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.