Parkgate

Myself and cousin Dave spent Sunday 30th. October afternoon staring at the marsh at Parkgate hoping to see a fine male Hen Harrier. Sadly it was pretty quiet until dusk when we had very brief views of two female Hen Harriers going to roost. We also had a few distant views of the Great White Egret plus many Little Egrets and a Whooper Swan. Sorry no photos due to distance and the poor light.
Earlier in the day I watched along with Spencer the cat the Jays at work in the garden collecting acorns.

Rough-legged Buzzard

Went to Winscar and had good but distant views of 2 rough-legged buzzards initially followed by one being harrassed by a Peregrine! Also saw 2 Ravens and a flock of 25-30 Crossbills.

                                           

Spurn Head and North Lincolnshire

Had a great day firstly at Spurn. It was relatively quiet due to southerly winds but redeemed itself with a fabulous female Black Redstart.

We also had good views of grey plover, redshank, bar tailed godwit, sanderling, curlew and knot. Other highlights were a great skua and lots of dark bellied brent geese.

We then went onto Far Ings just over the Humber Bridge to see the Ferruginous Duck and were told at the visitor's centre that it hadnt shown today. However, the Gods were with us and we had good views in a pool next to the visitors centre before it skulked off into the reeds!

We then went off to Worlaby Carrs where a rough legged buzzard has been seen the last few days as well as hen harriers and up to 8 short eared owls. We stared at the skies for 2 hours but it was a no show regarding the rough legged buzzard. We did see plenty of common buzzard, hunderds of fieldfare and large numbers of geese flying over, probably pink footed geese. As the light faded we at last enjoyed a great show of at least 4 short eared owls hunting.

I saw plenty of migrating thrushes in small groups as I headed to Anglers Country Park. On arrival I could hear lots of finches and sparrows and got some good views of the many tree sparrows present. There were redwings around and good numbers of wigeon on the water. I saw a brief glimpse of a kingfisher as it flew low across the water and enjoyed watching a female kestrel hunting.

                                                             COMMON KESTREL

                                                                    TREE SPARROW

                                                                     WIDGEON

Fantastic summer plumage Great Northern Diver at Ringstone Edge Reservoir near Ripponden today, though distant

                                                       GREAT NORTHERN DIVER

Bridlington boat trip 9/10/11

had a brilliant day's birding on the skua/shearwater RSPB boat trip from Bridlinton. The highlights were awesome views of a pomarine skua as it hovered over the boat and a great skua. Also saw mediterranean gull (thanks for the pics Dave!), little gull plenty of red throated divers, common scoter and bried views of an arctic skua

                                                           GREAT SKUA

                                                          POMARINE SKUA

                                                   MEDITERRANEAN GULL

Also saw purple sandpiper in the harbour. Then went onto Spurn where had good views of artic skua from the sea watching hide, shorteared owl and grey plover. Overall myself and Dave Evans saw 58 species

Beautiful sunny conditions at Anglers country park today. Saw 3 barnacle geese 2 adults and one juvenile and 2 buzzards

                                                        BARNACLE GEESE

                                                        COMMON BUZZARD

went to Wintersett reservoir near Wakefield and got good views of the 4 red crested pochard that have been there for some time


                                                      RED CRESTED POCHARD

Went up to see the Solitary Sandpiper in Nateby this afternoon. The light was poor but not as bad as my digiscoping effort. I will spare you the smudge of light that is meant to be a bird! Shame really because to the eye it looked very nice. Like a green sandpiper but more delicate and a lighter mantle. The bird was quite distant 250m out.Top marks to the local birder who identified this as the rare vagrant it is and not a mere green sandpiper