shelter in. I arrived about 1030 and went to the East Hide. A few teal were asleep until 33 redshanks and a few wigeon flew in. Turret hide was my next stop, where with a bit of difficulty I managed to see a bittern that was sheltering deep in the reeds.

The viewing screen near the bird feeders.

Lots of activity which made taking pictures a bit difficult. The feeders were swinging from side to side due to the wind and this was made worse when several birds landed on a feeder together. Greenfinch was another tick for my year list, and it is a while since I saw so many together. Close by siskins were feeding in the alders, tick number 3.

I continued to walk around the reserve until I reached the reed bed lake. A few mallards were feeding but otherwise it was quiet. At the corner I looked at a mature tree and was able to see a tawny owl roosting near the top of the tree. Tick number 4, closely followed by tick number 5, a song thrush.

Crosslands hide was my next stop, where I was able to add tick number 6 to my list, a black tailed godwit. Then it started to snow and a group of walkers came into the hide to shelter, so I left.

Along the hedgerow a small group of bullfinches.

I decided to go to North Duffield Carrs, where I sat in the car park and ate my lunch. I was surprised to see a single decker coach in the car park, and though that the hides might be full. The coach left soon afterwards, and I presumed that it was using the car park as a turn round point as the road bridge at Bubwith was undergoing repairs and there are width restrictions.

Ian, a fellow volunteer from Blacktoft was sitting in the Geoff Smith hide. This was the first time that we had seen other for a while, so it was nice to have a chat. A couple came into the hide who Ian knew, so I left and walked down to Garganey Hide. Alan Whitehead was in the hide, and we had not seen each other for a while, so again it was good to chat, while we watched a barn owl hunting.

The light was very good and the male shovelers looked very smart.

We were both watching the starlings when the other chap in the hide informed us that a kingfisher was sat on a post in front of the hide. The kingfisher was in the shadow, so not a brilliant picture.

Then the murmuration started.

A pleasant day and my year list is now 75.

6 raptors at NDC

 Decided to spend the afternoon at North Duffield Carrs. I arrived at 1330 and was pleased to see only 3 cars in the car park.

There was no one in the Geoff Smith hide, so I decided to base myself there. Another birder joined me after about 20 minutes and then Chris Downes walked into the hide. It was the first time that I had seen Chris this year, so it was very pleasant to be able to chat and do some bird watching with him.

Neither of us had seen whooper swans this year, so it was nice to get a joint tick. The birds were a fair distance away from the hide, so it was mainly scanning through our telescopes. The male ducks, including pintail, shoveler and wigeon looked smart in the winter afternoon sunshine, The 20 plus shelducks also stood out in the bright light.

A marsh harrier began quartering over the far reeds and then we were able to see a peregrine sat on a fence post. Lots of geese at the far end of the reserve, mostly canadas with a few greylag, and I managed to see 2 white fronted geese,

Chris left soon after this, and his parting remark was "I don't want to know if you see a hen harrier"

Birders from West Yorkshire joined us in the hide, so there were 6 of us looking out for birds. Large groups of starlings kept flying across the reserve, and in the distance we could see buzzards, a kestrel hovered in front of the hide.

A chap from Bilbrough then spotted a ringtail hen harrier, and we were all able to watch it as it flew across the far end of the reserve. It was lost from sight for a few minutes before re-appearing and continuing to fly east at quite a speed. This was our 6th raptor for the afternoon the others being, marsh harrier, red kite, kestrel, peregrine and buzzard.

The chaps from West Yorkshire left to go to a quiz, and then the starling murmuration began. Not as spectacular as some of the photos I have seen, mostly because the birds kept low over the water. Was this due to the presence of the peregrine?

A short black and whit video of what I saw of the murmuration.

Wet morning at Filey

 Tuesday January 10th was a very windy and wet day. My regular trip to take granddaughter shopping, with my usual visit to Filey first.

Not a lot of birds about, and who could blame them for sheltering.

Lots of gulls having a bathe, including this common one

Is this the first sign of spring, coots fighting!!

Just two birds to add to my year list, pied wagtail and redshank.