Jul 15 2021

Black-browed Albatross RSPB Bempton Cliffs 15th July 2021

We had a very average breakfast at the Green Dragon and then headed off for RSPB Bempton Cliffs. Especially nice around the pub, which we had noticed the evening before, was a big flock of very active Swifts swooping around the roofs of the houses. En route we got Rooks which was listed on my software as a year first but surely not! More definitely correct as a year tich was a Yellowhammer spotted on a telegraph wire over a field of barley. Hirundines were plentiful.

We got to RSPB Bempton Cliffs  about 10:30 and we immediately enquired about the recent sightings of Black-browed Albatross. We were told that it had been seen earlier at the “Staple Newk” to the far right of the reserve along the cliff edge. It had not been reported recently so we were not too hopeful but we thought we would head there first just to see what was happening with it now. I opted to take my camera instead of my scope because I wanted to get some shots of Gannets.

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Jul 14 2021

RSPB Fairburn Ings and North Cave Reserves 14th July 2021

When we go to RSPB Bempton Cliffs with the birding group, we usually spend the first day at RSPB Blacktoft Sands and then go to the North Cave Wetlands reserve, staying the evening at the Travelodge at South Cave. On our own, however, we decided to try something different so instead of Blacktoft Sands we went to RSPB Fairburn Ings before going on to the North Cave Wetlands reserve. That night, instead of the Travelodge we stayed at The Green Dragon in Welton.

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Jul 01 2021

Burton Mere Wetlands, Parkgate and Neston 1st July 2021

The first birding outing of the month was to Burton Mere Wetlands. There had been reports of a female Garganey and several Spotted Redshanks. It was a warm and humid day but it was good to get out and we managed to get two good year ticks.

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Jun 30 2021

June 2021 Summary

UK Species Year List to June 2021: 102
Total UK Species in June 2021: 86
New “Year Ticks” in June 2021: 23
New “Life Ticks” in June 2021: 0

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Jun 18 2021

North Wales Break 15th – 17th June 2021

With three days of good weather predicted, we took the opportunity to visit North Wales in order to catch up with all the cliff nesting birds and other special species that we normally manage to get on our trips to North Wales. As it happened, there were two really sunny days that sandwiched one awful one. This was a shame because it was the day allocated to visiting RSPB South Stack. However we did manage to get fifty-eight species, seventeen of which were year ticks.

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Jun 11 2021

Dove Stone Reservoir 10th – 11th June 2021

We planned to meet some friends at the Huntsman’s Inn near Holmfirth. They were travelling north and wanted a stopover site and it is only an hour from where we are so we arranged to stay the night there. We had most of the day to ourselves so we stopped off at RSPB Dove Stone where we had visited during a similar meet-up in July 2019. This time we took a different route round the reservoir covering only the part that has the memorial forest in. Here we had much better birding than we had had previously when we circumambulated the reservoir.

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Jun 03 2021

Birding Group : Burton Mere Wetlands : 3rd June 2021

The second birding group outing since resuming our trips after 2nd wave Covid was to Burton Mere Wetlands. The hides were open again but you still have to wear a mask and ones bins and scopes steam up straight away so not much fun and hard to bear for long. Anyway, we decided to head off to the Border Hide (Inner Marsh Farm hide as was) straight away before the crowds arrived (note – we were the crowd) and managed to get a couple of good wader year-ticks there, namely a single Dunlin and a pair of Curlew Sandpipers – the later, unusually, starting to get into their summer plumage so not quite as we usually see them.

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May 31 2021

May 2021 Summary

UK Species Year List to May 2021: 78
Total UK Species in May 2021: 72
New “Year Ticks” in May 2021: 23
New “Life Ticks” in May 2021: 0

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May 27 2021

Birding Group – Goyt Valley and Danebank Quarry 27th May 2021

The birding group reformed for its first outing since the Covid outbreak with a visit to the Upper Goyt Valley and Danebank Quarry. We had actually done this visit on our own on the 6th of May and had had some success with sightings of Redstart and lots of Pied Flycatchers. We saw neither of these birds this time, which was interesting in itself, but we did pick up some birds that we did not get on our earlier visit.

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May 25 2021

Burton Mere Wetlands and Parkgate 25th May 2021

With both vaccinations completed and reserves starting to open their hides up again, we headed off to Burton Mere Wetlands. When we got there we discovered that the larger than usual numbers of cars was due to the presence of a Glossy Ibis on the reserve. Naturally we were interested so we hot-footed it down to the Bunker Hide where it had been seen from.

When we got there is was a bit too full of people, not very socially distanced. In fact, one of the female staff popped in to berate all the blokes for their bas behaviour and a  few of them left the hide a little sheepishly. Naturally, the bird had flown the coop and, although it was to be seen by the odd person during the day, we did not manage to get it. Nor did we see the Spoonbills that had also been flying about!

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