Tophill Blow.......

A really crap photo of a Cattle Egret.

As the title suggests,today was slightly windy to say the least,but a great day was enjoyed visiting Yorkshire Waters flagship reserve at Tophill Low.I had made the journey over to primarily see the Cattle Egret,which thankfully was still in the Yorkshire water compound adjacent to the main car park and gave superb views as it fed on earth worms.This bird has been present on and off for a few weeks now between the reserve and nearby Hempholme and this was a welcome new species addition to my Yorkshire list.After enjoying this,my 3rd Cattle Egret,i began to explore the rest of this superb reserve,firstly looking at Watton nature reserve,which is situated adjacent to the river Hull and the reserve.Here highlights were provided by 2 'Redhead' Smew which gave nice views and 3 Black-tailed Godwit.Masses of wildfowl were present here and superb views of the commoner species were gained,the male Teal and Mallards heads positively glowing with colour in the strong sunlight.Also here was my favourite wader species,Curlew,with 19 birds present feeding on the adjacent short turf,cracking!.Later a flock of 31 birds flew over D-res,no doubt containing some of the previous birds.After walking up to Hempholme lock and seeing 3 distant Little Egret,i finished the day with several of the locals in D-res hide for the gull roost.Unfortunately no 'Rare' gulls came into roost,but masses of Wigeon and Common Gulls were present,with smaller numbers of Herring,Great black-back and Black-headed Gulls,making for a great spectacle.I also managed to see my largest flock of Goldeneye so far this year with 41 birds present and they gave cracking views as they displayed to their prospective partners,with that distinct head flicking display and short croaking call,brilliant!.So another enjoyable day out in the home county,can't wait until the Humber bridge toll drops,so i can get over more often.

Scarborough Area......

Sunrise at Scarborough.

Another shot of this lovely scene.

Turnstone,Scarborough Harbour.

Sundown,Troutsdale valley.

With the prospect of several good birds on offer in this superb area of the North riding of Yorkshire,Chris and myself made our way to Scarborough.After the usual stop off for our early morning hot chocolate at the tea pot cafe beside the Harbour,we made our way around to the east pier rocks as it was high tide,to see if the Purple Sands were present.And today's numbers were a certain surprise,with a huge count of 64 birds being the largest count of this species at Scarborough since 14th February 1985!.The birds gave their usual great views as they roosted,superb stuff and a good start.We were then joined by Clare,Dave and Mark and they started to settle down and photograph these super birds as Chris and myself made our way around the rest of the harbour.Birds seen from in and around the harbour included a single Red-throated Diver,6 Shag,2 distant adult Med Gulls flying around Holbeck car park,Great-crested Grebe and a single female Goldeneye.With some dodgy reports of the previous days Iceland Gull and the bird not showing,we made our way around to Marine drive to look for the resident Pergs and reported Black Redstart.First to be seen was the cracking male of the Perg pair,with him putting on a fine display,with much calling involved today,but we couldn't see his mate,what a species these are!.After much searching,we eventually found the Black Redstart and amazingly there was 2,with the birds chasing each other and showing very nicely.They were either females or 1st winter males,but my bet was on 2 1st winter males,as that would possibly explain the reason for the birds chasing each other?.Also in the same area and loosely associating with the Black-red's,was a superb male Stonechat,which also gave great views as it sallied for insects,always nice to see.A couple of Common Porpoise and a single rock climbing Red Fox were also seen in this area.After enjoying all these good birds, we travelled the short journey around to Seamer Road and quickly found the 10 Waxwing,which were occasionally flying down to briefly feed on an ornamental Rowan outside B&Q.These are the first birds we had encountered up to now this winter and are always a treat to see,a very nice end to our visit to Scarborough.Next on the agenda was a visit to my most favourite place in the country,Troutsdale.The target here was of course the raptors and today we only gained brief views of Goshawk,with at least 1 male and 1 female being seen,but this also included 1 bird calling in the forest nearby,excellent.A bonus here was a pair of Mandarin,watched on the small Ox-bow at Hilla Green adjacent to the Derwent and were associating with a small flock of Mallard.These birds are ultra jumpy and nothing like the tame birds seen in wildfowl collections,as wild as they get in this country.Other notable sightings in the area as we made our way to and from our watch point and what we observed from our watch point,included at least 25 Common Crossbill,which included a couple of singing males,40 Siskin,a couple of Marsh Tit,5 Common Buzzard and 3 Sparv.Another great day in this beautiful part of the world,with some great company.

Norfolk.......

Wigeon,Buckenham Marshes RSPB.

Sunrise at Buckenham Marshes RSPB.

Sheepie,Wrighty and assembled bird spotters at Titchwell.

Approaching weather front at Titchwell.

An organised trip to Norfolk today with Chris,Alan and Dave to see the wintering adult Lesser white-fronted Goose and Western Sandpiper,resulted in a cracking days birding.We started proceedings at a freezing Buckenham Marshes with us eventually finding the Lesser white-fronted Goose albeit at long range feeding with the wintering flock of 'Taiga' Bean's and White-fronted Geese,unfortunately for us ,the bird was feeding in a shallow ditch and allowed only glimpses of it 's head at first,before it decided to show itself properly.This is probably the returning bird from last winter and constitutes the first sighting of this very rare goose species for all of us.We also enjoyed some excellent views of the 'Taiga' Bean's,which showed very nicely.Also at this superb site and apart from the afore-mentioned species,were masses of waders and wildfowl,which included a couple of thousand Wigeon,30 Barnacle Geese,43 Ruff,2 male Cetti's Warbler and a juv. male Peregrine which was causing havoc amongst the feeding ducks and waders which swirled around the reserve every time he was spotted,an amazing sight.After this great start,we made the long journey back to the North Norfolk coast and to Cley and after getting robbed blind for five quid for our reserve permit,we made our way around to view the Western Sand.Thankfully,within five minutes,i was watching my first Western Sandpiper after squeezing into the packed hide.It showed very well at times,mainly feeding on it's own,but loosely associating on occasion with a small flock of Dunlin.It was strikingly small compared to the Dunlin,but looked like a miniature version of one and could easily be picked out with it's frenetic,jerkey feeding action,what a bird!.This is the first sighting of this incredibly rare wader for myself and around the tenth for Britain.Also seen at this amazing reserve,sightings consisted of an adult male Peregrine,causing mayhem as the bird earlier at Buckenham and showing very well on the ground,30 plus Ruff,at least 3 Marsh Harrier and a distant flock of Snow Bunting along the shingle ridge.A brief stop off en-route to Titchwell,saw us locating the Dark-bellied Brent flock at Wells and picking out the wintering Black Brant,which gave decent views from the roadside.We finalised our day at the superb Titchwell,with us eventually seeing the 1st winter Arctic Redpoll after some confusion amongst visitors as to which bird it was,but thankfully it flew in and i managed to get everyone onto this distinctive bird.There were at least 2 Mealies with this small flock also.Other birds observed here included a 1st winter Drake Scaup on one of the freshwater pools,3 Marsh Harrier at dusk,2 drake Pintail,1 Spotted Redshank and 2 more calling Cetti's Warbler.Very little of note was seen on the sea,but a large mixed flock of waders and gulls feeding along the tide edge on the incoming tide,provided a great spectacle and great views of the birds involved which included Bar-tailed Godwit,Grey Plover,Sanderling,hundreds of Oystercatcher,Herring,Common and Black-headed Gulls.Mammal sightings today comprised of a couple of cracking Chinese-water Deer at Buckenham and a roadside Muntjac near Kings Lynne.A great day out and thanks again to Chris for driving.