A good day at last

Went down to Attenborough NR on the outskirts of Nottingham with Andy and Peter this morning where a juv Squacco Heron was found a couple of days ago, the bird was still present this morning and showing well on the river Erewash at the South west corner of the reserve, the bird is favouring a small patch of vegetation under the railway bridge there and even though its been flushed several times by dog walkers and anglers it keeps returning to its favourite patch, we then took a walk around a part of this very big reserve seeing a good selection of the more common stuff plus several pairs of Egyptian Geese and a pair of Red Crested Pochard. After lunch we headed off to Worlaby Carrs and spent a nice sunny afternoon being entertained by several common Buzzards, a couple of ringtail Hen Harriers and at least ten Short Eared Owls, it looks like its going to be another good winter for this species. We finished the day with a quick look at Far Ings where a female Scaup and immature Ferruginous Duck were on the pool east of the approach road.

Showed well before it was flushed by a dog walker

Shorties showed well although never came really close

female Scaup

Immature Fudge Duck in the failing light

a bit better afternoon

South easterlies over the last couple of days have resulted in a handful of migrants along the east coast, I nipped to Flamborough after work but it seemed that all yesterdays good birds had moved on and it was very quiet, a Stonechat in the Gorse field was the best I could manage, then Mark rang and told me that an Olive Backed Pipit had just been found at Filey, I shot off there and joined the twenty or more birders looking for not one but two OBP’s, unfortunately they were not little posers and even though I stayed till dark I only managed a couple of flight views, still better than nothing also a Short Eared Owl flew over as I was waiting.

Birding blues

And so the bad luck continues, after failing to see the Glossy Ibis at Teesside on Wednesday I couldn’t believe it when a juv Pallid Harrier turned up there the next day, it showed extremely well at Dormans Pool all day Friday so Saturday morning found me waiting there bright and early hoping for a repeat performance, alas it was not to be there was no sign, I hung around until 11am but had to be back home by lunchtime and then annoyingly the bird was seen during the afternoon over Cowpen and Greenabella Marshes. Sunday me and Andy were back up there, we staked out the Marshes for most of the morning where Marsh Harrier and Merlin entertained but again there was no sign of the Pallid, we had distant views of the Semipalmated Sandpiper on Back Saltholme during the afternoon which offered a little recompense but by late afternoon and despite a few rumours there had been no definite sightings of the Harrier. Then belated news came out today that the Harrier was photographed on the ground eating prey at Cowpen Bewley Woodland Park yesterday afternoon, I find it hard to take that the finder didn't release news of this sighting until today especially knowing how many people were looking for this bird.

coming in to land

Teesside

Yet another bad day, I went up to Teesside this morning for the Glossy Ibis that had been at Saltholme since last weekend but it had decided to depart today and there was little else of note, just a couple of Little Egrets, the flock of Barnacle Geese and a Merlin that shot over and had a tussle with a Kestrel but it was a nice day so I did a bit of photography. After lunch I went to Seaton Snook in search of Twite etc but the place was birdless today so I returned to Saltholme but gave up on the Ibis by late afternoon and headed home via Scaling Dam, a juvenile Red Breasted Goose has been present here since the beginning of the month and its a case of is it wild or not, some think its credentials are good but as it is associating with the resident feral Geese it will probably be deemed an escapee, it was still present today but distant, also a few Whooper Swans there.

a flock of Golden Plover wheel in

stretching

Geese at Scaling Dam

a few Whoopers at Scaling Dam