Cleveland - Out and about!

An early arrival and overnight stay with friends in Yarm meant a day out birding was possible - with veteran local birder Mike Gee. Getting ready to go out, a noisy Jay in the garden made a brief entry!






A visit to Bowesfield Marsh blanked the Green-winged Teal which has been putting in an appearance lately. Must be the stickiest? mud in existence here!! Eight Whooper Swans were on the water and time didn't permit the long walk for better 'light'!






A little bit of persuasion meant the next target birds were the Redpolls at Rainton Meadows. Mealies were a cert here and a long awaited tick!

Outnumbering the Lessers, the larger Mealy Redpolls had quite distinctive pale plumage and the images I know I'm going to post from the following day will do them better justice! Nevertheless, a Lesser and Mealy Redpoll on a feeder together are quite easily told apart....








Eventually, the larger and more aggressive Mealies took over and dominated feeding proceedings. There were about 20 present, numbers well down and no sign of the Arctic....






The final call was at Saltholme where the only real interest was likely to be roosting Long-eared Owls? We managed to find one and a couple of record shots through the twigs and various obstructions, at least meant the day finished with another decent bird....








An evening talk on 'Digital Photography' was to follow, I planned to return to Rainton Meadows the following day - to take advantage of early morning light and hopefully more obliging birds!

South Ferriby - Roughing it!

A not too uncharacteristic detour on my way up to Cleveland saw me turn up at the mouth of the Humber, a small place called South Ferriby - home for much of the Winter for a Rough-legged Buzzard!

The only clue I had for the locality was the Brick Factory - well couldn't miss that!






And then, I spotted another unmissable sight - this had to be the bird! Long wings hovering Osprey fashion over the field by the road!! with a squeal of brakes, dust everywhere, I came to a halt in one of the lay-bys and hastily grabbed the camera out of the bag.....

A bit shaky I know but this was to be the moment of the day - if only I'd arrived a few minutes earlier?!







After the brief hover, it flew over to the fence around the factory waste land.....






Where it was to stay for much of the session - except it continuously further and further away! At least with every short flight I got another chance of catching the distinctive tail pattern!






Eventually after nearly three hours of waiting, it put in a brief appearance near the fence again, only to turn back and fly away - the last decent record shots of the day!








I made my way up to Yarm and some fantastic hospitality - birding was on the menu for the following day too.....

Venus Pool - Corn Buntings!

The crop in the top field at Venus Pool has now been cut back to stubble and injected a new lease of life in the activity there. A huge Finch flock is in and out feeding on the ground and best viewed from near the large Oak tree. With birds into the 100's - primarily Reed Buntings and Yellowhammer with good numbers of Brambling, Chaffinch etc, it's a sight worth seeing!

The birds are quite flighty but here are male and female Yellowhammer.....








Male Reed Buntings....








All leading up to the birds I was really after - initially located on call.....






At least five Corn Buntings present today - bird and image of the day!! ......






I'm off to the North East tomorrow until Wednesday and hope to get some birding in.....

Venus Pool - Waders!!

It's pushing it to report that 21 Curlew, c100 Lapwing, 1 Common Snipe and two Oystercatcher represent an influx of waders at Venus Pool but.....

I called by at 4.30 after a day on 'garden' activity, the two Oyks, flying about....






Were joined by a lone Dunlin....






I then realised there were four more in front of the Memorial hide - they stayed long enough for me to get one or two shots and then, with everything back up in the air again - they were gone.....

Cork - Kennedy Pier

A talk to the Cork Alpine Garden group gave me a 'couple of hours' opportunity to check out the fabled Kennedy Pier at Cobh which was only a 20 minute train ride away....

My hosts were slowly having their car wing mirrors hacked away away as I left by a territorial and totally manic male Chaffinch! Always picking the spot where he could see those two other Chaffs invading his space?






The vistors board at Cobh (last port of call for the Titanic!) looked very interesting indeed! A shame it wasn't going to live up to it's reputation....






Less than 20 Gulls about and apart from Black-heads, all I had to feed was this adult Winter Common Gull.....










Everywhwere I seem to go lately, a Med Gull is never far away and Cobh was no exception - the only decent Gull of the session!








As for the House Crow which I had hoped to see, it was a no show (for me!) I did ask one or two of the locals but all I got was this long hard stare from all of them....

New Brighton - wader roost

High tide done and dusted, we drove over to New Brighton. A quick look over the wall by the Lifeguard station turned up a sparse number of the usual waders including this extraordinary Bar-tailed Godwit with a nasty looking growth projecting out it's throat!






The marina next to the fort was the next call and after managing to park amongst the mayhem of the 'Sunday afternoon' masses, got this smart adult Med Gull on the water.....






This was where many of the roosting waders were having a snooze - on the pontoon. Have a close look, there are six species on view here!







Another busy week coming up with talks all over the place including the alpine plant group in Cork! You never know, I might have time for a quick session birding?

Parkgate - Spring High Tide!!

One of Nature's special moments, the Spring high tide at Parkgate tempted SEVEN species of raptor to put in an appearance! It was not a day for photography however with dank grey skies but I manages a few 'atmospheric' shots from the day......

Little Egrets abound here and two were feeding in front of the old baths.








One or two ringtail Hen Harrier...






At least two maybe three Merlin were hunting quite regularly - this was the only species to perch within 100m!








The last raptor to show (coaxed into action by the rising tide) were the Shorties - two in front of us and at least another two more distant








The raptors not close enough for even record shots were Common Buzzard, Kestrel, Peregrine (and ironically way too close overhead! - a Sparrowhawk!)

Next stop New Brighton for roosting waders????