I was going to head out to Spurn on Sunday , but a combination of a big fire in Hull and unseasonably cold weather had me heading off in another direction.
I originally started at Swinemoor but there were only a few birds about the long staying pink footed goose was about the best of it with a couple of wigeon but crucilaay there were no interesting waders.
I decided to have a walk up to Pulfin and High Eske.A walk round the west side produced plenty of warblers including sedge, lesser and common whitethroat, willow and blackcap.There was a heron at the north end as well as a cuckoo.
Plenty of common wildfowl including a fine male goldeneye, a single yellow, pied and white wagtail.Lots of hirundines and on the shoreline there was a couple of ringed plovers, oystercatchers, redshanks and the star birds, 3, at times rather confiding wood sandpipers.
I initially saw them on the main shore but they soon flew off to one of the islands when anybody came walking their dog.It didn't take long for them to fly back-clearly there was some food getting washed up, also each time they came on the main bank they always walked North.
I figured that If I waited near a dead tree at the north end of the shore they might walk up close.
Unfortunately there was quite a few dog walkers around and they flushed the birds twice just as my plan was starting to work-however after a wait of about an hour and in the middle of a shower all three birds came within 6 metres-easily the best views of wood sandpiper I had ever had.
Unfortunately the light was very poor and with the limitations of digiscoping my shots don't really reflect the beauty of the birds.
Once the rain cleared it gave way to some nice sunny spells making the photography of the wagtail and little ringed plover much easier.













Bird Race

My nephew (Sam) and myself had a very tiring but enjoyable bird race today with the intention of recording 100 species of bird.
Weatherwise it didn't look very promising as a howling northerly gale brought torrential showers.
The day got off to a promising start with a sparrowhawk flying through as we loaded the car.
We had a few birds from the car as we travelled north including barn owl,stock dove, pheasant, magpie, carrion crow, rook, mistle thrush, song thrush, blackbird, redlegged partridge, starling, collard dove and house sparrow.
We reached Forge valley just before 7 and straight away the common woodland birds obliged and we soon added chaffinch, coal tit, blue tit, great tit, nuthatch, marsh tit and wren to the list.
Further up we found greenfinch, swallow, goldfinch, chiff chaff, house martin, cormorant, blackcap, tufted duck, coot, mallard, treecreeper, long tailed tit, robin, heron and 2 of the days special birds dipper and kingfisher.
We then headed to our second venue-Filey Brigg the change in conditions could not have been more diverse.
The strong northerly wind made it difficult to stand and combined with a high tide conditions did not look good.
A brisk walk to the headland and hiding behind some shelter we found jackdaw, herring gull, linnet, skylark, oystercatcher, feral pigeon, gannet, kittiwake, fulmar, eider, common scoter, meadow pipit, rock pipit, pied wagtail and shag taking the total to 52.
We then called in at Filey Dams to add little grebe, shoveller, mute swan, sand martin, moorhen, tree sparrow, great black backed gull and willow warbler to the tally.
On then to Flamborough a brief stopover produced manx shearwater, puffin, guillimot and razorbill.
A break for a bite to eat and we were off again to Tophill Low, some respite from the relentless wind.
Here we found whitethroat,dunnock, greylag goose, shellduck,canada goose, gadwall, swift, pochard, wigeon, great crested grebe, yellowhammer, sedge warbler, reed warbler, common tern, black headed gull, teal, common gull, garden warbler, reed bunting, little ringed plover, common sandpiper, yellow wagtail and another bonus bird a white wagtail.
A quick view over the wall at Swinemoor produced redshank, kestrel, lapwing, snipe, lesser black backed gull and yet another bonus bird a garganey bringing the total to a healthy 93.
Then on to our final destination-Spurn.
We thought it would be a good idea to try Beacon Ponds first (bad idea) the wind was whipping down the beach blowing sand every where we managed a lesser whitethroat and ringed plover before we got to the hide but when we got the the place was totally devoid of birds barring 2 shellducks.
We made a hasty retreat back to the car park and by now we were flagging.
Our spirits were buoyed by a ring ouzel at canal scrape and we finally managed our target by finding whimbrel, curlew, grey plover and dunlin at the gate.
We could have had more (sanderling, turnstone, brent goose little egret, knot and cuckoo were notable omissions) however after battling the elements for ten and a half hours we decided to call it a day.
Mission acomplished.