Yorkshire Birding (6 Viewers)

[Lawts]

Thought I'd busy myself on Saturday and instead of spending the weekend quietly sobbing to myself while I read the Spurn reports I'd go just out of county for the Leash Fen GGS, and on to Old Moor to mop up garganey and little stint that had so far escaped the year list. Did I manage any of them? Did I chuff!

Seriously though, reading everyone's reports I think shows those of us who end up landlocked on weekends like this should not to let the green eyed monster well up too much - you all had excellent-sounding says at the East Coast, but no single person mopped up the rares to quite the same degree as the pager reports would lead us to believe we would have had the chance to do.

You can start to think everyone's seeing everything and the messages drive you mad in the end. However, if you are on Barra ticking Hermit Thrush, you are not on Scilly ticking Black-eared Wheatear.

Even on a much more local level, I could have dashed off from Hartlepool yesterday for the Bluetail at Saltburn, but I was happy with my lot at Hartlepool. It's never as easy on the ground as the messages make you think.

If you set off to say Spurn on a Sunday hoping to see everything that's come through on the Saturday, you'll be disappointed - no plan survives contact with the enemy - you might be three hours just waiting for a Dusky or Icky to show that the finder just happened to chance upon, or as with the Seaton Carew vireo, it's been found because it's been netted, and may be a pig to relocate on release.

 

[Richard G]

Couple of pics from yesterday, including one of my daughter, Natasha, releasing a Goldcrest at the ringing station. Thanks again, guys, you made the kids day!!

 

[Dint See It]

Did you have any luck seeing them Mr DSI?

I was planning to go after work on saturday, and to try for fudge at wintersett aswell, but as usual something cropped up to put a stop to my plans. Hoping they hang around another week but i won,t be putting money on it. Thanks for PM mate,

 

[John Bullfinch]

Spurn won over going to work so headed over this morning calling in at Sammys Point - no rarities but was treated to the 'fall treatment!' From what I heard not as intense a number as Saturday but birds were still everywhere. Goldcrests, Robins, Redwings, Brambling. You really had to look at times to see where you were walking as I nearly trod on a few Goldcrests!! Lovely experience (for me, probably not the Goldcrest).

At Spurn I had a few close encounters with Siskin, a bit hard to see in the grass, good job they saw me before my size 9's landed on them. Most of the birds were really not bothered what us humans were doing, they were shattered and feeding.

Again, no mega rarities at Spurn but lovely views of a Lapland Bunting (or should I call him one-eyed Jack!) by the Bluebell car park was my 'Bird' of the day.

Just echoing some of the recent comments here - the Little Bunting at Spurn today was, I believe, only seen by a small number. I was not part of that number || but had a lovely day/experience anyway. I will be back for the megas:t:

 

[andy hood]

Had a hen harrier drifting over the road to the south of dog kennel roundabout near beverly this morn

 

[lirta1]

You are right it sounds like a lot of birds were just out there to pick up but many of Radds/Duskies/Blutails were very difficult to pin down, and people had the same problen in north norfolk with the pippit, bluetail, BT thrush and especially the Oliv warbler. The easiest 2 were the isabelline Wheatear (now gone) and the solitary sand (opposite end of country).

Fuel prices dictate that it aint so easy nowadays to get to see these birds - i have already spent £200 in the past month ! Well skint! Just a Rustic bunting to add to my list for all that.

It's nice to hear what you are saying, i never seem to get lucky most of the time,i go to Kilnsea and Sammie's Point as often as i can without luck and certainly not falling over these birds, as you say the cost of fuel at the moment is dictating to my birding and the fact i work 4 weekends in 5 means despite owning a caravan at nearby Withernsea i seem to always miss out.

 

[Lawts]

Had a good afternoon at Filey today.

Started off badly by dipping on the Wheldrake Osprey which we missed by about 15 mins (we probably would have been there for it had I not had an enforced trip to Kwik Fit to replace a damaged tire - £100 start to the day :C)

Didn't see anything rare or out of the ordinary on the Brigg as we were walking the dog as well, but there were hundreds of Robins & Goldcrests which we were virtually stepping on. Lots of Oystercatchers, Turnstones, Redshank, a couple of Little Ringed Plover & a single Dunlin on the Brigg itself. Quite a few Redwings & Siskins as well.

I would, however, like to pass on a huge thank you to the ladies & gents manning the FBOG ringing station for getting my son & daughter involved in your day by allowing them to release a few of the birds you'd ringed. They didn't stop talking about it for most of the journey back to Ilkley!!

Pics to follow once I've sorted them out!!!

Hi Richard, glad you had a good day. Just one point though, your plovers will far more likely have been Ringed instead of Little Ringed - habitat alone would rule out LRP if actually down on the Brigg.

 

[Martin Standley]

Spurn over the weekend

I was lucky enough to have Thursday and Friday off this week as well as getting out yesterday.
I can only echo comments by everyone else on what a magical spectacle it was complemented yesterday by the fantastic weather.
Highlights for me over the extended weekend were turtle dove, yellow browed warbler, pallas's warbler, white fronted geese. plus seeing the sheer number of birds around was just fantastic.
Wolfbirder-pic of the lapland bunting below.
For anyone interested I have put up a few posts with pictures on the blog.

 

[lirta1]

I was lucky enough to have Thursday and Friday off this week as well as getting out yesterday.
I can only echo comments by everyone else on what a magical spectacle it was complemented yesterday by the fantastic weather.
Highlights for me over the extended weekend were turtle dove, yellow browed warbler, pallas's warbler, white fronted geese. plus seeing the sheer number of birds around was just fantastic.
Wolfbirder-pic of the lapland bunting below.
For anyone interested I have put up a few posts with pictures on the blog.

Great pics Martin,
Glad you all had a good time, need all those for my year list, but life list would have shot up, had to come back home early to Sheffield on the Wednesday due to the wife being back at work, was there last Tuesday but missed out on the Lapland Bunting despite visiting their favourite field by the dish at the top of Beacon Lane, missed the Yellow Browed Warbler by Crown and Anchor

 

[DOC REED]

Couple of pics from yesterday, including one of my daughter, Natasha, releasing a Goldcrest at the ringing station. Thanks again, guys, you made the kids day!!

Thats a fab thing to hear and see ...a conservationist of the future in the making??? Hope so...and well done to the ringers! Nice moment to share amongst all the rarity bashing!!

Paul

 

[wolfbirder]

I was lucky enough to have Thursday and Friday off this week as well as getting out yesterday.
I can only echo comments by everyone else on what a magical spectacle it was complemented yesterday by the fantastic weather.
Highlights for me over the extended weekend were turtle dove, yellow browed warbler, pallas's warbler, white fronted geese. plus seeing the sheer number of birds around was just fantastic.
Wolfbirder-pic of the lapland bunting below.
For anyone interested I have put up a few posts with pictures on the blog.

Thank you Martin. :t:

Anyone have thoughts about one-eyed Jack? Sorry to sound macabre but was the bird just blind in one eye (an old injury) or do people think this was a seriously debilitating condition (I know blindness in one eye is debilitating in its own right)? Looked to be feeding ok and flew off strongly when i isaw it.

 

[wolfbirder]

It's nice to hear what you are saying, i never seem to get lucky most of the time,i go to Kilnsea and Sammie's Point as often as i can without luck and certainly not falling over these birds, as you say the cost of fuel at the moment is dictating to my birding and the fact i work 4 weekends in 5 means despite owning a caravan at nearby Withernsea i seem to always miss out.

I think you have to constantly have access to bang-up to date information (via pager or phone service usually), or one hell of a lot of luck. Primed with that info you end up charging around frantically at times. Its difficult, you want to enjoy the day but you do end up feeling gutted to belatedly hearof a rarity at the location you were at. I wonder how many people connected with the Rads at Spurn at about 5pm when it was netted on Sunday? Barely anyone I would guess.

By the way, i always notice peoplre at spurn with radios connected to the Obs. Silly question, i do not suppose you can hire them from the Obs can you? Appreciate you would have to leave a deposit. Be a great source of up- to-date info when you are there as well as a nice little earner for the Obs, tho on the flip side i can appreciate that you would not want hundreds of birders charging around with loud radios. I would be happy to pay around £15 to hire one for a day.

 

[Richard G]

Hi Richard, glad you had a good day. Just one point though, your plovers will far more likely have been Ringed instead of Little Ringed - habitat alone would rule out LRP if actually down on the Brigg.

Cheers Steve, so much still to learn!!!!!

 

[Richard G]

Thats a fab thing to hear and see ...a conservationist of the future in the making??? Hope so...and well done to the ringers! Nice moment to share amongst all the rarity bashing!!

Paul

Thanks Paul. I try to get the kids involved as much as possible but sometimes the boredom threshold is set very low. Sunday's involvement raised the level somewhat!!

Richard

 

[James Thomas]

Anyone got info on the ossett Great Grey Shrike?

 

[Ingsbirder]

Anyone got info on the ossett Great Grey Shrike?

08:50 one on Healey Road briefly this morning before flying off down the river

 

[James Thomas]

Ta

 

[p-my]

I think you have to constantly have access to bang-up to date information (via pager or phone service usually), or one hell of a lot of luck. Primed with that info you end up charging around frantically at times. Its difficult, you want to enjoy the day but you do end up feeling gutted to belatedly hearof a rarity at the location you were at. I wonder how many people connected with the Rads at Spurn at about 5pm when it was netted on Sunday? Barely anyone I would guess.

By the way, i always notice peoplre at spurn with radios connected to the Obs. Silly question, i do not suppose you can hire them from the Obs can you? Appreciate you would have to leave a deposit. Be a great source of up- to-date info when you are there as well as a nice little earner for the Obs, tho on the flip side i can appreciate that you would not want hundreds of birders charging around with loud radios. I would be happy to pay around £15 to hire one for a day.

I was at spurn on Friday and benefited from news passed on from radios held by some of the regulars. Following that experience and anticipating more trips to spurn I wondered about whether it would be appropriate to buy a radio or as you have suggested hiring them but don't know whether cost, complexity of use and the views the staff and regulars towards unknown birders using such equipment would make it more trouble than it is worth.

Could any of the spurn regulars give me an angle on this and whether they use a specific type of radio or set to a certain channel etc. - As you can see i haven't a clue on their use.

Also I picked up a copy of the bird report and noted the article on the failed breeding attempts of the Little Tern colony during 2009 - Can anyone provide an update whether this years attempts were more successful?

Thanks

Pete

 

[andy r]

I was at spurn on Friday and benefited from news passed on from radios held by some of the regulars. Following that experience and anticipating more trips to spurn I wondered about whether it would be appropriate to buy a radio or as you have suggested hiring them but don't know whether cost, complexity of use and the views the staff and regulars towards unknown birders using such equipment would make it more trouble than it is worth.

Could any of the spurn regulars give me an angle on this and whether they use a specific type of radio or set to a certain channel etc. - As you can see i haven't a clue on their use.

Also I picked up a copy of the bird report and noted the article on the failed breeding attempts of the Little Tern colony during 2009 - Can anyone provide an update whether this years attempts were more successful?

Thanks



Pete

The radio system at Spurn is under special licence run by the YWT and Spurn Bird Observatory. To have a license you have to be a member of Friends of Spurn and pay an annual radio license fee, however the license is limited to the number of people using it, so i'm sorry but there are none available at the moment.
Andy Roadhouse

 

[andy r]

Spurn sightings for 12th October

Migration watch Heavy cloud to start and to finish the day with some sunny periods late morning and early afternoon, a cold NE force 3-4 wind.
A bit disappointing after the last few days, there had been an obvious clear out of many birds including most of the scarcities, but there were still plenty of migrants around and a few new ones appeared from late morning, mainly Robins and thrushes. A Little Bunting was seen at Sunny Cliff in the morning before flying off into Middle Hedge and lost to view. The Egyptian Goose was still on the Borrow Pit, the Hooded Crow was seen in the Triangle and 3 ‘Nordic’ Jackdaws were at the Point.
Common migrant totals were 3 Jack Snipe, 1 Woodcock, 1 Tree Pipit, 152 Meadow Pipit, 13 Rock Pipit, 156 Dunnock, 350 Robin, 1 Black Redstart, 14 Redstart, 2 Whinchat, 1 Stonechat, 9 Wheatear, 3 Ring Ouzel, 112 Blackbird, 30 Fieldfare, 390 Song Thrush, 1120 Redwing, 40 Blackcap, 2 Garden Warbler, 1 Whitethroat, 135 Chiffchaff, 2 Willow Warbler, 225 Goldcrest, 3 Spotted Flycatcher, 250 Chaffinch, 245 Brambling, 105 Siskin, 2+ Mealy Redpoll, 19 Lesser Redpoll, 1 Lapland Bunting, 1 Yellowhammer, 56 Reed Bunting.
There was some light passage in the morning: 13 Wigeon, 2 Teal, 13 Eider, 14 Common Scoter, 1 Great Northern Diver out east, 2 Grey Heron, 1 ringtail Hen Harrier, 3 Snipe, 1 Stock Dove, 80 Wood Pigeon, 1 Great Spotted Woodpecker, 16 Skylark, 10 Swallow, 8 Meadow Pipit, 13 Rock Pipit, 2 Grey Wagtail, 1 alba Wagtail, 190 Starling, 220 Tree Sparrow, 3 Brambling, 80 Greenfinch, 15 Siskin, 25 Linnet, 4 Lesser Redpoll, 1 Lapland Bunting.
Other birds of note included1 Little Egret, 2 Merlin, 1 Water Rail, 3 Avocet, 19 Black-tailed Godwit and 1 Spotted Redshank.
North of the area the only birds reported were the 2 White-fronted Geese by the Listening Dish and 4 Ring Ouzel at Sammy’s Point.