Wykeham and Bransdale

I was leading the York Bird Club outing to the North Yorks Moors today, we naturally started at Wykeham where during a nice sunny morning we had several sightings of up to four Honey Buzzards soaring above us and displaying, just a bit higher than I would have liked (never happy), also rans included common Buzzard, Goshawk and Turtle Dove. After checking out nearby Wykeham Nurseries where some Turtle Doves had been showing well recently (not today) we headed across to Bransdale and had lunch by the little bridge on the Eastern side, several Whinchats entertained but a good wander around failed to produce any definite sightings of Ring Ouzel so we carried on our search around the top and back down the other side of the Dale with sightings of Red Grouse with young, Redstart, Golden Plover and Snipe unfortunately the forecast rain arrived mid afternoon so we decided to call it a day.

above 4 displaying bird

three together

a tatty common Buzzard

Whinchats in Bransdale

The Robin Twitch

Twitch up to Hartlepool this evening with Andy and Mark for the female White Throated Robin found yesterday morning, couldn’t get up for it yesterday but thankfully the bird was still present today, probably worked out better actually as access had been granted into the Doctors Garden today where the bird seemed to be spending most of its time and we got cracking views as hopped around the lawn, as to be expected though they were keeping birders well back so it wasn’t too good for photography.