saturday / sunday

 0630 the riverbank off fleet lane overlooking astley lake............ it was a crazy few moments ......great egret in the reeds 

great egret 

a little egret on the riverside 

little egret 

then a pair of gargeney flew towards astley lake 

gargeney 

wow great birding 

warbler alley was just blackcaps and willow warblers 

decided to have a look at the balance res but quiet as usual then the northern path past erb bittern boomed and water rail called a few times but despite waiting couldnt be seen. reed warbler singing near the prison gates 

caroline spit the first common sandpiper of the year along with 2 ruff and 40+ black tailed godwits, bowers lake had 3 swallow and sand martins.

heading again past the prison gates a wader flew off donut pond green sandpiper!! and remained flighty on the ings a wheatear on middle ings added to a great morning 

my favourite duck the ring necked duck was at wintersett res so off i went..........30 minutes later and after trying to get a free ticket i was bewildered by the complex process  i just left 

after a quick bit of work at my brothers i headed to redcar tarn 

possible caspian gull but very quiet 

poss caspian gull 

over cock hill to colettes 

chilled out on the decking with the nieghbours lovely 

coffee in the morning a single house martin was back over the house 

at 0730 on sunday we were looking for the red necked grebe on ashworth moor res but it had gone ! 

then up to arnside and sort of stumbled across the river kent  "bore" the speed the tide came in was stunning and worth seeing 

within minutes it had gone from mud to water 

really nice part of the country

leighton moss

the first reserve i ever visited way back in 1985 i love it 

2 booming bitterns

4 cetti's warblers 

and a nuthatch 

being very warm and busy we had a brew in the carpark and set off home 

no easter eggs or the commercial crap for us just stunning views and relaxation and birds always birds 

blacktoft sands rspb

 i must be getting old 

i used to hate it now i like it as its got seats to rest on 😂

lots of blackcaps about which is good counted 7 

1 grasshopper warbler reeling from singleton also sedge warbler singing 

2 cranes flew south aslo singelton but distant 

a nice self found tick were a pair of gargeney that flew over the reeds to land on singleton. showed briefly and managed to get others on them.........so thats 8 gargeney this year ive seen and the first ive seen flying 

lots of marsh harriers over the reeds plus booming bittern and tree sparrows 

waders were few but black tailed godwit 31 dunlin 6 lapwing 9 avocet 17 

add cetti's warbler a great visit 

hawke edurance 85mm

 out of my 4 scopes the hawke is my favourite but the 20-60x zoom is rubbish .......fov so narrow and very blurred at the edges to the point its distracting 

the eyepiece screws in and has a very unusual thread size 37mm 

so i made an adaptor from the pieces of 3mm plastic 2 with holes at 30mm and 1 hole at 27mm this had the 3 notches filed out for the bayonet fitting 

cutting each piece of plastic with the holes into 2inch squares i placed each one over the kowa eyepiece.

the eyepiece got a good grip........then glued the 3 pieces together and placed in a vice and left for a few hours then sanded it down to 39mm 

tapered the ring from 39mm to 37mm  and bingo on testing it works 

so my hawke can now take my kowa 30x w and minox 22x ww

-4 up at dawn

 bitterly cold this morning at green withens and a biting nw wind 

not a bad visit but slow going 

walk to the res had a few meadow pipits, skylark, red grouse and curlew a few reed buntings and twite calling from bracken valley 

the res had 4 teal 6 mallard and 12 canada geese 

checked the pump house tree nothing 

heading back i had a check of bracken valley i heard a "chack" suddenly a male ring ouzel took flight and flew quickly towards the dam and could not be refound but great bird 

2 black headed gulls went west as did 2 wood pigeons 

took a look at the back of the depot 2 pied wagtails 

red grouse 

canada goose 

pied wagtail 

headed to st aidens and parked at fleet lane 

different world birdwise 

cetti's warbler 12

great egret 1

bittern 1

ruff 2 

black tailed godwit 76

red kite 2

buzzard 4

sparrowhawk 1

kestrel 1

black necked grebe 6

goldeneye 2

chiffchaff 4

sand martin 8

redshank 2

oystercatcher 4

blackcap 1

caspian gull 2nd winter 

sparrowhawk

kestrel

not every day you see..........air force one

 so off headed to bempton 

took ages to get out of halifax which is annoying 

on the m62 easy now plus the A 64 was clear a nice drive and in no time stopped for a walk in the wolds........bear had a good walk and some nice yellowhammers and tree sparrows in the hedges 

warm but still a biting wind 

arrived at bempton around 1130 . as we walk out the carpark we saw some planes in the sky a formation 

a few people like us were puzzled red arrows? no.......american F-35 and Air Force One 

the black browed allbatross was just sat on the closest part of staple newk 

awesome bird 

lots of puffins around, most ive seen at bempton

fielly bay was crap for birds but jessie loved the beach and sea 

then onto cloughton wyke for the night 

we set up camp and it was lovely until a brief rain shower went past but did leave some stunning rainbows

a cuckoo flew north around 1640 and kept going and 2 willow warblers were in the gorse field slowly head north calling

many auks north along with 3 common scoter and a peregrine over the fields 

this morning it was nice to wake up yellowhammers singing