Evening at Alkborough Flats

After leaving the Bean Goose this morning we spent the afternoon at our local patch reserve Alkborough Flats where we saw 4 Barn Owls, 3 Short-eared Owls, 2 Little Egrets and 3 Little Stint.
Not a bad day!

Bean Goose - Reads Island

We have many local reserves which we regularly visit and this morning we decided to visit one at Barton on Humber.  Its a Lincolnshire Trust reserve called Far Ings -  on the way we had a stop opposite Read's Island, we had noticed a small group of geese in the road side field and Wayne decided to check them out.  In amongst the Pink Feet and Canadas he found a Tundra Bean Goose which is a local rarity - good start to the day.

Normanby's Snowdrops and Aconites

Took a walk in Normanby Park this morning primarily to take more photos of the snowdrops which to me have been better this year than in the previous few years - whether this is due to more frosts this winter I'm not sure.  Lots of bird song also and plenty of Great Spotted Woodpecker activity but no sign of the Nuthatches although 2 were in the garden this morning

More on Peru

As previously mentioned  last October we spent some time in Peru.  There were many highlights to this trip but for me I loved our time spent in the Amazon - we stayed at Tambopata Research Centre where in 5 days we saw 211 species of bird including 13 species of parrot at the clay lick.  Wayne loved the high altitude birding of the Andes and the scenery at Colca Canyon was truly spectacular made even more special by the 6 Andean Condors cruising down the canyon.  Our vist to Paracas on the coast and trip to the Ballestas Island gave me a long awaited dream bird the Inca Tern.  On the boat to the Ballestas Islands you have magnificent views of the geoglyph Candelabra which some connect to the Nazca Lines but in truth no one knows the origin.
 On previous birding trips around the world we very rarely do any 'touristy' things but we could not go to Peru without a visit to the lost city of the Incas - Machu Pichu.  The day of our visit started with the 5.30 Peru-rail train from Ollantaytambo which takes you to Aguas Calientes.  This journey is magnificent in itself but nothing compared to the bus ride from Aquas Calientes to Machu Pichu and then your first view of the ruins is just mind blowing.

On the menu today

Had to buy another 25kg sack of peanuts - our main consumers are Nuthatch(2) Great Tit(7) Blue Tit(9) Coal Tit(3) Long Tailed Tit(14) also bought Niger seed for our Siskin(3) and Goldfinch (3) and mixed seed for Wood Pigeon(6) Pheasant(2) Dunnock(2) Robin(4) Blackbird(6) Tree Sparrow(9) Chaffinch(3) they are costing us a small fortune but the garden would be a quiet place without them

Spring Flowers

At the bottom of my garden runs a stream and on the other side of the stream lies a paddock.  This morning a Grey Heron landed in the paddock which is a first!  We see up to 4 Herons flying from Little Normanby into the park most days and hope that they will breed in a conifer plantation situated in the park - i'll keep you posted

At last our pair of Nuthatches which have been resident in the garden since last November have started to investigate one of our bird boxes.  Yes Box 3(out of 7)  seems to be the desired  home - watch this space!

Food for thought

Since last November we have "lost" some where in the region of 40kg of peanuts and seed but we have a good idea where its gone - 3 suspects above; Tree Sparrow, Blue Tit and Nuthatch

The elusive Scunthorpe Waxwings

Well  the weekend has now gone and my birding highlight had to be catching up with the waxwings!  They have been in the Scunthorpe area for a couple of weeks now but we never managed to see them until Saturday when 8 turned up just across the road from my mothers!  The light was not good for photography so I have posted one we took earlier! this fantastic bird was actually in our front garden last year.

Our Normanby garden

We have a small south facing garden which we have turned over to nature.  We have created a wildlife pond and have 7 bird boxes strategically placed with several bird feeding stations.   Each year our bird boxes are keenly battled for by the Blue Tits, Great Tits and Tree Sparrows.  We are currently in competition with my brother Nick on who can record the most species seen in or from the garden - it is really a north/south battle as we live in the north and he lives in the south.  The competition runs until the end of the year and I feel we are currently thrashing him with a total of 42 so far - his total remains a mystery!! 

Sword-Billed Hummer, Machu Pichu & Condor

A couple of months ago Wayne and I went on a birding trip to Peru.  It met all our high expectations and we saw 430 species with Wayne hitting is 4000th species on the trip.  We spent a week in the high Andes including a trip to Machu Pichu , a week on the coast and a week in the Amazon.  It was a trip made independantly and surprisingly we had no hic-cups even though we knew very little spanish.

Normanby Park

February in the park is always beautiful as the snowdrops and aconites start to flower.  This morning there was an eruption of bird song signifying that spring is just around the corner.