A fine day on the East Coast

Out with Mark on Sunday and although it was still a bit cold it was certainly more Spring like, we started with a quick look at Hes East where we saw the wintering Green Sandpiper and at least five Ringed Plovers but there was no sign of any Little Ringed that morning, next up was Scarborough where we soon located the Black Redstart feeding along the base of the cliffs along Marine Drive plus one of the Peregrines was terrorising the local Gulls and Fulmars, we checked out the Mere as a drake Pintail had been showing well on the Saturday but there was no sign of it although the dodgy Red Crested Pochard was present and a single Pink Footed Goose accompanied the local Greylags, on to Holbeck next but it would seem the Med Gulls have moved on now which was a shame, they would have had their full hoods now. With it being nice and sunny by this point and with good light on offer we decided to go and do a bit of photography at Bempton, all the breeding species are back in now although not in big numbers yet and we also had the bonus of a Red Kite flying along the cliff, unfortunately it turned inland before it got to where we were, after our fill of Gannets, Kittiwakes and Fulmars we moved down the coast to Barmston, the Iceland/Kumlein's Gull was still present but we didn’t fancy the mile or so walk north of the car park for it especially upon hearing the Ring Necked Duck was still on the pond at New Arram, we headed off there calling at Swine Moor en route where there was a good selection of Waders but again no Little Ringed Plovers, at New Arram the Ring Necked Duck was showing a lot better than it had when it had been at Tophill but typically kept itself towards the back of the pool, still all in all a pretty enjoyable day.

it decided to have a break from swimming

Herring Gull

Black Headed Gull

Lesser Black Backed but no Med Gulls

Bempton Cliffs

Red Kite a good record for Bempton

Loving couple

feral Rock Doves, the nearest you get to the real thing

Filey Brig and beyond

accompanied by one of the Scaup type hybrids

A ray of hope

I made an afternoon visit to North Cave Wetlands after work today and although its still very cold there was a definite warmth when the sun shone, there had been a report of a couple of Little Ringed Plovers from this morning but all I could find this afternoon were a couple of Ringed, up to 10 Avocets were also on the reserve and the redhead Smew was still present but still keeping its distance, the new workings seem to be attracting a lot Oystercatchers in and a Buzzard was up over the ridge.

a couple of views from the new hide, this one over the new workings
and below looking over the old part of the reserve to the ridge.

Roll on Spring

With nothing much around at the moment and Winter refusing to loosen its grip with plenty of snow further afield I decided to stay local today, I started with a look through the Gulls at Poppleton then Rufforth Airfield and although there are a few smart looking Lesser Black Backs around now there were none of the rarer Gulls about this morning, after making a short detour down Common Lane at Heslington to year tick Little Owl, I headed off to the LDV starting at East Cottingwith then making my way round to North Duffield Carrs, there is still a good selection of Wildfowl present but numbers seem well down, I suppose stuff is starting to move north now, god knows why, highlights were a drake Scaup on the river at North Duffield Carrs and a few Whooper Swans on Bubwith Ings. I had a wander round the bottom end of Skipwith Common next, a Barn Owl was out hunting but there was little else then it was on to Thoganby and Bank Island but apart from a Buzzard en route there was nothing more to add to what had already been seen.

LBB Gull at Rufforth Airfield

Little Owl keeping an eye on Grey Squirrel

LDV from Aughton Church

Skipwith Common

Winters not finished yet

Its that awkward interim period while waiting for Spring to get going and me and Mark were not sure what to do today then with an unexpected bright start to the day we decided to head up to Wykeham to try for the Goshawks again, success this time we had a couple of birds displaying mid morning but they were very distant, right over the other side of the valley, we later took a tour of the forest area but only managed another brief sighting, Buzzards were performing well though with eight up in the air together at one point, we had also hoped to find some Crossbills but we didn't, they seem to be thin on the ground this Winter. After lunch we dropped into Scarborough but a rather heavy shower kept us in the car so we didn’t see much then with news that the Caspian Gull found yesterday at Flamborough was showing we headed off there, it would seem that it was an erroneous report though, we bumped into some of the local birders scanning through the Gulls and they told us the bird had not been seen today and they had been watching the area at the time it was reported, we joined them scanning the Gulls for a while but nothing was picked out. We went back to Filey but it had become quite windy on the cliffs, a bit bleak to say the least and a quick scan of the Bay revealed nothing so we soon moved to the Dams which was also very quiet. We headed for home and were surprised to find a light covering of snow inland then a busy A64 prompted us to detour via Strensall, the Common looking very surreal in the late evening light with the ghostly form of a Barn Owl out hunting.

six Buzzards and a Crow

a Wintry Strensall Common