Saturday 31 January 2015

Nosterfield gets a visit from America!

This afternoon me and my Dad were deciding on where to go for the rest of the afternoon. We couldn't decide where until a drake American Wigeon turned up at Nosterfield so we were straight over.

As soon as we arrived some birders put us straight onto this awesome bird, it was a little distant but through the scope it looked awesome! It stuck out like a sore thumb from the other Wigeon. Sometimes it went missing in the 400+ or so Wigeon for around 10 minutes but it always showed itself again. Some very kind people pointed out 2 Dark Bellied Brent Geese to us which were nice to see. Here is some record shots of the American Wigeon.







American Wigeon


Afterwards some people told us about a pair of Little Owls near Nosterfield Quarry so we went to take a look. When we arrived someone had spotted one really distantly in a tree, we managed to get some decent scope views. There was a little track you could walk on which allowed us to get a little closer, we then noticed there was 2 Little Owls in the tree which was great to see.

Little Owl
 
On the way home we had a fantastic Red Kite fly over our car.

Sunday 4 January 2015

Brilliant Blyth's!

Me and my Dad decided to visit the Blyth's Pipit once again today to try and get it on the year list plus from the amount of great photos on Twitter it seemed like it was only showing down to a couple of feet.

As soon as we arrived this fantastic bird was on show, it was right out in the open on a bank right next to where we were standing. It showed much better this time than the last two times we have been which I was very pleased with. It was also very nice to see it up close. While we were watching it we had a few Snipe fly over. After a while the Pipit flew of and landed somewhere in the field also apparently a Sparrow Hawk chased it for a second. After failing to re-find it we headed of to Pugneys for the gull roost. We had a Caspian, Yellow Legged, Great Black Backed, Herring and Black Headed Gulls. The Caspian and Yellow legged Gull were lifers which I was very pleased to see.







Blyth's Pipit

Thursday 1 January 2015

LITTLE BUSTARD!!!

Our year started off with a bang, a LITTLE BUSTARD in Fraisthorpe just outside Bridlington!!! So this morning I nattered my Dad like mad to take me and thankfully he said yes!! I couldn't wait to head over. I was incredibly excited!

Within an hour we found the right spot (thankfully...) We then joined the huge amount of assembled birders looking into a field, we were more or less straight onto this incredibly rare bird but views weren't to good as we could only just see its head. We moved to the other end of field where we saw this great bird much better, fantastic scope views were obtained. I think the bird has been aged as a first winter male. After a little while the bird moved more over to the spot where we were at first so we moved back and got slightly closer. It was very nice to get a little closer to such a superb bird. I am incredibly pleased to see this fantastic bird. Here is a couple of record shots.





Little Bustard
 
A truly great bird! Afterwards we had a little walk around Thornwick Pool but sadly that didn't produce much other than a Mallard!