black redstart, cold edge

these are not my photos but the same bird at the same place and same time i was there

thank-you very much to Sean Jhonstone for use off these photos

as you can see these photos are much better than mine but if you look around the muoth you can see the impression of a gape which led sean to his conclusion that it must be a young bird

thanks once again for use of the photos

cold edge, yesterday

got a text about a cuckoo at cold edge yesterday at around 3.30pm. i asked my mum if we could go and so we did. as we arrived the phone died cvauseing problems and we got lost. my mum dropped me off at the bottom of the track and then drove off to find somewhere to park. when i got there dave sutcliff was there but the cuckoo had done a runner. sean jhonstone and then nick dawtrey arrived but still no cuckoo. Sean showed me a whinchat through the scope which was quite special as i have never seen one before. then he showed me a cute ball off fluff juvenile little owl-my first confirmed sighting off one. it was a realltreat off a day and it had only just begun. as we waited paitently for the cuckoo nick did some prowling around and then, going up to the barn called us over about a black redstart. this bird was amaing. one minuet it was there the next minuet it had gone. it flew out off the barn where nick found it and flew into a tree where we lost it. it then re-appeared on the roof off the old barn. sean went to try and find it with his camera and it appeared on the lowest barn building where we were stationed waiting for a cuckoo. it then flew off up to the top barn building and then i lost it. i managed to get these rubbish pics for the brif seconds it stayed about.

it really was a cracking afternoon also preasnt were 1 grouse flushed on the farm track and the usual mipits, swallows and woodpigeons plus a magpie.

p.s. one m,inuet after we left the cuckoo came out and flew over the road-talk about timing

whitby and sandsend

this turnstone was actually much closer than this photo depicts and it trodded around the whitby harbour wall

what a picture

heres a photo of a herring gulls foot. you can see why its included

sorry buddy, its closing time

a cracking day spent a sandsend today. when we arrived at 11.00 it was low tide so went for a walk along the seafront. there were large numbers of juvenile terns roosting there and you could get pretty close. it was spectacular to see them roosting with all the gulls (herring, gbb, black headed) and the oystercatchers.

then we went swimming and messed around in the sea. at about 6.00 we wrapped it up and went into whitby for some fish and chips. as you can see from the pictures there were some spectacular views of turnstones there which was really special and also a ringed gull. as we were comeing out of the fish and chip shop we also spotted Matt Bell which was always a nice surprise!

burnsall

meet tank burnsall. i took this old disused fish tank to burnsall today to put the catches in. unfortunatly to float the tank over the river to take the photos-from fish paradise to the camera the tank crashed into a rock and sadly broke. therfore these photos were a race against time.

a lovely millers thumb or bullhead which were plentiful in the river

a very handsome spined loach which were incredibly fast so we used a net that i found. after lucnch we went back in minus the tank and found lots of baby loaches further upstream

heres a photo from the glass looking insiude the tank

the evil signal crayfish have created a reputation for themselves in britian but are massive around here and this was a prize catch.

a cracking photo of a millers thumb from outside the glass. there were 3 in the tank

but the water was running low from the crack as this photo depicts

a better photo of the loach

they look so adorable in an ugly kind of way but these are a menace

but these werent the highlight of the day. we went for a walk after lunch and found nothing, not even the knigsfisher but on the way back i was way ahead of my family and i saw a gull fly upstream. it looked like a herring gull so i thought, i hope it lands upstream so i can get a better view. it did land but looking at it only one thing was different from a herring gull-its legs, yellow! could it be that i finally had the long awaited yellow legged gull!!!! i had no bins so waited for my mum to catch up with bins and sure enough it wasnt a lesser black backed so yesss!!!! i had it my first. but as i ran back for the camera (a fair way i can tell you) it flew off so no pictures. the reason why it flew off was a bit unclear from what my family said. i got a tale of sheep, black headed and greater black backed gulls so i cant really tell. anyway it was a really great bird to tick.

also there today were, in the way off gulls, common gull in force which also has yellow legs, lesser black backed, which also has yellow legs, which turned up as we ate our fish and chips much later. black headed gulls were there in force and a few flyover greater black backeds were there. overall a good day.

other birds were sparse but there was a female mandarin which is normally there and 3 grey wagtails and a juvenile pied milling about on the beach. oystercatchers flew over in trios occasionally. overall a great day.

tuesday at ringstone

a much quieter evening than last time
this time however we actually managed to see the common sands really well
there were also plenty of gulls-black headed and common
a moorhen was walking about
also plenty of lapwings in the distance but not actually on site

some village in the dales last wednesday

went for a walk by the river in a lovely village in the dales.
2 common sandpipers were flushed on the way back which was pretty special
there were also lots of baby wagtails on the river which was both cute and incredible. you could get pretty close to them too
2 herons were in one of the adjacent sheep feilds
2 goosanders wree flushed by the stepping stones but not a spectacular view like you can get at burnsal or bolton abbey

soil hill and ringstone a week ago last tuesday

went for a walk up to soil hill. the weather was good and a green sandpiper had been seen the day before. i was in high spirits. its quite a hike from where i live (uphill-i mean) so got there in about 15mins.
there was:
a skylark-but good views
a flock of feral pigeons

ringstone:
1 common sandpiper that was miling about
a heron looking grumpy
lapwings, gulls (inc a greater black back and chick)
mipits flying over

dumfries and galloway, holiday day 12, part 1

awwwwww cute red tree rat!

a siskin

a greater spotted woodpecker

a jay

i always love threave becuase there are just so many birds. but blast it this time the camera packed in as we arrived.

that diddnt hinder the birds though:

2 jays quite close but very flighty

1 siskin

spotted flyctacher 1

treecreeper 1

1 greater spotted woodpecker and juvenile

2 red tree rats

1 willow warbler- had me confused it was so yellow

1 robin+juv

2 blackbirds

garden birds:

blue tit 5

blue tit juveniles 9

chaffinch 15

great tit 7

greenfinch 5

coal tit 6

nuthatch 3

woodpig 2

dumfries and galloway, holiday day 11, part 1

no camera to try and make it survive until threave
ardwell bay snorkling-compleatly flat and calm, but very little sealife:
rock cook
shanny
black goby
crab

the birds on the other hand
heron
seal
cormorant
terns
oystercactcher

dumfries and galloway, holiday day 10, part 3

a majestic gannet braving the weather to feed his young

ringed plovers-again

a flock of dunlin, i love seeing dunlin


went to port logan and saw

25 dunlin

black headed gulls

gannets

ringed plovers

greater balck backed gulls

the weather was bitterly cold and to make matters worse just as we were wrapping up the camera started makeing a funny noise, the same funny noise as the last time it broke. oh heavean help us!!!

dumfries and galloway, holiday day 10, part 2

a ringed plover-first of the holiday

a common sandpiper-my 3rd

the smudge along the water line is redshanks

the plover a bit colser

a turnstone, my first this year

went to drumore for the afternoon and it was well worth it, the waders were everywhere

2 common sandpipers-my first since the blog was set up

50 (exactly) redshanks

3 ringed plovers

1 turnstone

3 eiders (at sea)

fish

dumfries and galloway, holiday day 10, part 1

a blue thailed damselfly

meet spassy-foot chaffinch-he has some kind of diesease

a juvenile chaffinch

a juvenilke goldfinch

this garden center was allegedly much better then glenwhan (se the last 3 posts) yet in my opinion this place was rubbish-the sightings:

2 goldfinch

1 buzzard

swan family

chaffinch, blue tits, great tits, dunnock, thrush

brown trout, bees, damselflies.

the we went to ardwell agian, but the sea was too ruff to go snoprkling so we sat and ate our lunch. as we did a small black sea duck appeared. i grabbed the camera, took some shots and ......... from the shots couldnt tell anything. got out the bins and again couldnt tell anything but-white patches on the wings, yellowish bill ohhhhhh-was i thinking velvet scotor, got out the scope look to find it, found it and.............................it was an eider :(

also there were; gannets, black headed gulls, herring gulls, greater black backed gulls

dumfreis and galloway, holiday day 9, part 2

large surlew flcok that were, to be fair, very flightly

a grey heron fishing in the small stream

a nice ripit

a magpie moth, my first since last year

see one, see em all-golden ringed dragonlfly

a quieter beach than last time:

18 curlew

1 heron

2 whitethroat

25 rock pipit

2 magpie moth

2 goldenringed dragonfly-had a spectacular fight

4 redshank

9 oystercatcher

dumfreis and galloway, holiday day 9, part 1

a large flock of redpolls milled about in the gardens which was really good becuase otherwise my record shot would be a red smuge, but now i got these much clearer images.

the long awaited sight of a golden ringed dragonfly :0. man they are spectacular-just look at them 5 years was well worth the wait.

a commical sunbathing blackbird.

juvenile willow warbler that was sat in a beautiful tree

small copper

a red legged partridge

same juvs

nice rlp

the best day of the holiday for definate. it was incredible:

10 redpoll

5 willowwarbler-1 family and 1 stray

1 red-legged partridge

1 greater spotted woodpecker

1 dunnock

7 greylag geese

11 chaffinch

7 blackbird

5 whitethroat

1 common hawker

5 golden ringed dragonfly

1 common darter (f)

small copper

painted lady

red admiral

peackock

small white

lizards