Spoonbill at Fairburn

A couple of hours to spare today, so where to go? Blacktoft and Old Moor were too far, so I decided to go to Fairburn,

The car park was full, but the hide was empty, where was everyone?

Not many birds on the water aprt from coots.

Mrs Gadwall

I decided to walk a bit further down the path and see what was on the other stretch of water.
I heard a chiffchaff on the way. but not many other small birds.
Lots of debris still from the recent flood.

A pair of great crested grebes were on the water and doing a lot of head shaking but did not do any more displaying. On the way back to the car park I saw a lot of grey herons hunting in the reeds and a great white heron was also visible.

Further along the reserve the cormorants are nesting

Nearby grey herons are also nesting and a spoonbill was in the area.

I parked in the village and walked down to the hide.
An oystercatcher was fairly close to the hide.

In one of the nearby fields red legged partridges were running about while a few fieldfares were busily feeding as they get ready to cross the North Sea on their way home.

St. Aidans

An afternoons birding with Chris. He suggested that we go to St. Aidans and look for black necked grebe.
No sign of little owl in the compound.

As we walked along the path we could see hares running about.

A bit further along the path we saw and heard a chiffchaff and had our first encounter with a stonechat.

 

 

 

We reached the part of the reserve from where people had been watching black necked grebes and as we carefully looked for the birds, Chris found two bearded tits. They did not stay still for long as they moved through the reeds feeding.

 

 

We reached a crossroads

 

The path across the causeway was still flooded.

 

Not far from here we got our first glimpse of a black necked grebe

On our way back to the centre we passed a couple looking for the bearded tits, so Chris showed them where the birds were.

We saw a stonechat again as we went back to the car park, but did not manage to see a short eared owl.

A sewage works was our second stop, where we soon saw several pied and grey wagtails, but no sign of a water pipit. Astley Lake was our third stop but we did not see any mew birds for our day list.

 Fairburn Ings was our final stop

 

The water levels are still high after the recent fllods, and the paths are damaged in places. From one viewing screen we counted seven grey herons hunting in the reeds.

Another pleasant afternoon with Chris and my total for the year is now 128.

Adwick Washlands

My first visit to this part of the Dearne Valley.

Chris and I met at Old Moor and after a brief visit to Broomhill Flash., we went to Adwick Washland.

A kestrel was the first bird we saw.

 

On one the pools of water I saw my first avocets of the year.

In the bushes between the path and a ditch we saw our first chiffchaff of the year.

A pleasant visit which produced a list of 32 birds.
A brief visit to Fairburn Ings on the way home gave me ths view of a grey heron catching a meal.

The puffins are back!

Out with Chris today and Bempton was our destination.

We saw our first razorbills on the cliffs , sea and flying. Gannets were gathering nesting material.

We also saw kittiwakes, jackdaws, skylarks, herring gulls and of course puffins, which took my year count to 124. Chris saw his first shag of the year.
Flamboro Head was our second and final stop.

We hoped to find snow bunting but no luck. This kestrel was hovering near the cliff edge.

A few celandines are coming out, another sign that spring is on its way.

Thanks to Chris for the driving.

Birding in Redcar area.

A day out with Chris, saw us driving North up the A19 and then across country towards Lockwood Beck. On our way we saw several re grouse, a year tcick for both of us.
At Lockwood Beck we managed to get the last two seats in the "hide" overlooking the feeders. We soon added a lot of birds to our day list. Blue, great, coal, marsh and long tailed tits, robin, dunnock, treecreeper, siskin and blackbird.

 Chirs spotted a goldeneye on the water and common gulls on the bank. We were well on our way to our total of 34 for the day. Skinningrove was stop number two.

We came across a rock pipit

a female stonechat was keen to pose for photos

I got a short glimpse of a black redstart but was unable to relocate it.

Redcar was our 3rd and 5th stop..Between out two visits we added knot , sanderling, oystercatcher, dunlin and eider to our list. 

South Gare was our 4th and lunch stop. Not a lot of birds to be seen, a few ship watchers

WE managed to locate four twite feeding on the ground. I did  not have my camera but Chris managed a few shots so please visit www.chrisdownesbirds.Another excellent day, thanks to Chris for his navigating.

Murmuration at North Duffield Carrs

Several people have told me at a murmuration at NDC so I decided to watch it myself.
The reserve still has a lot of water on it so there is very little dry land for birds.
A few wigeon were grazing on the river bank and curlews were flying round making their evocative call.
A tufted duck was having a preen

a little grebe was busy looking for food

After 5pm I noticed starlings perched in trees across the river, Several other flocks were perched in other trees and then slowly they started to fly over the water. The following photos show some of the highlights.

Birding around Hartlepool

A few hours birding in the Hartlepool area. with Chris. Our first stop was just past RSPB Saltholme where we stopped to look for a ruddy shelduck, but we could not see it. We moved on to the lifeboat station where we walked out a little way so that we could look into the harbour, and we managed to spot a long tailed duck.
Town Moor was our next destination as snow buntings had been seen recently, but we could not see any. Back to our first stop as the shelduck had been seen. Chris pulled into a layby next to another car. The driver was using his car as shelter as he rested his telescope on the car wing mirror. We managed to see the ruddy shelduck among some canada geese.
Cowpen Bewley Country Park was our next stop, where we added several birds to our list, including yellowhammer, blue, great, coal and long tailed tits, chaffinches, robin and tree sparrows.
We then went to Saltholme and went into Phil Stead hide..
Teal were sheltering in the reeds

gadwall were preening

Not many birds to see on the reserve. Chris was talking to a local birder who told him a bout a glaucous gull on the reserve. Chris drove to the main road and found somewhere to pull in.We could see a group of gulls but could not see our target bird. A birder was parked a short distance away so Chris went to talk to him and came back and was able to find the bird.

A trip down North Gare road did not produce any birds to add to our day list. Dormans Pool was our last stop. We saw two males and a female stonechat in the field in front of us.

A very pleasant day out with a day list of 49 birds in what was not very favourable weather conditions.