redcar tarn

 i love it up here 

gulls galore 

a nice juv/ 1st winter caspian 

long legs 

primary flashes 

pale underwing 

pale lozenges on p8,p9

these birds stand out in flight, like a flittering bulb, the darker upperwing contrasts with the pale underwing

the darker head gave me some concerns but is pale enough 

http://www.joshrjones.com/blog/first-juvenile-caspian-gull-of-the-year

love it 

ducks and waders

 weather is crap constant rain wind 

im in the mood to see birds ive not seen for years so of i head 

southfield res 

saw an american wigeon years ago here 

parked just before the gate to sailing club and headed below the banking, lots of thrushes in the bushes mainly redwing but a few fieldfare 

met a birder who told me the ring necked duck was present but fast asleep 

so on a windy rainy day on somewhere you dont know how do you find a female ringed necked duck? 

lots of ducks on the water,mallard a few tufted alone then a nice group of pochard. yep fast asleep but classic head shape and eyering 

for some reason they love pochard 

getting wet i headed down to blackoft 

and finally great views of the white tailed plover, it was nice to see again but frustrating, i will help anyboby but a couple came into the hide the guy was keen on seeing the plover and went to ask people when his wife said whats this funny bird?

thats the plover i said 

went to zerox hide and saw the plover fly in, but my best views over three visits

ive only seen a few green winged teal back in the 90,s so nice to see this one at north cave 

another great morning

 yep redcar tarn again 

the norweigan black headed gull is still present also the lesser black backed gull with green colour ring,was ringed in the forest of bowland in 2019 as a chick then headed to Madrid classy! spent its time on a tip not so classy 

caspian gull still present also the caspian X herring gull 1st winter was knocking about 

i like this place loads to photograph and study later 

redcar tarn

 full of cold heads battered 

now wheres a rest full site that needs no walking? yep redcar tarn

blowing a gale up here again 

but its a great spot, non stop birding/photography, most of the ducks look like hybrids but hey 

the black headed gull from Norway is still present 

another gull colour ringed was a lesser black backed gull 

its also good for commoner birds jackdaws are very tame when food is put out 

this appears to be a mallard crossed with what?

spent 3 hours sat in the van noticed people either walk around 4 times or just feed birds 

the gulls here are great, now i may get some wrong 

herring gull and lesser black backed gull 

the size and structure is apparent here 

the broader blunter wings of the herring the lbbgull looks almost delicate 

a classic lbbgull in first winter 

heavy streaking pointed wing and black bill

yellow legged gull 

unless im wrong 

caspian gull pitfalls

 so the long staying caspian gull at redcar tarn is labelled as a common gull on birdguides!!! they need to sort out the algorithums 

going through my photos this caught my eye 

clean headed,nice shawl, beady eye, looks like a classic 1st winter caspian gull 

but more photos 

credit to steve clifton  for commenting 

'Another interesting individual, and I have to admit that on first impression I thought it was (almost) a 1cy Caspian Gull.

However, there are quite a few things wrong. The tertials have broad fringes with internal markings, and the wing coverts look to be largely second generation. Also, the underwing isn't obviously pale/white enough for a Caspian Gull (either 1st or 2nd yr) and from what I can see the primaries are round-tipped. P10 is also shorter than P9, which also indicates a 2cy, as you'd expect any 1cy UK gull to have fully grown it's primaries this late in the autumn (2cy birds will still be just about completing moult of their flight feathers around now, so outermost will still be growing).

I think it's a 2cy 'Herring Gull', but due to that very snouty look, quite probably one with some Caspian genes in the mix-in fact I'm almost certain of it. Note that the iris is quite pale (for a 1cy, but not for a 2cy) and P10 lacks the sub-terminal mirror that you'd expect to see on a normal 2cy Caspian.'

birdforum is a great resource to have at your finger tips 

thanks steve 

caspian gull redcar tarn

 an addition to yesterday 

caspian gull is still i think quite good in yorkshire 

so headed off to redcar tarn its only 14 miles away 

it looks good for caspian but it doesnt im confused 

redcar tarn

 firstly its bloody cold up here and secondly its great 

got here for around 0830 light was and remained crap but what a place, 

even though its basically a pond its tiny, it was full of ducks and gulls and the local people feed them 

parked the van up and wow! really windy so reversed into the parking area and just sat with the back doors open for 3 hours 

lots of escapes but also loads of tufted duck coot a pair of goosander heard wigeon call a nice group of lapwings flew over plus a peregrine which sent everything up 

bradfords not the nicest place, its dirty scruffy and full of rubbish, at 49 years old i cannot recall a nice part of bradford, its not a nice place must be the only place in the UK where you dont need a driving licsence, yes you can turn left from the right hand lane and just stop in the middle of the road to chat to your mates and you can park on bus stops 

the drive to redcar tarn is not the best takes an hour through some of the scruffiest moors and villages and bradford council instead of tidying up the area would rather spend nearly 2 years on reataining wall 

yes spend money on walls not the shit that litters the streets 

a few years ago we went to bradford hospital to visit a friend,at the time we had an old mattress to get rid of, but i drive a van so couldnt take it to the tip should of just dumped it in bradford no one would care yes its a shit hole 

finally found a nice part of bradford, and a tiny place 

so loads of birds a black headed gull was sat on the post infront of me ringed 

r

swilly saturday morning

 despite the two-barred warbler last sunday this october is just crap and living 2hours from the yorkshire coast makes it worse

so after visiting the parents and mending the gutters i headed off to swilly 

parked at the RSPB car park usually park at the hide 

2 buzzards playing over the hillside in the wind 

walked the path below the hill towards the balance reservoir, for some reason birds dont like it but i do so 8 pochards 10 tufted ducks 3 wigeon 1 goldeneye and a cettis warbler i headed to astley.

a jay flew over 

astley had 3 lbbgulls a few lapwing so back tracked to check the western reedbed.........very nice... bearded tit calling water rail 2 calling little egret 3 cettis warblers 14 snipe and 18 dunlin flew over 

the eastern reedbed wader wise had 3 ruff 1 redshank 8 dunlin plus water rail 

a great crested grebe teaching the young one how to fish was lovely 

2 more cettis warblers singing, i do think these skulking warblers are very special so record all i hear or see, as i think lots of people take them for granted not me love em, twice at swilly ive heard them just explode singing so close ive jumped 

i do like long tailed tits so nice to see a group alongside the path 

after 3 hours i was very tired so made my way back to the van 

2 stonechats 

new scope

 a hawke endurance ed 85 

im actually quite impressed and bears some simarlarity to a kowa 883

first field test was midday watching the long toed stint from the river bank, which was a fair distance, 

nice and sharp 

a better test today at swillington 

at just after dawn it was very cloudy but some sun coming through 

i was very impressed that even looking towards the sun i had crisp clear image with very bright colours which were very pleasing,

the 20-60x is good up to 45x after that you need to use the fine focus wheel and its acceptable 

weekend 16th-17th october

 yesterday i was going to go to spurn but the winds looked all wrong! so headed to swillington, the long toed stint had gone but waders included 

2 black tailed godwits

4 ruff

9 dunlin 

2 curlew 

1 green sandpiper 

also a group of 7 bearded tits showed nicely on the reedbed

a few cettis singing and a little egret 

heading home to continue decorating, making the most of my time i ignored the mega alerts thinking its proberly just the usual rares...........logged on to birdguides not only a taiga flycatcher at flambourgh but two barred warbler at spurn both lifers, too late in the day now to go 

the flycatcher was on the cliffside so not much chance of that staying but the two barred warbler at spurn looked to have plenty of habitat to keep it plus the weather 

sunday 

up early and on the road for 0520, put £30 of diesel in the van at shibden hit the m62 just after half 5 quite busy 

once past ferrybridge stuck the cruise control until the 40mph at north cave at half 6 i was past the humber bridge, its a decent drive until you get to hedon roundabout then twisty roads 

parked up at the blue bell and took the coast path, not many birders but enough to refind it just after 0730 

very mobile ranging from the bottom end of the canal to the ywt center 

two barred warbler 

spurn 17 10 2021

a really nice twitch saw a few familar faces garry taylor and darren ward but ages since ive spoke to them 

did the triangle but it was dead in the wind 

saw the two barred warbler a few more times 

after some nice views of brent geese and little egret the rain came so headed off home yep for more decorating 

snow bunting

 well a weekday find 

got to work for just after 7am and all ive being doing for a week is making hardwood windows, just before 8am i step outside for a coffee, have a sit down and listen

from mid september get a few meadow pipits over plus the usual pied wags and the odd grey 

this morning a weak 'chew' a second later 'chew'  snow bunting heading south nice 

swillington

its nice to actually have a mega just down the road no long drive 

very busy again this morning with birders one lady walking her dogs saw the crowed and said "what the hell" 

watched the stint for a bit.but the guy infront kept moving around  he was a twat 

in prime position a few people got a view through my scope 

had a nice walk did the western reedbed twice 

lots of snipe and a single black necked grebe a few little egrets