East Coast Birding

Granddaughter at University in Scarborough celebrates her 21st, so spending some time at the coast and sneaked a spell of birding in.

The good weather had attracted enough visitors for the overflow car park to be in use at Bempton. A little misty but visibility was good enough to be able to see the birds ok. Lots of birds flying and on the sea. I concentrated on the birds on the cliffs and soon added razorbill, puffin and kittiwake to my year list.

I then drove to Filey and went to the Country Park. I thought that parking was free until the end of this month, but you now have to pay, and as I  had no change I left and went to Filey Dams.

Plenty of birds about which was an attraction for this local cat.

No birds came near enough for  it to catch. Three moorhens were having a squable

A pair of egyptian geese were standing on the bund, my 4th tick of the day.

Carrion crows were perched on a tree

Two mute swans were displaying and mating

Tufted ducks and gadwall were close to the hide

Herring gulls were also joining in the mating game

24 oystercatchers were on the bund and then flew around making a lot of noise.

A great spooted woodpecker was feeding on one of the mature trees, my 5th and last tick of the day.

Sunny Sunday at Blacktoft.

 Just after 11am when I arrived, and was surprised to see so few cars in the car park. The tree sparrows were making lots of noise as they sorted out the nesting boxes near the picnic area. A little stint had been reported on Saturday, so I covered reception for a while while Ian went to Marshland to see if he could find it.

A pair of mute swans on the lagoon with a few smart looking male pochard.

 Sadly he could not, but two spoonbills had just landed in front of the Marshland hide. After a chat with Ian and Stu I walked to Ousefleet with Andrew. Still a lot of water in front of the hide, but no birds at close quarters. Dunlin feeding in several small groups, but no sign of any other small waders with them.

Shelduck, shoveler, teal, mallard, gadwall and some sleeping black tailed godwits and two avocets. I walked back and went into Marshland hide. I was expecting it to be busy as people watched the spoonbills, avocets and black tailed godwits, but there were only 3 other people in the hide.

Every now and again a spoonbill would wake up have a look around and then go back to sleep. The marsh harriers were busy and kept upsetting the avocets.

After flying about they would settle down in a group before starting to feed again.

The black tailed godwits did not fly when the marsh harriers circled round over the lagoon.

Some of them seemed to be in a bad mood as they would fly towards others and start a skirmish.

Some birds were still quite plain in colour

while others were showing thir summer plumage

Lots of wigeon still on Xerox lagoon

The pair of goldeneye were still on Townend lagoon. Ken and Val were sat in the hide and they were telling me about their trip to Mull, they are there the week before me.

Lots of greylags on Singleton lagoon and marsh harriers constantly on the move. I called back into reception to wish Stu well for his holiday this week and Matthew was in the hide. I had not seen him for ages so we had a chat and then as I got to the car park Peter turned up, so time for another chat. I left the reserve later than planned and luckily got the last bottle of milk in the supermarket!

Time to sign off and pay the balance on my Mull holiday.

Tuesday March 15th, a "peering" day!

 I decided to visit Fairburn Ings and St. Aidans. It was just after 9am when I arrived at Lindyke car park, or more aptly called Lindyke pot holes. Leeds City Council needs to put some effort into maintaining this area.

I walked along the path, which in parts is in a worse state than the car park. The hide is still not open! So I like other birders had to resort to peering over the top of the hedge, some birders have resorted to cutting the hedge to allow them to see the birds on the scrape. There are a couple of viewing screens along the path but they require attention. 

I could see a little egret and a great white egret at the far end of the water. Great crested grebe, shoveler and teal were also present but not in large numbers. I decided to drive a bit closer to the reserve and park near the moat. Nothing to be seen over the fence oppositewhere I parked my car, so I walked up the hill.

this is the area that the cormorants are nesting in. On the other side grey herons are nesting

and next door to them a single spoonbill.

There is the entrance to a public footpath here but it is closed so as not to cause any disturbance to the nesting birds, so I hid behind a bush to take my photo. The bird did not move. The visitor centre was my next stop. As I was geting my parking ticket from the machine I noticed that the walkway to the swan and duck feeding station is still closed!

The visitor centre was not open as I walked past and stopped to look at the birds on the feeders. 2 goldfinches and a dunnock.

Not a lot of activity at the next feeder. One great tit and a blue tit.

 I walked further along the path towards the kingfisher screen. Lots of signs of the recent flooding.

    Two other birders were already at the screen and they had been there a while without a sighting of a kingfisher so I decided to go to St. Aidans.

Lots of vehicles in the car park and the toilets were open, but not the visitor centre or the usual list of what has been seen!

I strolled down the hill, appreciating the warmth of the spring sunshine. The noise from a colony of black headed gulls soon filled the air, but as I got further away the noise was replaced by the song of a skylark. I clould not see the bird but enjoyed listening to it song. A grey heron flew across my path.

Lots of ducks on the water and lapwings on the drier bits of land. I reached a junction in the path network where one option is to walk across the causeway

Not today, it is still flooded. I turned right and continued to walk along the path with water on both sides, Lots of coots, black headed gulls and tufted ducks. A great crested grebe was diving for food.

this black headed gull was stood on the path and showed no sign of moving no matter how close I got.

It only moved when I was about 2 feet from it.

Lots of coltsfoot and celandines in flower.

I then saw a black necked grebe swimming along on the water on my left but it was in between the sun and myself. A smart bird to see and my third year tick of the day. A little further along the path I came across two black necked grebes swimming on the water on my right. The only problem was that the reeds were quite high so I was back to "peering" again to try to see the birds through odd gaps in the reeds.

I met Brian a little bit further along the path and told him where the grebes were so he walked on to try to see them while I walked back to the car park. Lots of greylag and canada gees on the fields on my left but no sign of any other birds. Just before I left for home I did my last "peering" of the day.

A little owl asleep in the wooden pillars. Not a brilliant shot but good enough for my 4th tick of the day.

Staveley

 After a morning at the football club time to be outside. Where to go? Not too far as it cost me £74 to fill the car fuel tank. I decided to try Staveley and was pleasantly surprised to discover the car park nearly empty.

This is the view from the first hide I visited. Greylag, canada and this pink foopted goose.

Last years young swans are still together, keeping away from mum and dad.

as he chases them if they get too close.

From the next hide there were lots of reed buntings, mostly male near the feeders.

This one was waiting his turn to get onto a feeder

this male decided to destroy the reed mace! I saw this fungi on the way to another hide

37 species of bird on my day list. Nothing special, goldeneye lingering before going north while oystercatchers fly around making a noise as they battle for territory. A pleasant four hours in the sunshine.