Barmston this morning

I went up to Barmston in the hope of seeing the juv Iceland Gull that's been reported there for some time. I walked a couple of miles north and south from the car park but I didn't see it, so either it has left or I just didn't see it among the throng of gulls.

There were plenty of other birds about as usual - Oystercatcher, Redshank, Dunlin, Sanderling and a single Grey Plover.

Dunlins

 

Dunlin and Sanderling

Grey Plover

Grey Plover in flight, showing black "armpit"

Sanderlings

 

Little Gull at Hornsea

Went for a walk on the beach at Hornsea this afternoon while the tide was coming in and scanned the usual mass of gulls feeding by the rocks and breakwaters to see if there was anything different out there. Today there was! A small gull with a V shape on the wings, a Little Gull I thought?

It was skimming the surface of the water, very Little Gull-like, and not settling at all. It was mobile and always going North and I had trouble keeping it in the bins as the waves were crashing in and obscurring it every now and again. I stopped to get my camera out and thought I had it OK but then I realised that the settings were all wrong. My friend had borrowed it for an indoor shoot and had changed the settings so I couldn't get a decent shot. By the time I'd sorted it and fired off a few shots the battery went, and the spare was done too (give him his due, Andy did say I'd need my charger!). It was only when I was reviewing what I'd managed to get that I realised he'd changed JPEG to RAW as well. Doh!

At least the bird is recognisable as (I think) a first winter Little Gull.

Brambling and Siskin

My first Brambling of the new year was in the crowd of finches on our feeders this morning. No photo I'm afraid as I've loaned my camera to a friend. There's about 6 or 7 inches of snow here in deepest West Yorkshire and it's still snowing.

There was about 6 or 7 inches of snow and it was still snowing this afternoon when I set off to walk over to Lee Dam to see if there was anything on the water, as although it's still mostly frozen, it was the annual New Year Swim yesterday so they broke the ice for people to be able to swim out far enough to make it a decent race to retrieve the wooden cup that that is the trophy. There wasn't anything on the water at all, not even a Mallard.

I found my 8 year old Fuji digital camera so I took that with me -

A Great Spotted Woodpecker was calling in Shaw Wood and 2 Mistle Thrushes were in Lumbutts churchyard, but best of all were 14 Siskin in the catkins at Lee Dam, which is my best count for Siskin at this site. I took a few photos but the snow was coming straight onto the lens, plus I couldn't remember how to change the settings to compensate for the birds being back-lit and silhouetted against the light as I haven't used this camera for ages. Definite user error!

 

 

Working indoors at home today

The loft needs a bit more insulation so I took the opportunity of a very cold and icy day to catch up on this outstanding job.

There was plenty of activity in the garden with lots of birds on the feeders (fat balls, suet block, sunflower seeds, red millet, nyger seed and peanuts):

The first Reed Bunting (male) of the year came into the garden to feed. They do come in when the weather is bad but they usually visit in good numbers in early spring before moving off to their breeding grounds on the edge of the moors.

Four Lesser Redpolls - there are fewer this year than last year when numbers got up to 9 in July.

A Jay kept us entertained for about 15 minutes, hoovering up the peanuts I'd put down for the badger last night.

 

The Startlings and Jackdaws ate almost all the fat balls, with Blue, Great and Coal Tits managing to get in every now and again for a beak full. Maxima for finches were 17 Goldfinch, 11 Chaffinch and 6 Greenfinch.

Hornsea Mere

A walk to the Mere this morning in light snow was rewarded by good views of the drake Long-tailed Duck that has been seen there recently. They are smashing birds!

Chatting to a fellow birder I see regularly at the Mere, he said there was a female Velvet Scoter over the far side of the Mere but as I only had my bins I couldn't see it. After a little searching he got it in his scope and although I could see it was probably a Velvet Scoter by size and bill and there was a quick view of the white wing patch that is sometimes seen on swimming birds I wouldn't have id'd it as a Velvet Scoter unless it had been picked out for me as it was a distant view, even through the scope. A walk around the South side of the Mere tomorrow morning will hopefully afford better views if the bird is still there.

We travelled up to Bempton last night for the Stargazing Live event, but although we heard a couple of interesting presentations from astronomers inside the visitor centre, the sky was overcast and there was no chance of seeing anything through the murk and drizzle.

Market Weighton

As we were driving quite close to Market Weighton today on our way to Hornsea, we diverted a few miles and called in to see if the Great Grey Shrike was still about this afternoon.

After bimbling about for half an hour or so and walking past the place it had been seen in the past few days, it was located on the other side of the road in a hedgerow. It showed well for a few minutes but as I had been over the other side of the dam I only saw it for about a minute and no chance to get any photos as too busy looking at it :) Met a couple of other birders there and had a pleasant chat with them, one of whom has just moved to Calderdale so that was a nice coincidence.

Goosanders galore

A cold, misty start to the day with a temperature just above zero and cloud down at around 900 feet. Our house is at 700 feet so I didn't have to walk too far before getting immersed in clouds.

I descended into the valley to walk alongside the River Calder and Rochdale Canal and was pleased to see a female Goldeneye on the canal and a female Goosander on the river. The Goosander was with a few Mallards and all of them were being carried downstream by the flow of the river, towards a small weir. Although the river wasn't the raging torrent it has been over recent weeks there was still a strong flow and I expected the birds to either swim against the flow and move away from the weir or take off and fly downstream. The Mallards did the latter as I expected but the Goosander went over the weir and emerged unscathed. After flapping its wings a few times and giving itself a good shaking down it carried on foraging. Never seen that before, apart from Mallard ducklings that seem to enjoy doing it.

Up to New Mill Dam fishing lake and there were 4 more Goosander, 3 drakes and one duck, fishing away and taking no notice of the lines and warning red/white tape that is stretched over the lake to deter avian predators from taking fish. Two Nuthatch were calling in the trees around the dam and a small flock of Long-tailed Tit were also making themselves heard.

I carried on up the hill to Longfield Dam to see what was there but there wasn't much unfortunately, apart from a pair of Goldeneye and a Pied Wagtail. I was hoping to see Fieldfare and Redwing in the fields during my walk but there was no sign of them today.

Turning towards home I walked round to Lee Dam and stopped for a chat with a friend of mine for an update on the wildlife around the dams (there are 3 of them - Mill Dam, Lee Dam and Healey Dam but only Lee is easily viewable and holds birds on a consistent basis). Two more drake Goosander were there along with 2 Teal and a few Mallard and a Little Owl was on a gate post in the field behind my friend's house.

On the way home another Little Owl was sitting in its usual place in a ruined farm building, but I didn't have good views as the mist had rolled down and visibilty was limited.

Back home and while I was filling the bird feeders in the back garden I heard a Green Woodpecker yaffling from the trees up by the farm houses across the fields from us.

Just under 6 miles covered today.

Wildlife garden assistant

We returned home yesterday to find the usual holes dug by our local badger in the patch of grass we laughingly call a lawn. It's good to have help from the wildlife in the garden, in this case I have less grass to cut when it starts growing again in Spring :)

Walking through Lumbutts Clough this morning I came across these beauties in the wood:

They are Scarlet Elf Cups according to the local wildlife blog. They are quite small and legend has it that people used to dry them and use them for christmas tree decorations.

Gulls

A wander along the beach at Hornsea this morning, kept company by a few Pied Wagtail flitting on and off the sea wall.

A Great Black-backed Gull was struggling with a large fish and by the time I'd changed the lens on my camera it had just swallowed it - but you can still see it it the gull's neck!

There were 5 Common Gull on the beach along with hoardes of Black-headed and Herring Gull but as I neared home I saw one bird getting ahead of the game by getting into summer plumage before the rest -

A Sunday morning walk

Another wonderful day - dry and sunny! Unbelieveable and what a great change for the better.

I walked onto the cliffs first, then on the Trans-Pennine Trail over to Wassand Estate and then back by the south side of Hornsea Mere. The weather was warm and dry when I set out about 8:30, then warm and sunny, then finally cool and dry when the mist settled at about 11:00. I was nearly home by thaat time though so no worries at all.

Turning up Southorpe Road from the TPT I saw a Great Spotted Woodpecker bounding past. I followed it through the bins until it settled at the top of a tree and began its search for food.

I'd just taken the bins from my eyes and 2 Treecreepers caught my attention in the shrubs by the side of the road.

Before I'd taken a step off down the road a small flock of finches flew past into the top of another tree about 50 yards down the road - 12 Yellowhammer and 3 Greenfinch. A single Goldfinch was in the hedgerow to my right as I moved on, relishing what else the morning would bring.

Plenty of Blackbirds and Robins all over the place but not a single Wren!? A Dunnock was calling and was quite bold as I stopped to take few photos -

Onto the Mere through the wet fields and mud, but I was disappointed as the Green Woodpecker I'd hoped to see was absent this morning. On the Mere the usual suspects were there in good numbers. Nice to see the Wigeons back. Numerous Mallard, Coot, Tufted Duck, Goldeneye, Gadwall, Wigeon, 2 Mute Swan and a single Moorhen together with Herring Gull, Black-headed Gull and Great Black-backed Gull.   All in all it was a good morning.

A lively 7 miles today.

Hornsea and Filey

A walk on the cliffs this morning yielded 7 Reed Bunting and not a lot else. The weather was good and warm and dry so it was really enjoyable to be out in the fresh air. The Reed Buntings just wouldn't come out onto an outer branch so I had to content myself with these -

We went to Filey Brigg in the afternoon and because there were so many people around as it was good weather, low tide and weekend I didn't expect a great deal. A few additions to the year list and I'll try again for Purple Sand :)

Oystercatcher - lots
Turnstone - lots
Redshank - lots
Guillemot - 1
Fulmar - 12
Grey Wagtail - 1
+usual gulls and corvids

Goosander and Goldeneye

Another wet and windy day here in the West Yorkshire Pennines so on with the waterproofs and get out there.

The cloud was down to about 1100 feet so didn't go up on the tops, just wandered around to the local dams. As anticipated there wasn't much doing, but a pair of Goosander on Lee Dam and 3 Goldeneye on Longfield Dam were nice additions to the budding new year list.

Here's the view through the square window today at about 15:00 as the cloud began to clear -

Jan 2 2013

After a one day hiatus the weather has reverted to type and it's hissing down again. Here's the view from the window this morning:

A depressingly familiar view here in the UK through the second half of 2012 and into the new year but let's hope something happens and changes the consistent wet fronts we are experiencing.

Happy New Year

A very happy, healthy and prosperous new year to everyone. A fabulous start to 2013 with blue sky and sunshine (along with a cool breeze but we'll ignore that) so a wander along the cliff tops to the Mere this morning. A few of the usual birds were about but nothing special so a few frames were fired off just to get into the mood for the coming year..

Along the beach towards Mappleton

Hornsea United Reform Church

Mere Mallards, but nice anyway