White-tailed sea eagle

 

I was in Farndale this afternoon talking to the gardening club. After my talk I slowly drove along the roads over the moors looking for birds. I soon came across lots of meadow pipits.

and then red grouse.

I intended visiting Kildale where I have been before.However, I usually approach from the opposite direction and I missed the road turning. I drove on for a while before finding a safe place to turn round.

As I approached the road I wanted to take, I noticed a large bird in the air. The road I was driving along was fairly narrow so I could not stop. Eventually I reached a spot where I could park. I looked up and saw the bird high above me.

The wind was blowing hard, so I found it difficult to hold the camera still at the angle I needed to get a picture. The top picture shows a buzzard near the white tailed eagle.

 I drove further along the road and found a parking space. I spent a while looking for the bird but could not see it.

I decided to walk along one of the trails which run across the moors.

Lots of heather had been burnt, and there were lots of red grouse about. I also saw a single curlew, a small flock of golden plover, 2 lapwings, 1 wheatear and several meadow pipits. I assumed that the number of meadow pipits about accounted for the presence of a male Merlin which I saw a couple of times.

 

Boomers at Blacktoft

 

0730 on Sunday the 13th, this was my view from the hide at Ousefleet lagoon. Still plenty of water due to the recent high tidal flood. 16 Avocets were making a bit of a noise as they were feeding, while 56 teal were still sleeping. 6 Shelduck were standing on the far island and 26 Shovelers were resting, as were 23 Black-tailed godwits.

The Shovelers were still asleep on Marshland lagoon and as usual more males than females.

The 10 Avocets on the lagoon were mostly feeding, wading in fairly deep water, once again the result of the recent high tide.

 A Barn Owl was standing just inside its box. As I walked from Marshland hide to Reedling hide I heard and then saw my first sedge warbler of the year, They are still staying towards the bottom of the reeds. Little grebes were noisily bustling about on the lagoon while several Snipe were near the waters edge. This Grey Heron was near the edge of the reeds on 1st lagoon.

About 20 Sand Martins were busy hunting insects over the lagoon.

Gadwall were having an early morning preen in front of Townend hide.

From Singleton hide I could hear Bitterns booming. Greylag geese were making a lot of noise and then flying off, to return several minutes later.

A single Pink-footed goose was grazing in front of the hide.

A Little egret was preening its under wing feathers.

I returned to the Reception hide and helped Daz get set up for the day. Yvonne was also helping so I went for a walk while she and Daz sorted out some paperwork.

On my walk I saw this Chiffchaff in the reedbed.

2 Bitterns were flying high over the far reedbed.

A very distant shot, and as I zoomed in I noticed a swallow.

After we had closed reception, Yvonne and I walked down to Singleton hide. A Bittern was booming again and 2 Bitterns flew towards 1st hide. Marsh harriers were still active.

Snipe were feeding at the edge of the water. Just before I locked up I returned to Marshland hide and watched as Sand Martins and House Martins flew low over the water hunting insects.

A Moorhen and a Coot were on the small pool of water by the first gate, who was going to take control I wondered.

 

Bitterns and Garganey at RSPB Blacktoft Sands.

 After a morning at the football club I went to RSPB Blacktoft Sands. It was just after 2 pm when I arrived in reception, John was on duty and after a short chat I went to 1st Hide to join Ian.

Ian was trying to digiscope a pair of Garganey, but they were constantly feeding and moving, but he did eventually get a good photo. I tried to capture the pair so that you could see the white spot near the bill on the female, again it took a lot of time and not a brilliant photo.

A pair of Gadwall were also on the water.

A Little egret was in the reedbed, sheltering from the cold wind.

The egret then moved in to the water to look for food, and we noticed that it had orange feet, not yellow.

We thought that it could have been standing in something and that it might wash off as it waded through the water. However as you can see it did not.

At least 7 snipe were feeding on the grass in front of the hide.

I then returned to reception hide to see Daz. He is going to Mull and I loaned him some books and maps.

Ian walked down to Townend hide and I joined him after talking to Daz and Mike.

This pair of mute swans were preening each other. Was this their egg?

After a short while we walked down to Singleton hide, just as we were about to enter the hide we heard a bittern booming. There were Greylag and Canada geese on the water, and a Barnacle goose was with the Canada geese.

Ian saw two Bitterns flying over the central reedbed, but by the time that I sorted out my camera the birds were a long way off.

While they were in the air we also heard a Bittern booming, so we think that there are at least 3 birds on the reserve. A marsh harrier came close.

Mike the residential volunteer then joined us. He had been in Reedling hide and had seen the Garganey.

A few wigeon then flew in. I thought that they would have been on their way to Russia by now.

We could hear Bittern booming and thought that they came from different parts of the reserve, so either 2 males or 1 male moving about.

I could still hear Bittern booming as i closed the main gate at 6 pm.

Swallow

 

Helping on a Bittern Experience Walk at RSPB Fairburn Ings this morning. We left the visitor centre shortly after 8 am and walked over the boardwalk, past the "Big Hole" and up to the lagoons. We had not been there very long before we heard a bittern booming. After a while we walked a little further and heard bittern booming again. During our 2 hour walk we heard a bittern booming at least 9 times, sadly we did not see one, however we guessed that there were at least 2 bitterns in the area.

This is the view looking down to the area where the cormorants, herons, egrets and spoonbills nest. We did not see a spoonbill but saw at least 7 cattle egrets, little egrets and a great white egret. As we were looking over the area sand martins flew over and then a single swallow, my first of the year.

We stopped at the lagoons again on our way back to the visitor centre and heard the bitterns booming again. Little and black-necked grebes were busily fishing on one of the lagoons. A green woodpecker was perched on the top of a silver birch tree, calling loudly.

Back at the visitor centre we were able to use Matthews binoculars to look at the partial eclipse of the sun.

Spoonbill and sand martins

 

The weather was not as pleasant as it may look in the above photo, I took this about 12 noon, in between rain showers.

The white dots in the photo are mute swans, 5 goldeneye at the far end of the water, teal and mallards sheltering  from the wind in the vegetation at the waters edge. The highland cattle were on the right of the water, but no sign of any egrets, a very quiet day.

Then another shower of rain and several sand martins were flying low over the water. Year tick 120.

A helicopter then flew over, and several birds emerged from the vegetation on my right.

A pair of shelduck and several wigeon. A spoonbill flew in to feed.

It fished for food for about 10 minutes before flying back to the nesting area. A pair of cattle egrets then flew towards me, and one landed near the cattle. A little egret also flew in and started to fish. Steve arrived and we had a chat for a while before I walked back towards the car park.

This grey heron was standing at the edge of the stream,just left of the footpath.

I had intended to drive home, however I had parked my car near the bird feeders and decided to stay a while to see which birds were visiting them. When i first arrived at the car park, Andrew the warden from St.Aidans was looking at the feeders to see if he could find any willow tits, sadly he could not.

There were lots of great tits, a single blue tit, 2 goldfinches, 2 dunnocks, several chaffinches and a robin around the feeders.

A male red bunting was a frequent visitor, then a treecreeper appeared.

Not a brilliant photo as it was taken through my car windscreen.

A party of long-tailed tits arrived

Then a great-spotted woodpecker

Two birds that I was unable to take pictures of were a jay and my first willow tit of the year.

A pleasant if somewhat chilly 3 hours.