Lockdown continued..

Well as lockdown continues with no end in sight, so does wildlife photography from the garden. I haven’t been happy with the settings on my new Nikon D500 but some more tweaking and the flight shots look a lot sharper.

Negative values in terms of temperature but still no snow. At least there was some good light. Another two year ticks for the garden in the form of a flyover cormorant and a first ever for the garden-a goldcrest, albeit for no more than 3 seconds. Takes the list up to 31 for the year.

I had a little wander down to Millenium Orchard near Beverley this morning. Nice to see a few different species nothing unusual but somewhere I’m going to focus on whilst lockdown continues.

Definitely a sense of Spring in the air-blackbirds just started singing, song thrush and a few of the smaller species just giving the hint that winter is on its way out and brighter times are on their way.

Nice to see flowering snowdrops but everything else tighly locked down as winter isnt prepared to loosen its grip just yet.

Another year, another lockdown

So here we are again. It’s another year and another lockdown. This time I feel with more hope-there is light at the end of what has been a very dark tunnel.

The end is in sight but for now its time for patience, and while I am missing some of my favourite winter birding places watching from home has been far more productive that I thought it would be. Our mahonia bush has been a great source of nectar not only for the winter bees (last morning they were out and it myust have been at least 0 degrees if not colder!) but also for any number of birds enjoying the sweet nectar-most notable were the blackcaps.

So far the year list stands at 29.

1. House Sparrow

2. Dunnock

3. Robin

4. Starling

5. Blackbird

6. Woodpigeon

7. Collared dove

8. Rook

9. Magpie

10. Carrion crow

11. Jackdaw

12. Herring gull

13. Black headed gull

14. Great Black-Backed Gull

15. Common Gull

16. Pink Footed Goose

17. Grey Heron

18. Blue tit

19. Great Tit

20. Coal Tit

21. Long-Tailed Tit

22. Goldfinch

23. Greenfinch

24. Chaffinch

25. Bullfinch

26. Sparrowhawk

27. Blackcap

28. Fieldfare

29. Meadow pipit

Not all have been in the garden as such-I am counting those that fly over. Given that our garden list stands at a paltry 52, there is scope for this to grow before the year is out.

East Yorkshire Birds of Prey

I’ve been upgrading kit just lately so no posts but all back up and running now.

I set myself a target to concentrate on birds of prey a couple of weeks ago. I wanted to see as many as I could in one day.

Usually the best place to go in winter is on the coast or around the Humber. I also helps to look at the tide book and coincide a visit with high tide as some of them (especially the falcons) become more active when the tide pushes the waders of the Humber mud.

So with high tide around 11am I set off for Spurn early with the hope of finding my first target species-Merlin.

As I walked down the road at Spurn I ticked of my first-a kestrel hovering distantly in the half-light.

On I went pausing to photograph gulls against the rising sun. I carried on across the breach and as it was looking as though one wouldn’t show I spotted a small falcon sat on a piece of lost fisshing gear-bingo! it was a merlin. These small falcons are my favourite bird of prey and when the hunt their prey (usuall small passerine birds like meadow pipits) they pursue them relentlessly diving and weaving until their quarry literally runs out of energy.

It took of as i approached but with a canny piece of manouvering I managed to get close for some reasonable photos.

After I got my shots of a merlin I had a ride out to Sammy’s Point-nothing much to see there but as I drove back down Peter Lane a distant buzzard perched on a hedgerow gave me my third raptor of the day. After that I headed off to Skeffling and another two buzzards one posing nicely on the top of a barn owl nest provided a further photo opportunity.

By now the tide had come right in and all of the waders were congregated along the shoreline. This provides the perfect opportunity for peregrine falcons to hunt. So it proved-an almighty commotion erupted as thousands of waders were scattering in all directions as a peregrine falcon dive bombed them repeatedly. What a spectacular sight! It carried on for about 10 minutes and just when I was beginning to think it might be unsuccessful it literally stuck out a foot and plucked an unfortunate wader (looked like a bar tailed godwit but was quite distant) out of the sky. It then settled on the salt marsh to devour its catch and the show was over.

Once the Peregrine had settled my attention focussed on the set aside field on the northern side of the flood bank. There are plans for this area to be re-developed into saltmarsh which should be a great addition to the area. In the meantime the fields have been left as fallow providing some great habitat in itself for owls and harriers.

There were at least 4 marsh harriers on show most of them quite distant however a ‘cream crown’ came quite close allowing for some decent photos.

The next one that came along was a hen harrier. Hunting just above the grasses it was weaving its way down from the east always quite distant but a magnificent bird all the same (on my second visit 2 were briefly together). They quite often fan out their tail for more agility and to get a photo of that close up would be something special. The day just kept on getting better!

Kestrels were on show pretty much all of the time I was there-this one came close in nice light.

As the day wore on the short eared owls became more active. There were at least 6 up in the air at once at one point. They constantly patrol up and down at times coming quite close. There were a couple of disputes going on-one between an owl and a kestrel and it appeared that the kestrel was trying to steal a catch from one of the owls. Also the owls were constantly bickering with each other again a great spectacle.

In the last light of the day a sparrowhawk shot across the field and I just managed to catch its backend as it dived into the hawthorn hedge no doubt looking for a last meal before night.

Birds of prey are pretty awesome birds but the last 2 weekends have been brilliant-the sheer amount and the amount of food needed to sustain that amount of birds gave a glimmer of hope that things don’t look to bad this winter in our small corner of the world.