St Ives

Sunday November 25th p.m.
 A wet and windy morning meant postponing our birding until this afternoon when
the sun made an appearance bringing the temperature up to 6°C.It was only a brief visit
to St. Ives with the highlight being two female & a male Goosander on the water who soon
flew off shortly after our arrival.The bird feeders in front of the hide were empty so not much
happening here either apart from a Grey Squirrel.The sun at this time of year is of course very
low in the sky which gives for some good lighting effects on the landscape.
c30 - BH Gull
1 - Canada
6 - Carrion Crow
5 - Coot
3 - Goosander
c50 - Mallard
6 - Moorhen.

BH Gull

Grey Squirrel

BH Gulls

low sun catching the trees on far bank

St Ives Coppice Pond

Coppice Pond Island

Wibsey/Harold Parks & Park Dam

Saturday November 24th a.m.
 A cold frosty, cloudy start to the day with just a temperature of 1°C with our first port
of call being Wibsey Park where there is a decent sized pond.
Wibsey List
5 - BH Gulls
8 - Canadas
5 - Coot
1 - Magpie
c50 - Mallard
9 - Moorhen
6 - Tufted Duck.
  We then moved on to Harold Park where there was a better selection of birds, good to
see the Great Crested Grebes again with the Juveniles doing well. We also caught up with
the pair of Mute Swans with five Juveniles which were likely to be the one which bred at
Park Dam,just down the road.Also a local first for us as we saw a pair of Wigeon at
distance near the island.
Harold Park List
c100 - BH Gull
5 - Common Gull
c30 - Coot
3 - Gt C. Grebe including Juvenile
1 - LBB Gull
c50 - Mallard
10 - Moorhen
8 - Mute Swan inc. Juvs.
10 - Tufted Duck
2 - Wigeon
plus other common species.
  From here we finished off at Park Dam where there was a good number of Canadas
shivering in a frosty field.There were still Gt C. Grebes on the water together with a
Little Grebe.
Park Dam List
c50 - BH Gulls
51 - Canadas
3 - Common Gull
6 - Coot
8 - Goldfinch
2 - Gt C. Grebe
1 - LBB Gull
1 - Little Grebe
6 - Mallard
2 - Moorhen
2 - Tufted Duck
Plus other common species.

Mute Swan

Mute Swan Juv.

Gt C. Grebe

Gt C. Grebe Juv

female Tufted Duck

Distant record shot of Wigeon

Canadas in cold frosty field

Mute Swan family joined by another adult

Wibsey Park pond

 

Redcar Tarn LBB Gull

From Saturday November 17th a.m
 Thanks to Brian & Nigel for letting me know the LBB Gull I put on the post on
Saturday is a sub species, here are a few more snaps which I have added below
together with a couple of old LBB snaps.Not easy to see the differences but the
sub species certainly has duller legs and a more fierce looking face.

LBB sub 1

LBB sub 2

LBB Gull taken 13/2/12

LBB Gull taken 13/1/12

LBB Gull sub 3

Redcar Tarn

Saturday November 17th a.m.
 The early morning rain cleared away leaving cloudy conditions slowly brightening
with a temperature of 6°C on our arrival at Redcar Tarn.There was a single female
Goosander on the water with a variety of Gulls.There were 60 Lapwings on the
island with a large flock in a nearby field, where there were some Starlings as well.
There were additional Starlings on an overhead wire up the road, walking round the
Tarn we saw a group of Chaffinch  and with them unusally for this site were some
Blue Tits & Goldfinch.
c75- BH Gull
4 - Blue Tit
4 - Canadas
10 - Chaffinch
25 - Common Gull
25 - Coot
2 - Goldfinch
1 - Goosander
c150 - Lapwing
4 - LBB Gull
c75 - Mallard
1 - Moorhen
c75 - Starling
8 - Tufted Duck
plus other common species

LBB Gull

female Goosander

Lapwings

BH Gull first winter

Common Gulls

Common Gull

Martin Mere 6

From Sunday November 11th
 A final look at our visit to Martin Mere and some of the pictures we took from
the bird collection.

Bewick's Swan

Pintail

Red-crested Pochard

South African Yellow-billed Duck

Red-billed Pintail from South East Africa

Ruddy Shelduck from South East Europe & Asia

Wood Duck from North America

A colourful Duck

Martin Mere November 11th 2012

Martin Mere 5

From Sunday November 11th
Continuing with my review of Marin Mere a look tonight at the Hooded Merganser a
small diving duck from North America.
Also on show was a family of Asian short-clawed Otters the two adults had three young
known as kits.

male Hooded Merganser

female Hooded Merganser

Asian short-clawed Otter

All the family playing together

male Hooded Merganser

Martin Mere 4

From Sunday November 11th
 A couple more ducks I like are the Goldeneye and the Eider Duck and we had good
views of both of them on our trip to Martin Mere. The Eider Duck is a sea bird which
comes ashore to breed but can be seen around the British coastline.The Goldeneye is a
small dabbling duck from Northern Europe,there are breeding collanies in Scotland during
the summer months.Happily a few do make it into Yorkshire during the Winter months and
we have seen them locally.We had a good chance to see them closer than normally and of
course took a few snaps.

male Goldeneye

female Goldeneye

male Eider Duck

The elegant male Goldeneye