June 2015 archive

Jun 16 2015

Birding Group Visit to Bempton Cliffs : 16th June 2015

Birding Group Visit to Bempton Cliffs : 16th June 2015

We all left the Travelodge at South Cave at 8am and then stopped off at the Ferguson Fawsitt Arms a few miles down the road at Walkington where we had arranged that we could all stop off and partake of their cooked breakfast at £7.50 – a much better deal than that available at the Travelodge. Although it is a hotel, they were happy to have eleven outsiders pop in for breakfast. After a sustaining full English we headed off for Bempton Cliffs reserve getting there reasonably early which was just as well because it wasn’t long before the place was heaving with people.

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Jun 15 2015

Birding Group Visit to North Cave : 15th June 2015

Birding Group Visit to North Cave : 15th June 2015

We left Blacktoft Sands around 2pm and drove back up to the motorway and then across the other side of the River Ouse to the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust reserve at North Cave. Here we were pleased to find that the site was full of wildlife and there were birds aplenty – especially the raucous Black-headed Gulls with their hungry young but also very large numbers Greylag Geese and a good smattering of other, perhaps more interesting, birds.

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Jun 15 2015

Birding Group Visit to Blacktoft Sands : 15th June 2015

Birding Group Visit to Blacktoft Sands : 15th June 2015

Our birding group outing this week was a two-day event taking in Blacktoft Sands, North Cave and Bempton Cliffs. On the first day we went to Blacktoft and North Cave. The drive was about two and a quarter hours so we arrived at Blacktoft Sands around 11.15am. Our target bird was clearly going to be a Montagu’s Harrier, a pair of which had bred here this year and now had young.

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Jun 10 2015

Waxwings

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Jun 09 2015

Birding Group Visit to WWT Martin Mere : 9th June 2015

Birding Group Visit to WWT Martin Mere : 9th June 2015

Our birding group visit to Martin Mere perhaps disappointed some people because the sheer numbers that you see there in winter were not present. However, I think it is a bit much to complain when you see some over-summering Pink-footed Geese and Whooper Swans and see a total of forty-six species in a few hours. Additionally there were some cute Avocet and Shelduck chicks so I was quite happy even though we didn’t see the Little Stint or Red-necked Phalarope that had been see there recently.

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Jun 07 2015

Corncrake at Carr Lane, Hale : 7th June 2015

Corncrake at Carr Lane, Hale : 7th June 2015

I had been watching reports on Rare Bird Alert of a Corncrake singing in a field off Carr Lane near Hale, Merseyside. I had heard of this site before because the pools on the lane often have reports of good birds. When the reports were still coming in a week later and with a lovely sunny evening due, we decided to make the forty minute drive over there to take a look. At least we hoped that we could hear the bird if not see it but we were to be rewarded in a spectacular way.

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Jun 05 2015

Moore Nature Reserve : 5th June 2015

Moore Nature Reserve : 5th June 2015

The weather forecast was good for a limited number of areas for the day and Moore Nature Reserve was one of them. My target birds were Yellowhammer and Grey Partridge. Unfortunately we saw neither but we had a nice long walk on a hot and humid morning where we still managed to get forty-one species of birds.

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Jun 02 2015

Red-necked Phalarope at Burton Mere Wetlands : 2nd June 2015

Red-necked Phalarope at Burton Mere Wetlands : 2nd June 2015

Our birding group day out today was supposed to be to either Neumann’s Flash or Brockholes. Since the weather forecast was poor we decided on a familiar fall-back – Burton Mere Wetlands. The weather forecast was a bit better here and although not entirely dry it wasn’t too bad; very windy though. We did get a lovely bird, though, but just before we were leaving. The best was kept to last.

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