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bluethroat fairburn ings

 driving dow the m62 approaching the haribo factory on the way to see mum for her birthday a message from swillington whatsapp about a bluethroat at fairburn ings so off i go im literally a few miles away, not my favourite place but its a bluethroat, on the short drive imagined a bluethroat singing and showing well! what i got was a group of birdwatchers wont call them birders as they just stood around talking not looking just chatting away though 2 guys actullay were looking fair credit to them as the scene was looking through a hedge into some beige stuff reeds or shit i dunno 

 gave up after 10 minutes still nice walk 

st aidens

a nice early start here.........bittern heard from the dragline  with a few more calling on my walk, really warm morning for march cetties warblers were a great numbers with 2 seen briefly.

imm marsh harrier over the eastern reedbed put all the gulls up, water rail calling near astley, 2 buzzards over the hillside usual stock doves dragline and white fronted goose flew over reedbed towards hillside

 

headed to selby to see parents so drove past fairburn, now if ive visited st aidens first fairburns not worth stopping at apart from to slow down to see the spoonbills on the moat (2 this morning) but if i go to fairburn first it make st aidens a better visit, not the biggest fairburn fan 

a good mornings birding 

redcar tarn saturday

 despite the misty weather in the calder valley redcar tarn was surprisingly sunny but bitterly cold and 90% of the tarn frozen over, so only managed a hour 

herring gull 

canada goose

herring gull

black headed gulls 

norway green ring 

uk blue ring 

common gull

 

rook

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