Hornsea Mere and Barmston

I went down to Kirkholme Point at the Mere this morning in bright sunshine and a less than strong easterly wind for a change. It felt quite warm!

A fair number of Goldeneye were still on the Mere (est. 150+) with 4 Gadwall, 9 Pochard, 7 Great Crested Grebe, 4 Mute Swans and the usual large numbers of Mallard, Coot and Tufted Duck. The best of the morning however was the Long-tailed Duck - a fine drake which came swimming from the direction of the boat jetties only 20 yards from the shore. Fantastic views and I'd left my camera at home!

Off to Barmston this afternoon in the hope of seeing the juv. Iceland Gull and several other birds that usually hand around the tide line.

The large flock of gulls were about 3/4 of a mile North of the car park so I set off in that direction thinking that would be my best bet but apparently the bird usually avoids the other large gulls and stays, if not isolated, then on the fringe of the flocks.

There were a lot of small waders on the tide line so I went down to look at them first. Sanderling were the most numerous (c. 200) with Dunlin (11), Knot (4), Redshank (13), Turnstone (6) and 3 Grey Plover. 

While I was scanning the gulls through the scope someone came running along the beach and put them all up which stopped any systematic search, but sometimes you turn out to be better off just wandering about!

I then met a fellow birder who was local and he told me where the Jack Snipe were to be found so we walked off the beach into the fields and within 5 mins we put up 2 or 3 Jack Snipe and a couple of Common Snipe too. The two photos of the Jack Snipe here are record shots, and only just good enough to be called that:

 

As we were walking back to the car park along the beach the Iceland Gull flew past us and it looked as though it was going to land around the cliffs/car park area, but instead it drifted away south and out of sight. As we got to top of the path towards the caravan park the Iceland Gull flew towards us and North giving good views and I was able to get a few photos:

So all in all a grand day on the coast - dry, warm-ish with a high of 8 degrees and plently of good birds :)