cold its cold

freezing in the valley

friday was beer and pizza from hammads in mytholmroyd which i looked at my pizza and had a flashback to the caspian in huddersfield 1991 which was the first takeaway pizza i had top food 

saturday was southport a bit of birding and shopping 

birding won with loads of pinkfoots little egrets skylarks and grey plover 

jacksons fish and chips were good which ate over looking marine lake 

just herring gulls 

blizzard on the way back 

sunday st aidens.............cold and frozen over

arctic skua still showing well on the bulge got great views as it flew overhead 

great egret over the main lake 

3 curlew 

1 dunlin 

 

a welsh overnighter

 so we headed to wales having decided to stay at the lighthouse inn carpark at talacre 

talacre is if honest is a tacky place but the beach is great with the old lighthouse but a winter visit suited us better a lot quieter than when we use to use it at a place to walk jessie on the drive to colettes parents in dolgarog 

on the old coast road from queensferry to talacre is crammed with lots to see and visit 

flint castle 

id bought colette a pair of binoculars as she always wants to borrow mine 

simmons 8x42 master series 

not bad optics for £49 must be some opticron / hawke origins in these nice sharp image 

flint castle birds 

little egret 1

peregrine 1

black tailed godwit 18

talacre

a nice chiffchaff in the bushes by the beach 

merlin flew over the saltmarsh putting up all the linnets, meadow pipits 

lots of little egrets 

pink footed geese 21

brent goose 12

pintails nc

greenshank 1 

on the way home we visited ewloe castle another hidden gem in this part of wales 

last few weeks

 struck down with gastric flu for a week left me feeling weak and tired 

30th october 

st aidens 

hard work walking this large reserve but managed to the osprey showing really well over astley lake 

osprey

 i heard a water pipit call as walked down the track between the reedbeds and north ings managed to see it flying towards middle ings 

after an hour i was fucked and headed home after seeing great egret osprey and water pipit 

early november was a washout so nothing 

 yesterday was family stuff but started the day at cromwell bottom lnr which i still call elland gravel pits 

what was once a beautiful area for birding with 2 lagoons a marsh and scrubland has now after 30 years just become a wood between the river and canal 

elland gravel pits 

around 1990 when the fence put up which stopped access to the ski lake 

i first visited in 1987 and it soon became my local patch from 1988 to 2000 i was obsessed by the place just 10 minutes away on the push bike sometimes i would visit 3 times a day 

it would never rival the places further east like fairburn or wintersett but for me it was heaven 

seen and found birds 

bittern

little egret

egyptian goose

barnacle goose

scaup

honey buzzard

caspian gull

glaucous gull

iceland gull

little gull

little tern

arctic tern

sandwich tern

short eared owl

redstart

tree sparrow

spotted sandpiper

grey headed wagtail

siberian chiffchaff

water pipit 

rock pipit

firecrest

smew

slavonian grebe 

lesser spotted woodpecker

jack snipe 

happy memories 

12th november 

cromwell bottom 

sparrowhawk 1

g s woodpecker 1

redwing 13

cormorant 6

bullfinch 5 

siskin 12

kingfisher 1

and just 23 miles down the motorway...........st aidens 

different world stunning place 

arrived at 11 spent nearly 2 hours before dads 80th birthday meal 

cetti's warbler 12

bearded tit 5

great egret 1

little egret 2 

stonechat 4

black necked grebe 1 

pintail 2

and t-shirt weather in november unreal 

great egret

a meal at the cross keys in hillam was really good a little gem 

and the bird of the day a long eared owl which flew across the road above ripponden a nearly hit the van 

best day for years

really needed to try out my new binoculars a pair of meopta meostar 8x42 

there good 

 with a massive fall of birds all down the east coast on thursday/friday id usually go to spurn but recently found it a vast area to cover on foot, so headed to filey as its not a bad drive and quite close to other places 

walked along the south side of the ravine a cracking firecrest by the stone teeth circle i looked around no other birders so put it on birdguides

goldcrests everywhere along with 2 chiffchaffs and a male blackcap 

walked up to the top scrub 

really nice area fieldfares came over 

searched for the bluetail but no luck until a lady called me over......i joined about 6 birders in the top scrub and there it was a red flanked bluetail great birds 

checked the ravine again a chiffchaff but nothing else 

thought about bempton but headed for south landing which was a good choice 

dusky warbler briefly by the steps 

at the top it was more sheltered and quite a few goldcrests calling after a while i heard a yellow browed warbler call it took another 30 minutes for it to show 

i needed a toilet stop so headed to ywt center and after saw some benches at the side and sat down watching tree sparrows 

some guy said is this where the ringers are? i said dunno im just sat here! then it all got a bit surreal when a ringer turns up and starts doing what ringers do 

after what seemed like ages he brought out a treecreeper 

stunning

then the best of all something id been really wanting to see this weekend as ive not seen one for years......

my first was at sammys point back in 1988 and seen a few since 

dim wallace described it as the "the sprite with seven stripes"

yep pallas's warbler 

i was just inches away stunning bird 

bird of the day 

weekend

 not really been anywhere recently so deicided on a trip leighton moss which was the first place i ever visited when i started birding way back november 1985, very little change apart from the path from the center to the causeway 

first went to causeway sunny but windy and no bearded tits but a nice great egret from lower hide, 2 little egrets flew over as did 3 buzzards and 2 ravens 

upto 7 cettis warblers singing always a great sound

but 3 otters were a great sight on veiw for ages best of all was a marsh tit calling in the same place as my first decades ago 

then on to the main reserve..........it was a bit quiet not many wildfowl but some nice pintails and shoveler 2 juv female marsh harriers were playing in the wind, 4 water rails calling and a bearded tit called briefly 

then on to hest bank to try for the turtle dove something ive not seen for years, never a easy bird up north but looking back in my notes i use to see them at quite a few places in east yorkshire mainly blacktoft and spurn though have found 3 in calderdale in the 90's

this one was very tame feeding along the footpath by the car park and quite a few birders present shows how much the turtle dove has declined 

turtle dove

hest bank

teal 

leighton moss

called at redcar tarn on the way back but very few large gulls around, but always worth visiting 

after an evening of beer and music the morning saw us wake to rain and wind and by 930 we were off to st aidens............colette wants to see a bittern! having been astounded by the calling bird last year 

so arriving around 1030 we headed to astley lake only to miss it by 2 minutes!!! we headed over to where it had landed on lemonroyd, now colette has very sharp eyes and suddenley after 10 minutes said "whats this?" and indeed it was the bittern flying over to the western reed bed 

bittern

st aidens 

a very nice sight which we also saw 3 great egrets 1 little egret 4 red kites heard more cettis warblers and another water rail called 

lapland bunting

working today in rastrick kitchen fitting been a long week  

so im set up to cut the worktop masons mitre and a bird called overhead i got used to various sounds house sparrows and goldfinch make plus this afternoon bullfinch

this was more different a bit squeaky like a toy trumpet more higher pitched than snow bunting along with a prrrt prrt prrrrt sound 

great bird 

cloughton wyke saturday / sunday

 apart from a nice walk no migrants but always nice to see tree sparrows and yellowhammers along with 1 buzzard  afew stonechats 1 jay 3 chiffchaffs 

spent most of the time seawatching from 1400-1800

2 manx shearwater north 

2 whooper swans south 

5 brent geese south

96 pink-footed geese south 

5 red throated divers south 

auk sp many north/south

common scoter 1 north