out and about

 New laptop, fridge freezer and RSPB York Local Group activities have kept me busy since my last post. Once I get behind with posts, I always find it difficult to catch up. so here goes.

6th November I spent the afternoon in the Lower Derwent Valley. I started at Bank Island .

Lots of winter thrushes in the hedgerow as I walked down to Cheesecake hide. not as much water as on my previous visits, but still plenty of birds. Some of the greylag geese were grazing on the grass to the left of the hide. Wigeon, gadwall and pintail were also grazing.

After a couple of hours I left and drove down to North Duffield Carrs. Still no water on the reserve, but 60 whooper swans feeding in the distance.

Friday the 8th saw me at Redcar. I was hoping to see velvet scoters, but could not find any common ones. Lots of sanderlings at the waters edge.

Redshanks, ringed plover , oystercatcher and turnstones also on the beach.

Tuesday the 12th I was at Filey. I walked along Carr Naze, disturbing a few meadow pipits, linnets and snow buntings. The wind was quite strong and the birds were sheltering on the bay side. A flock of about 30 common scoters were on the sea, just off the end of the Brigg. They kept disappearing from view due to the swell,but I saw enough of them to identify them all as common scoter.  A few gannets were still out fishing and a Brent goose flew past.

Saturday the 16th I went to Blacktoft to help Stu with a harrier roost survey.

There had been several high tides and the ditch was full.

this was the view from reception. I went to Singleton hide just after 2pm and stayed until it was time for me to lock up at 5pm.

Lots of marsh harriers came into roost and at one time there 6 in the air at the same time. No sign of a barn owl or hen harriers.

Yesterday. the 20th I went to Hartlepool. When I arrived at 10am according to the weather app on my phone it was sunny, when in reality it was snowing. I sat in the car for about 15 minutes until the snow stopped. it was very windy and the sea was a bit rough.

A group of birders were doing a sea watch but i decided that the weather conditions were too bad. When looking at reports later on I noticed that they had seen several little auks, another chance to reach 200 species for the year missed.

Not many birds about due to fishermen on the rocks. No sign of the black guillemot in the harbour, partly due to the fact that border force boats were carrying out an exercise.

Newburn Bridge was my next stop. The ride was going out so no waders close to the footpath.

Sanderlings, ringed plovers, turnstones on the beach unto; a dog walker arrived. He had 2 choices of beach on which to walk. to his right was empty beach for several hundred yards, to his left a beach full of birds and only a short part of the beach before the water met the rocks. He chose to walk left and so all the birds flew off! No sign of a med gull/

My next stop was to try for twite at Seaton Snook. As i walked through the sand dunes I had to avoid several areas where dogs had failed to clean up their owners mess. The tide was out and i could see several people in the area I was hoping to visit, so decided not to walk any further.

RSPB Saltholme was my last stop. A few teal and shoveler were on the two open stretches of water in front of Phil Stead hide. I walked down to Saltholme Pools hide in the hope of seeing a white fronted goose.

Greylag, canada and barnacle geese but no sign of a white front.

A carrion crow was feeding on a dead greylag.

Hoping to get to 200 soon, but keep missing birds. Still enough time before the year end and the current cold weather might encourage a few birds such as little auks to stay a few days.