[James Thomas]

Originally Posted by jtw521

Anyone got details of the Grey Phalarope at Altofts?

...and still no-one told me!

Dave, going to Spurn early doors. Looks like nice weather and northerlies, a bit of cloud moving in during the afternoon but OK further north. Should be a good day.

[BirdFlower]

Hi Birders,

I hope it's OK to mention the availability of my 2009 East Yorkshire Wildlife Calendar here. I realise that there are a lot of birders from West & North Yorkshire on this forum, but I'm sure many of you visit the East coast regularly & there may be some places new to you which get a mention! If you know anyone who is interested in wildlife & they want to know more about times & availiability, then hopefully, this would be a lovely stocking-filler!

The calendars feature 30 first-rate photos, which accompany nearly 300 lines of suggestions on what to see & where you may see it. The bulk of the information is about EY's birds, but butterflies, moths, dragonflies, mammals & fungi are also featured. So, this is a calendar with a difference.

For more information see www.eywildlifecalendar.co.uk or PM me. The calendars cost £7 if I'm posting them out, but please quote you saw this mentioned on the Yorkshire Birding Forum & I will donate £1 for each one purchased to Spurn Bird Observatory.

Thanks for your time!
Cheers

[whiterussian]

99% sure i have just seen a rough-legged Buzzard near Skipton. Flying at very low level, observed for 2 minutes. I am very familiar with Buzzrards, and this looked bigger, had a more "flappy" flight, and had more square wings. It was also significantly whiter. Would this be a strong possibility, given the easterly strong winds last 2 days?

[Marcus Conway - ebirder]

Originally Posted by whiterussian

99% sure i have just seen a rough-legged Buzzard near Skipton. Flying at very low level, observed for 2 minutes. I am very familiar with Buzzrards, and this looked bigger, had a more "flappy" flight, and had more square wings. It was also significantly whiter. Would this be a strong possibility, given the easterly strong winds last 2 days?

Hi - welcome. The most convincing feature is the obvious white tail with a broad dark band at its tip. Also have you ruled out Honey Buzzard?

[Geoff Pain]

Originally Posted by Keith Dickinson

Assuming the bird is still there, I'm going to try for the grey phal at Altofts on Sunday.... can anybody pm me the gen on where it is?

According to Birdguides it's gone

[_Zippy_]

After an unsuccessful trip to Junction 32 to find a new birding coat we swung by Fairburn ... yes, without binoculars so we wouldn't be too conspicuous! The water across the road should have warned us. The closed visitor centre should have warned us. The mallards sitting on a fence should have warned us!
Some polite visitor from Sussex DID warn us. They had been given a 3 hour flood alert and advised to clear the site. After our half hour walk around the boardwalk playing lift the flap with a five year old we noticed more water across the road ... and left!

A little pic of a van running alongside the car park entrance ... I just cannot get it the right way round!!!!!!!!

[Keith Dickinson]

Here you are zippy, I've turned your picture round.

for ref.
AllI did was open your picture in windows picture viewer and selected the rotate tool on the bottom, little triangle with an arrow showing direction of rotation. Then saved the picture.

[_Zippy_]

Originally Posted by Keith Dickinson

Here you are zippy, I've turned your picture round.

for ref.
AllI did was open your picture in windows picture viewer and selected the rotate tool on the bottom, little triangle with an arrow showing direction of rotation. Then saved the picture.

Thanks for fixing it! I had it the right way round in Preview (mac) but it rotated on upload. I went back to the original and rotated to compensate and the rotation stayed. So I left it!
Fairburn's still a soggy mess though, no matter which way up it is

[Den]

Any flooding at other Yorkshire sites? How about Old Moor? Info would be useful to save others a wasted trip.

[mikejack82]

...

[KnockerNorton]

Crossbill at North Bransholme (Hull) this afternoon. Not many records for those parts.

[davidtucker]

Started my day at Spurn 07:00 (jim got your PM), started at the Sea Watching Hide:

Manx Shearwaters +++
Sooty Shearwater (1)
Cory's Shearwater (1)
Artic Skuas+++
Red Throated Divers (2)
Teal +++
Widgeon +++
Gannets +++
Artic Tern
Common Tern

After the "awesome" view of the Cory's Shearwater, which was close to shore, and viewed by 8 happy birders, I headed down to the point where I viewed an Icterine Warbler, also at the point got views of:

Garden Warbler
Willow Warbler
Pied Flys
Osprey
Peregrine

Following a quick "cup of tea" at the Caravan, I headed down to Chalk Bank for the Shore Lark, I have dipped on this bird twice, however today my luck changed, and got distant views via the scope.

All in all a good day......

Bird count= 67

[Hotspur]

Had a trip to Tophill Low this afternoon and saw a very obliging Long-eared Owl near O reservoir. No other sightings of interest although apparently there has been some good raptor passage in the morning. No Little Gulls, a single Common Sandpiper and Snipe. Apparently the BN Grebe and Garganey were on D Res but my wife was getting twitchy by the time we'd scanned the marshes and seen the owl so I let them pass after a good year for both.

[Richard G]

I had an "interesting" diving day on the dive boat Providence out of Bridlington yesterday. To say a number of my friends were green was an understatement

However, in between dives & on the way back to Brid I managed to see Fulmars, Razorbill, Herring Gull, GBB Gull, Gannets, Manx Shearwater & Sooty Shearwater. In Brid harbour itself I also saw Common Gull, Cormorant & Turnstone.

In the morning a suicidale Woodpigeon decided to fly into the car windscreen (but flew off unharmed) & I had a life tick in the shape of a Barn Owl which flew over the main road.

Richard

[ColinSev]

Had a look at South Gare today - normally stay on the north side of the Tees.
Excellent morning with loads of warblers, redstarts, and flycatchers, found a very amiable goldcrest which i could have grabbed hold of it was so close.
The main thing I want is identification of a bird I think is a Red Breasted Flycatcher- either female or young. But am not certain can anyone confirm it please. 1st 2 pics

Cheers

[Keith Dickinson]

Although I'm not a flycatcher expert... the pictures look very similar to the video of RB Fly in BWPi

[andy r]

Originally Posted by ColinSev

Had a look at South Gare today - normally stay on the north side of the Tees.
Excellent morning with loads of warblers, redstarts, and flycatchers, found a very amiable goldcrest which i could have grabbed hold of it was so close.
The main thing I want is identification of a bird I think is a Red Breasted Flycatcher- either female or young. But am not certain can anyone confirm it please. 1st 2 pics

Cheers

Colin - its a first year Pied Flycatcher

[Marcus Conway - ebirder]

Was in two minds about where to go today and changed my mind a number of times. Eventually picked Flam Head hoping the migrants would trickle in, and leaving South Gare for another day (oops!). Met Jim at Old fall and we went through loads of redstarts and paddy flies quite a few obliging birds. Possile Icky (Jim had another early doors) in Old Fall sycamores, and loads of wheatears.

Went to Hoddy Cows, got another Icky this time prolonged scope views and about 5 whinchats. Tried Speeton churchyard, pretty sure I had a 'northern' willow warbler, but gave the normal call and another icky (!) and 30 willow warblers, five redstarts, 3 pied flies and a wood warbler.

Went onto Filey to photograph the usual turnstone and had three sooty shears (year tick) through, but not much else. 100+ fulmars seemed high and plenty of gannets too.Actually quite dissapointed on the day, but reading back through the write up I should stop being such a grumpy old git.

[Marcus Conway - ebirder]

There was a probable great snipe at Spurn on saturday but could not be relocated...

[Hotspur]

Had a shufty around the east coast today, starting at Speeton CHurch, inspired by Marcus and Jim yesterday. Absolutely nothing there. Not a single Willow Warbler or anything. Moved onto Hoddy Cows where the sum total was a couple of Willow Warblers, Lesser Whitethroat and a Garden Warbler. Dropped in at Bempton to check the dell out where I managed single Chiffchaff and a couple of Goldcrests. I was getting sick of this! As i left news of RB Fly and an Icky came in from Old Fall. I ambled down there with a couple of Redstarts round the bigstile but no sign of the flycatcher. I flushed several further along the hedge. On the posts running into the setaside in the field were masses of Wheatears and a handful of Whinchats. Up at the plantation a quick scout round provided merely a Spotted Flycatcher. Sitting for a while in the sun provided a moulting male Redstart, several Pied Flycatchers (year tick) and some more spot flys. A willow warbler in the sycamores gave me a scare but it appears the Icky had pushed off - a double dip. The wander back produced a stonking sum plum male Redstart and a few half glimpsed warblers. Lots of uncommon passage but no scarce.

[skink1978]

An afternoon stroll at Wykeham Forest on Sunday produced a single Common Buzzard and this very obliging Common Lizard (Sarah took the photo).



Earlier in the day I dipped the Wryneck at Long Nab but did see a large Grey Seal very close to shore.

[Hotspur]

Thats a hefty lizard - i assume thats a pregnant female?

[Marcus Conway - ebirder]

Updated the blog with some more pictures from this weekend www.eirder.net

[James Thomas]

URL not recognised, should that be weirder.net Marcus?

[Marcus Conway - ebirder]

Originally Posted by jtw521

URL not recognised, should that be weirder.net Marcus?

Very good www.ebirder.net !!