Ticking Bonanza!

3 Yorkshire Ticks in 3 days. 2 UK Lifers and 1 World Tick. Today I caught up with the Marsh Warbler at Blacktoft Sands which despite showing its nuts off to all and sundry was meek and mild for me. Probably due to the copious amounts of liquid sunshine experienced concurrently. I also managed to get up to Fairburn Ings for the Black-winged Stilt.

I was getting concerned that the standard of photography had improved on the blog. I neednt have worried.

A morning of WeBS counts produced a single Whimbrel and half a dozen singing Lesser Whitethroats but little else. I had planned to visit whichever sites held onto their scarcities and whilst the Thorne Moors Gull-billed Tern disappeared I had the chance of the Stilt and the Warbler. I opted for the Marsh Warbler first as while it is an easier bird for Yorkshire it would be a world tick and I have seen several hundred (thousand?) in Spain/Cape Verde plus a single at Frampton last month. When I arrived it was totalling down. Cats and dogs!

I hid and quietly caught up with Little Egret and Reed Warbler amongst the commoner birds plus a soggy looking male Marsh Harrier carrying food. A lull and I made my way to singleton only to be told I had over shot and the bird was in the freshmarsh behind me. One lucky punter had just had it singing a few metres away at the top of a reed stem. The next half hour was a game of cat and mouse until as the rain ebbed and flowed but eventually a more sustained break arrived and we piled out of the hide en masse. Despite some birders with limited field craft (loud, talky) the bird did some brief sub song and showed in a Willow briefly before another snatch of song and gone. 5 minutes later and it was back about 20m away. Its grey brown rump was evident and so was the yellowness of the underside which until I read Martin Garners blog I didnt realise was a good fieldmark for spring Marsh Warblers. The biggest give away was the shiny BTO ring. I wonder where it acquired that? Soon it had flown into the umbelliformes and was leading the others a merry dance. The rain hardened and I bid the other birders adieu.

I arrived at Fairburn quickly and after a brief tete a tete with Mr Dickinson I knew where I was at. 10 minutes of scanning the appropriate flash left me blank and the only other birders were dudes. As you can see from the photo the bird was pretty distant and it emerged from behind a few tussocks of grass to show well. A nice bird which I watched for about 20 minutes before time caught me up. The stilt was actually quite interesting, hunting actively which is more than can be said for the Frampton bird.

In other birding news I found displaying Grasshopper Warbler, Sedge Warbler and Curlew on patch whilst running and they continue to call tonight. I even saw the gropper last night when I walked along the river bank. Excellent birds.

My running continues unabated. Up to 29 minutes non-stop/3.5km which is pretty pleasing.. Only walked 150m tonight of the 4km total which made me feel good. Im getting there and my race jersey arriving proved it. Crack on.

You gotta Roll with it

Awesome Gripback today - my first uk Roller. And it was in Yorkshire. I dont have too many issues with this species - it has shown well to me in Spain a number of times BUT the last getable Yorkshire Roller inconveniently turned up a couple of days before I was due to get married and apparently twitching it would have been A BAD THING. No idea why...

So this morning I get a message at half 8 that there is a Roller at Spurn and an Orphean Warbler at Hartlepool Headland. The latter can wait. I dragged my girl off with me and we headed south east. Arriving at 10 I noticed a forlorn Martin Garner stood by the gate. This didnt look good but I pressed on only for my debut outing with my Spurn radio relaying the news that the bird had flown north and had been relocated at Kilnsea Wetlands. I raced back (well 15mph feels like racing at Spurn) only to miss again. Me and Izzy played on the beach at Easington building sandcastles but I was quite irritable thinking that I had dipped and the bird was gone. Thankfully it was relocated on wires by the Blue Bell. Again we raced south but again too late. It had flown but not past the warren and not north. The Roller was either on a post around the Blue Bell or Clubleys or was in the Triangle. I joined a group of birders scanning from the Blue Bell and then blammo someone called it on a post the far side of the pools. I got it and it looked ace.

In the dull light it looked green and seemed settle so whilst the others opted to stay put I went round with my camera. Izzy wanted to watch from the car which was a blessing. I was starting to get into record shot range when...a member of the public get too close and flushed it into the triangle where it appeared to ditch on the far side of canal scrape. I was very happy with my views and decided it would be wise to pander to my daughters hunger rather than chase the bird. My final views were of the violet blue underwings making good its escape. Great days.

Yesterday whilst Izzy was at Nursery I thought I would have a bash at the Marsh Warbler at Flamborough but it was nowhere to be seen or heard - on Saturday I dipped but heard the East Chevington bird in Northumberland doing its Blue Tit impression amongst others. At Flamborough I did find a singing male Lesser Whitethroat but again came away with no snaps and whilst at East Chevington I managed to year tick Reed Warbler, Common Tern and a brief look at a distant Spoonbill which even woke up briefly for me.

Meadow Pipit from Flamborough yesterday

Comedy Black Guillemot marching past me in Oban on Saturday

Puffins on Lunga taken with my 18-55 lens

Shouty!

Sum Plum Twite on Lunga

Gotta Love Tysties

Puffins

The first few photos of our Puffin Trip to Lunga on the Treshnish Isles. Awesome is the only word.

Security Issues

Weirdly it seems my security for the blog has been issued as http://www.idiocybirding.blogspot.co.uk/ not .com as I have always accessed it. Seemingly it gets flagged if you put .com on so I would be grateful if people could update their links. I can assure you there is nothing wrong with the site. Cheers James

Bastards

Serious post - £375,000 of our money has been put aside to research ways of disuading Buzzards from taking Pheasants. A native bird with a population of 41,000 pairs vs a non-native of 4 million birds put out every year. The trial includes translocation, capture and nest destruction. I find it disgusting and urge you to contact your MP. Here is a description of the meeting that precipitated this ILLEGAL study.

'Meeting with Richard Benyon MP,

Minister for Environment, Food and

Rural Affairs

... 9 November 2011

It was encouraging when the Minister opened the

meeting saying, “This is a subject close to my heart.”

Three Trustees of SongBird Survival made a short present -

ation to Mr Benyon and his team from Defra outlining the

aims and activities of the Charity and describing our

research projects. One of the suggestions made to the

Minister was that a small fraction of the £500 million

cost of agri-environmental schemes should be spent on

research and that the inclusion of predator control should

also be considered to enhance effectiveness.

The Minster and his colleagues were presented with

copies of the review of predation research published by

the University of Reading in 2010. In the opinion of the

Trustees this study casts grave doubts on the quality of

much of the research on which Defra policy is based.'

 

 

Please write to your MP to register your protest. I will be.

Super Eagle!

I got some shots! White-tailed Eagles and Otter. Still a bit low quality BUT they look not too bad for me!