Bempton Cliffs

A funny old day today, after a full days gardening yesterday (well Wayne gardened I managed) and then the woeful England performance against the USA we decided on a days birding up on the Humber.  So we started off at Bagmoor where there was virtually nothing, proceeded up to Reads Island where we only saw loads of Avocet, 1 Bar-Tailed Godwit, 1 Black-Tailed Godwit, 1 Ringed Plover and 5 Fallow Deer and then got rained off so decided on  Far Ings but only had a couple of Bearded Tits and not much else so to cut a long story short ended up at Bempton Cliffs on the  E Yorks coast for an hour of wind and rain but it didn't seem to matter when you're amongst such a spectacle of glorious sea birds and England's largest Gannet colony.  As our visit was unexpected we were totally unprepared and hadn't taken the SLR so all shots didgiscoped and as can often be the case we were just too close and had no chance of any flight shots plus as the weather was so poor no brilliant cliff shots either!

Puffin

Razorbills

Kitiwake

Razorbill and chick

Gannet and chick

Guillemot

Razorbill

Kittiwake with chick

Puffin

The Yorkshire Dales - Wensleydale and Swaledale

Well I'm back from the Dales and a week of superb weather showing off Wensleydale and Swaledale at their superb best - on the bird front it was great to see at least 4 Spotted Flycatchers even one in our cottage garden but interestingly Aysgarth had no Nuthatches - I'll leave the images and little video to speak for themselves.

Buttercup Meadow nr Reeth

Looking back to Carperby

Early Purple Orchid

Aysgarth Falls as featured in 'Robin Hood Prince of Thieves'

Bolton Castle

Morris Dancers at West Burton's village fete

The River Swale at Reeth

A typical Dales pub - the sheep get everywhere

Gunnerside

Normanby Enterprise Park

The small piece of derelict land left unbuilt upon on the Normanby Enterprise Scheme has come up trumps this spring with the following successfully breeding; 6 pairs of Lapwing producing 15 chicks, 1 pair Ringed Plover producing 4 chicks, 1 pair Little Ringed Plover breeding unconfirmed, 1 pair of Coot producing 2 chicks, at least 1 pair of Mallard with 5 chicks, 1 pair Grey Partridge, 1 pair Reed Bunting, several pairs of Linnet and 3 pairs of Oystercatchers but unfortunately despite the individual below sitting no young were seen.  It is such a shame that whilst watching this little piece of land which is surrounded by empty (brand new) high bay loading warehouses I have watched men in high visibility jackets measuring up presumably to build here yet another building to remain vacant.  On that note I shall sign off for a week whilst I have a week up in Wensleydale hopefully getting lots of images of the wonderful dales.

Alkborough Flats

A quick trip down to the Flats this evening produced 107 Black Tailed Godwits, 2 Little Gulls, 4 Knot, 1 Spotted Redshank, 36 Ringed Plover and a first for the year a Corn Bunting so a little better than of late but still not a lot!  No moth light tonight as a scorching weekend has predictably now turned into a cool east wind - I knew it was too good to last.

Normanby - Spotted Flycatchers at last & a Puss Moth

We have just had a fabulous weekend - not only did we have two very lovely visitors from Portugal(Tracey and Dave) but also from much further south 3 Spotted Flycatchers.  Last year was dire for the Flycatchers with not one record in the Park so when we found 3 yesterday we felt such relief.  I have to say the Park has had its best spring ever with 5 Ring Ouzels, 3 Whimbrel, 1 Wheatear, 1 Cuckoo(also absent last year) and now 3 Flycatchers and I also relocated the Hornet but it never landed so no pictures again.  The weekend has been hot and sunny so last night the moth light went on for an hour again something that never happened last summer as it was so cool and miserable - within minutes the trap was exploding with Cockchafers and then a few spectacular moths including this lovely Puss Moth hopefully we can have another go tonight and get a few more record shots.

Puss Moth

Cock Chafer

Normanby's Trees

I know there is an excessive amount of images here but the Park is stunningly beautiful at the moment - I think this morning was possibly the prime day of the year - you can see the light changed from blue skies and sun to complete cloud cover - I also had this morning the largest most fabulous Hornet I have ever seen but sadly no pictures as for some unexplicable reason the camera would not focus on it despite it sitting still for at least two minutes giving me the opportunity to try different focusing modes. The Nikon is very frustrating at times - the old Canon Ixus never let me down and of course it was nothing to do with the operator!  I have to say the Park staff have done a fabulous job both with letting nature take care of itself and with the formal gardens - if you haven't been then I strongly recommend a visit in the very near future before summer takes its toll.

Weeping Willow

Oak

The Avenue of Limes

Oak

Oaks

Horse Chestnut

Horse Chestnut

Tulip Tree

Copper Beech and Laburnum