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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Yorkshire Birding (21 Viewers)

Yes Keith, I had the same frustration last Thrs of finding Huggin Carrs especially now looking at todays Hatfield sightings of 7 BNG there and 2 on one of the ponds at the Boston Pk entrance. I've left a request on their W/site for directions of H/Carrs...hope to get there Fri.
...Joe
 
Yes Keith, I had the same frustration last Thrs of finding Huggin Carrs especially now looking at todays Hatfield sightings of 7 BNG there and 2 on one of the ponds at the Boston Pk entrance. I've left a request on their W/site for directions of H/Carrs...hope to get there Fri.
...Joe

Ken has just sent me a PM...he reckons he knows where the lake is now having got to an OS map. We weren't that far away. Totally fed up with the 2 BNG on Boston Park Lake as we walked straight past that lake rather than scanning it this afternoon.
 
Caught up with the GGS today at Skipwith Common finally PM today here are some digiscoped snaps(not very good I'm afraid) Well worth the wait. Then back to GS hide to see the barn owl which did a close pass to the hide. I'm smiling at last!:-O

well done, well worth the wait me thinks!! now just need to crack that new camera!! ;)
 
Huge thanks to Andy for your info re the GGS.

Managed to get a distant record shot... it was fantastic to see him catch bumblebees and lizards in the late afternoon sun.

Clare
 

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Thankfully the wife's car was ready to collect early doors today so I was able to get out birding. A quick phone call to Ken and after picking him up and grabbing my scope etc it was onto the road to Hatfield Moors. We were out to bag a red-necked grebe if we could.
After parking in the Boston Park car park, we started walking to Ten Acre Lake. Chiffchaff singing in the birches by the path were a welcome addition to the year list. The first of the days grebes were seen on the lake by the car park, nice summer plumaged great crested grebes, as we made our way north passing the Prison Lakes we added little grebe to the day list. At one point we heard what could only be a snake slithering away through the bracken, sadly no sight of it was had. On reaching Tan Acre Lake we scanned the nearer portion of the lake hopefully but the red neck was nowhere in sight. What was evident was the huge number of courting frogs in the water, there were scores of the randy little beggars.
WE decided to head off along the rough track around the lake to see if the bird was at the northern end. A sparrowhawk which flew across the tree line was the first and only raptor of the trip. After finding a suitable viewing point from the path we settled down to scan the lake, it was n't long before we'd found more great crested and little grebes but the red neck was proving elusive. I eventually found the bird mixed in with a small flock of coot, thankfully not an association that lasted. The bird was at the far end of the lake initially but did swim a short way south allowing me to get some exceedingly rubbish pictures with the scope. With both of us having seen the bird it was back to the car and the main road to try and find Huggins Carr. Sadly as this wasn't marked on any map we had and googlemaps wasn't playing ball on the phone we didn't get to look for the black-necked grebe. So we decided to drive back and have a pop at the slav grebe at Swillington Ings, on the off chance it was till there.
After flagrantly ignoring road closed signs in Allerton Bywater we parked up by the Biffa place by the entrance to St Aidan's. The path to the overflow point was longer than I thought but still a hell of a lot shorter than going to the hide at Swillington and making the journey from there. After setting up the scopes we scanned the waters of Bowers Lake expectantly, coot, coot and more coot. There were some wigeon, lapwing, teal and a few goldeneye along with a solitary redshank but no sign of the grebe. I managed to locate the bird as I was watching a goldeneye, after establishing which goldeneye I was watching Ken also got onto the bird and we happily watched it diving for several minutes. Meadow pipit and skylark were also in evidence here so a couple more year ticks for me.
It would have been nice to have known where the black-necked grebe site was as it would have been the first time I've ever had all 5 regular grebes species in one day...as it is this was the first time I'd had 4 of them in a day so I mustn't grumble too much.

Keith,
The Black Necked Grebes where on Boston Park Lake yesterday at the side of where you parked, and smashing birds they were too (sorry). The one at Huggin Carr has not been seen for a week I do believe. I presume one of those at Boston maybe the same bird.
Dave
 
Black Necked Grebes.
CORRECTION
Just seen the Hatfield blog, seven Black Necked are now on Huggin Lake. This lake can be accessed down the lane directly opposite the Boston Park lane on t'other side of A614. There is a car park down there ( alongside a large tank )
 
Blacktoft Sands today and what would have been a pretty miserable show of birds was made more bearable by the Rough Legged Buzzard (probably the one from S Ferriby) giving some really close and spectacular skirmishes with the Marsh Harriers before perching for a couple of hours on a bush not far from Singleton hide. A single Avocet on Marshland and a couple of Black Tailed Godwits on Xerox were the only two birds worth noting. The Marsh Harriers were doing some amazing sky dancing, seeing about 3 pairs in total. The place was teeming with toads and the weather was glorious so all in all not a bad day. Oh and a Bittern was heard booming on Singleton too.

Edit. Having just looked at a lot of pics of the S Ferriby bird, I don't think it's the same bird.
 
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Just put up some information on the Great Grey Shrike Status in the Lower Derwent Valley (Skipwith area) and the movements of the current bird for those interested on my blog. Includes a stunning picture by Clare too if that helps tempt you....

The House Martin was present flying around my house this morning before going to work and was still present when I got back too!

Cheers, Andy
 
Went back to Ten Acre Lake today to try and get better pics of the Red Necked Grebe. Went down the right hand side of the lake this time where there is more cover and got much better views. Sadly could not locate any Black Necks at either Boston Park or Huggin Carr. But got a lovely Yellowhammer park itself right in front of the camera at Boston Park. Highlight of the day though was meeting up with Joespy, always nice to put a face to a name.[URL="http://img0667"][URL="http://img0709"]http://img0667[/URL]. [/URL]
 

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