Autumn at Normanby Park

 

 

Lesser Yellowlegs joins Long-billed Dowitcher at Alkborough

Lesser Yellowlegs at Alkborough this morning found again by Neil it has another American cousin the Long-billed Dowitcher on site with which it was fraternising with.  It must be very frustrating for Blacktoft Sands RSPB which is only a short flight away from Alkborough, as although they have recorded 50 waders species on their reserve they have never had either of these birds.

Sea watching at Huttoft, Lincs

Couldn't believe it this morning a covering of snow in October, I hope this doesn't mean a winter like 09/10 when we similiarly had snow falling with the leaves!  We were off before 8.00 as it continued to snow, passing police cars and fire engines tearing to a 7 car pile up on the motorway - we just managed to get off it before they closed the road anyway we finally got to Huttoft and due to a howling gale and being blasted by sand we sea watched for 6 hours without getting out of the car - must be a record.  The following were seen;
6 Dark-Bellied Brent Geese, 14 Shelduck, 37 Wigeon, 13 Mallard, 1 Pintail, 42 Teal, 3 Tufted Duck, 10 Scaup, 2 Velvet Scoter, 161 Common Scoter, 1 Goldeneye, 1 Red Breasted Merganser, 6 Red Throated Divers, 1 G C Grebe, Gannets and Kittiwakes constant procession, 2 Oystercatcher, 1 Curlew, 3 Black Tailed Godwit, 5 Knot, 6 Sanderling, 14 Dunlin, 15 Bonxies, 2 Pomarine Skua, 2 Arctic Skua and the reason why we went to the coast in a howling northerly gale 28 Little Auk with 1 coming off the sea over land with a flock of Starling!

ps 3 Whooper Swans on Huttoft Pit on the way home

Araneus diadematus aka Garden Spider

We got quite excited when we found this spider down at Alkborough a couple of weeks ago as we thought it was unlike anything we had seen before - little did we know that it was a common albeit reddish European Garden Spider which we frequently seen in our own garden!

Whoopers in the fog at Barton

Thick fog when we awoke this morning and the garden was full of birds including two Brambling - with ever depleting supplies of bird food we decided on a trip to Alkborough and then on to Far Ings reserve at Barton to buy a sack of bird seed.  We couldn’t have timed it better - 7 Whooper Swans on the lake next to the approach road! they stayed long enough to get this short video and then they were off continuing on their migratory route.

 

Alkborough in the fog - visibility nearly zero hence lots of images of plants!

Long Billed Dowitcher and Bearded Tits at Alkborough

Here’s a couple of more short videos of the Long Billed Dowitcher or Long Ranged Dowitcher as Neil prefers to call it, plus Bearded Tits.

Red Deer rut at Normanby

Yes it’s that time of year again and the rut is well underway with the hinds now in season being chased by great roaring stags - you can smell the musky aroma of the stags and they are indeed busy scent marking trees and making themselves look vaguely daft by gorging lumps of grass and ferns up, making them look like decked up Christmas trees!

Alkborough’s Long-Billed Dowitcher videos

Really not very good but you can tell what it is - first one taken at dawn so particularly bad but you can get a size comparison with accompanying Redshank!

Long-Billed Dowitcher Alkborough Flats

Another good bird for Alkborough found by Neil late yesterday evening - first 3 images below taken at dawn so just silhouettes really, the rest taken later this morning.