Wolds Raptors on a not so sunny afternoon

It was supposed to be a sunny afternoon today so I nipped up to Nunburnholme after work to photograph the Red Kites, they got it wrong again though and by the time I got up there it was becoming increasingly cloudy, however several Kites showed well even though the light wasn’t particularly good but better still was a rather showy Barn Owl that teased and tantalized for most of the afternoon, also of note were two or three pairs of Buzzards that were busy displaying and a pair of courting Green Woodpeckers plus an ermine Stoat ran across the road.

Less and Less and Less Spotted Woodpeckers

I was leading the York Bird Club field outing down into Notts today starting at Rufford CP hoping for Lesser Peckers, the first two car loads got onto four Hawfinches on a tree by the car park shortly after arriving unfortunately they flew off before the third car got there and despite extensive searching they couldn’t be relocated nor did we find any Lesser Peckers, in fact we felt lucky to get a pair of Great Spots then again the weather was against us really, it was extremely cold with frequent snow showers through the morning. We reverted to Plan B and headed off to the Sherwood Forest Visitor Centre, another site for Lesser Peckers but again there was no sign although many of the more common woodland species performed well and the Major Oak has stood another year. After lunch we moved on to Budby Common but with the onset of another snow shower it wasn’t looking good however as the shower passed we found a little feeding flock of passerines including a pair of Stonechats and a Green Woodpecker, mid afternoon it started to brighten up a bit so we decided to check out Welbeck, a couple of Buzzards were flying around but the wind chill wasn’t conclusive to standing about watching Raptors so we soon headed down into Clumber Park where we ended the day with a walk by the Lake, not the best trip to the Clumber area I've ever led but the weather wasn't particularly good, nevertheless the two specialities of this trip are proving ever more difficult to connect with each year.

Hiding again, one day I'll get a decent shot of one

Norfolk ramblings

I was out with Mark and Pete last Sunday and we decided on a trip to Norfolk, it was not a very good start though, after a two and half hour stake out at the Wolferton Triangle no Golden Pheasants had revealed themselves to us then with news the White Tailed Eagle was sat in a tree at Houghton Hall we shot off there only to find the bird had flown and there were no further sightings up until we left just after midday. We fared a bit better during the afternoon along the North Norfolk coast, Wells produced a Black Brant among the Dark Bellied Brents plus a few Bar Tailed Godwits, although most of the Geese seemed to have cleared out already there were still a good few Pinkfeet and White Fronts at Holkham Freshmarsh as well as several Little Egrets, Marsh Harriers and Buzzards plus Egyptian Geese. There was a good selection of stuff at Titchwell as usual including Bramblings on the feeders, 60+ Avocets back in as well as Black Tailed Godwits, Grey and Golden Plovers, Spotted Redshanks etc, Common Scoter and Long Tailed Ducks on the sea plus a ringtail Hen Harrier flew over. Late afternoon we thought we’d try Wolferton again on the way home, a Muntjac was showing well from us getting there, then eventually two male Golden Pheasants walked out and fed on the grass verge for around five mins, a pleasing end to the day particularly after missing them earlier.