September update

The 13th day of the month and my first post, what have I been doing?
3 days at school, 4 days at Blacktoft,a spot of gardening and decorating, three talks and time flies by.
A lovely day weather wise today and after a few domestic chores I set off for Fairburn Ings.
I went to Lin Dyke and joined another birder in the hide, who told me what was about.
Spoonbills have bred at Fairburn Ings again this year and today I was lucky enough to see one. What made it special was that at the same time I could see a grey heron, a cattle egret and a great white egret.

Red kite, buzzard, marsh harrier and three kestrels were also to be seen.
Curlew, little ringed plover and dunlin were asleep as were most of the shoveler and teal.
Two whinchats were on the edge of the mud and lots of swallows, sand martins and house martins were slowly making their way south, another sign of autumn.
One chap arrived with his dog, which would not settle and stopped him birding. Then a couple arrived, the lady walked into the hide whilst he just looked in and left, allowing the door to slam loudly. His wife opened the door and went to ask him why he had slammed the door, and in the process she let is slam! Then three more chaps arrived with another two dogs, so I decided to leave.
I went to the visitor centre to write my sightings in the report book and then went to the nearest hide,
Some new bird feeders had been put up and they were designed to keep out squirrels.

Nearby was a "robins pin cushion"

A comma butterlfy was the brambles and a speckled wood.

Goldfinches were feeding on thistle seeds

At Blacktoft tomorrow to help plant over 800 plants in the wild flower meadow.

Blacktoft BBQ, Ellie Goulding and Minster Peregrines.

Friday was the annual BBQ fir the volunteers at RSPB Blacktoft Sands, so I went a bit earlier and spent a couple  of hours on the reserve.
Lots of waders in front of Marshland hide, however the birds were between me and the sun.

Just as it was getting dark a ship came up the river towards Goole.

Time to go to the BBQ.Saturday morning and our last day at the Minster with the peregrines. 

A busy day at the Minster as Ellie Goulding is getting married. Lots of people were lining the street to watch the guests and her arrive,

Not a very good day weather wise but the peregrines were visible all day.

White rumped- sandpiper

I had planned to go to Hartlepool area birding today, but I had to wait for a plumber to call and fix a small leak, so it was 11am when I arrived at the Headland. Nice sunshine but a strong cool breeze.
Cormorants and great black backed gulls were sharing the same piece of exposed rock.

Eiders were off shore and I could hear terns calling. The terns were standing on some exposed rocks but were too far away for a decent photo. A flock of starlings were on the breakwater wall.

Further along I walked out on the Pilots Pier, from where I could see terns fishing.

A guillemot was feeding its young

The tide was well out at Newburn Bridge, and people were walking their dogs on the beach so there were no birds about. The road to North Gare was my next venue, from where I saw this curlew

Nothing of interest down the Zinc road, so I went to Dormans Pool for lunch. Lots of great black backed gulls, greylag geese, black tailed godwits, teal, mallard, shoveler and ringed plovers.

Phil Stead hide was my next stop and as I walked in and sat at the back on the only empty seat I saw this bird

Not a very good photo as I was hand holding my camera, trying to peer over someones shoulder, then someone walked in front of me so that they could have a better view, never mind me. Then something spooked the birds and the white rumped-sandpiper flew off.

I vsited the other hides and saw these ruff from Saltholme Pools hide.

As I came out of the hide this bird was perched on a nearby post.

A very nice day.

Digiscoping!

I have tried digiscoping many times before and every now and again I have another attempt.
I was on duty at Blacktoft and as usual arrived early to have a look round before the visitors arrived.
Tuesday was a nice sunny morning and I knew that the team  would be working on Ousefleet hide so I went to Marshland first, just in case any disturbance frightened the birds. Also birds are quite close to the hide, so if you open the door and windows quietly you can often see the birds at close range.
There were several birds close to the hide, so my luck was in.

Lapwing,

Lapwing, ruff, black tailed godwit, green sandpiper and snipe were close to the hide. A bit further away was this grey heron.

When I looked closer I could see that it had caught a young moorhen. The heron walked around a bit with the young bird in its beak and then kept dipping the bird under the water, presumably trying to drown it, but the bird looked dead to me.

The heron had several attempts at swallowing the bird before discarding it and flying off.

On the mud on the right hand side of the lagoon several bearded tits were feeding on insects.

They were a fair distance away, hence my thoughts turned to digiscoping again.

Also at the other end of the lagoon were 2 curlew sandpipers, so these are my digiscoping attempts.

 

 

 

I need to look at the camera settings on my phone, plus adjust the focus on the telescope.

There was a steady stream of visitors to the reserve, a lot of whom had come to see the curlew sanspipers and the female Montagu's harrier. They all went away happy having seen the birds, plus many had seen water rail, bearded tits and the 12 different waders that were on the reserve.