30 minutes with an accipiter.

 Domestic duties took me to the East Coast today, so I took the opportunity to visit Filey Dams.

Like a lot of places water levels are very low. From the car park hide I could see a single green sandpiper and several moorhens.

A couple of pools of water in view from the Central hide.

Ruff and green sandpiper busily feeding. I then walked to the East hide.

A larger pool of water here. Lots of mallards asleep at the edge of the reeds. Ruff and moorhens feeding, a single shelduck

and a single black-tailed godwit.

Something in front of me caught my eye.

Spot the sparrowhawk.

The bird stayed there for a while before flying to my left

it then flew into the vegetation at the bottom of a mature tree.

I lost sight of it for a while and then saw it back in the tree.

It kept changing position on the branch

Then a magpie flew into the tree

Then a second magpie appeared and the sparrowhawk flew away.

A very interesting half an hour. I left the hide shortly afterwards and walked to East Lea. I met Judith near the memorial trees. She was trying to take a photo of a blue butterfly. As we stood looking for it we were distracted by the sight of two birds flying out of the nearby brambles.

The birds very quickly flying out of the brambles, catching insects and returning to the brambles. I managed a very hurried shot.

They were 2 lesser whitethroats, year tick 175.

I then walked onto towards the hide, stopping at the view point to look over the fields. a cattle egret had been seen in the field with the cows, I could not see the bird.

As you can see there is not much water here, a couple of areas of wet mud on which a single ruff and 16 moorhens were feeding.

On the way back to my car I stopped at the viewing point to try and see the cattle egret. The cows were quite close with lots of corvids and greylag geese in the field and in the distance I saw the egret fly a short distance. A pleasant 2 hours.