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.

Osprey - N Lincs

No photos as neither one of us had taken a camera!!! but whilst looking for American Golden Plovers(in our dreams) we flushed a stunning juvenile Osprey from a small Elder tree on the side of the road. We literally came eye ball to eye ball with it as it was sheltering from the wind, it took off straight across our windscreen. It then returned back to the Elder for a while before finally flying off .


Luckily Graham managed a few decent shots!http://pewit.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/juvenile-osprey.html

 

A windy day at Spurn

With overnight weather conditions looking good for migrants falling out of the sky we were up early and on our way to Spurn at dawn.  But all was not well the wind had turned strong South which surely  meant we would see nothing much however despite having difficulty standing upright and with the birds doing their best to keep their heads down we managed the following; 1 Yellow Browed Warbler, 1 Barred Warbler which bucked the trend and showed surprisingly well, 1 Wryneck, 1 Red Breasted Flycatcher, 5 Pied Flycatchers, 2 Spotted Flycatchers, 1 Brambling, 1 Long Eared Owl, 1 Tree Pipit, 15+ Redstarts and once again the stars of the autumn so far 5 juvenile Gannets once again forgetting that they are seabirds and flying through the Crown and Anchor car park.
Wryneck
One of many Redstarts

A newly ringed Grasshopper Warbler!

Back on the Humber

So back up to the bridge this morning with conditions looking promising ie howling wind and pouring with rain.  Having got stuck behind every tractor in North Lincolnshire and every road work possible I arrived to learn from Graham (already in situe) that I had just missed a Long Tailed Skua !! Never mind over the next 5 hours the following poor birds found themselves confronted with the might of the Humber Bridge; 2 Long-Tailed Skuas, 1 Great Skua, 1 beautiful adult Little Gull, 1 Guillemot, only 1 juvenile Gannet, 6 Arctic Terns, 4 Common Terns and 2 Common Scoter so not brilliant but not bad and who knows what might turn up tomorrow.  Here's the Great Skua photo by Graham Catley.

Juvenile Gannets and more..

After yesterdays dire birding on the coast we concentrated nearer to home again today and with easterly winds we headed back to the Humber Bridge to see what if anything would get pushed up the Humber - we weren't to be disappointed with the following seen - 2 Sandwich Terns, 1 Arctic Tern, 1 Arctic Skua, 1 probable Long Tailed Skua, 5 Common Scoter, 265 Wigeon, 350 Teal, 1 Pintail, 3 Goldeneye, 5 Tufted Duck, 1 Pochard, 2 G C Grebes, 1 Rock Pipit and 12 juvenile Gannets. Now I would like to say the picture below was one of our Gannets but who would I be kidding! full story of this photo here http://theshadoxhurstgarden.blogspot.co.uk/ .   It seems juvenile Gannets are a little confused at the moment with a few inland records over the past week and of course our 53 on the Humber last weekend (see earlier post).  With overnight rain and easterly gales predicted, tomorrow should be another cracking day on the Humber with surely more juvenile Gannets sent of course - time will tell.

Autumn! NEly winds! Migration! - Lincs Coast!

Yes having made it up to the Humber Bridge early and had a small in flux of Wigeon and Pintail plus a fly-through Hen Harrier we decided today could be a good day on the coast - already we had news from Spurn Point of Yellow Brows and Red-breasted Flycatchers so off we set and meticulously worked the coast from Humberston through to Rimac and had the following staggering list: 1 over head Brambling, 1 overhead Lapland Bunting and 2 skeins of Pink Feet, should have gone to Spurn!

A day on the Humber

With a brisk westerly wind today it came as a bit of a surprise when from Chowder Ness at Barton On Humber, Wayne spotted 3 Gannets on the east side of the Humber Bridge so we headed up to the Bridge and eventually had a total of 54 juvenile Gannets.  They were rather disorientated and would reach as far as the bridge and then turn round and head back up the Humber, we can only guess why they were flying into the wind on a falling tide but it was really good to have such close views.

Earlier in the morning we had 700 Pink Footed Geese, 694 Shelduck,358 Avocet and 62 Bar-Tailed Godwits at Read’s Island and but very few small waders.  Its a similar story at Alkborough at the moment with no small waders coming through but 700+ Avocets there and 11 Ruddy Shelduck.

The images below are of the Ferruginous Duck which has returned for the second year back to Far Ings.

Butterflies at last…

Finally now that schools are back and summer has ended we get a few warm sunny days and the Butterflies can show themselves - our Buddleia is covered in Tortoiseshells, Peacocks, Red Admirals and one Painted Lady.

No butterflies on this Echinacea, I just loved the photo..