Winter Visitors Arriving

Winter visitors are now flooding into the UK as well as locally which includes some of the largest numbers of Pink-footed Geese on the Humber for years.  There has also been a good number of Rock Pipits moving through the Humber as well as the 3 Whooper Swans below.

 Rock Pipit

Whooper Swans

Poland to Alkborough - Colour banded Dunlin

Not the best of photos but this colour banded Dunlin was found amongst other Dunlin at Alkborough Flats last weekend.  It was near impossible to read the letters on the white band through the scope as the bird was constantly on the move.  That's where digiscoping with a camera capable of shooting 9 frames a second comes in handy.  After taking a couple of hundred shots of the bird and then going through them that night on the PC I eventually found this photo where it was possible to read the letters.

A quick e-mail revealed that the bird was ringed this year on the Vistula Estuary in northern Poland.

Sea Hares (Aplysia)

Just back from a couple of days in Portugal where we found the most amazing creatures - Sea Hares! I am embarrassed to say I had never heard of them before and have certainly never seen them while rock pooling at Filey.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Weekend Waders & Wildfowl

With light winds and good early morning light, Sunday 5th Oct was a good morning for photography.  What a contrast 24hrs later with strong winds, heavy rain and very poor light conditions as the first big Atlantic depression of the autumn hits the UK.

A few more Egrets

Couldn't resist a few more shots of these egrets in the nice low light which included a colour ringed bird.

Black-headed Gull joins in with the easy fishing

This Black-headed Gull joined the Little Egrets in hunting for fish and pulled out a Stickleback.  It did however have a little difficulty swallowing it due to the spines on the back of the fish.  After a lot of throwing the fish around and dropping it several times it eventually went down the hatch.
Double click images for better view of Stickleback!