Yorkshire Birding (64 Viewers)

[tophillbirder]

Did Tophill this afternoon. Had the redhead Smew and two drake Pintail on D reservoir and White-front again and several Pinkfeet with Greylags in Decoy fields. White-front is thought to be a Greenland but viewing too difficult today.
Two Treecreepers in East Park today including a possible Scandinavian bird.
Still 29 Waxwings Priory Park, Hessle.
Happy mid winter festivities to all Hull Valley birders!

 

[bitterntwisted]

Moved on to Bretton hoping for lesser pecker. Failed on that but had 4GSW from the same spot, two kingfisher under the same tree, c.40 lesser redpoll, 20 siskin, loads of nuthatch.

I stopped off at Bretton for the first time in the drizzle on Sunday and saw b#gg#r all apart from one Kingfisher, two Grey Wagtails, a dozen Goosander and two flyover Siskins. I did think I heard distant LSW, though.

Was over-run with dog-walkers then as well - completely agree Jim that Christmas Eve is great birding but sadly was working all day. My garden feeders have got busy lately though with Nuthatches, Bullfinches and Goldfinches, plenty of Redwings still in the garden and the pair of Tawny Owls were out early hunting tonight.

A very merry Christmas to everyone - I'll be in Surrey tomorrow but back for a big day out Sunday.

Graham

 

[davidtucker]

Merry Christmas to all, Hessle Waxwings from this morning,

 

[Chris-Leeds]

Happy Christmas everyone, hope you're all feeling better than I am.
Hopefully a trip to Swilly tomorrow because I've not been for ages.
Chris.

 

[mickg]

Merry chistmas from a Yorkshire Birding lurker (I'm sure I'm not the only one) Thanks for all the info in 2008- keep it up.

 

[tophillbirder]

Did High Eske today. Redhead Smew again. Thought originally it was the same bird as Tophill but now looks like there're different birds. Also 2 Pinkfeet and 5 Ruff.
Also 5 Waxwings at Swanbridge,Swanland and 30 at Priory Park, Hessle.
Still 6 Lesser Redpolls at East Park y'day.

 

[BirdFlower]

Boxing Day Visitor

Not sure if I've got the hang of how to attach a thumbnail, but here's what visited our garden this afternoon - unfortunately, it was in the shade, but this is the best I could manage...Never had one at this time of the year before & only get 1 passing through in the spring for a few minutes, if we are lucky.

Fingers-crossed...

 

[Lawts]

Good point. I will refrain from finding a Snowy until the New Year.

Mike, please feel free to find one now! Merry Christmas fellow tykes. I hope you had a good one - foggy start to Christmas Day so someone got some new bins somewhere - always happened to me.

Here's to a bird filled 2009!

 

[Lawts]

Not sure if I've got the hang of how to attach a thumbnail, but here's what visited our garden this afternoon - unfortunately, it was in the shade, but this is the best I could manage...Never had one at this time of the year before & only get 1 passing through in the spring for a few minutes, if we are lucky.

Fingers-crossed...

Good record - probably worth sharing with the Bird info. services if it hangs.

 

[tophillbirder]

Interesting report Mike. Is this the bird reported as in Hull Cemetery on Hull Valley site? Likely to be a interesting race please give details if viewable from public area.

 

[bitterntwisted]

Not sure if I've got the hang of how to attach a thumbnail, but here's what visited our garden this afternoon - unfortunately, it was in the shade, but this is the best I could manage...

Very nice! Any other photos, even lesser quality? It looks interestingly pale and sandy on the upperparts.

Graham

 

[v_cowell]

Sainsburys and East Park

Another trawl around my locality today. Met up with Dave Tucker at Sainsburys (again). Counted 68 Waxwings between Aldi and Sainsburys.
Then to East Park for the Teal, Pintail and Lesser Redpoll amongst other species. Dipped the Treecreepers as we needed to be home early.
Have included shots from today and Wednesdays trip out were I bumped into Nathan Pickering and we had good views of the Scandi Treecreeper in park.

 

[BirdFlower]

Very nice! Any other photos, even lesser quality? It looks interestingly pale and sandy on the upperparts.

Graham

It was fairly dark & the pics are taken through glass, so this is the only other pic worth sharing. The garden was fairly closely watched both yesterday & today & the bird only appeared for 10 mins at the max this afternoon. It tried to take a mealworm from the new fat slab, but flew off when a Great Tit alighted on the feeder, and left the garden completely shortly after that. I will let you know if it returns, but I'm afraid the site isn't viewable from a public area.

 

[Marcus Conway - ebirder]

Out of curiosity why would people want to see this bird anyway?

(Good garden record Michael!)

 

[djprest]

Merry Christmas to all, Hessle Waxwings from this morning,

nice pics.
what digiscoping set up do you use?

 

[bitterntwisted]

Out of curiosity why would people want to see this bird anyway?

(Good garden record Michael!)

The time of year rouses suspicions of an Eastern race (and hence a potential armchair tick) For me the very sandy upperparts increase that possibility. I've seen a presumed halimodendri in Cornwall and was struck by how brown it was, but the taxonomical situation is complex, and the boundaries between eastern subspecies are blurred, even along the lines of proposed splits. It'll take a much better birder than me to assess plumage tones, wing formula, tail length etc. from even a perfect set of pictures.

Summary of Eastern races here... http://www.birds.kz/Sylvia curruca/indexe.html, and BOU comment on Lesser Whitethroat taxonomy and extra-limital records of other (sub)species here... http://www.bbrc.org.uk/Riact.pdf

Graham

 

[mikejack82]

Out of curiosity why would people want to see this bird anyway?
Always a nob...

hmmm

 

[Marcus Conway - ebirder]

hmmm

Not sure what your point is?

 

[davidtucker]

nice pics.
what digiscoping set up do you use?

Nikon D200 + Sigma 500mm

 

[Ben M]

Just back from a few days with the family at my parents' house in Ripon. Dad and I managed to sneak out to Nosterfield for a couple of hours on Christmas Eve, but only at the end of the day. Picked up some year ticks that are too rare to get on my local patch - Oystercatcher, Redshank, Goldeneye, and Wigeon. Last time we visited there was a Bar-headed Goose in with the Greylag, this time there was another dubious life tick in there (see photo).

Also had fun clicking away at all the birds that visit their feeders - a nice little colony of Tree Sparrow spend pretty much all their day in there.