Blacktoft, Flamborough and Bempton

 Saturday 14th. 9am at the doctors for flu and covid jabs then to the football club. The afternoon game was cancelled so I went to Blacktoft. The weather was pleasant, sunny but a little cooler than we are used to. Lots of visitors enjoying the sunshine and the birds. I had a short chat with Stu about our day out on Tuesday and then visited the hides.

After the recent floods the water levels in the lagoons are now ready for the wildfow that will be coming to spend winter on the reserve.

Marsh harriers were active which meant that they disturbed the ducks on a regular basis, so one minute there would be lots of birds on a lagoon and then none, however the birds soon returned.

 Lots of snipe about, I counted 31 on Marshland alone. 42 shovelers and 34 gadwall on Reedling lagoon.

These little grebes were having a rest on Singleton lagoon.

Tuesday the 17th, Stu and I arrived at South Landing just before 8am. We had chosen to go there to watch the ringing sessions.

I enjoyed seeing the birds in the hands of the ringers and listening to how they aged the birds.

During a break in the ringing we walked down to the shore.

The sunlight made viewing a bit difficult

Stu looking for velvet scoter.

This knot was on the beach along with oystercatchers, dunlin, bar tailed godwit, purple sandpiper and rock pipit. We returned to the ringing.

I think that a bird had escaped and they were looking for it. BBC Look North turned up

a tree sparrow after ringing

We then went to Bempton.

Still a few gannets near the cliffs, but not many other birds about. It was too early to see any owls flying about.

We decided to go to Filey Country Park and look for the red throated and great northern divers. We met a lady from Scunthorpe who is a regular visitor to Blacktoft, and we walked out along Carr Naze so that we could look out over the Brigg. There were lots of people out walking on the Brigg, so not many birds to be seen. Stu eventually managed to find a great northern diver and we had good views of red throated divers as they flew across the Brigg. After a couple of hours we said goodbye to the lady and returned to Bempton, in the hope of seeing owls. 

No sign of owls, but Stu had a glimpse of a ring tail harrier. We noticed a group of people on one of the viewpoints, so joined them. They were looking for a tern that had been seen passing Hunmanby Gap, we waited for a while but there was no sign of it. A message then came through about a Radde's warbler at Flamborough so we decided to go and look for it as it was Stu's bogey bird.

The location took a bit of finding but we eventually joined a group of birders looking towards a hedge. The bird was active and was feeding in grass below brambles. We eventually managed to get reasonable views of the bird. I was unable to get a photo as the bird was always moving. This was the 2nd bird I could add to my life list.