Mixed

I have had an interesting few days from Friday through to today. Nothing too thrilling but the survey went well on Friday, Saturday had one of the Guinea Pigs escape from the run as I put them out. He still hasnt turned up as he legged it under the fence and along the drain to next doors decking. Sadly I think that might be that...

Yesterday was a friends leaving do as he is headed to Australia shortly to work as a Brain Injury nurse. Me and Angela ditched the baby at my parents house and went for a meal pre to the rather glorious assembly rooms in York which house the local branch of ASK. Lovely setting - awful food - I went for the Vesuvio Pizza (lots of Chilli) which I have had on a couple of occasions before but this was like the chef was taking the piss. I have had less spicy madras's. I love a spicy meal but this was just painful and I was deeply disappointed. Nevermind. Definitely go for the setting though. Grand and opulent were words designed to encapsulate it. Later on we met up with Mark and Ally in the Vudu Lounge, a swanky bar in the quarter. Very nice it was too although my 3.30 get up with the child was haunting me after 4 pints of beer and we decided to head off and try as I might I was snoring for a large part of the journey home. Thanks for the lift honey!

Back to Friday - I decided to zip down to see the Black Redstart at Water's Edge, Barton-upon-Humber before my survey. I guess this almost counts as a migrant! Checking it out it seemed to be a 1st winter male (white in the wings but without the mask) although I have actually done any research on this. It showed well perched up on boats and posts before dissappearing. This was my cue to leave as well and pushed on to my survey site.

The survey was busy enough with a few hundred Black-tailed Godwit and plenty of other waders knocking about. The Shelduck were also out en masse and a few Oystercatchers were dotted about staking territory and generally looking highly sexed.

Checking the lagoon out and the Avocets had returned with a minimum of 18 present. this was by far my highest count here - breeding perhaps? No sign of any LRP's yet although next month may yield a better result (it will also be my last visit). Fingers crossed.

I was going to visit Spurn for the White-spotted Bluethroat today but I am stuck at home wasting my time in Lieu as we have a leaky pipe. Doh!

Colour Ring In

Numbers of Black-tailed Godwits have increased at Killinghome which means the usual collation of records. Fortunately now I can get straight onto the scheme managers. 4 birds were reported this time. I have already got a return on one although it isnt the most interesting one out there. It was a bird ringed at Killingholme in November as an adult female and this is the second time it has been seen since, all in the same place although it is likely that it did leave the locale during the big freeze and has only returned laterly. My other three birds appear to be from an Icelandic scheme which has given me several previous sightings. At least one of the birds is over 5 years old so hopefully we can get a more interesting history there. Every sighting counts though.

Yesterday I did my second of two monthly visits to Killingholme. It wasnt exceptional but numbers are creeping back up with passage birds starting to evidence themselves. A couple of Ringed Plovers at the high tide roost were the first since late summer and the first of the local Oystercatchers are back. My best guess is that all these birds are males trying to get territory or get back to territory prior to the females returning. There was little else to jump up and down about and nothing came within photographing range sadly.

During a break from counts I was eating a cookie and scoping the north bank at Paull Holme Strays when I noticed three swans flying over the foreshore there. A quick spin up to max zoom and I could see their quick wing beats, short necks and black with a hint of yellow bills. I was definitely chuffed as Bewick's Swan is hard to come by in Yorkshire. Two were adults with the third a 2nd calender year bird so presumably a small family party starting to get ready to head back to Siberia. Sadly that was it for highlights but I always enjoy my surveys down there as you never quite know what your going to get.

Todays sightings revolve around my trip into work. A Barn Owl in Skerne village itself is surely a different bird to the Wansford one and as such notable. I finally managed to year tick Stock Dove when c400 exploded out of a field flanked by three times as many Woodpigeons. Lastly c2000 winter thrushes, seemingly all Fieldfares were flying east. Someone is going to tell me its spring soon...

I am going to Snettisham for the week with work so not sure when I will be able to update but hopefully I can get something of interest for you and if the Dove/Gull combo sticks for long enough maybe my twitching juices will start to run...

Linc'd In

Was back at Killingholme today - it was a glorious day but sadly the birds on survey didn't seem to agree... Very poor numbers which I can't disclose for legal reasons. The light was amazing for photographs but sadly I managed to break my camera (temporarily, thankfully).

Black-tailed Godwit was the one bird to buck the trend with returning birds certainly doing that. I would have known where they were returning from BUT the colour-ringed bird decided to stay out of range. Nothing of note on the pits either which was a disappointment.

I was happy to be out with the wearther - reaching a scorching 12 degrees. Last time 12 was on my cars thermometer it had a minus in front. Rather bizarrely a number of walkers passed through my site today - all 60-something tall men with beards accompanied by weathered, spindly spouses. I wonder if there was some sort of formal 'thing' in the doing as walking through post-industrial waste-land, flanked by car park wouldn't be my idea of a good walk. Birdwatching I get, boat watching I can understand, but walking when there is a deficit of 'pretty'. Hmm.

I moved on to South Ferriby before I headed back over the bridge for another crack at the Rough-legged Buzzard. This took a while to show but quickly my eyes were drawn to a small harrier - a ringtail Hen Harrier in fact being chased into the distance by a Carrion Crow only marginally smaller than itself. Rather closer and somewhat disproving my theory that they had gone extinct was a very showy Barn Owl hunting the rough ground 100 metres away. It landed and as I was getting ready to take shots of it on the deck it was away, leaving the unfortunate vole on the ground (not flushed by me I can asure - traffic seemingly). I managed to squeeze off a few photos and the following was the best of them.

I'm not dead!

Whilst waiting for the buzzard to appear I noticed the 'Roe' Deer on Read's Island had plate like antlers. DOH!!! I'd not noticed that they were in fact Fallow Deer last time out. Very distant views were had. A small skein of Pink-footed Geese overflew. Then bosh the Buzzard was back. It seemed to just slip in although in truth it then spent ages farting around on the floor so may well have been just out of site. It stayed pretty distant the whole time but a brief foray out of silhouette allowed me to get a slightly better shot than last time out.

Better but still not worth a click really.

The light was failing so I pushed off. Apparently there are Waxwings at uni. Will take the camera to work...

Gentlemen Prefer Redheads

Smew - North Killingholme

A pretty hideous picture of a really rather lovely duck. I was doing my high tide roost count of the pits when I see a small duck dive out of the corner of my eye. I could swear I had seen a white cheek but I dutifully continued with my count of 1 Redshank. Moving round to a better position this baby was hiding amongst the Mallards. A proper self-found Smew. 

The actual survey was not that exciting with the highlight my first Black-tailed Godwits of the year. Considering they are the target species it wasn't a huge surprise.

I decided to have a bash at the Rough-legged Buzzard at South Ferriby before I returned to Yorkshire. I got views of it briefly on the fence west of the cement factory before it circled high and disappeared for a while. A Sparrowhawk took advantage of its absence to hunt the fence line. A male Marsh Harrier sat up on Read's Island doing little and not bothering the roosting Lapwing and Teal. Amongst the ducks were a fine pair of drake Pintail, a nice bonus year tick.

Don't enlarge me!

 A steady stream of Pinks and Gulls bombed around headed for roost and the Roe Deer of the island gave a decent showing. Suddenly the Rough-leg was back and it started scrapping with a female Marsh Harrier. The male came across from the Island and briefly it was a three-way before they all split up and the Rough-leg got to sit on its favourite bit of fence.

Definitely don't click on me

Incidently regular viewers may remember my moan from my last attempt at this bird just prior to christmas about a photographer leaving the layby to get a pick. From my views today I'd suggest he was stood immediately next to the birds favourite perch. Twat. On my way home a flyover Great Spotted Woodpecker was nice in the gloom.

P.S it was dark ALL day except for the 5 mins I was taking pictures of the Curlew. Thats why the rest of the pictures are shit. Honest.