Sunday 27 January 2013

Snow Buntings, Peregrine, Iceland Gull and lots more in Bridlington Bay

 Decided I needed to see the sea couple of days ago so headed for my nearest n dearest sea spot, a place called Auburn, a couple of miles South of sunny Bridlington. It's a wonderful stretch of beach in the Winter months and apart from a few lugworm fishermen, the occasional beachcomber and the even more occasional surfer, there are few people about along this stretch of coast and a walk Southwards towards Barmston nearly always results in something turning up either on the sea and beach or in the surrounding fields .... and once again, I was not disappointed!

Stacks of waders about with good numbers of Oystercatcher, Knot, Sanderling, Dunlin, Turnstone, Redshank and 3 Grey Plover but highlights of the day were 12 Snow Bunting flushed from stubble fields, a sub adult Iceland Gull along the shoreline and a couple of superb Peregrine swoops on the waders. 2 rubbish pics of the Peregrine and Iceland Gull apart I didn't manage to capture the days 'mega' birds but hey ho, that's often the way of it ... plenty of good shots of waders though and I was also attracted to some of the other gulls that seemed to be thronging the coastline.

First off, here's the rubbish pics of the mega birds!
Iceland Gull

OK yes its just a blur of a gull flying away but it's my first Iceland Gull for many a year so it had to be reproduced! (looked great though the bins .. I had it coming towards me right along the shoreline and only then did I think to get the camera out .. fair enough!)
Pretty much the same case here but even a blur pic of a Peregrine Falcon (and lets face it, that's exactly what many a sightings of this raptor are for most of us) ... it's worth having a go because it captures the moment! 













Shame I wasn't quick enough to get at least one shot of the Snow Buntings but as soon as I'd flushed them they were off.... good 'year bird' to get out of the way though!


There was an incredible amount of shellfish / crab debris on the beach so no wonder there were plenty of waders about and in the main they were more intent on feeding than being camera shy which was good for me ...  here's a nice Sanderling at rest followed by some action pics of  Sanderling versus Crab (Sanderling won hands down!)
 
Full on animal action and beach gore galore.... who needs Monsters V Aliens!!??
Oystercatcher action on the shoreline ......


........ and digging into the les fruits de mere



..... panning out revealed a couple of Knot in the foreground, a common enough wader and numbering in the 10s of thousands in paces like the Wash, they're surprisingly uncommon on more traditional beach sites.

The Knot's smaller cousin ... a Dunlin here, almost in focus but think I'd be more excited if I were a seaweed enthusiast!
 
...... and whilst a lone Grey Plover watches on from the shoreline


....... i realise that I'm 'gull phobic', not in any clinically insane way, just have a massive blind spot when it comes to getting enthusiastic about what most folk call 'seagulls', and yet I've just seen my 3rd ever Iceland Gull! Mmmhh .... maybe I need to 'get into gulls' a bit more, maybe you do too .. or are we going a bit over the top here and in danger of becoming white winged and nerdy before our time? You judge ... here's my top 3 gull pics of the day
Common (or 'Mew') Gull
Great Black Backed Gull .. have to say that does look pretty awesome!

Another Common Gull ..... is that some poor creature's eyeball in it's gob?

Fair do's ... Gulls can be entertaining and I'm guilty as charged for not entertaining them as much as I could with my lens .... will post more (how happy are you about that?)

All in all a great day. Also seen but not photographed were at least a dozen Great Crested Grebes on the sea, 8 Common Scoter, 10 Wigeon, a single Red Throated Diver (s), a few Fieldfares, Redwings and Song Thrushes and a couple of Skylarks.




Saturday 26 January 2013

Fabulous Fieldfares & incongrous Peacocks at Tilmire, a great new local site


Thanks to joining a local birding network I've become aware of several sites in the York area that have somehow escaped my notice over the years ... fantastic and thrilling yes but also a little humbling to realise that I've been birding man and boy in these parts for close on 30 years with blinkers on as far as some places of local interest are concerned!


Tilmire (Google Images)
So I keep getting email alerts of good local birds like Green Sandpiper, Jack Snipe and the occasional Marsh Harrier from a site called Tilmire - its a designated SSSI (site of special scientific interest) nr the village of Heslington and close by York University. I haven't researched enough but I guess you would call it an extensive area of rough grazing land intersected by several dykes and containing marshy fringes .. yep I reckon that covers it!

I popped down there one afternoon earlier this week and spent a very pleasant few hours sloshing around in the snow. No 'pipers or harriers but I did have a couple of Common Snipes, a couple of Buzzards and at least 5 Kestrels (always a good sign of available food sources), along with plenty of finch flocks - Linnets, Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Chaffinch and Yellowhammers, 3 Bullfinch and 12 Skylarks.

I also got my best Fieldfare shots of the year so far - there were many about (c200) along with smaller numbers of Redwing. Here's the a couple of the good Fieldfare shots plus one 'snow' shot at distance that came out ok with some cropping!




Looking very incongruous in the snow there were also a few Peacocks pecking around on icy tracks ... I've never quite got why people keep these birds or if indeed, strolling around as they do, anyone can claim ownership but they invariably present themselves as reasonable photo opportunities, so here you go!



Friday 25 January 2013

Freezing my rocks off down the Pocklington Canal!

At last the water levels have receded enough in the Lower Derwent Valley to gain a bit more access and although  at the time of visiting a pair of  'mansize' waders would have been the only way to get onto Wheldrake Ings, the Pocklington Canal at Hagg Bridge was just about passable. I like this 'back entrance' to Wheldrake ... in Spring, it's a glorious walk alongside the canal, through largely unmanaged fields which eventually brings you out onto the Eastern boundary of the Ings itself. The morning I chose was just about as 'unspringlike' as you could imagine .... freezing cold and increasingly misty but before the freezing fog descended I did manage some good shots and it was just good to be out there instead of gazing at masses of floodwater!

Hoar frost always tends to attract a camera lens and I though made these Bullrushes look especially beautiful ..... having to take to my gloves off to take these pictures nearly resulted in loss of fingers though!




Now I'd much rather be getting up close and personal with Whooper or Berwick Swans but I've had several Mute Swan moments recently where I've been able to do a bit of post processing experimentation messing around with black and white and other colour formats ......all equally pleasing I think but at this stage I'm still finding my feet with post processing. Comments very welcome!
 
 


















A nice little flock of Greylag Geese flew over during 'Swanny's' modelling session and I was just about able to re position myself to get them going over!



















There was a noticeable increase in the number of Winter thrushes in the valley, probably due to even colder weather in Northern Europe, with maybe 250 Fieldfares and 150 Redwings along the canal alone plus an impressive 20 or so Song Thrushes mixed in.


Fieldfare
I was still looking for that 'corker' of a shot of either but they were as skittish as ever and I had to make do with mid distance shots. As I write though I do have that 'gripper' of a shot in the can (I'm always a few days behind, mainly due to the fact that I'm a lazy git!) .... so is it a Fieldfare or a Redwing? Well, gripped with anticipatory excitement as I'm certain you are, you'll have to wait!











Redwing

My arrival at Wheldrake coincided with a descent of desperately cold freezing fog so sadly that was that and I turned back, the only other highlights being at least 25 Snipe, all flushed from canal edges, about 200 Teal, a lone Buzzard and a small flock of 10 or so Tree Sparrows

By the time I returned to Hagg Bridge it felt like I was in some kind of freezing Tundra landscape and just about had enough feeling in my fingers to take a few bleak midwinter pictures










 

Friday 18 January 2013

A lovely day at Potteric Carr

I started a new job with the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust recently as a Wildlife Support Officer and although it's only part time, what with training days and getting up to speed with how things work, there's not been much time for posting material on here. In addition I've started shooting 'RAW' images which has meant much more post image processing than I've ever been used to so more time on the old laptop .... hehe sounds like I'm making excuses for not posting doesn't it?! Well having come so far with the blog I do start to twitch a bit if I go over a week or so without posting something .. interesting the effect these things can have on your life.

Anyway, ahead of my first day with the YWT my mate Mark invited me over to South Yorks to visit one of the Trust's flagship reserves, Potteric Carr. It was a beautifully crisp and sunny day and although I'm not happy with the way some of the pics turned out, both pre and post processing, here's a few reasonable shots - feedback welcome!
Male Tufted Duck
Singing Robin

Drake Mallard
Lapwings

....... and here's a bird you don't see in the wild unless you're down under in Australia but unlike many 'escapee's' from bird collections, Black Swans are uniquely pleasing and always worth a snap!


Black Swan.... elegant or what!


Common but so photogenic, I almost forgot to include these super Goldfinches feeding on seed heads, the name of which escapes me!

 

Tuesday 8 January 2013

York area Bird Race

Ok now here's a thing that probably only birdwatchers do ... count the number of bird species in a give area on a given day and turn it into a competition! In the York recording area (appx 15 square miles around the city) its held on Jan 6th and called the Michale Clegg Memorial bird race - in memory of a notable York ornithologist.
 
More or less true to form I'd forgotten it was on but I was out and about and just tallied my list at 64, with no real surprises - Snipe, Whooper Swan, Siskin, Willow Tit and Pintail being the highlights. Next year maybe, if I'm around.
 
A team of local birders led by Tim Jones won this year's competition with a total of 98 species, breaking the record for the area by some margin - here's his brief report posted on the York Ornithological Forum
 
Well done lads!!
 
Full days birding today in the area amassing a grand total of 98, the route and highlights being;

  • a Grey Wagtail at Ouse Bridge in town
  • Buttercrambe with highlights being Green Woodpecker, Crossbill, Woodcock, Jay, Nuthatch
  • Castle Howard saw Scaup, Shoveler and Goldeneye
  • Strensall to get Stonechat with the big bonus of the day being an adult female Hen Harrier that hunted over the northern area of the common in the process flushing several Snipe
  • Rufforth Airfield getting 1w and 2w Lesser black-backed Gulls
  • Askham Bog getting Willow Tit
  • Driving over the A64 managed to see c10 Goosander on Middlethorpe Ings
  • Heslington East came up trumps again with a bonus Green Sandpiper, Kingfisher and Jack Snipe
  • Tillmire Area with a single Mealy Redpoll in with a large flock of Lessers, Little Owl, Grey Partidge
  • Thorganby got Shelduck, Whooper and a sad lack of the previously reported Waxwings
  • North Duffield area got Corn Bunting (to equal previous record of 90) then Golden Plover (to beat the record!) also Peregrine but missed Pink foot and Brambling
  • Awesome Aughton saw a Marsh Harrier put up a large mixed wader flock which contained Ruff, Dunlin and Redshank to put us on 96!
  • Round the corner to Ellerton with a single Bewick's
  • Quick race to Melbourne and managed our final species of the day, Little Grebe
 A real top quality day showing that maybe it is indeed possible to get 100 in a day.
 
To put this in perspective other teams in Yorkshire managed;
 
Scarborough- 92
Barnsley-86 (both of which beat us last year)
Fairburn- 70
 
Just goes to show just how good the York Area is!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Like Andalucia?


Cracking site / forum here if, like me, you're partial to a taste of Southern Spain. It's called the Andalucia Bird Society. Click here to view the site

For my money Andalucia is by far the best area of Spain and not just for birding, with its magnificent scenery, year round climate and relative absence of heavy tourism, its a place well worth spending some time exploring .... just as me 'n me old mucker Mark have done dozens of times now and it's never failed to disappoint. Best time to go is anywhere between March and early May and anything can turn up on passage. One of these days I'll get around to properly sorting all my Andalucia records and there are many many highlights but a few stand out ..... Golden Orioles making landfall and flying through the bushes at dawn, my first ever Roller perched on top of a prickly pear by the roadside, a displaying Imperial Eagle at Bonanza, a Rock Sparrow singing right above our tents in the Rhonda Valley and just the sheer number of times we witnessed masses of raptors migrating North over the Straights of Gibralter ...... wetted your appetite?

This Andalucia Bird Society site has certainly given me some new ideas for places previously unvisited and contains a wealth of birding and non birding info on the area, it even has a useful guide to separating Lesser and Common Kestrel (something I've never quite mastered!) .... well worth checking out my friends!

Self indulgent sample of Andalucian birds (all pics from the above site)



Black Shouldered Kite


Purple Heron



Imperial Eagle
 


Spectacled Warbler
Montague's Harrier (female)







Rock Thrush












Great Bustard

 
Mmh .... just seen a flight out to Malaga for £29 return in March ... seriously considering it!!





Monday 7 January 2013

New Year's Day walk in the Howardian Hills

Happy New Year to everyone and to all you birders out there I hope you're 2013 year list has got off to a good start ..... mine is so abysmally average I'm not even going to let on! Struggled to get out what with one thing and another ... weather mainly, but I did get out on New Year's day and since my favourite haunt, the Derwent Valley, was looking more like the North Sea rather than a nature reserve I decided to spend the day on higher ground in the Howardian Hills. Castle Howard would normally be an obvious venue in this much under-rated and under watched area but, sensing it would be thronging with day trippers, dog walkers and Christmas jumper wearers, plus the fact that access is severely restricted these days, I decided to head for Yearsley and the Oulsten Reservoir - an area I used to tramp around regularly up until a few years ago, and see what was occurring.

I have to say, the first day of 2013 around these parts was lovely .... dry (and that's something!), crisp (nicely cold) and more importantly .... lots of sunlight! I had a reasonable few hours walking around familiar forest paths from yesteryear and to my delight found a new right of way through one of the wooded valleys around here.

Apart from a brief Peregrine Falcon moment I didn't see much to report but at least 7 Common Buzzards in the area was reassuring, there were a few small flocks of Redpolls and Siskins, at least 6 Grey Partridge in amongst dozens of Red Legged, and this is one of the few places in the York area you can see both Marsh and Willow Tits .... and I got em both!

Nice Marsh Tit here hanging around a pheasant feeder





I messed around in Lightroom to make something of this pair of Mute Swans that I rather like and will be forever tagged in my collection as 'Sepia Swans'!

 

This is a view of the Oulsten Reservoir with no birds on it! It's never been thronging with water birds but I can remember small flocks of Mallard, Teal, Tufted Duck and Goldeneye here in years gone by and a dozen Goosanders the last time I was here. I did notice some ominous looking screens around the place with square holes in them that looked better suited to guns than telescopes though and it makes me wonder if the ban on fox hunting has led some of our blood thirsty gents into wild fowling for their weekend entertainment!


In some European countries like Greece and Italy they also shoot small birds (passerines) like this rather handsome Golfinch. Safe here thank goodness, apart from passing Sparowhawks of course! This one was basking in the sun it must have almost forgotten about and looked so full on he was crying out to be snapped.











Rather a shame that I couldn't at least get a 'quicky' of the Peregrine but I hardly had time to get the bins on it and identify as a female before she swooped down below the horizon and into a valley full of soon to be agitated pigeons!

Fared a little better with the Buzzards and although at some range and thus cropped a bit too much I think 'Lightroom' (which you may have guessed I've just acquired and currently playing with!) has done a reasonable job on these 2 pictures.