[malskelton]

Nice to see a Yorkshire thread that I can contribute too

Took a little drive over to North Cave Wetlands last weekend - my first visit there. Parked up and was greated by a lovely singing Yellowhammer which is always a pleasure. Didn't really have too much time as I was on quite a strict timetable - but also saw Avocet, BH Gull, Blue Tit, Common Tern, Coot, Great Crested Grebe, Great Tit, Jackdaw, Lapwing, Mallard, Moorhen, Oystercatcher, Pied Wagtail, Reed Bunting, Sand Martin, Shelduck, Swallow, Tufted Duck, Whitethroat

It's always a pleasure seeing Avocets, so don't really mind that nothing was a lifer for me this time - there's always next time.

Oh ... and I can confirm that Hull is it's own authority while either side is East Riding.

I live in East Riding and work in Hull - two separate authorities

Mal Skelton

[djprest]

come on yorkshire birders their has more of us on this forum,
what are we all doing this weekend?
my self will be doing www.greenwithens.blogspot.com this afternoon hopefully while england are playing it will be free of dog walkers and motorbikes!
tomorrow may go out in east yorkshire faxfleet/north cave/paull holme.

good sight for marsh tit is askham bog or cornillian bay near scarbourgh,

if anyone wants to know were to some moorland birds pm me

cheers

come on lads and lasses we live in the best county

[djprest]

did'nt bother with green withens today went to blacktoft,had a couple of hours this afternoon,but the heat was too much!
anyway
spoonbill 2
little gull 1
wood sandpiper 1
green sandpiper 3
spotted redshank 8
ruff 20+
black tailed godwit 18
cuckoo 1
sparrowhawk 1 female
marsh harrier 1 female
barn owl 1

[Hotspur]

I went to blacktoft this afternoon as well, pre footy. Quick hour there to see the Spoonbills (did nothing), Little gulls (an adult [2nd summer?] dropped in as well in summer plumage) which were pretty cool and got Ruff for the year as well. Didn't get the sandpipers as time wasn't on my side getting back to watch the nightmare on telly. But the less said. What time were you there sonic? Morning or PM?

[djprest]

hotspur

i was there from 2 til 5 must of missed you! pics are a bit poor due to heat haze or is it the fact the camera was 17 quid from tesco's!!
what you doing tomorrow hotspur?

[Hotspur]

Sleeping, on nights tonight!

[djprest]

not a bad day today started at north cave,greenshank,green sandpiper and 2 turtle doves flew north towards the farm,
next stop faxfleet 2 marsh harriers 1 male bearded tit showing very well, avocet,yellowhammer and a couple of yellow wagtails on the drive down,also saved a juv crow from a water butt.
nearly got a photo of the bearded tit but i was too slow off the mark.

[Hotspur]

Sounds good, especially the hero bit!

[BobCesme]

Nice to see aYorkshire thread,used to love walking around Bolton Abbey woods then off to Malham or over to West burton,a great county for birding,keep it coming.

[djprest]

pic of saved carrion crow not the least looking grateful!
also marsh harrier both faxfleet this afternoon.

[Geoff Pain]

Had intended to go to Blacktoft today but when I got up my knee had locked.Oh well I'll just have to go another day.

[Keith Dickinson]

Managed to get a couple of hours in at Blacktoft today.

The marsh harriers were performing very well, saw a couple of food passes and had a good close up view of one of the males. Sadly unable to get a picture as the camera was attached to the scope, and the bird was too close to focus on quickly.
The 2 spoonbills were not quite so obliging...they were stood resting on one of the islands at Singleton hide, just visible from the corner of the hide. From the other end of the hide they couldn't be seen at all.
Marshland hide held the best number of waders, but the water level was very low so alot of rock solid mud. There were double figures of black tailed godwits,dunlin singles of greenshank and spotted redshank. Only found 4 avocet but 6 ruff with a single reeve was a bonus. A couple of juvenile little ringed plovers dropped in along with a couple of dunlin.
Whilst at Marshland I also had a good view of a single juvenile bearded tit, sadly no adults about, that I could see.
After a couple of hours I had to give up and leave...the cornflies were driving me crackers....not biting, they'd just covered me from head to foot.

[Julian Sykes Wildlife]

Originally Posted by bobwoodcock

Nice to see aYorkshire thread,used to love walking around Bolton Abbey woods then off to Malham or over to West burton,a great county for birding,keep it coming.

Totally agree with Bob, great to see how the old home county's getting on, as usual not much in the Huddersfield area...

[Sandra (Taylor)]

Love your photo of the spoonbills, Keith. I think that the way they are 'peeping' round the corner adds to the photo. I would rather have that than one where they're just posed in the centre of the picture.

Sandra & Bob

[malskelton]

Superb photo of the Spoonbills, Keith.

I'm hoping they will hang around long enough for me to connect this weekend - I can't engineer things around to get there any sooner

Would also love to see the Spotted Redshank - that would be a bonus

Mal Skelton

[Hotspur]

Went to Wheldrake Ings and Bank Island a couple of days ago. Lots of biting flies as my then sockless ankles testify. Whoops! No water at Bank Island and very little at Wheldrake made for a pretty slow afternoon. Having said that the site of 26 Herons on the main pool was quite impressive. Its the first time ive seen one on there! Also a numbers of Teal seem to have built up a bit. Saw a shoveller with ducklings and 4 pochard going into moult at bank island. Waders were few- a handful of curlew, 2 redshank and an oystercatcher plus the good numbers of lapwing. Nice day out regardless. My ankles itch like nobody's business today though.

[Marcus Conway - ebirder]

Went down to Rodley today, not much new, but plenty of breeding success. The common terns have fledged three young and oystercatchers have fledged two - these represent the first breeding records for the reserve so I'm pleased!

Also common sand and kingfisher on the reserve today. Think a green sandpiper would make my year, and the mud i s looking just perfect fr waders at the moment....

[malskelton]

Managed to get a pass out for a couple of hours on Friday evening - immediately set out for Blacktoft Sands.

I knew that it was near Goole, and that Goole is about 35 miles from me - what I didn't expect was that the journey would take me an hour each way !!!

Anyway, pulled up in the car park - busily trying to tell myself that the Spoonbills wouldn't be there and not to get my hopes up. Got to the information centre to discover it closed at 5pm - but the whiteboard said Spoonbills were visible from Townend hide.

Went straight there, opened the hide door and got an immediate view of 2 Spoonbills

Spent about 45 minutes in the hide working on my wader recognition skills - also added Spotted Redshank to my life list

A very enjoyable evening, can't beat seeing new lifers and old favourites like Snipe, Marsh Harriers, Teal, Ruff etc etc

Couldn't have asked for a better outcome

Mal Skelton

[Hotspur]

I see there is a lesser scaup at hornsea mere. Im tempted.

[Steve Lister]

Originally Posted by Hotspur

I see there is a lesser scaup at hornsea mere. Im tempted.

I see on Birdguides it was best seen from the 'members-only hide'. In my Hornsea days it was RSPB but not any more. What 'members' do they mean?

Steve

[Hotspur]

Decided to go to North Cave Wetlands and Blacktoft Sands today. Not been to North Cave before so it was a nice surprise to find it so stacked with birds. Not a great deal of really exciting stuff but 40 species in 2 hours is good. 2 lifers and a year bird produced;Lots of Little Grebesand Coots. Lapwings aplenty and some VERY loud Black-headed Gulls Plenty of Damselflies and Dragonflies but i have no ID skills in that area. Along the back edge 3 Ringed Plovers which when looking into the sun required a while to be sure of (Still need LRP).Hirundines everywhere. Got to the main lake eventually. As i stood there a Common Tern flew over my head. Year tick (embarrassingly). Only a very brief view. Got into the hide and the first thing i noticed was a small flock of pied wagtails landing on the tern island. All bobbing their tails. Got the bins on them, first four were juvs but something was different about the other 3. They were Common Sandpipers. Lifer. Without the bins their jizz was identical to the wagtails and the distance and colours seemed to aid the illusion. Scanning round the bays to the east end of the lake was another sign of return passage, a single Greenshank, which was another lifer. Don't seem to get these going through my local patch at Wheldrake. After this 4 Terns zipped over the lake but still no great views. Went round to the tower hide, finally getting some decent views of the Common Terns and along with hundreds of Lapwing was a single Black-tailed Godwit. The last bird of note (!) was a Kestrel trying to be a Hobby belting after Hirundines and failing miserably. Had me fooled as it zipped past until it banked and i saw its chestnut back and long tail.
Went down toBlacktoft Sands to see if i could find myself a Green Sandpiper. As i have failed so far this summer. As i got there i went to the wader scrape hide (cant remember what its called). Lots of waders! Another Greenshank (good things come in 2s), at least 6 Spotted Redshank despite what the bods next to me proclaimed (the biggest and best optics in the world compared to my broken cheap bins and still a spotshank needs to be in its summer plumage to qualify as one). Also loads of Ruff, an Avocet dropping in, a Snipe, loads and loads of Godwits, a scattering of Dunlin and the prize for most unlikely wader present goes to the juv Golden Plover that escorted the hordes of Lapwing down to the pools only to realise it didnt want to get its feet wet. Wandered up to first hide. A couple of Little Grebes a juv Great Crested Grebe thats it. Wandered up to the next hide (Townend?). Shock, horror! Spoonbill in none sleeping shock. Id seen this bird beforewith its partner in crime which wasn't present today. It was going for it BIG STYLEE. Little morsels being eaten left right and centre. A bow wave off its bill. Magic. Just in front of the hide were 3 snipe and another bird feeding in the reed fringes. The Snipe were doing their sowing machine bit very close to the hide. The 4th bird was a very scruffy juv Green Sandpiper. 'appy Man was I. Another year bird for the day. Was a few other bits and pieces on there including another couple of Green Sandpipers on the edges of the reeds which i hadn't spotted earlier plus a couple of Grey Herons and another scattering of Ruff. Good day!

[mudman]

Originally Posted by Steve Lister

I see on Birdguides it was best seen from the 'members-only hide'. In my Hornsea days it was RSPB but not any more. What 'members' do they mean?

Steve

I think that the hide is only available to members of the Hull Valley Wildlife Group.

[Steve Lister]

Originally Posted by mudman

I think that the hide is only available to members of the Hull Valley Wildlife Group.

Thanks Mudman. They clearly have an odd idea of the Hull valley!

Steve

[Franky70]

Anyone got any idea if the honeys have been seen at Wykeham this year?

[James Thomas]

Ok, bright sunny day and the obvious potential for colours to look different but driving along Canal Road in Bradford this afternoon I think I saw a kestrel which appeared nearly white. Unable to stop or take a better look due to traffic I asked my wife what colour the bird in the sky was, answer - really pale, nearly white. Anyone else seen or heard of this bird?