Wild Goose Chase

Managed to see 5 species of Geese today. Tundra Bean at Blackmoorfoot, 2 Eurasian White fronted geese at Ingbirchworth  plus Pink foot at both sites and Greylag and Canada at the latter. Also a large flock of Brambling at Ingbirchworth and plenty of Fieldfare in the field with a few Tree Sparrow and Yellowhammer

                                                   

                                                  

Siberian Accentor and Spectacular Spurn

Our best day ever at Spurn on Saturday. After the mega twitch Sibe at Easington we spent all of Saturday and Sunday morning at Spurn which was alive with birds. As well as the rares the place of teeming winter thrushes, robins and goldcrest. In total we saw over 80 species

                                                Siberian Accentor

Dusky Warbler

                                                   Bearded Tit

                                      Brent Geese and Black Brant (right most bird)

                                                                       Lesser Redpoll

                                                                   Mealy Redpoll

                                                                         Ring Ouzel

                                                                 Pallas's Warbler

                                                                   Radde's Warbler

                                                                 Water Rail

                                                                       Shorelark

                                                           Yellow-browed Warbler

                                                           Tundra Bean Goose

                                                                       Redstart

                                                                  Redwing

                                                                  White Fronted Goose

Hume's Leaf Warbler

Excellent Sunday birding trip to north east as usual. First off Long Eared Owl at Fairburn Ings. Also seen were a Green Woodpecker and a Willow Tit Then onto Whitley Bay for a very obliging Hume's Leaf Warbler. Like a slightly washed out Yellow browed warbler with a distinctive double syllable call. Also pleasant surprise of 2 Waxwings here too. We finished off with a Tundra Bean Goose at Boldon Flats and various ducks including a female Scaup at Tophill Low but sadly no Grey Phalarope. Final sighting was a hunting Barn Owl at dusk

Bean Geese in West Yorkshire

I popped over the border into West Yorkshire this lunchtime to have a look at the Tundra Bean Geese which thankfully are still present at Broadstone. There were 4 present and they kept themselves separate from a flock of 50-60 Pink Footed Geese and this made a good comparison of the subtle differences between the 2 species. Nice to see such a scarce species locally

Raptor feast on the Wirral

Myself and Dave went over to the Wirral on Sunday 8th.January for a day's birding. We were treated to a great display of Hen Harriers (ringtails), Short Eared Owls, 2 Merlins, a Buzzard,  a Peregrine Falcon and a Kestrel. Other highlights included a lovely male Stonechat, 2 Tundra Bean Geese, good views of the long staying Great White Egret, Snipe, Whooper swans and Stock Doves