A Grand Day Out.

What a glorious day in comparison to yesterdays fiasco with the weather.  Although it was very cold at South Gare in the wind once you found a sheltered spot out of the wind it was lovely.  I sat for a while and waited until the very obliging Snow Bunting were feeding not far away, flying occasionally but coming back to feed at the same spot.  The Scaup was on the Blast Furnace Pools and the Smew was at Lockwood Beck but by the time I got there it was on the side of the lake the sun wasn't so not much good getting decent pics of that.  I did speak to some people who said they were speaking to someone who had seen and photographed an Osprey at Lockwood beck earlier in the day.

Snow Bunting

Scaup

Smew

Smew in flight

Red Grouse

A Strange Weather Day

Well we set off up to the Stang Forest in brilliant sunshine and ended up in a snowstorm before returning to the sunshine again!!  The only bird of note that we saw was a woodpecker enjoying his meal of a pinecone before we made a hasty retreat just incase the weather deteriorated any further.  We then decided to head for Nosterfield and see what we could see there.  We managed the Common Crane on the main lake near the Quarry visitor centre and although distant we attempted our first video using a small digital camera through the scope. Viewing makes you feel a bit sea sick but actually turned out better than we had expected, we will have to get a scope attachment for the camera to make it steady. Results can be seen on the link below.

http://youtu.be/5YUMwOrsjGM





Nest Building

Stopped off on my way to horseriding today just to see if I could see the Dipper and low and behold there he was gathering stuff for his nest.  He then flew into a hole in a wall so presumably thats where he is nesting, at least it was high up away from the river so if we get any floods he will be safe and sound.  Then on the way home I stopped off in Great Ayton for the scrumptious pies from the 'proper' butcher and on the way home had 3 Buzzard soaring over the car inbetween Great Ayton and Seamer.

Little and Iceland today.

Went to the Headland and managed to catch up with both an Iceland Gull and Little Gull today and managed a couple of photos of both.  Still need to find a Glaucous Gull though.  Will keep trying.

Baltic Weather!!

Went over to the Headland today to try and see some of the gulls which are hanging around the fish quay but the gates were closed so we could only view from the town wall.  We did manage to catch sight of the Little Gull and what we believe to be the Kumleins Gull but if not maybe someone can put us right.  We also spotted on the beach what we believe to be a Grey Plover which was a very obliging bird indeed.  Kept having fights with the Ringed Plover which was hanging around with it.  Off to Holy Island tomorrow so hope we have a good day and am off school all next week so hope to get a few different birds to cheese Mick off.

Anniversary Cake.

Well couldn't let our anniversary go by without letting you see a photo of the cake that Becca and David had made for us.  It is absolutely brilliant.  Thank you so much.

Close to home

 Great Grey Shrike

Short-eared Owl

Short-eared Owl

 Blue Tit

 Fieldfare

Redwing

Black-headed Gull in the snow

Didn't venture far this weekend due to the weather, did manage to catch up with the Great Grey Shrike and at least 3 Short-eared Owls at Coatham Stob plus a couple of more common birds close to where we live.