Yorkshire Birding (1 Viewer)

[BirdFlower]

Plenty of waders at Spurn high tides too, if no really special species on Monday. However, plenty of bright colours on some species at the moment. Just added my side of the TV coverage of the Tophill Collared Pratincole to the blog!

 

[Andrew Gibson]

Report of an escaped fem Goshawk N.of Beverley since about March and still seen regularly. Worryingly the guy who reported it [not the owner] seemed to infer that it might be of questionable origin.

Eric. Posting information like this only causes confusion and brings in to doubt Goshawk records for East Yorkshire.

As a report, where did it come from.
Has the bird got jessies on.
Exactly where has it been seen.
What do you mean by questional origin? Is assume it came from an egg and not a test tube.

 

[liverpool_bob]

Had a quick look at Swinemoor this morning. Nothing doing put it's getting wet and can only get better if the forecast of a wet August is true?!

Env Agency have failed to clear many of the drains of weeds again this year (I can almost hear farmers complaining from here ) so there's risk of some interesting flodding again.

Somewhere in this pic is one of the drains that leads into Lisset/Barmston drain.

 

[Andrew Gibson]

Env Agency have failed to clear many of the drains of weeds again this year (I can almost hear farmers complaining from here ) so there's risk of some interesting flodding again.

Somewhere in this pic is one of the drains that leads into Lisset/Barmston drain.

EA are not resposable for all drains, some are IDB and others are farmers that may have to think about harvest and timing of drain works to ensure not to disturbe breeding birds.
There is more to this countryside management then just saying who should do it.

 

[BirdFlower]

Just heard from a reliable source that there's a Hummingbird-Hawk Moth currently in Sewerby Hall Gardens - just check all the purple-flowered plants first!

 

[liverpool_bob]

EA are not resposable for all drains, some are IDB and others are farmers that may have to think about harvest and timing of drain works to ensure not to disturbe breeding birds.
There is more to this countryside management then just saying who should do it.

I'm not doubting that, farmers are always quick to complain - but EA certainly used to be responsible for this particular drain. Can't ever recall seeing it this choked up. They used to clear it every other year (whatever they used to be called - Waterways?) during winter but it hasn't been done for around 4 years now. To be fair there was a large bank slip last year and they patched that up good and proper.

 

[James Thomas]

Was over in Market Weighton today so took a trip for a couple of hours, walked down from Bromfleet to Witton Sands, nothing birdwise but loads of butterflies on the set aside. Stopped off at North Cave, nothing much to report - a Green Sandpiper and 4 snipe the highlight.

On the journey home a small game bird crossed the motorway, trying to get enough id for my first quail sighting it was creamed on the windscreen of a car in the other carriageway.

 

[knocker7800]

Blacktoft is buzzing at the moment with juv yellow wagtails and bearded tits giving great views. Also summer plum spotshanks. rather wierdly the lagoons are quite low due to lack of rain in the area.

Mark.

 

[Mannix]

Chalk Bank hide at Spurn is good when the tide is coming in. Thousands of birds including Black Tailed Godwits, Whimbrel, Curlews, Dunlin, Oystercatchers, Sanderling, Knot, Common, Arctic, Sandwich and Little Tern, Turnstones, the odd Curlew Sandpiper and when I was there last weekend a pair of Arctic Skuas landed right in front of the hide and gave some great entertainment mobbing the Terns for the fish as they came in.
Literally thousands of birds flew past. Well worth a couple of hours.

 

[garry1366]

Marsh Warblers have again bred at Spurn. Upto 3 juveniles can be seen along beacon lane, they are favouring the area to the north of the caravan site around the overgrown pond.
If visiting DO NOT enter the caravan site or the rough area to the north but view only from the lane itself. The rough area is owned by the caravan site and is private if you see any birders in there they probably own a caravan and are allowed in.

A nice shot of one of the birds by Martin Garner is on the obs website homepage

G

 

[garry1366]

Some of you will know I've been trying to set up a new website for Yorkshire Birding Magazine, I will have something online in the next week or so and am looking for really nice pics of the best rarities to put on the site, some people sent me stuff last yr bur I've managed to lose them!
If anyone has pics of stuff like the Flamboro Red flanked Bluetail/Brown Shrike/Brown Fly or Tophill Amur Falcon or slightly less rare stuff from the last few years such as Desert Wheatear then I'd love to use them if you're willing. You can email them to me at garry1366 'AT' hotmail.com

Many thanks
G

 

[Chris-Leeds]

Seen at a bad angle coming home from the gym at about 1:20 this afternoon, what looked like a marsh harrier very much out of place. Can't really think of any other bird of prey to match it but I wouldn't expect to see one hanging around the houses near home as we are well away from any watercourse and only see red kites behaving this way. Really could have done with my bins but then I'd have looked out of place. It was certainly not a red kite and didn't look at all like a buzzard, it was very dark looking and the wings not as broad as a buzzard's would be.

 

[Simmo1111]

Following my somewhat drab day out at Potteric I did have a better weekend at Old Moor and ended up with a few good sightings. Peregrine, Hobby, Sparrowhawk, Kestrel, the Barn Owl chicks showed well on Saturday too. On the Wader Scrape were Dunlin, Redshank, Common and Green Sandpiper, Ringed and Little Ringed Plovers, Ruff, Snipe, Black Tailed Godwit, Little Egret, Heron, Black Headed Gulls, Lesser Black Backed, Common Terns and a surprise visit by a pair of Little Gulls was nice to see. The usual Teal, Shoveler, Mallards, Coots etc and a handsome male Garganey too.

All in all a good weekend !!

 

[Marcus Conway - ebirder]

Anyone else notice a massive emergence of insects today?

Mainly hoverflies and painted ladies.

 

[andy hood]

Just heard from a reliable source that there's a Hummingbird-Hawk Moth currently in Sewerby Hall Gardens - just check all the purple-flowered plants first!

we had one in our garden last week, my dad saw it and photoed it , i was at work and missed seeing it !! another village birder had one in his garden the same week

 

[andy hood]

Anyone else notice a massive emergence of insects today?

Mainly hoverflies and painted ladies.

there's hundreds of hoverflies around lately marcus, i dont think ive ever seen as many before

 

[BirdFlower]

there's hundreds of hoverflies around lately marcus, i dont think ive ever seen as many before

You don't remember the summer of 1976 then? There's also been waves of Ladybirds in East Anglia coming in of the sea in the last 2 days, so may get an influx of those too!

 

[tophillbirder]

Anyone else notice a massive emergence of insects today?

Mainly hoverflies and painted ladies.

Certainly noticed a good number of Painted Ladies the last 2 days {and not just out on the town last night]. Good counts of other butterflies at Tophill Low NR today. Very quiet bird wise except for up to 3 L.Egrets.

You don't remember the summer of 1976 then? There's also been waves of Ladybirds in East Anglia coming in of the sea in the last 2 days, so may get an influx of those too!

I remember '76. The little red and black critters were everywhere. However that was a long hot summer unlike this year!

 

[darrenward]

Does anyone know about a report of the Lesser Legs at Paull yesterday (Thurs)? Apparently bird was reported at around midday. I was there twice yesterday (at 1600 and 2000) and no sign.

Hi Andrew

It was me, my comps down at home with a system 32 error, and now at PC World. Anyhow it flew into the first flooded area just left of the cut at 12.00. It few in calling it or a/the Redshank it was with, and even at a distance, with comparison quite easy to see I had your bird, I walked the lower edge of the flood bank, to get good views of the bird, but for some reason as I popped the camera on it flew off with the Redshank, and landed out of sight in a channel betwix the main area of water and the Humber.. I sat in my Civic as a photgrapher (Vince I imagine??) began to walk the flood bank..

 

[Andrew Tongue]

Hi Andrew

It was me, my comps down at home with a system 32 error, and now at PC World. Anyhow it flew into the first flooded area just left of the cut at 12.00. It few in calling it or a/the Redshank it was with, and even at a distance, with comparison quite easy to see I had your bird, I walked the lower edge of the flood bank, to get good views of the bird, but for some reason as I popped the camera on it flew off with the Redshank, and landed out of sight in a channel betwix the main area of water and the Humber.. I sat in my Civic as a photgrapher (Vince I imagine??) began to walk the flood bank..

Thanks Darren, I'm delighted you saw it. I think this may have been the last sighting of the bird so you were lucky!