Long-tailed Duck at Messingham

Plenty of birds around today including this 1cy Long-tailed Duck - also at Messingham 4 Scaup, 60 Siskins and 10 Redpoll.  Unfortunately no Waxwings at West Halton today but apparently some at Burton!

Waxwings at last!

This autumn has seen an eruption of Waxwings into the country with flocks of up to 1000 strong being seen in the Highlands and around 300 just over the Humber in Hessle, so with that in mind we have been keeping our eyes open - so driving up to Whitton late this afternoon I noticed out of the corner of my eye a smudge of grey in the middle of a Rowan tree ,  we were driving up the main street of West Halton so I quickly got Wayne to stop the car and with a quick bit of reversing we soon found a couple of Waxwings but could hear many more - although these birds are instantly recognisable and charismatic they can certainly hide for example in the first image below there are around 52 Waxwings in the top of the two Poplar trees!  The only camera we had on us was an old Panasonic FZ20 so I quickly took a few shots but within minutes the whole flock was spooked by a Sparrowhawk and we were unable to relocate them and by 3.30 the light was fading and these birds are notoriously early roosters but who knows they could be back tomorrow to finish off the berries.

More autumn shots in the Park..

Another glorious autumn day with little wind but no further sign of the Kingfisher down at the fishing pond but still Siskins flitting around and a small party of Red-legged Partridges.

Two new birds....

Two "firsts" for me today - a new garden tick and a new park tick - first a Kingfisher down at the fishing lake this morning took me by surprise, I know they have been recorded in the park before but infrequently, and secondly whilst in the garden this afternoon 3 Whooper Swans flew over the house heading south bringing our "seen in or over the garden list" to 92.

Autumn colours intensify

Rushed out this morning in the hope of catching up with a Harrier which I watched fly over the garden and head into the park - I was unable to get anything on it  as I was looking in the direction of the sun but it would probably have been a Marsh Harrier - I never did catch up with it!.  Lots of Siskins flying around the park and the Jays are busy building up their winter larders, I also heard a Green Woodpecker and there is a sizeable flock of Long-Tailed Tits and the odd Nuthatch but other than that the park is devoid of birds at the moment.  The tree colour at the moment is dramatic - the Copper Beech have progressed from their reddish hue of last week and have developed a beautiful golden colour.

Feathered Thorn

What a stunning moth - flew into the kitchen tonight - its flight season is Mid-September to early December and it is a woodland moth - what did we do before Macro-photography?

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!