Wykeham Forest & Surrounding Area,Saturday 8th February 2020.

With the prospect of a bright and breezy day ahead,i decided to head north in the hope of seeing that ghost of the upland forests,the Goshawk.
 On the journey up to the Wykeham area,a lovely Barn Owl was seen hunting the roadside verges just outside Hutton Cranswick and was a good omen of things to come.
 As it was relatively early,i decided to visit the feeding station in Forge Valley first,gaining some lovely views of the locals,which included at least 4 Marsh Tit,a couple of Nuthatch and other commoner species,with a drumming Great-spotted Woodpecker nearby.
 After my fill of the birds at the feeders,i carried on a little further up the road to have a quick look on Hackness Lake,to see if any Mandarins were present.Sure enough on arrival,a quick look under the bankside trees revealed at least 15 birds,most paired up ready for the forthcoming breeding season.I know these birds are introduced into our country,but they are cracking little ducks and I have become fond of them it has to be said.
 After looking at Hackness,it was off on another short leg and into Troutsdale Valley to look for Dippers.First stop drew a blank at Wrench Green,but a little further along the Derwent at Hilla Green,the resident pair were watched as they searched for aquatic prey along the river here.In my opinion,it's always a great day when you see Dippers,certainly in my top five bird species.
 After enjoying these oversized water Wrens,it was time to travel up to Wykeham and look for those big Accipters.
 On arrival,a quick bite to eat and a drink and i was off to the viewpoint.It was pretty breezy and the sky was brightening nicely,perfect conditions for displaying raptors i thought to myself.
 After getting into position,it wasn't long before i was watching my first Goshawk of the day,a lovely brown toned & barred 2nd calendar year bird watched as it surveyed its forest home from on high.What it must be like to be the king of the forest,as these birds are,just superb!.
 More sightings followed and included at least 4 displaying pairs seen from my vantage point along with several Common Buzzards joining in the display.
 At one point i could enjoy the mewing of Common Buzzards and the 'Keck,keck keck' call of a Goshawk at the same time,just bliss.
 It was really nice to see a male Goshawk perched up today as well,the yellow feet and tarsus positively glowing in the sun,what a bird,before he disappeared into the forest with Wood Pigeons scattering like confetti infront of him.
 Other species seen from the viewpoint in between watching these beauties,included a handfull of Crossbills chipping their way across the sky and a couple of Brambling.
 Sadly it was time to go and my time here watching these majestic birds of prey was over,for now anyway,as it won't be long before i hope to make another visit here to this superb area.

Incoming!.

Big Bird.

Black-throated Beauty.....Sunday 2nd February 2020.

After hearing that earlier in the week Grimsby birder Josh Forrester had incredibly found a young male Black-throated Thrush in his lunch break from college!...this morning i paid a visit to see this lovely bird myself.
 Unfortunately the weather was a bit inclement today,that was putting it politely to be fair,but it wasn't long before i clapped eyes on my first Black-throated Thrush to be seen in my adopted home county of Lincolnshire.
 First views were up in a tree,but it wasn't long before he was on the deck feeding on a plethora of earthworms,no doubt being easier to find due to the damp conditions.I watched as he gave superb views through the scope,the big Swaro coming into its own in the dull conditions,with its superb light gathering capabilities giving me a great chance to study this handsome bird.
 He was a combination of lovely subtle grey tones on the uppers,with an almost Fieldfare like quality when observed from behind,with bright white underparts and of course that black throat and upper breast moulting nicely through.
 There had been some initial controversy from a handfull of birders on the fact the bird showed slight reddish areas in the tail,but after some detailed discussion on this,it seems this is a feature found in up to 25% of all Black-throated Thrushes and is still a good feature for the species.
 An interesting piece of behaviour i noticed on several occasions while on site,was watching him sub-singing,but unfortunately i was never close enough to hear him.Unfortunately all my photos are only record shots due to the poor weather and don't do this lovely bird justice.I may pop back in better conditions if time allows.
 As i write,this lovely bird is still on site and is a long awaited first for the county,a long,long way from the birds wintering areas in Northern India,Himalaya and Bhutan,what a cracker.

A Very Windy Day......Local Patching...Saturday 1st February 2020.

An all day visit again to the local patch today,in challenging conditions,in the gale force west-south west wind saw me doing things a little different by parking for a change at Goxhill Haven and covering the area in a reverse route to the normal one i take.This is what i saw over the 7 hours in which i visited the area.
 As mentioned above,i parked today at Goxhill Haven and began today's visit by scanning the Humber,watching a good passage of Gulls moving west up the estuary straight from the off.The majority were Common Gulls with smaller numbers of Black-heads and some cracking views were had as the light improved.Also moving west were 46 Curlew and on the Humber mud at the Haven,65 redshank fed.
 I then headed off,already getting peed off with the wind,it was already pretty blustery to be fair.
 From East Marsh Road,i could see the 2 adult male Marsh Harrier from my last visit and a 2nd calendar year female over Dawson City and further on a decent sized flock of 1200 Pinks were grazing on one of their favourite pastures.
 As i turned the corner to walk along Chapel Field Road,a lovely adult Common Buzzard gave superb scope views as it perched on one of the old buildings from when this area was an operational airbase in the second world war.
 As i passed Chapel Field Farm to the sounds of Hawaiian Geese and Black Swans i finally reached East Halton Beck and enjoyed some shelter walking along the banks.This area always looks like it has some great potential,but i had to make do with another Common Buzz and a Little Egret.
 The only notable sighting as i walked along Skitter Road and past Grange Farm were a flock of 42 Fieldfare feeding in an adjacent field,before promptly buggering off.
 I reached Winter's and decided to pay the Red-crested Pochard a visit,sure enough he was on his favoured pit,but did go for a little fly around.This is his 4th week in residence and today his orange crown positively glowed in the bright sunshine,what a handsome boy!.
 Also present here were 141 Greylag,17 Tufties,6 Little Grebe,3 Cormorant,11 Coot and 40 Curlew.
 By now the wind had increased in strength and i battled my way along the sea wall towards the Skitter and as i neared the Skitter itself,a pale Pipit flew past me and landed on the shoreline,a cracking Water Pipit.It was definitely sods law as it was too windy to obtain any video,so i had to make do with scope views,before it did a bunk back onto the mitigation site from where it had come.
 Also on the mitigation site,were 37 Curlew,55 Teal and the 2nd calendar year female Marsh Harrier from Dawson earlier in the morning.
 A scan of the Humber mud as the tide was dropping off,saw a single Sanderling being seen,but it wasn't there for long before it disappeared,prolonged views of birds was just not happening today and it had a lot to do with the weather,but at least it was new for the year.
 I didn't even bother walking around the pools,as i was just about pi**ed off with this wind by now.
 The final goodie,or i should re-phrase that,year tick,was a single female Bearded Tit watched battling along the floodbank infront of Dawson into the small reedbed i saw a pair in just before Christmas.They have probably been in there all the time,i just hadn't heard any calls when passing by.
 So today was really hard work in the wind,but at least it wasn't peeing down and the Beardie brought my species tally up to 100 species for the year,a really good effort considering the time of year,onwards and upwards to beating last years score.

East Halton Beck.

Winter's Pond.

It Was Really Great To Hear The First Skylarks Singing Today.

Drake Red-crested Pochard,Winter's Pond.

Male Marsh Harrier,Goxhill Marsh.

 The