Staveley

After all the excitement on Saturday I had a rather more sedate birdwatch at Staveley YWT Reserve yesterday morning, the weather was quite wild to start with but brightened up a bit later, its a nice little reserve that I discovered a couple of years back but it is rather quiet at the moment.

a bit of action at the feeding station

often taken for granted they are looking quite smart at this time of year

A Crooked and Craggy tale

Last Sunday reports came through of a Crag Martin flying around the crooked church spire in Chesterfield but being in deepest Lincolnshire I deemed there wouldn't be enough time to go for it, it disappeared after 2pm anyway, incredibly the bird turned up again the following morning and showed several times into the early afternoon before disappearing again, the pattern was repeated on the Tuesday so hopes were raised that it would remain to the weekend however they were soon dashed when there was no sign of it on the Wednesday. Unbelievably it was seen again yesterday, no idea where it has been but the twitch was back on, I teamed up with Mark and Paz and we arrived just after first light soon spotting a Peregrine on one corner of the church munching away on what we hoped wasn’t a Crag Martin, the morning wore on, a skein of Pinkfeet went over but there was no sign of the Martin by 9am, nor by 10, by 10-30 optimism was beginning to wane then around 10-45 a cheer went up, thankfully it had returned, huge sighs of relief all round and we enjoyed watching this superfast Hirundine flying around the church for the next hour or so, just after mid-day it disappeared and the forecast rain started so it wasn’t long before we called it a day, three very happy birders with another lifer in the bag.

early morning Peregrine eating breakfast

Crag Martin, after keeping us waiting it then performed well

though extremely hard to photograph

this was the best shot I managed

A dip in the Wash

A couple of weeks ago a juv Pallid Harrier was seen flying South at Spurn, a few days later it was relocated at Donna Nook where it hung around for a day or two before moving South again, remarkably it was picked up again around Gibraltar Point where it has been showing on and off over this past week finally giving itself up yesterday showing well several times throughout the day and as such it prompted me to head off there this morning feeling fairly confident of getting my second sighting of this species. I arrived just after 9am and was informed the bird had already been seen and had headed off North so I went out to “Lill’s Hut” and joined the small group of birders awaiting its reappearance, unfortunately it didn't come back today, this species continuing to elude me, after seeing the Winterton bird in 2006 I have now dipped four or five. There was some Raptor action though, Marsh and Hen Harriers were about, including a fine male of the latter, Buzzard, Sparrowhawk and Merlin showing off their hunting skills, also a small party of Whooper Swans went over early morning and several parties of Siskins headed South and of course Little Egrets everywhere. Can't believe it I didn't take any pics today.

Flamborough/Filey

As usual all the mid-week goodies had melted away by the weekend, I decided to try Flamborough anyway just in case yesterdays Pallid Swift might have shown up again, it didn’t, a very nice sunny day but very quiet birdwise, the best of it being a female Black Redstart around the Lighthouse and a few Pinkfeet over. I headed over to Filey mid-afternoon but being a nice day it was very busy so there was not much on offer there neither although I did note a couple of Fieldfare and a Short Eared Owl come in off. 

taking a dive

Rock Pipits at South Landing

Greenshank

and winter Dunlin at Thornwick Pools

Kessy off Carr Naze in late afternoon sun

A Grey day at the Gare

I nipped up to South Gare, Redcar this afternoon as yesterdays Grey Phalarope was still present, it was showing well feeding along the shoreline in the bay, a big flock of Sanderling and Turnstone were also present, fairly quiet otherwise.

She posed nicely but the bright sky made things difficult