Sandsend To Runswick Bay,Sunday 24th September 2023.

A welcome day off together today saw Tracey and myself heading to the lovely North Yorkshire coast to complete a section of the Cleveland Way we had yet to do.

On the journey up through the Moors it was firstly raining and then thick fog,but as we arrived at Sandsend the weather was beginning to brighten.

Now for people who are not so mobile,this walk is a no no,as there are several sections of steep steps,particularly at Runswick Bay before you head down to the beach there and it probably involves a few hundred.

But on the plus side the area has some fantastic views and history,with the old Alum mine at Deepgrove Wyke and at Kettleness point.

There is also a fantastic area at Deepgrove Wyke where you can traverse the footpath down to the beach as we did at low tide and there are some fantastic views of the amazing Jurassic rock formations and old Jet mining.There is also a little waterfall here as well,but again beware,the climb up is pretty steep and can be slippery in places.

Runswick Bay is for me a lovely little place,think of Robin Hoods Bay in miniature,but with 80% less people,which for me was a big plus!.

Some nice birds seen during the day included a cracking juvenile Arctic Skua chasing Terns in Runswick bay,at least 5 Arctic Terns resting on the beach at Sandsend and a couple of lovely Grey Wagtail here as well.

Well what a lovely walk and day today,we really love the North Yorkshire coast.

Sandsend At The Start Of The Day.

The Cliff Side Scenery At Deepgrove Wyke.

The Old Alum Quarry At Deepgrove Wyke.

The Little Waterfall At Deepgrove Wyke.

Amazing Views At Deepgrove Wyke.

The Precarious Pathway Down To Deepgrove Wyke Beach.

Keldhowe Steel.

Highland Bullock Near Keldhowe Steel.

First View Of Runswick Bay,From Near Kettleness Point.

Runswick Bay,What A Pretty Little Place.

Sandsend Beach From The Cafe At The End Of The Walk.

Local Patch Update,26th August,7th & 16th September 2023.

A cracking few visits to the local birding patch at East Halton,with some great birds recorded which included a new species for the patch on 16th September in the form of a cracking juvenile White-winged black Tern at East Halton Skitter.

Saturday 26th August

An early start today at Winter's as always saw a few nice birds at dawn which included 2 Green sands before they departed high to the west.

On the main lake the welcome sight of my first Wigeon of the autumn period saw two females happily feeding in amongst the other Wildfowl present.

Other species consisted of 17 Tufties,4 Gadwall,285 Mallard,17 Teal,14 Little Grebe,Great-crested Grebe,17 Coot,4 Moorhen and 135 Greylags.

A scan from the floodbank over the Humber revealed a flock of 35 Common Scoter loafing on the water on the outgoing tide.

It looked like there were a considerable amount of waders present this morning,with the majority looking like they were Avocets.A quick trip up to the Skitter saw me counting the largest flock of Avo's on the patch to date with a whopping count of 535 birds.This was an impressive sight indeed was great to see with plenty of juveniles in amongst the throng.

Other waders around the Skitter saw 2 Grey Plover,6 Ringed Plover,1 Bar-tailed Godwit,4 Common Sands and a good count of 177 Redshank.

Also at the Skitter,a single juvenile Yellow-legged Gull was seen and a cracking,fresh,autumn plumaged male Wheatear.

The lone Pink-footed Goose was also still here.

Back up at Winter's a few Hirundines were present and included 7 Sand Martin,3 House Martin and a good total of 162 Swallows had flown north along the Estuary during the morning.

Thursday 7th September

A later start than normal today after dropping Mrs R at work,saw me starting proceedings as normal at Winter's Pond.

After getting the gear together a quick look on the main lake saw 2 lovely juvenile Spotted Redshank roosting with the handful of Icelanders,a great start and the first sighting of the year of the species for the patch.

This site certainly has been good for the species,with me seeing at least one bird here in the last 4 years in autumn,no doubt associating with the Black-tailed Godwits.

Wader wise on here also were two juvenile Little-ringed Plover,always a nice species to see.

Also on the main lake,some winter visitors had arrived in the form of single Pintail and the 2 Wigeon from my previous visit had now increased to 38 birds,a lovely sight and sound to hear the males whistling calls again,a welcome feature here in the autumn and winter months.

A scan from the floodbank had me picking up two distant Sandwich Terns,another new for the year species for me here,as they flew out south towards Killingholme.

The rest of the visit was fairly quiet,much quieter than 26th August.

Saturday 16th September

Today just had a good feel about it with a clammy east-south easterly wind at dawn which became variable later and i thought to myself that there will be something good on the Humbertoday.

Not long after Jon and myself had got our gear together and began to scan the main lake at Winter's we were welcomed by the lovely sound of Pink-footed Geese,with birds coming over from Yorkshire and heading onto the marshes and nearby fields to feed.

It was just great to have these lovely birds back again and they really do epitomise the winter birding scene here for me.

A total of 324 birds were counted,a good start for the first sighting of the autumn period.

Also on Winter's were 502 Greylag,31 Canada Geese,8 Wigeon,1 Pintail,121 Mallard and 21 Shoveler.

As we arrived at the floodbank we began to scan the estuary and first goodie was a year tick in the form of a single Guillemot,a decent start.This was quickly followed by a duo of cracking juvenile Grey Wagtail and we watched as they fed along the shoreline when another flew overhead north,a good count for here.

Next goodie was a single 1st winter Med Gull which flew towards the Skitter in a good movement of Common Gulls up the estuary.

More scanning and i then picked a juvenile Arctic Skua heading north from our position,a new species for the year here for me.

Today was turning into one of those brilliant visits,but better was to come.

Jon headed off towards the Skitter to carry out his WEBS count along Goxhill Marsh and i carried on near Winter's carrying out my WEBS count.

A single juvenile Gannet was then picked up heading out south,being followed sometime later by another and then a single Little-ringed Plover flew north and a Green Sandpiper was seen on the marshes.

Jon then messaged me to say he had seen 3 Wheatear at the Skitter,so i wandered up there as the tide began to drop off.

I was scanning the Godwits which were building up in good numbers as they left their high tide roost at Killingholme Haven,when i picked up a Marsh Tern feeding at the outfall.

To my eyes it looked like a White-winged Black,with a gleaming white rump,grey tail sides and brown mantle and i hurriedly got nearer.

Sure enough it was what i suspected and it began to mob the Godwits before heading out further from the bankside and north out into the estuary.More features were noted with the pale grey wings contrasting well with the mantle,little ear covert spots,partial dark cap and tiny black bill.

I rang Jon but he just could not get onto it.

To put this into context,this is the first record for my local patch and the 217th species i have seen here and continues the good run of scarce and rare species i have recorded along here since 2017.

After the excitement of the Tern,i hung around the Skitter watching the now 3460 strong flock of Icelandic Black-tails,hoping the Tern may return,but it didn't sadly.

More nice sightings here though consisted of 6 Common Sandpiper,15 Knot,7 Bar-tailed Godwit and 253 Teal flew north.

A juvenile Yellow-legged Gull spent some time around the outfall before flying out into the estuary.

A steady wander back to Winter's with Jon,saw me catching up with 2 of his Wheatear which are always a pleasure to see.

Well what a cracking day,1 new patch species and 5 year ticks,this patch is just outstanding!

Phone scoped image of the sun peeping through the clouds.

Hartington - Beresford Dale - Wolfscote Dale - Biggin Dale - Hartington Circular - Sunday 17th September 2023.

A decent forecast today saw Tracey,Clara and myself travelling over to the lovely village of Hartington in the White Peak area of the Peak District National Park to complete a circular walk which takes in the three dales of Beresford,Wolfscote and Biggin Dale.

To be honest the scenery was very impressive and reminded me a lot of the limestone scenery in the Yorkshire Dales with the craggy outcrops,scree slopes,caves and hills,just beautiful.

We managed to see some excellent birds on today's visit too with Dipper,Kingfisher,2 Grey Wagtail and an incredibly tame juvenile Grey Heron along the River Dove and overhead on the walk back to Hartington from Biggin Dale,1 Red Kite,a male Peregrine and 5 Raven.

This walk really is a cracker and is definitely a 10/10.

After enjoying the walk and some lovely lunch in the local pub,we travelled over the short distance to Ilam Park and spent a few hours there.

A nice find while wandering around the parkland,was a lovely Leucozona glaucia Hoverfly.

The following are my fave photos from this super day out.

Ilam Park And The River Manifold.

Phone Pic Of A Lovely Leucozona glaucia,At Ilam Park.

Ilam Park.

Hartington.

Dew Pond,Biggin Dale.

Wolfscote Dale.

Juvenile Grey Heron,Wolfscote Dale.

With A Caught Bullhead.

Beresford Dale

Looking Towards Beresford Dale.

Brown Booby,Filey Bay & Teesmouth,4th & 10th September 2023.

After receiving news from Tim that a Brown Booby had been found off Flamborough and sat on the sea there i didn't think that next day after getting home from Snowdonia that i would get a second bite at the cherry so to speak.

As often happens i seem to time my holidays right and Monday 4th happened exactly like that.

A quick look on Birdguides as i got up had me collecting my birding gear rather quickly and disappearing quickly over the Humber and heading for North Yorkshire!.

The previous days Brown Booby had been photographed resting on Filey Brigg and had been thankfully re-located on the sea off Hunmanby Gap,so that is the direction i headed in at a rapid rate.

As the tide was going out i thought the bird may drift south,so i headed for Reighton.

I arrived to not another birder in sight.

I made my way down to the sea and began to scan seeing a distant brown blob,that must be it i thought to myself.

After a timely meeting with Andy Malley at Reighton,he had a message saying the bird was showing well off Primrose Valley,so that's where i went next.

Within five minutes i was watching my first Brown Booby.......get in!.

I watched as the bird drifted about on the tide for a good twenty minutes or so before it took to the wing flying straight for me,getting cracking views in the scope,with the pale face and bill really standing out from the brown body and as it flew past side on the white underparts really contrasted well.

It looked obviously smaller than a Gannet with a curious stiff winged flight action and a really long,spiky tail giving it a very distinctive jizz.

It then landed with a feeding flock of Gulls,which didn't really go down well with them and they briefly chased it and it settled further away.

It then flew again towards Bempton and that is the last i saw of it that day.

Fast forward to the 7th September and the bird was seen flying north at Filey Brigg,then at Long Nab near Scarborough,before it stopped off briefly at Whitby before being seen off Sandsend,then Cowbar and finally South Gare in Teesmouth.

The bird then settled into a pattern of being seen off North and South Gare and stayed in the area,so Tracey and myself decided to go and see the bird again,so that Trace could add the species to her life list.

So an early start on the 10th saw us heading north and after our journey along the A1 and A621 we arrived at South Gare.

A quick chat to some guys watching for the bird and they said it had flown off,but i quickly got onto the bird in flight as it was chased by a Herring Gull briefly,it then flew out into the mouth of the Estuary.

About ten minutes later it was relocated sat on a buoy off the South Gare lighthouse,so that is where we all headed.

Sure enough the bird was sat on the buoy and we settled down to watch it as it preened,albeit at some distance,but it was great for Trace to be able to see this cracker.

After enjoying some nice views of the bird we headed south to Whitby to spend the rest of our day there.

The Booby is obviously our first sightings of the species and a new bird for Yorkshire and a most welcome and surprising one at that.

Stunning Snowdonia,Sunday 3rd September 2023.

A couple of days away with Mrs R saw us having a fantastic day in the Snowdonia National Park visiting beautiful Beddgelert and the Aberglaslyn Pass and finishing the day at Betws-y-Coed.

The following are my fave photos from this brilliant day in this fantastic part of the world and one which i have much love for.

Stunning Mountain Scenery Near Plas Gywnant.

Y Lliwedd.

Y Lliwedd,With Snowdon Centre Right.

Llyn Gwynant.

Beddgelert.

The Beautiful River Glaslyn & Aber Glaslyn Pass.

Redhead Goosander,Beddgelert.

Fabulous Flamborough!,Sunday August 27th 2023.

A free day today as Mrs R was at work,saw me meeting up with Tim at Flamborough and enjoying a superb day.

The previous day had seen some nice seabirds and Cetaceans on sho,with the added bonus of a long staying Greenish Warbler,so i made my way up to the mighty white cape to see what we could see.

On arrival after dropping Mrs R at work,i decided to look for the Greenish first.

No calls from the bird or sightings saw me quickly relocating to the headland to meet up with Tim.

Not much had been seen moving over the sea,apart from a few Skuas and Terns,so we settled down to scan for Cetaceans.

Not much later,i was watching my first Minke Whales,as at least 3 animals were watched lunge feeding in amongst feeding frenzies of feeding seabirds.

This was just awesome to watch with these cracking Whales breaking the surface with their mouths wide open so you could even see the baleen plates,just spectacular to watch.

One even breached,something that is quite rarely seen in Minke's i believe.

It was also interesting to note that at least 3 Harbour Porpoise were also feeding alongside the Minke's,making for some interesting feeding behaviour.

A juvenile Caspian Gull showed for a short while,before flying off as the tide rose,my first this year.

The afore-mentioned feeding frenzies drew in a few feeding seabirds which included a couple of Sooty Shearwater,a Balearic Shearwater and a single Manx,with a solitary Black Tern heading north with a flock of Common Terns.

There were also a few Arctic Skuas and Bonxie's offshore chasing the feeding seabirds,which also made for some great viewing and also more Minke views were obtained with at least 6 animals observed all together.

Another nice sighting and a species i had not seen in the North Sea before,was a whopping Lion's Mane Jellyfish,this species is one i usually associate with the Atlantic coasts of the UK,so was a nice sighting for this part of the world.

Tim eventually headed home around lunchtime and after a brief rain shower i decided to attempt again to see the elusive Greenish Warbler.

It eventually showed itself this time on a couple of occasions,but not for long before it headed back into cover.Not an easy bird to see at all,particularly with it not calling.

A cracking day out today,with me finally adding Minke Whale to my Cetacean list.