A day out in Scarborough

Out with Mark and Pete today and we decided on a day out to Scarborough, a couple of close Buzzards flew over the road on the way and a short stop at the feeding station at Forge Valley saw some of the usual culprits including one or two Marsh Tits, at Scarborough we headed to Victoria Road where up to 26 Waxwings were coming and going with regular frequency onto some increasingly berryless trees, managed to get some decent shots when they came a bit lower. Dropped down to Marine Drive next in search of yesterdays Black Redstart, no sign of that but the Peregrine pair were performing well and a Purple Sandpiper posed on the sea defences. Lunch at Holbeck unusually didn’t produce any Mediterranean Gulls, they must have been off somewhere else today, then after a brief look at the Mere we headed back to the Harbour for the main targets of the day which we hoped would be showing well on the high tide, however it was the RNLI open day with two or three Lifeboats messing around, on top of that a load of Yachts went out and it turned out that the Red Throated Diver and Black Necked Grebe had swam out into the Bay in all the commotion however the Great Northern Diver remained and was good value as it went about its business of catching Crabs.

Victoria Road Waxwings first thing

some nice aerial activity from the Peregrines

having a rest

posing Purple Sand

juv Great Northern was good value

as it dined on Crabs

the RNLI celebrations included a fly past of the new rescue Helicopter 

Waxwings

A ride out to Pickering for a couple of hours this afternoon in search of Waxwings, I started at the Swimming Pool where some had been seen throughout the week but there was no sign of any today so I was just heading to another area that had been mentioned, Littledale, when Mark rang informing me it had just come on the pager there were 70+ down Middleton Road at the junction with Pipers Acre which as it turned out wasn’t far from Littledale, I spent an hour or more with them although he light was dire and they were rather skittish but always nice to see and hear and another year tick for me.

this tree down Pipers Acre was the best for light but you just couldn't get close enough before they were off

Bandits and Phalaropes

A nice day today so I thought I would head to Alkborough as the Bearded Reedlings have been showing well in recent weeks, as they were this morning and although I didn’t get the photographic session I had hoped for I did manage a few nice shots. Also the Western Swamphen, which will probably spend the rest of its days here, was showing across from the hide and although still distant was looking quite resplendent in the sunshine, plus a good selection of Waders including a couple of Spotted Redhanks, two or three Marsh Harriers hunting, a handful of Cetti’s Warblers singing and a Stonechat made for a pleasant mornings birdwatch.  I called off at Far Ings on the way back but it was fairly quiet there so I carried on to spend the afternoon at Tophill Low, the Grey Phalarope on D Reservoir was soon located but as expected was fairly distant, I had a potter around for what was left of the afternoon but the only other highlight was a Tawny Owl calling from woodland near South Marsh East.

Bearded Bandits

more Moustached really

The Swamphen also put in an appearance

Avocets looking nice in the sunshine

the Grey Phal at Tophill having a fly around

but landed miles away