Wintry Scenes

The cold snap has continued, most of the water bodies at my local patch are mostly frozen over.

Recent Patch Birds

Yesterday I was treated to the sight of 15 Whooper Swans over the patch, and I also caught up with the drake Smew at last! Also this little Robin is proving delightful should you enter its territory, it will feed from your hand and stay around your feet - wonderful !! :)

Bearded Reedlings

These birds are proving to be a bit addictive to photograph! They are at times so close and confiding and have provided so much pleasure to the observer!

Red Necked Phalarope

What a delightful little bird. It has been around for nigh on 2 weeks and had attracted a lot of attention! It is very confiding and seems total undisturbed by hoards of birders/photographers. It has at times been almost close enough to reach out and touch it. It certainly has won some hearts :)

Shore Larks

I was thrilled to at last see these birds, there were 4 in total there on Sunday. I didnt think I would get to see them before they disappeared as Mick working everyday at mo so I was delighted when my friend Max offered to take me there. We had wonderful weather and the birds didnt disappoint. A brilliant day! They were always quite distant but will careful approach, without risking flushing the birds and getting covered in wet sand as a result, I managed to get reasonable record photos - this bird was another "lifer" for me :)

Snow Buntings

Delightful little birds, in a flock with Twite.

Black Necked Grebe

Here are a few record shots, heavily cropped! It was nice to see this bird, a lifer for me, have always dipped out before when they have been reported locally. The warden informed me it was the first one of the winter (North Cave Wetlands). It was always distant but I was delighted to see it!

Little Grebe

I love Little Grebe, they are so cute! I enjoyed watching one of them from the hide, the water was clear and shallow and it was great to watch one of them under the water to-ing and fro-ing to catch fish. What a delight :)

Snipe

Largest flock of these I have ever seen - a total of 18

Starling Roost

Our local starlings have been gathering to roost , the flock are getting larger and larger. I managed these photos one evening, was a shame I didnt have a nice sunset as a backdrop but then you cant have everything - It was breathtaking to watch and they came so close that I could feel and hear them - awesome! Quite a challenge to capture in low light conditions - will no doubt get another opportunity to photograph them

Bempton

A visit to Bempton cliffs on Saturday proved to be a washout! We hoped to view the Red Backed Shrike that has been there for a few days but with terrible visibility with fog and rain we dipped out. A few Gannet were observed over the sea and hundreds of Blackbird coming in were a delight to see along with a number of Redwing. A Sparrowhawk was observed too near to the visitor centre .Mick had a close encounter with a weasel. The day ended on a very pleasant note as we called in at Worlaby Carrs and enjoyed an hour of sunshine in the company of Barn Owls and our first Short Eared Owl of the autumn.

Bearded Tits Again!

I was delighted yesterday to again watch and photograph my local Beardies in good light at long last! I had 10 birds, after a wait of nearly 3 hours.

Bearded Tit

A magical experience - 3 hours with these delightful little birds - a flock of around 20. Mainly seen on the gravel path. In winter they eat lots of seeds and so take in gravel as a digestion aid. They were all very vocal too!

Knot

On a beach walk at the weekend we came across this very confiding lone Knot - we only usually see them in their spectacular flocks at distance.

Coastal Birds

We had a few hours at the coast over the weekend, here is a selection of what we saw, Lapwing, Stonechat, Wren and a record shot of a scarcer Spotted Redshank