Alkborough and Barton....

A trip out today to a couple of sites in the north of the county,saw Dave and myself getting a few good birds to put in the notebook.Our first destination was a very cold and blustery Alkborough flats,with the best bird being the drake Green-winged Teal which was watched swimming around with his european cousins,giving pretty good views.This bird hasn't aquired his full plumage quite yet and was not as smart as his relatives,but a good bird all the same.Also seen in the vicinity of the teal flock were a group of smart Spotted Redshank,with 4 birds being present,a solitary Avocet,2 Ruff mixed in with a flock of 244 Black-tailed Godwit,at least 12 Marsh Harrier on and around the reserve and a single juv. Peregrine putting the frighteners up every single bird on the reserve!.So after this good few hours,we decided to move onto Barton and see what we could find.

 Just as we were arriving at the new visitor centre at Far-Ings,a flock of Whooper swans had just taken off from the pursuit pit and started to head towards the humber bridge,a good start,just as it started to tip it down.After the rain had stopped we walked down to Chowder Ness,with a few birds present which included 8 Bar-tailed Godwit,162 Dunlin and 6 Ringed Plover,the latter species didn't at one time be present in winter,how things are changing!.After our look on Chowder we made our way through the reserve to Ness lake,where the best birds were 2 differant Bittern a briefly singing male Cetti's Warbler and 2 Water Rail which decided to have a bit of a territorial dispute and gave decent views on the edge of the reedbed.As the light started to go we walked back to the car and took a few shots of the mill-pond like Pursuit pit before heading home.A decent effort today,with a few good birds seen.

Windy Worlaby..

An all day visit to the patch today saw some good passerine numbers recorded,with a whopping flock of 85 Yellowhammer feeding in one of the set-asides,also feeding in the same set aside were 22 Corn Bunting,50 Goldfinch and 43 Linnet,all making for an impressive sight.I especially enjoyed the gorgeous male Yellowhammers which glowed in the morning sunshine and gave an excellent chance to study this cracking bunting species.Also nearby was a large mixed flock of Starlings and Fieldfare plundering the local hawthorn crop and in one of the grass meadows a flock of 9 Curlew fed unconcernedly as 1 of the 15 Common Buzzards observed today passed overhead.Other interesting or notable sightings included a big flock,by local patch standards,of 45 Greylag Geese,2 Marsh Harrier(2nd yr. male and juv.),the 2nd year male showing particularly well as it made it's way towards Elsham,it's silvery grey underwings beginning to develop in it's moult towards 1st adult plumage.At the river the only notable sighting was a solitary Kingfisher watched flashing past towards Bonby Carrs and a single Barn Owl was hunting at dusk in the wet pasture field.Non bird sightings included a single Brown Hare and a lovely Fox,which was watched as it was being dive-bombed by a pair of grumpy Carrion Crow's.A couple of examples of Shaggy-ink Cap were found today also,see above pics.A decent day again despite the wind and showers.

Barton re-visited.

After seeing the forecast last night i decided to not venture too far from home today and plump for another look at Barton and have more views hopefully of the confiding Red-necked Phal.
 I arrived in the old visitor centre car park just as it was trying to get light,i say try because it was fairly foggy too!.I made my way over to Ness hide and began to look over the lake seeing several Shoveler and Gadwall and then the regular juv. Marsh Harrier put in an appearance as it hunted over the lake and reedbeds,showing pretty well considering the crap light conditions.I then noticed out the corner of my eye some movement and a Bittern flew quite close from left to right,giving pretty good flight views,before disappearing towards the Hotel pit.About five minutes later it or another flew back in the same direction,but it looked like it flew beyond the Target lake,but i couldn't be sure as the visibility had deteriorated somewhat as it briefly drizzled.After hearing a brief burst of Cetti's song as i made my way around to Chowder ness,i eventually got up onto the humber bank and made my way along to the area the Phalorope had been feeding in last time i had visited meeting up with Nige.We managed to get brilliant views of the bird again as it fed around the margins of it's chosen temporary home and we also enjoyed excellent flight views and even heard it call as it flew past us,a super little bird.After enjoying the phal,i went back to Ness hide and managed another Cetti's,this time to the left of Ness hide and was calling,with that stuttering call female's give,so 2 in a day,great stuff!!The only other birds of note where a single Treecreeper,6 Bar-tailed Godwit and 2 Black-tailed Godwit.Not a bad few hours despite the weather being poor again.

Red-necked Phal....

A visit to Barton after work today to see the reported 1st winter Red-necked Phalorope,resulted in me enjoying stunning views of this cracking little wader as it picked food from the surface of the mud around the margins of Chowder Ness.This is only the second time i have seen the species in my local area,the last being at Messingham back in June 1995.This is also the first one i have seen in this plumage,with it aquiring it's grey scapular feathering in it's moult to first winter plumage proper.At one point, i watched it a range of only ten feet as it fed without any fear of the strange human looking at it.Other birds seen in the area included a juvenile Marsh Harrier which gave great views over Ness Lake nearby and a small gathering of roosting Starlings.A great few hours.

The Lincolnshire Coast...

A trip out today to the Linc's coast primarily to look for the reported Shorelarks at Brickyard Lane resulted in us having an excellent day's birding,this is how the day unfolded.
On our way to the coast we saw a single Barn Owl hunting over fields at the entrance to North Somercotes village,a nice start.On arrival at Rimac,we made our way south towards Brickyard Lane,walking through the exstensive dune system,with the best bird being a Little Owl watched sat on the side of a ruined building at the Churchill road entrance to the NNR.It gave nice views through the scope,a cracking little bird.As we got to the Brickyard lane area,we immediately located a large mixed flock of Snow Bunting and Twite feeding out on the developing foreshore giving great views of these winter visitors to our coastline.After about 20 minutes of searching we managed to locate the Shorelarks at long range making our way towards them,but the birds decided they didn't want any company and promptly flew out towards the sea,to a distant shingle ridge,so we followed.When we reached the area we thought they had flown to,they where nowhere to be seen and we looked back towards the original area we had seen them and noticed a guy looking through his scope intently at something,so we headed back,sure enough when we reached the area he was stood in,we noticed he was watching 2 Shorelark.We then were treated to fantastic close views of the birds until a pig ignorant photographer flushed them,they then flew out over the beach and where joined by the other 2 birds which had obviously been hiding somewhere!.After enjoying the larks we headed back north along the beach and had a look on the sea,seeing very little apart for a few Red-throated Diver,an impressive 145 Carrion Crow and a total of 397 Pink-footed Geese passing south.As we approached the developing shingle ridge out from the Rimac car park we flushed a large number of Skylark with at least 8 Lapland Bunting and 56 Twite,the Twite showing particularly well and we managed to locate a single colour-ringed bird which had orange over white on its left leg.Other birds observed in this general area included a single adult female Marsh Harrier which flew south,a single late juvenile Swallow south,my latest record for some years and a pair of Stonechat,just out from the car park here.After all this effort we had quite an impressive list of birds and we travelled home stopping briefly at Thoresby bridge to look for some reported Whooper Swans,but we only managed to find a single bird along with 27 of their commoner cousins and also enjoyed a hunting Short-eared Owl nearby,a great end to a cracking day!.

A Blustery Patch...

A visit to the local patch this morning in the near gale force south/south westerly wind made finding birds pretty difficult,with few highlights.The best of the bunch was a single Green Sandpiper watched sheltering and feeding in a small drainage ditch alongside the Soak drain,appearing out of one of the decoy ponds and gave good views as it probed about in the water looking for any tasty morsels to eat.Hopefully it will stop to winter,as they are more frequently doing in this country now the climate is warming,the species main wintering area being in tropical Africa.After the Green Sand,i enjoyed fantastic views of a pair of Common Buzzard as they called to each other, a brilliant sound and one of my favourites and i got so close to them i could see the brown iris on both birds confirming them as adults.This is my favourite species of bird and now are more common than Kestrels.There were good numbers of passerines about today and these included a large flock of at least 400 Fieldfare,which gave great views as they raucously chattered along a nearby hedgerow with their 'chack,chack' calls and a flock of 70 Linnet and 100 Goldfinch where mixed in with these,making for a flurry of activity when i flushed them.The only other bird of note was a single female Stonechat,getting buffeted by the wind in the small set-aside field near to the car park.Non-bird highlights today fell to a confiding female Roe Deer,which didn't seem to be bothered by my presence and carried on munching as i passed by,they are such lovely animals,it is such a shame they do so much damage in plantations and become foresters enemies.A good few hrs despite the wind.

North Yorkshire....

A visit up to the Scarborough area today with Nige didn't disappoint,with us seeing some nice birds.
After hearing a report of a Great-grey Shrike on the same clear fell as one was present on last winter at Wykeham Forest,we started at this site first with us unfortunately not seeing the bird,but seeing a pair of Stonechat,2 lovely Roe Deer and a male Winter Moth of which i got some decent shots of.After not seeing the Shrike we then travelled the short distance to Troutsdale Valley,parking at our usual place at Hilla Green next to the River Derwent and had a cuppa and something to eat before beginning to explore this brilliant area.It was noticeable that there was a few birds in this area near to the bridge here,with us seeing several groups of Siskin in the riverside Alders,with us also enjoying superb views of a posing Nuthatch and a couple of Marsh Tit and Grey Wagtail,a skein of 125 Pink-footed Geese flew south in the distance also.After a short while we saw our first raptors of the day,3 Common Buzzard,soaring over the adjacent hillside and forest,when another bird flew in and joined them and began to chase one of the Buzzards,it was a superb juvenile male Goshawk!it gave a great display of effortless flight eventually getting bored with the Buzzard and then began to soar around over the valley,showing the distinct 'Flying cross' jizz,with longish neck,bulging secondries and small hand and streaked underparts,making for a powerfull looking,impressive raptor species.We later saw a differant bird,which also looked like another juv male,but this bird had a single primary missing,where the earlier bird had,had complete wings,this particular bird being briefly mobbed by a couple of Carrion Crows and gave good,but distant views.After all this excitement,the weather set in and it began to pee down,so we decided to head to Scarborough.On arrival at Scarborough,the first place we visited was Scalby Mills searching through the throngs of bathing gulls for anything unusual,but sadly just the common species were observed which included a nice 2nd winter Kittiwake.Other birds observed here were several more Kittiwakes out at sea and a couple of Red-throated Diver.We then made our way to the harbour,with the only highlight being the best hot chocolate in Yorkshire!.The final place we visited was Holbeck car park,were we enjoyed fantastic views of 7 Med Gulls,which comprised of 5 adults and 2 2nd winters,coming down to a fellow birders bread and showed down to a few feet,the 2nd winters being particularly appealing,a great end to a great day in this cracking part of the world.

Local Patch Barnies....

A visit to the patch this aft in the lovely autumnal sunshine,saw me seeing a whopping 6 Barn Owl's,the first 2 started to hunt at about 2.30 pm,with the others gradually appearing.At one stage there was 4 birds together,hunting around the wet pasture field and 2 to the north of the car park,along the soak drain.I managed to get some superb close views today,not only in flight,but also on the ground,as a couple of individuals were watched catching vole's,which there seems to be an abundance of this year.A couple of good sightings were seen down at the river today and included a flock of 5 Goosander(3 drakes and 2 redheads),which flew south towards Brigg and another winter visitor to the area,4 Whooper Swan which flew in and landed on the river and comprised of 3 adults and a single juv.,both species,a welcome sight!Other highlights consisted of the ubiquitous Common Buzzards,with 9 being seen today,1 adult Peregrine,1 2nd winter male Marsh Harrier,a single Green Sandpiper,400 Teal and a Woodcock which was flushed from a hedgerow near to the Poplar wood.An excellent few hours,with the carrs now coming into its own!.