Hen Harrier

I set off this morning with the hope of seeing and possibly photographing a hen harrier in East Yorkshire.The hen harrier has been the subject of much debate recently and these magnificent birds are becoming more difficult to find.

I started off at dawn at Stoney Creek and viewed a magnificent sunrise with little egret bar tailed godwit and peregrine falcon the first decent birds of the day.

As the sun rose more birds became active and there were several large flocks of fieldfare feeding on berries on roadside hedges.

There were quite a few kestrel, plenty of curlew and a single marsh harrier flew north west along the Humber.

I had a drive through the narrow roads of Sunk Island using the car as a hide and saw good numbers of roe deer feeding in the fields.

Next stop was Welwick salt marsh. I parked up near the track to the river bank and again fieldfare were the most prevalent bird.

As soon as I reached the top of the bank I flushed a female hen harrier and she quickly moved off south east and began hunting over the salt marsh. 

Another marsh harrier flew in and began to hunt over the salmarsh flushing a male hen harrier! it flew parallel with me for a while then looped and came back over the fields before being lost to view.

This brief encounter enabled me to get some reasonable shots, but despite the conditions looking favorable, that was it for the rest of the day.

It clouded over at around 3pm so I headed back to the car adding sparrowhawk and merlin to the list of raptors for the day.

I was well pleased with my first attempt of the winter and will be heading back in the near future.

Rough,Rough and Ruffe

I set off on Sunday morning to the relatively central location of Hornsea Mere in the hope of a photo opportunity of one of the reported grebes (red-necked or slavonian) and then if news broke of something good (Spurn or Flamborough) it would not be much of a distance to view it.

So I arrived at 9.00 at the Mere and it was relatively quiet with a few common ducks and geese and the odd gull.

After a discussion with one of the locals (thanks George) he soon put me on to the red-necked grebe which was almost at the other bank at the far eastern end, and one of the slavonian grebes which wasn't much closer.

Then after further scanning another slav was a bit closer but not enough for a decent shot.

News broke of a rough legged buzzard at Grindale near Bridlington, but I still persevered with the slav.

It went out of view for a while and then I noticed another photographer at the end of Kirkholme point paying particular attention to something close in-it was the slav! only about 15m out it was diving and fishing and stayed close for at least half an hour.

When it was catching sticklebacks it devoured them within seconds of surfacing, however it caught a larger ruffe and this proved a little more tricky and hence a better photo opportunity.

I was happy with my grebe shots so went off to Grindale and spent a lovely mild afternoon watching it hunting (mostly unsuccessfully) over fields near the flying centre, sometimes giving breathtakingly close views.

A most enjoyable day with a couple of nice birds.

Spurn still delivering

I had an impromptu visit to Spurn on Wednesday of this week full of optimism after ideal fall conditions earlier in the week.

The migrants that showed up were pretty predictable with nothing special but I set off early and arrived in the crown and anchor car park before 8am.I was greeted immediately by the sight and sound of lots of gold crests flitting around frantically feeding after their trek over the north sea.

Also there were a few robins and the first decent bird of the day-a yellow browed warbler.A walk along the riverbank towards the canal produced a grey wagtail feeding on the rocks, a brambling and yet more gold crests and robins.

News of the previous days hoopoe crackled over the radio showing near the Riverside Hotel so I made my way along the Humber bank flushing a couple of wheatears along the way.

Unfortunately the hoopoe was feeding directly outside the entrance and wasn't visible until the last minute so was flushed by my presence.

It didn't go far however and eventually showed very well in the garden of cliff farm.

I was surprised by the amount of swallows heading south and whilst not counting them specifically I noted at least 30 flying overhead.

I spent some time with the yellow browed warbler and a very brief long eared owl before having some lunch, then news of a Raddes warbler in Easington came over the airwaves, on arrival it didn't look particularly promising so headed back to the canal zone after a short while.It was here I had nice views of a great grey shrike, short eared owl and a flyby woodcock-cracking stuff!

It was then news of the bird of the day came out-an Isabelline Shrike at Long Bank bridge and it showed quite well albeit it slightly distantly to the quickly amassed crowd.

I had a last unsuccessful look for the raddes warbler on the way home but was more than content on the drive back after yet another fantastic day at Spurn