Monthly Archives: February 2024

RSPB Fairburn Ings

Posted on February 25, 2024 | Leave a comment

The attraction of Fairburn Ings today was just simply to get out with the camera and binoculars , and Fairburn gave me a second chance of catching up with the Cattle Egret and Willow Tit, hopefully.

Anyway on arriving at Fairburn, I decided on having a bit of time at the Visitor Centre feeders first, here I saw Coal Tit, Blackbird, Robin, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Chaffinch, Dunnock, Long tailed Tit, and Wren. After the photo session here, I headed around to the other feeders close by, in the hope of the Willow Tit, but due to the noise level and dogs running the feeding area I gave up and decided on moving down to the Lin Dyke area, I would be quieter down there, hopefully.

Walking around Lin Dyke , it was quieter, I spotted Great White Egret, Little Egret, Mute Swan, Tufted Duck, Shelduck, Greylag Geese, Canada Geese, Pochard, Shovelers, Wigeon, Cormorants and Black headed Gulls and finally a pair of distant Cattle Egret.

I then got talking to someone who was looking for the Lin Dyke feeders, where the Willow Tit had been seen, now I didn’t think there were any feeders down this end of the reserve, but it transpired there was, and they were located on the entrance to the car park, this is where the Willow Tit has been seen, this guy eventually saw it, after waiting thirty mins, then came and found me, told me all about, so I finished my day at said feeders waiting for thirty mins also, until 5:30pm when the light was fading, no Willow Tit for me but plenty of Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long tailed Tit.

I called it a day, I was heading back towards the visitor centre, thinking a Barn Owl would be nice now, just going over the road. I got to the visitor centre and turned onto Back Newton Lane, when I saw a bird shadow in the distance, thinking Buzzard, it wasn’t till I got nearer that it turned out to be a Barn Owl, well that made up for missing the Willow Tit

Short Video of the Visit Press THIS

Bird List : Barn Owl, Blackbird, Black headed Gull, Blue Tit, Canada Goose, Carrion Crow, Cattle Egret, Chaffinch, Coal Tit, Common Gull, Coot, Cormorant, Dunnock, Gadwall, Goldfinch, Great Crested Grebe, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Great Tit, Great White Egret, Grey Heron, Greylag Goose, Jackdaw, Little Egret, Little Grebe, Long tailed Tit, Magpie, Mallard, Moorhen, Mute Swan, Oystercatcher, Pheasant, Pochard, Reed Bunting, Robin, Shelduck, Shoveler, Sparrowhawk, Stock Dove, Teal, Tufted Duck, Wigeon, Woodpigeon, Wren (43) (YTD 110)

Reed Bunting
Reed Bunting
Wren
Wren

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Cromwell Bottom

Posted on February 10, 2024 | Leave a comment

A nice steady morning down at the local Nature Reserve, Cromwell Bottom, first sightings were around the car park with Blue Tit, Great Tit, Bullfinch, Grey Herons, Blackbirds, Magpies and Woodpigeons.

On down at the canal were the usual Mallards but no Mute Swans this morning. On at the Visitor Centre feeders were more Stock Dove, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Chaffinch, Nuthatch and Robins, with a single Grey Wagtail in the staff car park.

After about 30mins i moved on and headed towards the weir, down here i encountered a few Robins, heard a few Song Thrush, always proving difficult to get a photo of unlike the Robins, who to want photos taken.

On down at the large feeding area there seemed to be a bit more action, but this time I didn’t enter in to the seating area put stopped around the periphery were I saw Reed Buntings, Dunnocks, Blue Tit, Great Tits, Chaffinch, Coal Tit, Long tailed Tit, and of course Robins, with Great Spotted Woodpecker and Goldfinch being heard.

I walked a bit further on and towards the Old Canal area alas no Kingfisher was sighted but I did manage to see a single Goldcrest. On then to view the Ski Lake area where there were plenty of Gulls to go thru these were, Black headed, Common, Herring and Lesser Black backed Gulls, wildfowl on here were Tufted Duck, Coot, Moorhen and a few Goldeneye, Cormorants were plenty as well.

I then worked my way back to the viewing platform overlooking the lagoon area where I saw a single Male Teal along with a Little Grebe. Walking back to the Visitor Centre, I finally managed to get a photo of a singing Song Thrush.

Bird list : Blackbird, Black headed Gull, Blue Tit, Bullfinch, Buzzard, Canada Goose, crow, Chaffinch, Coal Tit, Common Gull, Coot, Cormorant, Dunnock, Goldcrest, Goldeneye, Goldfinch, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Great Tit, Grey Heron, Grey wagtail, Herring Gull, jay, Lesser Black backed Gull, Little Grebe, Long tailed Tit, Magpie, Mallard, Moorhen, Nuthatch, Reed Bunting, Robin, Song Thrush, Stock Dove, Teal, Tufted Duck, Woodpigeon, Wren (37)

Reed Bunting
Reed Bunting
Song Thrush
Song Thrush

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Day Out

Posted on February 4, 2024 | Leave a comment

Wykeham Forest and the Raptor view point was our first stop of the day with Goshawk in mind. We arrived at about 9am to an empty car park, we got our gear together to the call of Crossbills overhead and eventually settling in the nearby trees, a great start. Setting off then to the nearby raptor viewpoint, a short walk. We were soon joined by more Crossbill, giving off there distinctive calls, along with the Crossbills were Siskins, although the Crossbill were nice to see we were here for raptors, so we started watching the skies.

We soon picked up some raptors over the far ridge, these turned out to be Common Buzzards, along with them however were a couple of Goshawk, bingo. It was more of the same for the next hour with no ground breaking views of Goshawk all staying distant, the Crossbills however were different.

After an hour or so we moved off and headed towards the coast, for the reported Snow Buntings and Shorelarks. We stopped off at Filey Country Park first, in rain and wind, in the search of the Slavonian Grebe. Viewing from the Brigg we picked up Great Northern and Red Throated Divers, Gannets off shore, and a dark looking Rock Pipit at our feet, we eventually picked out the Slavonian Grebe, it was closer in shore than we expected. On the Country Park field were Oystercatchers, Redshanks, Turnstone, and Black tailed Godwits.

Our last port of call was Thornwick Bay Caravan Park, near Thornwick pools, after blots of walking we finally found the field were the Snow Buntings were, very distant, you could make out they were Snow Buntings, but too far to make out any Shorelarks, a pair of Stonechat on the way back to the car was a nice sight

No photos today due to weather but here a short video of a Male Crossbill, press THIS

Todays Bird List : Bat tailed Godwit, Blackbird, Black headed Gull, Buzzard, Crow, Chaffinch, Common Crossbill, Common Scoter, Coot, Cormorant, Fulmar, Gannet, Goshawk, Great Crested Grebe, Great Northern Diver, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Great Tit, Herring Gull, Jackdaw, Magpie, Mallard, Moorhen, Mute Swan, Oystercatcher, Pheasant, Red Kite, Redshank, Shag, Siskin, Slavonian Grebe, Snow Bunting, Song Thrush, Sparrowhawk, Starling, Stonechat, Teal, Turnstone, Woodpigeon (39)

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