Strensall Common

 A walk in West Bank Park with my sons dog this morning,

This afternoon I decided to go to Strensall Common. The weather was good, hence the car park was full, but luckily I did not meet many people on my walk.

Lots of blue tits and long tailed tits near the car park

Stonechats were perched on a gorse bush.

As I was taking the picture I noticed a bird flying in the distance. It was a male hen harrier.

Not a brilliant picture as the bird was a long way off and was flying low over the vegetation.

I think that this path leads to "Worlds End".

The light was starting to fade so I will have to leave this for another day.

Will I ever learn!

 I wrote on an earlier blog about taking my camera with me when I go for a walk. I went out for a walk today and thought that the weather was too dull for photos. All of todays pictures were taken using my mobile phone.

After watching the news on the television to find out which tier I will be in when the lockdown ends.( I will be in tier 2, which is bearable and I hope to get out a bit more.) I went for a walk near Colton, just outside York.

As you can see it was a cloudy, dull afternoon. I set off down the road and was amazed to see that there were still the odd splashes of colour in the hedgerow and verge.

As I walked along the road I saw a single wren, and dunnock on the top of the hedges. I could hear a lot of bird "song" and eventually traced it to starlings who were perched in trees on the other side of the railway line.

The road surface soon changes at the bottom of the hill and becomes more of a track.

 

The railway line is now on my right hand side

there are more trains during this lockdown than the previous one.

At the top of the hill I could hear lots of bird noise and could see blackbirds, fieldfares, redwings and chaffinches. I was wondering why they were all in this area

when I passed this gap in the hedge and looked into the field where all the birds came from and wondered if they had been bathing in the pools of water.

As I walked back towards my car along the main road from Bolton Percy to Colton I could lots of bird noise again. There was a small flock of tree sparrows on the top of one of the hedges and several male yellowhammers.

Just before I got back to the road over the railway line I came across another small flock of birds. Reed buntings, dunnocks and a lot of yellowhammers. They remained on top of the hedge and would have made a good photo if I had taken my camera!

Memories of Mull: Oban

This blog has taken a lot longer to write than expected. 

I think that my first visit to Mull was in 1977. I had an MG Midget soft top at the time, and I remember that the weather was so good that I was able to have the top down all the time. This made bird watching very easy.

Oban is the starting point of the holiday.

 Lots of people know Oban for its folly. It is also a good birdwatching spot, and a good place to see black guillemots, hooded crows and various waders along the shore at low tide.

The hoodies can often be seen looking for food in the seaweed.
 

Black guillemots nest in the harbour and it is possible to get much closer to them than on the island.

One Easter there was an Iceland gull in the harbour.

This is the ferry that takes us to Mull.

It is a 45 minute "sail" from Oban to Cariagnure, on Mull. About half way we pass this lighthouse.

This island and others close by are often the nesting site for terns. On the journey across I have often seen gannets and manx shearwaters.

Nine for a kiss

 Friday is one of my "dog sitting" days, and today we went out onto Hob Moor.

Yesterday the weather was good and I took my camera with me when I  walked to the Railway Pond, and did not see many things to photograph. Today I just had my phone!

On our second walk on the moor, I heard a lots of gulls calling. I was walking in the direction that the noise was coming from when suddenly a grey heron came within 6 feet of me as two gulls were chasing it.

By the time that I had got my phone out of my pocket and selected the camera app, the birds were further away from me.

the white specks in front of the trees are the gulls chasing the heron into a ditch. Not very good photos.

Over the years I have watched grey herons battle with eels as they try to eat them. This picture was taken in Tobermory harbour.

The heron did manage to swallow the eel after about 20 minutes,

Further along on our walk today we came across magpies . I stopped and counted them, nine of them, all busy in the grass. Without binoculars I could not see what they doing. They could have been looking for worms etc as it was raining and worms may have been close to the surface, or they could have been making holes. When food is plentiful they will make holes and store food for later.

Our route home took us along the side of a ditch and this stretch of hedge.

Lots of blackbirds, one song thrush and two redwings were feeding in the area. No photos as no camera. Do I have to take my camera on future walks!