Not me but Darrell from Greenwithens, you may recognise the slope

A "Big Thankyou" to Michael, AKA Birdflower, for pointing me in the direction of these Bullfinches.

Waxwings and Bullfinches
 

Sounds like a remake of Swallows and Amazons.

Thanks to you as well David. We went from Sainsburys to the feeding area at Humber Bridge and got good views of the Bullfinches.
Included a photo from this afternoon and also of the Waxwings at Marfleet yesterday.

You are very welcome,
Dave

Whereabouts in the country park are the feeders Dave

Hi John,
Drive into Country Park, park by the cafe, and then walk to the left and look for the concrete steps. Walk down, at the bottom of the steps walk left and you will find feeders on your left hand side, take bird feed with you as the birds wait in the trees, and the tables are often bare........

Anyone taken their optics into Wortley Recreation Ground yet for the waxies? Think I may be giving that one a miss. Chavbirders only me thinks.

Had a pretty good day’s birding with John. Started at Scarborough where we saw the Great Northern Diver. Unfortunately there was no sign of the Iceland Gull.

Later in the morning we arrived at Garfitt’s Farm, Bilsdale, to find the Two-barred Crossbill on the feeders, although we had to wait a couple of hours for decent views. John spotted a Brambling on the way back to the car.

A quick stop at Wykeham on the drive back yielded the Great Grey Shrike. For those that are interested, the bird is in the Nightjar/Tree Pipit clearing we found at the first Wykeham Forest BF Meet. There must be a good chance the Shrike will over winter in the area.

Our second visit to Scarborough Harbour added Long-tailed Duck to the daylist although the gull was still AWOL. We ended the day watching at least three Mediterranean Gulls at Holbeck Car Park.

Sounds like a top day. I don't have a car now so think my yearlist my flounder. Some bloke down the road has one for £300 so may buy that to see if I can push through the 270.

Blog has been updated.

I took Craig down to Leeds railway station at 4.00pm this afternoon and was gobsmacked to see a goosander fly over as we made our way across the concourse in front of the station. I realise the river is very close but I wouldn't have expected goosander in the centre of Leeds.

Potteric
 

Very surprised to hear the Caspo flew in at 16:00. I made a late afternoon visit, and Whilst I did leave about this time, the light had pretty much gone and all the birds had just been spooked and flown off.

Would be interested to hear from any of the handful of birders that were left in the hide.

Adult Michahellis present.

Hi Keith

I work in leeds and have seen Goosander on the river on several occasions, cant remember the dates but would expect it to have been this time of year. Last time I saw one was from the Old Leeds Bridge, literally 20 feet away! Also get Grey Wagtail in same area.

Cheers

John

Had my first day volunteering at tophill yesterday, digging out sumps for dragonflies and clearing willow scrub. All very nice. On the bird front a bins free day provided a nice flyby sparrowhawk, a barn owl on the approach, a large number of roosting redwing, many curlew and a few flyover bullfinch amongst the normal stuff. Also found out that you cant tick the marsh frogs at tophill because they are hybrids with pool frogs.

That's interesting. How did they get to Tophill in the first place?

Ohhh errr, lets consult the dinosaurs!!!

Probably jumped... "RIBBIT!"

apparently came in with some fish stock from the continent. Apparently they have caused a virtual extinction of common frogs there

is anyone contemplating the junco and sard double header? Would be up for a trip...

Take a look here

Were they making Bouillabaise? ;)

I am coming down to Whitby at end of month for the weekend.Anything I should look out for around whitby area?
Thank you in advance!

Whitby harbour has a good track record for wintering sea duck, divers and gulls. The sort of things you can get in the Moray! Numbers have dropped off in recent years. Most beleive this is down to number of observers as much as anything. Do you have any target species?

This could be a bit misleading as the duck are not in the harbour but tend to be anywhere from the harbour east pier to Saltwick Nab which is outside the harbour. If anything seaduck numbers have increased on what they used to be and the Common Scoter flocks usually contains Velvet Scoter in the winter. As for divers both Great Northern and Black-throated are possible in early winter, but are rare. The former prefer Sandsend Bay whilst the latter can sometimes be seen from Ness Point north of Robin Hood’s Bay.

White-winged gulls on the other hand are pretty much a thing of the past, due probably to the miniscule fishing fleet there now and the cleaning up of the sewage outflow below the Abbey - it was so much better when it contained all the ‘bits’ from the abbatoir. The harbour did used to offer great views of white-wingers.

Both Lapland Bunts and Snow Bunts are possible in any cliff top stubble that remains, usually better between Saltwick Nab and Hawsker.

As you say coverage of the Whitby area is well down on what it used to be so anyone wanting to pioneer an area should consider it. It has had some great stuff in the past and is geographically well placed for those who like to find their own birds to indulge themselves.

This is admittedly being very lazy, but 219 pages to trawl through at work is probably pushing it...

Anyone know of any good sites in or around Sheffield?

Cheers,
Rich

The most productive area recent has been Leash Fen, which is actually in Derbyshire but fairly close.. Anything in particular you are after? I suppose Potteric Carr and Old Moor are also doable. Pete Mella is Sheffield based so he may be worth a PM

I had a week just outside Whitby at the beginning of the month. As many of you will know the weather was awful that week, so not much birding was done.

Highlights in Whitby itself were a little group of Turnstones on the wharf beside the market (they came so close I could have touched them). And on the walls of the abbey were a couple of Goldcrests.

We found the hide at Scaling Dam but just had a short time there as the light was beginning to fade - I was intending to return but the weather was completely against me.... drizzle, mist, rain, fog, drizzle, mist... get the picture? Was that an Egyptian Goose I saw there?

Fryup and Danby Moor area there were two very large flocks of Fieldfare, with a Nuthatch on the feeders in the wood beside the car park at the Moors Centre.

There were groups of Starlings everywhere, so I presume there's a roost somewhere around.

D