Dale day

Over 100 7-Spot ladybirds were in a small area in the front garden early this p.m. There were several pairs of these mating, see video (now added). A Peacock Butterfly was the first of the year, second butterfly as Louise had seen a likely Small Tortoiseshell back in early February. A walk across the dale found male House Sparrow but 400m from the garden (there has been no sighting in the garden for over a year), Jay (but 1/2 a mile away) not seen from the garden, and there were two or three pairs of Lapwing displaying in the same area. Lots of flowers appearing, plenty of Primrose and Celandine, what appear to be many Wild Daffodil in the woodland edge on the opposite side of the dale.

Occasional peer

A lack of enthusiasm was evident - stayed inside on this damp cold day and modified the blog. Female Great Spot in the garden, nothing else of any note seen by the occasional peer out of the window.

clipped from en.wikipedia.org

Scaling Dam again

Another meeting, another drop-by Scaling Dam. Dave Britton found a Med Gull at the Cleveland end after I had gone to search the Yorkshire End on Wednesday. Today, more usually, no other birders. No sign of any LTD I think they really have gone now. 15 Goldeneye includng 4 drakes, and some enthusiastic displaying going on. A Green Woodpecker, a species I'm not sure if I've seen before at Scaling (must check the data base), Snipe displaying and a Sparrowhawk.

Heavy snow, Scaling

Very heavy snow last night and this a.m. I eventually struggled out of the dale at 08:10 having thought there was no chance of getting out - snow ploughs and gritters were quickly here.

At Scaling this p.m. Linnets, first of the year, Snipe singing, a super Short-eared Owl that perched close-by in a hawthorn for a good while before flying off hunting, 12+ Goldeneye and ..... no LTD. I didn't have my scope with me (as i was returning from a work meeting) but careful searching drew a blank.

Winter returns

We woke to a sunny sky that quickly darkened and the morning was punctuated with minor blizzards driven by a chill north-westerly. As usual the snow brought more birds to the feeders and Chaffinch numbers shot up to 85 at a time; Goldfinch to at least 21 at a time and Greenfinch to 10 or so. For the first time this winter Siskin numbers were >1 with a pair on the kitchen peanut/sunflower mix. The male of the pair had a metal BTO type ring on the right leg - unfortunately it disappeared between me getting the camera and getting back or it might have been readable. An hour or so later there were a pair of Siskin on the front Nyger feeder, but this time the male had no ring. So certainly 3 Siskin today and more likely 4. Later in the afternoon Siskin were calling from the Larch wood at the back. Maybe these are last year's breeders returned?

Scaling Dam

Fishing has started again so the reservoir was busy and there were no birds on the water down the Yorkshire end. However, 2 Chiffchaff were singing by the entrance to the Yorkshire end car park. A search for Long-tailed Ducks seemed fruitless as i walked along the dam until the female flew out of the nature reserve and went down the east end. Goldeneye still at about 15.

Garden and work

Early(ish) in the garden this morning produced Redpoll, Siskin, Lapwing, 12 Redwing, four species of gull and quite a bit of display (Greenfinch) and song (Yellowhammer) drumming (GtSpot). Failed to hear Green Woody or Red Grouse additions which would have swelled the day list to a best for the year.

As I got into the Whitby suburbs a flock of "geese" was glimpsed between the houses heading north. I needed to get to the sea front pronto for id - 2mph Picasso in front, dither, dither .... However, made it in time to get on to 64 swans heading out over the front and then NW further out to sea. Even if i failed to get an id they were superb, brilliant.

1,000 visits (since counter added, mostly me anyway)

A celebratory post is required. Zooming out from the picture below ...

Scaling Dam (another hobble)

This is the Long-tailed Duck I've been calling a female all autumn and winter. It is now beginning to show a bicoloured bill it does still look like a female but - the plumage has changed significantly in recent weeks ..... Couldn't find the male today. Still at least 8 Goldeneye. About 2,000 Black heads in the roost + 600 or so Common Gulls.

Curlew displaying when I arrived, still two Oystercatcher, the drake Shelduck is back, there'll be an LRP any day.

"Where's the chips?"

Chips

Eclipse

I always find these events somewhat eerie.

More Rooks.

Rooks on the feeders

The Rooks were really persistent today at the front feeders. They didn't do this during the winter, I seem to recall we had a spate of this behaviour last Spring. Jackdaws joined in too. The Long-tailed Tit pair visited the peanuts again briefly and the lone Siskin was also around at lunch time. At the end of the day Louise glimpsed a raptor which i missed, possible Peregrine.

Hobble around Scaling

There were 9 Oiks at Scaling today, these 7 and a pair near the Cleveland border. The LTDs are still present, although they took a bit of finding. No sign of any migrants yet, LRP due in the next few days I would guess.

More Spring things

Returning home from a meeting at a reasonable time - a possible Chiffy calling near the drive up the road, a Curlew heard (quite late to hear the first in the dale for the year) and this dandelion flowering by the outhouse. One or two daffs are out in the garden too.

The King of All He Surveys

Just watch out for that Sproghawk mister.
Click the link for The King in Flight

Today in the garden

Yes I should have been at work but .... more 5-a-side mayhem yesterday evening claimed my gastrocnemius which ruptured rather spectacularly so WhitbyBirding will be mobile by crutch power - this may limit further moorland adventures in the near future, probably for the next week or so, garden observations are likely to be seriously curtailed also. So two games - 2 injuries, is my body telling me something?

A new Great Spot on the front feeder, a female, and a first for me Long-tailed Tits on the peanuts. Neither captured on image as I'm peering at an obtuse angle from the kitchen table whilst working.

Next door's frogs were on great croaking form last night. Snow forecast for tomorrow morning.

Up on t' moor

Family outing to the moor yesterday and we bumped into a familiar character with his dog. As we parted Jack (the dog) got all excited and went off along a wall doing doggy stuff. All of a sudden Sproghawk explodes from the ground with an extended crop and Jack gets very interested in something on the ground. The abandoned prey was found to be a Red Grouse, quite surprised the Sproghawk would take one of these - although the walls provided the perfect ambush spot.

Movie success sort of

The movie of the orgy (frogs) is now posted in the right column - best I could do for now, for some reason I can't get it to post to the diary section - you might need to crank the volume up to get Skylark and Robin (as well as Common Frog).

Garden stuff

Not seen one of these for a while, last year we had up to 42 around the feeders in the spring, I'll have to check the dates. This is only the second on the feeders this year. Three Greylags went up the dale (2nd record), heard Red Grouse from the bath, and the gull flock now has 100s of Blheads, still more Commons though by about 3:1, the composition changes daily.

Walked from the Golf course to Sandsend but very little - was a family outing though, so fooball instead of scope - good thing really as I managed an especially good Kinnock and the sea water might not have improved the Zeiss.

Frogs having fun

The movie version refuses to post to the Blog, surprise, surprise a technical glitch, maybe. So this is the best i can do for now, click the link to go to the movie (with full sound effects).

Migration - to the new Blogger

No Spring hasn't gone quite this mad, photo taken last summer.

This seems to have worked ok. Thought I'd lost everything at first but the white page was a temporary glitch. Initially I couldn't post properly, we'll have to see if this continues I posted successfully after logging in again via Picasa.

When you move to the new version you have to bookmark the dashboard again and delete the old dashboard bookmark (well u don't have to do that but it's a mite confusing if you don't).

Other folk have reported issues, we'll see how it goes - no going back in any case.

Display, song .....

Very warm today. Early on 3 Sproghaws were soaring around up the dale. One of these (or another) subsequently did a mega stoop at the feral pigs - didn't see the result but think it missed. Dunnock x4 were doing their wing flicking thing for lunchtime in the front garden. Blackbirds are getting stroppy with each other with a male sub-singing at another male yesterday and two today parading along the front wall. Stock Dove singing etc etc.

Highlights of the day didn't quite make it a likely party of 4 Tree Sprogs went west early on but only one call and i just wasn't 100% and then a little later a redpoll sp played the same trick.

More Spring madness 2

.... and what's this in next door's pond? Look this is North Yorkshire not ***** Somerset, what's going on?

More Spring madness

Mollie found this yesterday on Holly in the garden. Today there were 14 of 'em, mostly on wallflowers by the front door.

More rain, work, Scaling, home

Arrived at work for the gull feeding but nothing doing. A late morning trip to Scaling found the two Long-tailed Ducks present again and low numbers of other duck except Goldeneye (still at least 15 inc two adult drakes, probably more than 20 - hard to count). At last the Willow Tit (probably more than one) on the feeders. The rain discouraged anything but a hide based visit. Heard Moorhen from the garden for the first time this year and Tawny Owl was calling mid-morning.

Bad Seawatching No 4 Stayed too long

Some seawatchers have difficulty with this aspect. Generally not recommended. BadSeawatcher would recommend leaving the seawatch prior to darkness falling. In serious cases can be detrimental to good health.

Happy Feet

Nice day yesterday but .... we had to go to Middlebrough - Ellen's birthday coming up, B&Q house things to get and all that stuff .... Foolishly I'd vaguely suggested we go and see Happy Feet, the girls took this as a promise, uh oh. The sky was blue, I could have been birding, going in to the cinema on a sunny afternoon - I've never done that - but there was no other day for this stuff soooo - and a promise is a (hang on there was no promise) - no the grief would have been unbearable. We zoomed past Scaling without a glance (twice) - ok 2nd time in the dark. Was that the world's most expensive popcorn? - We usually make it ourselves for almost nothing. But this movie combines three of my favourite things - well four if you count laughing, (5 if you count movies) birds (ok so they're animated birds but they're well animated birds), music and politics (not shovedinyourface politics, but this movie is more political than many a serious grown up political movie). So nice day - even though the *********** blind is too small (do-it-all was never my strength). Check out the links and scroll down for the Happy Feet photo thing.

Song Thrush singing day

Song Thrush have been singing locally all winter but the first sang from the garden today and there were two near the hide at Scaling battling it out note for repetitive note. At home about 100 Redwings in the fields below the house and at Scaling the Long-tailed Ducks are still in residence - favourite spot is around the orange bouy near the dam.

Bad Seawatching No 3 Wrong Place

A classic case of wrong place is Filey. Why bother to seawatch here? As can be seen by the map birds are likely to be miles out - probably unviewable. A good imagination is required if anything of interest is to be recorded (so that explains a gaggle of rejected P.feae in 2005).

Take a tip from BadSeawatcher drive down the road (20 mins) and watch at Flamborough or be daring and try those more northern points (Ness Point and Kettleness) for birds coming south out of the Tees Bay.

Real seawatchers do not need a hide (Filey has an A grade hide) or good company (Filey birders are a convivial lot) (at any rate they were til I wrote this). Real seawatchers need harsh elements blowing the soup away from freezing lips. Real seawatchers do not need to be told that the feae is at 200m inside the double black flag - find it yourself or be damned says BadSeawatcher.

Yuk

Sleet, rain and wind all day, really unpleasant. Huge lack of enthusiasm for venturing beyond the garden gate = a day pottering, more work on the website (it may be "on the way" now) and the occasional peek at what's in the garden (and visible from inside the house) - bird of the day so far is Great Spot.

Snow movements

220 Lapwing over the playground this morning may have come in off and the children were reporting a couple of skeins of geese, a 15 and a 50 (unfortunately i dipped these).

Moorland management

Talking of Red Grouse the management of the moor filled the dale with smoke in the late afternoon on Saturday and smoke from 3 or 4 heather burning fires was all around in the sky.

Anything at Scaling Dam? Both Long-tailed Ducks showed nicely.

Weather stuff

Bombus pratorum (methinks)

Today I struggle to work in the snow, for the first time nearly failing to escape the dale - all a bit hairy really, and more snow to come. Saturday we spent all day outside, Louise reported seeing a butterfly in the garden (probably Small Tortoiseshell) and there was a bumblebee feeding in the snowdrops. Skylark were singing on the moor, Red Grouse were all territorial.

More garden stuff

Managed to get my own Woodcock by nipping down through Richard's wood, not in the garden but nearby. Also from there lots of Redwing and Fieldfare and 2 Mallard.

Not so many Chaffinch today but the Common Gull flock was at about 2,000. Yellowhammer seem much more abundant than a week ago, the cold weather pulling them in to the food perhaps - probably 8 or 9 different ones around the garden - maybe more.

At Sandsend the sea was very rough, only a Red-throated Diver and Grey Wagtail were of note.

Big Garden Bird Count day

Did my count first thing(ish). Chaffinch scored just under the 100 and there were plenty of Yellowhammer about (5 at once under the feeders). Brambling were sadly absent and only a few of the 150 Redwing came and sat in a garden tree. Fieldfares were flyovers so they didn't count. It was in the afternoon that more interesting things arrived with Common Gull up to 1,500, a Siskin on the nyjer feeder (first since the autumn on the feeders), Great spot on the peanuts and (possibly new from the garden) a Peregrine spent 10 minutes buzzing the other side of the dale.

More garden birds

What's this under the kitchen window?

Snow prevented me getting to a meeting, so I diverted to home.

Louise had already flushed a Woodcock from a bramble patch up the garden - garden tick. But these were nice under the window. 

Wham, bam, Peregrine slam

Usual sleepy exit from the car outside work, usual glance upwards as I head for the door, usual Herring Gulls decorating the church + feral pigs, then mayhem as two peregrines scream (literally) over the car park, bad-tempered chasing, sweep up high and go their separate ways. Good start - bad day though, so it goes.

Fixing the profile

I need to post this photo to fix the profile. 

Scaling Dam and garden today

Two new drake Goldeneye to supplement the usual adult and sub-adult males - a total of at least 16 Goldeneye of all ages and genders. The male Long-tailed Duck was evident but no 1st winter. 2 Pink-feet were hiding amongst the Greylags. 26 Fieldfares went north-west. A good range and mix of species, although dabbling duck numbers were low. A record 5 House Sparrows were around the feeding stations.

Back home Fieldfares and Starlings were out in force with at least 350 Fieldfares, about 600 Starlings. There were 100 Redwing at least. Most of these would have remained hidden but for the raiding female Sparrowhawk. Common Gulls reached bout 350 also but only 2 Bl-h Gulls and no big ones today. The Magpie roost didn't seem to happen, although between 4 - 6 were hanging around the lower fields from late afternoon. A Grey Heron plodded around the lower fields from lunchtime. Chaffinch numbers seem steady but a small rise in greenfinch and Goldfinch numbers continues. 

Bad Seawatching - No 2 (the answers)

Unsurprisingly no entries to the competition, this sea watching is after all very hard stuff. No prizes to give out, so I'll keep the bins. Here are the answers.

1. A classic case of "wrong place" Haderhaven is a harbour in the middle of Holland, less than ideal for a seawatch.
2. No bins - not a pair in sight, bins are the essential piece of kit you always have at the ready for a seawatch.
3. No soup (or tea, or coffee - acceptable alternatives) - another essential.
4. Two hats too few - three hats would be the minimum recommended.
5. Hands in trouser pockets. This can easily lead to the very worrying "damaged trousers" - an uncomfortable and usually seawatch terminating condition or even "too close to the birds" - generally a wet experience and equally terminal in respect of the seawatch.

Thanks again to Ed van zoonen for the use of his photo.

So I'm told

4 Bullfinch in the garden, a record flock.

Rabbit stuff

The garden is still full of rabbits. I have a thing about introduced species - only Little Owl and Brown Hare (although that may be native) really escape my wrath. Rabbits don't only eat everything - even gooseberry bushes - they also cause a significant pot hole hazard for the casual wanderer. No longer. I have printed out these magnificent tips and hints and scattered them around the garden. (A much safer strategy than the fellow who dislikes moles and came up with a wild plan involving many metal stakes and lots of electricity = happy moles; dead fellow. Do follow the link.

Oops have discovered that the images were copyright from a book(s) by Andy Riley (and were taken down due to copyright issues). These are similar (in homage?). The originals are very clever (and funny in a Tebbit Spitting Image kind of a way).

Andy if you're reading I didn't really print out pirate images and scatter them all over the garden, no sireee.

Living room view

These feeders are a bit more distant and there's lots of wheat in the feed, thus the Pheasants. If the Pheasants aren't diving in its the jackdaws and Rooks, although they are more timid. We put a little feed on the ground but by putting a ground type mix in the feeders it falls to the floor over the day - well morning unless we refill them and so we get plenty of Chaffinch on the deck. Since we've been doing this the Chaffinch flock has generally been about 50 ish. Tree Sparrow has appeared once, Yellowhammer is a regular visitor. 

Kitchen window view

The Great Spot is about 8feet from the sink. 

Garden today

Star performer today was the Great Spot, as usual. The Chaffinch flock was at least 50 strong, Goldfinch are now up to 8. Of most interest was the magpie roost, just across the road, which hit a record 32. Magpie are quite hard to see here most of the time so it is interesting that so many come to roost. I should go and stand on top of the moor late one afternoon and see if any are coming in from the next dale or if they all originate from this one.

4 species of gull today but no great numbers, reflecting the numbers at Scaling. 9 GBbG with 4 Herring went through.

Yesterdays brief sortie to Scaling Dam in the late afternoon produced the 1st W LTD but very little else. Gulls were well down, only 250 Commons although the rough seas brought c50 GBbG. 

Bad Seawatching No1

WhitbyBirding seeks to improve your seawatching skills and knowledge. The world of the skilled seawatcher is a world of mystery and suspense. Hours of intense concentration rewarded with that 35 seconds of joy and excitement – ecstasy even. The world of the bad seawatcher is one of cold, wet misery, spilt tea and peeing all over your bins. The Bad Seawatching series is intended to help you avoid some of the seawatching beginners less comfortable mistakes. This series should transform the seawatching expeience for every birder that follows our expert advice.

The photograph (kindly supplied by Ed van zoonen) illustrates a number of elements of bad seawatching. (It should be pointed out at this stage that the three gentlemen in the photo may not intentionally be engaging in seawatching – but they could be, and if they are it is very bad seawatching indeed.)

Look carefully at the photograph. I will pick out a few issues for you:

1 Fire too small

2 Tripod in wrong place

3 Poor posture

Later in the series we will look at each of these elements in detail as well as examining crucial aspects like:

Wrong place

No notebook

Is it a bird?

Too much imagination

No soup

In the meantime can you find the 5 other elements of Bad Seawatching illustrated in Ed’s photo? You are welcome to post these in the comments section below. WhitbyBirding may even come up with a prize for the most accurate answers, well, maybe.

The return of the Long-tailed Ducks

Both LTDs were on Scaling this afternoon - although they took a bit of finding. The 1st W was eventually found towards - but not in - the Cleveland end and seen well from the Yorkshire end along the southern footpath. The hide was invaded by birders from Leeds on a day out, after a while one of them said, "Do you ever get Guillemots on here?" To which I replied that I'd not seen one. He then got me onto two small diving things way up the Yorkshire end by the orange bouy. 2 LTDs together, and in the gloom I managed to make out the plumes and pale head of one. It's not such a bad error at that range, especially as LTDs dive
just like the larger auks, flicking their wings out as they submerge. The male bird eventually made its way into the Cleveland end to roost in the bay just inside the county boundary. Also present were 5 Pink-feet. There had been 7 yesterday and 11 (including one that apparently had orange bare parts) the day before. Unfortunately when I popped in yesterday it was sans scope - a non-birding expedition diverted - so I couldn't check the 7 properly. Little else of note - very few gulls (but lots in Sandsend Bay). Rather irratating was the flock of 15+ geese that I got onto too late flying away into Yorkshire - I thought they might have been Barnacles, unfortunately the massed ranks of Leeds birders failed to get onto them also.

Sandsend was enlivend by our friends' young lad who took to winter bathing in all his clothes, he took some convincing not to join the Red-thoats et al permanently. 4 of afore mentioned Red-throats, 10 Shags, 2 Sanderling, 13 Ringed Plover, 2 Turnstone, 5 Redshank, 5 Common Scoter. Most interesting was the mass of birds around the very distant fishing boat but with haze it was just too far away to identifiy anything but a few Gannets. 

New Year Greetings

Having left my notebook in the hide at Scaling on the last day of the year - thanks Martin for letting me know - now recovered by a flying visit on a non-birding day yesterday. Long-tailed Ducks appear to have gone - however, this is an old trick by these crafty quackers, I'll be surprised if they not seen again this month.

A new series for the New Year is in preparation - Bad Seawatching - WhitbyBirding's contribution to improving your seawatching skills - coming soon.