Bempton Cliffs RSPB......Seabird City.....Saturday 12th June 2021.

A day out visiting this superb site today enjoying the sights and sounds of hundreds of thousands of seabirds is a real pleasure to behold and i'm so proud we have this fantastic place on the stunning Yorkshire Coast.

Today i wanted to get some video clips of mainly the Gannets and Razorbills,my two favourite seabirds and set out with my phonescoping kit to see what i could get from today's visit.

To start with,it was pretty cold with an onshore breeze and overcast conditions first thing,but after a few hours things improved and it was wall to wall sunshine.

I managed to get really close to some of the Gannets as they collected nesting material from the cliff top,grabbing great beak fulls of fresh grass to line their nests and gaining some great views and video in the process,what a privilege!.

When i first started birding,there were only about 80 pairs of our largest seabird nesting here,there are now 13,000 pairs,what a great success story it has been for this species.

A first for me on today's visit was seeing a Razorbill egg and i didn't realise just how big they are.Like the Gannets,these beautiful Auks showed impeccably and i managed some lovely views and opportunities to take some nice video of them.

It really is a great place and i can spend hours just watching the Kittiwakes wheeling about with their endearing call and the occasional sighting of orange feet as a Puffin fly away from the cliff to carry out another fishing sortie,a top,top place!.

It also has to be said,what a fantastic place this reserve is for other species of birds,with the obvious large numbers of Tree Sparrows,another Bempton success story along with many insects and also wildflowers,with the rough grassy areas just bursting with Pink Campion.

So After enjoying my second trip here of the year,i made a steady journey home back to North Lincolnshire,contented in another great visit to Yorkshire's seabird city.

Staple Neuk In The Foreground,What A Fantastic Coastline!.

Those Stunning Eyes.

A Displaying Pair Of Gannets.

Red-necked Stint - Blyth,Northumberland - Monday 7th June 2021.

The gripping news that a stunning summer plumaged adult Red-necked Stint had been found on Saturday evening,had me contemplating a trip north to see this stunner.

So i set the alarm,for 2am and off i went travelling up the A1 and A19 towards my destination on the south side of the Blyth Estuary.

I had visited here before in the winter of 1989/90 to twitch a wintering Terek Sandpiper,my first all those years ago.

I had seen Red-necked Stint before,at the famous Cley in Norfolk on the 3rd August 1992,but it was just a distant memory.

On arrival at the site,a few cars were already parked and i got the gear together as quick as i could and prayed the bird was still here.

I made it to the group of about 5 people and asked if the bird was still here,those words yes it is,were very welcome.

At first it was watched at fairly long range,perhaps as far as 200 metres away,but you could still see all the features of the species,albeit at full 60x mag,what would we do without these super zoom scopes eh!.

The first hour or so the flock was pretty mobile and i just watched this cracking eastern mega wader,as it energetically fed in amongst a flock of 'Tundrae' Ringed Plovers and Dunlin and on occasion i saw it feeding alongside the Adult Little Stint which was also with this flock of waders,allowing for some excellent opportunities to compare the two species.

The Red-necked was a slightly larger bird,but much more sleeker in profile,with its longer wings,primary projection and shorter legs when compared to the Little,but it was the striking rufous cheeks and upper breast,reduced white chin and head pattern that stood out,with those broad white supers,pale crown with black streaks,making for a quite pale headed appearance when seen alongside its commoner cousin and of course those crisp,clean,white underparts.The profile of the bird was also so different,having a more flatter backed appearance compared to the Little,with Little's more hunched build,making for a different feeding action.

Eventually the bird did fly closer and i managed some shaky video taken through my scope at full mag at about 60 metres range,but i did get a few seconds in the same frame as the Little Stint and it did stop for a preen and bath a couple of times allowing some chances to study the bird sat still.

Other species seen also while watching the Red-necked,included the afore mentioned adult Little stint,which in itself is a good record in spring,17 Goosander,a family group of Eider,Several Common and Sandwich Terns.

After enjoying the bird for almost 3 hours,it was time to head back south and home,as i was at work at 6pm,but i was really pleased i had made the effort to see this cracking bird.

Wykeham Forest,Sunday 6th June 2021.

A visit here today in the hope of seeing Honey Buzzard and any other raptors and species from the fantastic raptor viewpoint,saw a decent day had,in not ideal weather to be fair.

I arrived fairly early today,as i usually do and after getting the kit together i waked up to the viewpoint to begin my vigil in the hope of seeing our secretive summer visitor to this area of North Yorkshire,the Honey Buzzard.

For the first couple of hours,it was very quiet raptor wise,as it was pretty cloudy and i enjoyed superb views of a singing male Garden Warbler and Willow Warbler singing around the clearing at the viewpoint along with a few Crossbills and Siskin overhead.

The weather began to break as Tim and Jaq arrived and on cue i quickly found the first Buzzards of the day.

I then picked up a Honey Buzzard over the adjacent forest on the other side of the valley,but it wasn't close unfortunately.This bird to me looked like a female and certainly not the pale male which has returned again this year and has been displaying.

We carried on scanning seeing at least 10 Common Buzzard,a flock of 14 Common Crossbill and a very showy adult male Gos right in front of the view point,giving stunning scope views.

A couple more brief views of the presumed same Honey were had,but they were hard work today to be fair and to be honest,i think it was weather related,with varying cloud and then rain.

Today's visit was unfortunately cut short,but it was great to visit the area again and nice to see Tim and Jacqui.

Green Longhorn Moth,Which Landed On My Cap.

The Local Patch - Saturday 5th June 2021.

Another visit to the patch today in the lovely warm conditions,resulted in the expected early summer lull in interesting species being encountered,so more concentration on breeding birds and monitoring numbers of summer migrants took place. 

On Winter's first thing,the only real highlight,was a unusually late staying female Wigeon,with most birds being long gone by now.

Other notables here included the female Cuckoo still here,breeding success with a juvenile Little Grebe being fed by its parents and the first decent flock of Greylags of the summer,with 183 birds being present along with 9 Canada's and a Greylag x Canada hybrid.

A walk along the mitigation area saw at least 2 pairs of Lapwing 'Squeaking' as i walked past,confirming that they have chicks hatched and also it looks like a pair of Oystercatcher are also attempting to breed,after i was dive bombed by the male of the pair,let's hope they are successful.

Other species observed along the Mit site included 4 juvenile Grey Heron and my first Small Heath & Meadow Brown Butterflies of the year.

I then walked along the beck up to Chapel Farm and along Chapel Field Road,grilling a flock of 298 Starling in the hope of finding a Rose-coloured Starling,but no such luck.....the hunt continues!.

Along the Humber bank between Goxhill Haven and Dawson City the only surprise,was a buck Muntjac,casually wandering about munching wildflowers and more butterfly sightings included Painted lady,Red Admiral,Common Blue and Small Heath.

More of the same was seen on the remainder of the visit,with 9 Curlew still present along Goxhill Marsh and also a singing male Cuckoo was still around.

A typical summer visit today,with insect sightings being more and more apparent,hopefully something interesting will turn up.

Phonescoped Shot Of A Small Heath On The Mitigation Area.

Flavous Nomad Bee.

East Halton Beck.

Dawson City LWTR.

Ruins Pond,Goxhill Marsh.

Ox-eye Daisies,East Halton.

 

The Goatsucker......What A Bird....Friday 4th June 2021.

 With a settled,warm evening forecast,Tracey and myself went to look at a local site in the hope we could see a Nightjar and for Tracey to add this species to an already fantastic list of sightings over the last week.

A walk around the site on arrival,saw the first of at least 4 'Roding' male Woodcock,with their curious 'Warp,warp sewick' call as they patrolled their woodland territories.

As it began to get to dusk,that familiar sound of a churring male Nightjar filled the air and minutes later he was flying around us and then flew up into a conifer tree.

Thankfully i managed to find him and he was perched right out in the open,giving some stunning views and i even managed to take some video and take a few record shots,albeit in near darkness.

A further male and female were also observed in the same area,giving some great flight views.

Also heard nearby,were 2 separate calling juvenile Long-eared Owls,which is great news for this sadly declining species.

What a great evening and another brilliant encounter with this cracking species.

Phonescoped Image Of This Cracking Male Nightjar.

Wonderfull Whitby & Environs,Tuesday 1st June - Thursday 3rd June 2021.

A few days away with Mrs R staying at Whitby in North Yorkshire,proved a stellar decision regarding the weather and birds,the following is what we saw.

Day One

After hearing the evening before that an adult Lesser-grey Shrike had been found near the Abbey at Whitby,followed by gripping news that the birders watching the Shrike,were then treated to a flock of 11 Bee Eaters dropping in on wires near the Shrike,had me obviously green with envy.

So after enjoying our trip on the North Yorkshire Moors railway,we made our way over to Whitby to see if the Shrike was still present on it's favoured hedgerows.

Sure enough after eventually working out where the bird was,along with John and Beverley Beaumont,we began watching my 3rd and Tracey's 1st Lesser-grey Shrike.It was an absolute cracker,with its black bandit mask and lovely salmon-pink wash to the underparts.I managed to get some reasonable video through the scope as well which was very pleasing for us both.This was as i mentioned before my 3rd sighting of the species,with the 2 other birds being both juveniles,the first at Rudston in September 1989 and the second at Spurn in September/October 2005.

After gaining our fill of the lovely Shrike we wandered back to the car casually chatting with John and Beverley,when i saw a guy waving.It couldn't be could it? and it bloody well was,the Bee-Eaters had returned!!!.

We quickly made our way along a well placed public footpath to be treated to some absolutely stunning views of these gorgeous 'Rainbow Birds' as they zoomed about catching several Bees and Wasps and at least 4 of the birds had paired up and were watched mating as well.

We just watched in awe of these lovely visitors and after watching them for at least an hour,we went and checked in at the hotel,very happy at our brilliant encounter with both rarities.

Day Two

Today we planned to walk between Whitby and Robin Hoods Bay along the Cleveland Way,a section we hadn't covered before.

So after a lovely brekkie at the hotel we were off and enjoying the sunshine,with a lovely light breeze just to cool things slightly.

This section of the Cleveland Way is just fantastic and has by far the best scenery we have experienced so far along this long distance path,with some amazing cliff top scenery and also about half way along the route is a well situated cafe which sells some lovely cakes and refreshing drinks.

Some lovely views of seabirds were enjoyed along the way,with a couple of small Kittiwake colony's and at least 30-40 pairs of Fulmars dotted along the route.

I managed to find a lovely Black-spotted Longhorn Beetle also as we walked near Ness Point.

We eventually reached Robin Hoods Bay and enjoyed some well earned lunch before catching the bus back to Whitby.

Day Three

Sadly it was time to head home today,but all was not lost as we parked up at Goathland and visited the waterfall Mallayan Spout and walked along the River Esk up to Beck Hole and back to Goathland in a loop.

This stretch of river and its associated pathways are an absolute joy with a profusion of wildflowers and birds.

Today was no exception with us seeing and hearing a cracking male Pied Flycatcher,a great record for here,2 Spotted Flycatcher,2 Roe Deer and flowers including Ramsons,Bugle,Dog Violet,Wood Anemone and Wood Sorrel.

After our lovely walk,it was time to head home after a superb couple of days away and im already looking forward to Northumberland in August.

Huge Fog Bank Over The Sea.

Cross Dedicated To The Ancient Poet Caedmon,In St.Mary's Churchyard.

Saltwick Nab.

Whitestone Point And Whitby Fog Station.

Black-spotted Longhorn,Ness Point.

Ness Point.

Bay Ness.

Goathland Scenery.

The River Esk,Goathland.

Mallayan Spout,Goathland.

Common Footman Caterpillar,Goathland.

Beck Hole.

Great-reed Warbler - Besthorpe,Nottinghamshire - 31st May 2021.

While Tracey and myself were away at Ross-on-Wye,a singing male Great-reed Warbler was found at Besthorpe in Nottinghamshire and while we were travelling back home from Ross,we thought we would pop in and see this monster Acro.

As we approached the area where the bird had been seen,we could hear it singing straight away,with those 'Karra-Karra Gurk-Gurk' phrases being heard loud and clear.

The bird was watched at some range and into the sun,hence some hazy video clips which were obtained,but it was great for Tracey to see this beast of a Warbler and add another good bird species to her growing list of rarities.

He was watched singing nearly all the time we were on site,interspersed with chasing Reed Warblers,giving some chances to compare the birds huge size.

This is the first Great-reed i have seen since one myself and Neil Drinkall found at Far-ngs nature reserve at Barton in North Lincolnshire on June 24th 2006 and my third sighting of the species overall.

The species is annual in Britain,with one or two records a year,usually of singing males like this one,holding territory.In all there has been a total of 301 records up to the end of 2019.

Crowle & Thorne Moors NNR - Saturday 29th May 2021.

A visit to the NNR today,primarily to look for Odonata,resulted in a great day out as it more often or not is,as there is so much on offer here,be it birds,butterflies,Odonata or Wildflowers.

The following is what i saw during the visit:

Birds

Highlights included 4 Hobby over Will Pitts Scrape,3 singing male Cuckoo,a single singing male Tree Pipit and 3 singing male Cetti's Warbler.

Some decent numbers of singing male Warblers were also seen and heard,with totals including 14 Whitethroat,20 Willow Warbler,11 Garden Warbler and 10 Blackcap all recorded on Crowle Moor.

Lepidoptera 

Only small numbers of species were recorded on today's visit,but included Orange Tip,Green-veined White,Brimstone and Peacock,the latter of which i found some large aggregations of larvae.

Moth species consisted of day flying species,with Silver-ground & Common Carpet,Brown Silver Lines & Common and Latticed Heaths.

Coleoptera

A couple of interesting species were observed on today's visit and were both new species for me.The first was the tiny,but colourfull Wetland Paederus,a species of Rove Beetle found on the edge of Will Pitts Scrape.

The second was Silpha tristis,a member of the Silphidae,or Carrion Beetle family and according to the NBN gateway it has been recorded twice from Crowle and Thorne,but not confirmed,so a decent find.

Other species observed today,included the ubiquitous Green-tiger Beetles and several Copper Peacock found in their usual boggy habitat.

Hemiptera

Today's visit was pretty productive to be fair,with me finding a new species for myself,Woundwort Shieldbug.I managed to find 3 individuals and got a few record shots of this tiny species.

Other species observed included Green,Hawthorn,Pied and a single Blue Bug.

Hymenoptera

Species observed on today's visit included Tree Bumblebee,Common Carder Bee,White-tailed Bumblebee and Common Wasp.

A pretty decent visit today and enjoyable as always.

Tree Bumblebee Nest Site,Crowle Moor.

Woundwort Shieldbug.

Woundwort Shieldbug.

Carrion Beetle Species - Silpha Tristis.

The Very Colourfull Wetland Paederus,A Type Of Rove Beetle.

Peacock Butterfly Caterpillars.

Dark-edged Bee Fly.

Male Brimstone Butterfly.

Bombus pascuorum - Or Common Carder Bee.