birdpix

A day without bird watching?We visited a Donkey santuary in the High Peak,there are no opening times on their website ,we arrived at 11.00 assuming that the place would be open,only to be shouted  at from a rather unfriendly woman 12! Oh I take that to mean we open at 12 then .To fill in time we went to an Otter and Owl santuary that was fairly nearby they also have deer there ,hence the appaling pun in the title of this blog.We soon found ourselves looking at birds in the form of the recent robin pictured above .In an otter enclosure where Eurasian otters should have been we watched a grey wagtail busy catching flies.We admired the owls ,in one enclosure there was a short eared owl  along with a long eared owl ,another had a tawny ,another a barn owl and even a buzzard,hmmm,we have watched all of these in the wild in Derbyshire.I wanted to liberate them all.There were also some exotic owls including a burrowing owl that looked like a little owl on stilts,a snowy owl and Eagle owls to name just a few.Eagle owls have bred in yorkshire...The Eurasian otters never did put in an appearance,the giant otters ,North American were awesome .Managed to avoid the rain before admiring three deer species and heading back to the Donkey santuary .A female stonechat was flying along in front of us for several hundred yards ,bobbing from side to side in flight rather amusingly.Rather less amusing was that the Donkey santuary  at 3.00 was now closed! Rather fed up ,we headed back ,deciding on a whim to get a bakewell pudding to take to the mother in laws,drove through Chatsworth en route and saw some more deer.Avoided another soaking in Bakewell where the usual ducks geese swans and coots were on the river ,watched from above by jackdaws ,but we werent bird watching.....

By the way people ,the Mansfield RSPB group are having their next indoor  meeting on wednesday 2nd september 2009,at the Bridge Street Methodist Church in Mansfield at 7pm.There is a guest speaker :Gerald Hall who will be doing a presentation entittled a Gambian Experience. All are welcome. www.rspb.org.uk/groups/mansfield Check this website for details of forthcoming  field trips.The group are involved in a number of  local conservation projects ,come along and find out what they are! I only go for the tea and biscuits myself.

There was a very scruffy bullfinch in our garden earlier and a pristine canary......Theres about a dozen places that Ive seen Buzzards this month,its easy to believe that they are our most numerous bird of prey.Watching rooks coming into roost the other evening was magical ,these wonderful birds are criminally overlooked by bird watchers.

At Potteric Carr ,the mozzys enjoyed feasting on my face.A kingfisher landed within easy digiscoping distance ,I framed him and focused ,he filled the lens ,unfortunately some people came into the hide at the same moment and of course he flew away .I had to settle for my usual rubbish picture of a kingfisher -Ive got lots of these now.Later from a path rather than a hide ,I watched another kingfisher perform the catching a fish ,killing it and downing it in one routine(having battered its head against a tree branch first then toss it into the air and catch it again in his beak ,the correct way around).This is always a pleasure to watch.A tree was full of little egrets.Wigeon have started to appear ,even although its not quite autumn,there were still plenty of warblers about.It was ironic that a fluffy fledgling reed warbler sat on top of the reed bed in full view ,it had, as my wife would say baby beak,it was ironic because I had spent a good half an hour failing to see the reed warbler form the piper marsh hide ,moving around in the reed bed in front of the hide.Better still another reed warbler actually flew across the path in front of me before dissapearing into the reeds-an adult this time.From the piper marsh hide ,a few sand martins whooshed around ,there were some ducks , a reed bunting and the afore mentioned invisible reed warbler.Immediately outside this hide however it was entirely different the surrounding bushes and trees being teaming with small birds .A tree creeper was doing the usual ,in the same tree were several long tailed ,blue and great tits ,the one that brought a smile to my face was the willow tit who was apparently in a great hurry.From the Willow hide ,the usual jays were on the bird table taking it in turns with some tits and a squirrel Other Warblers about were whitethroats,blackcaps ,willow warblers and a solitary chiff chaff.The green sandpiper and the black tailed godwits were still there along with snipe ,lapwings ,dunlin and ringed plover ,no sign however of thelittle stint.Fifty odd bird species kept me engrosed for eight hours ,august has had its moments .Oh and I managed to not get soaked this time.

Forget about red squirrels -they are gone and cant come back.

Accept the fact that when you put food out for birds ,grey squirrels wont ask if its ok to eat some of it.

Celebrate these charming little mammals.

Boycott the futile government funded cull of these innocent creatures paying the ultimate price for being successful -with their lives.

Recognise the double standard when citing the fact that these grey squirrels arent native ,you are probably descended from the Welsh if you are English.Technically Wales isnt even a country ,but I digress.I love Wales by the way .

People decimated the red squirrels habitat and made it ideal for grey squirrels to thrive.

Long may they thrive .

Next week :why magpies are welcome in our garden

Ban the shooting of seals by fish farmers!

As many as 5,000 seals are shot in Scotland every year. The reason? Because of consumer?s desire for cheap fish. Around 1 million meals containing salmon are eaten in Britain each year, and it is this artificial trade in intensively farmed fish which is driving the bloodshed, as farmers kill seals that catch fish. Yet another example of wild animals suffering because of the greed of the livestock industry.

Click here to email Alex Salmond, First Minister of Scotland, to call for an end to this brutal practice. Read the recent Sunday Times article with Viva! celebrity supporter Chrissie Hynde on why she backs a ban.

Opening the months account ,we saw a three peregrines ,three buzzards and a kestrel on the birds of prey front.August isnt exactly a great month for bird watching,he writes stating the blindingly obvious .Ive got no trips planned for this month ,other than locally to keep my hand in and see if I canget any more pics of warblers this season .Warblers  that were still about today were willow warbler ,blackcap and Chiff Chaff.We still have the pleasure of the hirundines of course,watched swallows,swifts and sand martins.Wish I was going to Africa with them ,they have this thing called sunshine there.Anothr rubbish summer weather wise ?,lets all have a good moan about that ,makes you feel better,sunshine lifts the spirits as well as being something of an obsession of mine.

Sparrow hawk in the garden the other evening ,went for and missed a starling .Next morning at the top of the next street was a pile of feathers looking like those of  a collared dove...

Roasting hot weekend ,at Rufford Country park have been watching the swallows who are nesting in the buildings there.Several nests being well attended by parents ,one of the nests had a line of four faces peeking out .You have to marvel at the fine workmanship in the nests construction and indeed at these birds in general .Buzzards riding the thermals and nuthatches whoosing by , abrief glimpse of a jay and some glorious sunshine .At Pleasley Pit ,I thought that for  a change that I would set up my scope by one tree .Watched a procession of birds in and out of this tree ,in about a half an hour spell these included great tits ,yellowhammers ,a willow warbler ,fledgling goldfinch and a very obliging sedgewarbler who posed for a photograph.A green woodpecker dissapeared out of sight ,I watched its undulated flight and heard its yaffle cry.Thirty odd starlings under our bird table at the moment making a racket and polishing off raisins.At Kingsmill Reser , a family of Bullfinchs were drinking from a puddle ,the recent fledglings ,staying close to their parents for now.Curiously a Goldfinch lunged at Willow Warbler mid air ,this is the first time Ive witnessed this particular combination.The warblers still about but now silent ,no sign as ever of the grasshopper warblers here.

Walking around Pleasley Pit on a very dull day ,which is in complete contrast to yesterday ,watching skylarks ,I wished they were still singing.The 74 Canada geese that came into land onto the main pond ,loudly honking to each other raised a smile.Linnets bounced around on the top of some gorse bushes ,a jackdaw chased a lapwing ,or was it the other way around? the two hassling each other mid air .A little grebe had an even more little grebe chick in tow,it was pretty quite it would be fair to say.In the garden a Greater spotted woodpecker put the starlings off from visiting the feeders with fat balls in .A willow warbler flitted about in the background ,I noticed another of these in the garden last week.Geese activity is noticably on the increase of late ,several times Ive seen and heard skeins go over the garden on the way to the river or feeding grounds near the pit.

At Old Moor ,I sat on a bench to eat my lunch on a lovely warm sunny day and watched what was going on in the nearby trees.A greater spotted woodpecker was making aracket ,I thought it was going to be a squirrel that was making the commotion .The Goldfinch here have apparently done really well this year,there were afew warblers knocking about still like blackcap and willow warbler.In amongst the thousands of lapwings were a couple of golden plover.The snipe looking pristine ,immaculate in the bright sunshine.The usual waders for this time of year were about : dunlin,blacktailed godwit,greenshank and greenshanpiper.I remember well seing my first green sandpiper at Old Moor.A weezel ran in front of me on the path ,and a moment later a vole scuttled about on the same path (watched by a very scruffy looking kestrel from an electricity pylon nearby).Could be the first and last time that I see that particular vole.Little grebes weree feeding stickelbacks to their young.A juvenile bullfinch on the feeders being an unusual sight

More peregrines at the mystery location.Very quiet were both Shilatoe woods and Beeley Triangle,both had kestrels in action,saw a  spotted flycatcher at Shilatoe.

The highlight of the month so far has to be the Honey Buzzards that we saw at Welbeck.There were a male and a female Honey Buzzard in the air at the same time as aCommon Buzzard -giving ahandy comparison and yes I could actually tell the two species apart!We had been to Budby before and had a walk around,where I was looking at some of the many Linnet when out of the corner of my eye ,I saw a bird fly ,turning around to see in a tree with no leaves on in bright sunshine ,about a dozen feet away was a wood warbler (looking superb) Where have you been ? I wondered ,we have been looking for you since early spring without any joy .A year tick then ,in fact Ive not seen one of these crackers for several years.A  willow warbler perched nearby giving a good comparison! One part of the woods was absolutely teeming with small birds ,good numbers of coal tits looking pristine,a sequence of tits ,spotted flycatchers,treecreepers,nuthatches,wrens ,some warblers and a greater spotted  woodpecker ,oddly its usually green wood pecker that is almost guaranteed here -we only heard one .Three jays flew past us while  walking down a path,calling noisely.The  pair of Stonechat that we saw I was later told usually stay here year round,earlier in the year we had seen on several occasions Stonechats that have bred here.Wondered if the nightjars are still here ,they will be going very soon (as will the Honey Buzzards from Welbeck) On the river flash there were great crested grebes with striped headed young and swans with sygnets ,greylag geese and ducks like gadwall,mallard and tufted. On an up rooted tree ,there were perched house martins and swallows in good numbers,got an excellent view of house martins through the scope -something that is not easy usually !Honey Buzzards...........The sedge warbler at Pleasley Pit ,pictured here ,Ive just noticed is wanted for my local patch list-havent seen one there before ,(its no 106)At Ogston Res,William Thorpe Ponds and Carr vale there wasnt much happening in the way of excitement.I enjoyed watching scruffy and fluffy fledglings and various small birds in the process of changing their plumage.The dunnock in the picture is a recent addition to this world ,already he has learned that bird tables have food on them.The Robin looks comical ,the chafficch looks knackered.Ogston and Carr Vale both had fluffy whitethroats and goldfinches without a red head ,a very dodgy looking bullfinch was loitering around a feeder at Carr vale.Still warblers about most places ,I am missing their songs already.Soon it will be time to say goodbye to Swifts ,they are getting less and less in number noticably.House martins and swallows have started to gather on telegraph wires and other perches.

Going home from work , a grey partridge with several partridgettes strolled across the road in front of us ,(not far from the spot where we had seen a weazel earlier in the month )Lets hope they are not shot by a posh tosser then.The sickening noise of gunfire being all too common at this time of year .

A clue as to why  the title for this blog ismystery location is that we watched an adult peregrine and a juvenile too ,we could see the nest site.Mrs Peregrine was present along with a recent fledgling ,presumably the male was out hunting.As we neared tjhe site ,a peregrine call rang out as if to say its in this direction you need to look if you want to see me.We later heard the youngster call too,probably wanting fed.The feathers on the young peregrines head still being downy ,otherwise looking ready for the world.Two kestrels hovered in the sky near to each other.A nice sunny day if a little windy ,butterflies were out in good numbers,particularly gatekeepers.

Oh yes I do like a bit of sunshine-it brings out the butterflys,dragonflys and damselflys and takes your mind of the fact that there arent many birds about.Skylarks now silent were still a joy to watch in flight ,about half a dozen of them suspended together in the sky at the same time .Big flock of Linnet ,a charm of Goldfinch and half a dozen little grebes on the main pond.The lapwings werent too happy to see me and my camera and promptly buggered off.I like Lapwings ,they are real characters.Not a soul about not even dog walkers.The breeding waders,warblers and orchids seem like a distant memory allready,a green woodpecker remained invisible.The yellowhammers like the one in the picture were still going for it singing about beju bits of bread without cheese.

When I left to go to Kingmill Res it was lovely and sunny ,that never lasted long ,found myself ,waiting in the car for half an hour for the rain to go off.I must be in a minority of bird watchers who havent managed to see the grasshopper warblers here recently.Didnt stray too far from the car park as the clouds looked ominiously black.I have a history of getting drenched at this res,its only water .Watched a processsion of small birds like linnet,reed warbler,reed bunting ,whitethroat ,a willow warbler,some blue ,great and long tailed tits.A Heron going against the trend by putting in an apperance being the only big bird that I saw ,they are quite large and teryadactyl like.Ah well tommorow is another day (off) Might go and look for Quail again...

Watched bearded tits all afternoon,you couldnt make it up ,usually I am used to seeing these little beauties for a few seconds at a time .It was like they had declared an amnesty on hiding from bird watchers for the day.To give you an example from two different hides ,on several occasions I had four bearded tits in view through the telescope this kept on happening ,the bearded tits apparently content to be out in the open at the bottom of  a reed bed.Or how about four bearded tits ,two reed warblers and a reed bunting at the same time in the scope? Sounds like I am boasting ,but I mention it as it was so unusual and I along with several others thoroughly enjoyed watching them! It diverted my attention from the magnificent Marsh Harriers ,there were up to four of them in the air at once,adults and juveniles.Its incredible to think that in 1971 ,England was down to one pair of Marsh Harriers.,nowadays there are according to the RSPB around 300 pairs in the UK.Two birds that I hadnt seen already this year were :Greenshank and Green Sandpipers.I had actually forgotten how subtely beautiful a Green Sandpiper is.The place was quiet both in the numbers of birds and the numbers of people about watching them.Spotted Redshank numbered eight ,by far out numbered by Redshank ,there were good numbers of Ruff too .The Ruff looked odd in eclipse plumage.Lots of the more common waders about too like Dunlin for example.A lovely warm sunny day ,Blacktoft is always good.

Its almost a month since I last visited my homepatch at Pleasley Pit.In that time the waders have apparently finished breeding .The warblers have stopped singing with the exception of  areed warbler that I could hear singing from the reed beds down by the Dragonfly pond.Reed Buntings too still singing by contrast doing so out in full view.The yaffling call fom the green woodpecker ,was heard and unseen as is more often than not.Most noticable was the abscence of my pal Gilbert the Gull .He is an entertaining character,I missed him today .His two tennis balls sat forlorly on an island on the main pond ,dont know where his football has gone.The place was eerily quiet ,the skylark song gone too.I find skylark song to be a soothing background to relax and bird watch to.In the bright sunshine where many butterflys,dragonflys and damselflys , a Cinnabar moth busied itself its wings just  a blur.A willow warbler ,silent perched out in theopen for a moment looking absolutely splendid in the bright sunshine.Another willow Warbler ,unusually was on a fenchpost beside the bird hide.These particular fenceposts are favourite resting spots for skylarks.Meadow pipits were silent ,the linnet didnt make much sound either ,at least the familiar a little bit of bread and no cheese rang out from several yellowhammers .Some longtailed tits flew as they usually do from tree to tree.The mute swans still have half a dozen Sygnets in tow ,the same number as my last visit here I am glad to say .One of these youngsters was noticably bigger than his siblings.Quite a few bird watchers about  in the nice cool bird hide on a roasting hot day,all we needed was some birds to look at.

Carr Vale was absolutely teeming with butterflys today.A comma sat ,rather worryingly on a fresh dog turd.As you would expect at this time of year the birds were very quiet.Did get decent views of the more common warblers like blackcap,whitethroat ,reed warbler and a willow warbler that  sat out in the open on a fence just looking at me looking at him.Most of the bird feeders were occupied by  the customary squirrel. A dog fight caused an old guy to fall over in the car park ,which I was quite concerned about as the poor old guy went thud onto the ground as several dogs each with owners apparently unable to control them ,went absolutely bonkers.He got up limping saying Im ok when I bet he felt like shouting by christ that  hurt my arseThe threatened rain from the black clouds never came thankfully.In the garden this morning ,feeding on nyger seed along side the goldfinches were a male and a female bullfinch.Butterflys making love its a beautiful thing (pic below)

Not really a bird watching trip ,we like walking around Linacre res and woods ,simply because its a nice walk and hey it didnt rain.We had been to look at the new visitor centre at Cresswell Crags ,which you can do all the interactive stuff and read everything in about twenty minutes (and then wonder why they spent about sixteen million quid on doing the place up).One of the neanderthol paintings in the caves has been covered in modern day graffiti ..............yikes.

At Linacre Reser,the usual birds were about ,grey wagtails (wagging their grey tails) ,nuthatches ,some warblers and of course the part of the furniture mandarins in good numbers -outnumbering the mallards in fact ,unless all the mallards were hiding whilst they moulted.The drake manadarin looks kind of odd out of breeding plumage ,still a striking bird though.

At Potteric Carr there was torrential rain ,thankfully we had managed to dive into a hide before it startedThen the sun came out along with the butterflys .We managed to miss the Green Sandpiper,the common sandpiper ,the black necked grebes and only heard ,without seeing :blackcap,song thrush and chiff chaff,despite this we still saw over 50 bird species ,which isnt that bad for a rainy day in july.Wife caught a glimpse of a kingfisher during a downpour.The reed warblers were amusing seen from another hide during another downpour ,they must have flown across the water a dozen times.Highlight of the day came from the Cottage Drain hide (opposite the Willow hide) when we watched a Bittern take flight and land ,apparently being chased by a Heron .The Bittern got up again briefly five minutes or so later.From the big hexagonal hide ,we watched seven blacktailed godwits ,and were amused by several little egrets squased into the top of a small tree.We had to be careful where we trod a long a rainy path as there were several hundred tiny frogs hopping about.The rabbits here are remarkably un scared of people  ,I noticed this before on  aprevious visit ,they dont even run off when you walk past them.The squirrels are of course universally cheeky ,sat muching on a bird table in the rain from the Willow hide.This hide is the small one near the cafe and is always good for a close encounter with a bird or animal of some description: like water vole,rabbits ,jays ,water rails ,squirrels on this occasion with a couple of jays on the bird table .This is where my wife started singing a song that she had made up about the six jays that  we had seen in a tree.Lots of nice butterflys to admire,wife liked the wild strawberry plants (with tiny wee strawberrys on ) I particularly liked the banded damoiselle dragonflys.Neither of however cared much for the painful insect bites that we both got -still I was only bitten three times ,last visit it was six.Oh what fun Ive had squeezing out poison in an effort to stop them from itching.Saw another very tame creature , a pheasant with two very small fledglings didnt run or fly as we walked past them on the path ,just like the bunnys -very chilled out .

Been watching the Colllared doves in our garden making love in their favourite spot on a fence .Last night in my pals garden we watched a Wood Pigeon feeding a fledgling -something that I dont think Ive seen  before not in our garden any way.My pal wanted to know what the gorgeous song was that they have been hearing in their garden at night ,at the expected time of the evening a song thrush burst into song .Same pal upset me by telling me that he had recently seen some Cirl Buntings in Cornwall ,hes not a bird watcher as such .He has not upset me so much since the time he saw aGolden Oriole in France the same week as I had heard but not seen one at Lakenheath Fen.Nipper is the handsome fellow in the picture.

In the evening after visiting the farne Isles ,we had driven past a pond and noticed some birds on it ,so pulled over the car to have a look.When we had driven past we had seen what was either tufed ducks or Scaup, a closer look revealed that they were indeed Scaup.Pottering about were a couple of Dunlin,a  Bar tailed godwit,some Oystercatchers ,Lapwings ,in the air was an Arctic Tern ,a Sandwich Tern  and a grey wagtail.We watched this small pond intrigued  and  more birds  appeared , a kestrel hovered , a meadow pipit flitted about ,on the pond where mallards ,teal , shelducks with chicks ,Eider, a Heron ,in the reeds were some warblers, a reed bunting ,nearby by where coots and moorhens  and pied wagtails ,above were House Martins and  swallows .A walk along the nearby beach produced  sightings of Curlew and whimbrel ,Redshank,,LBB gulls,Rooks ,Jackdaws and starlings.On the way back from the beach we stopped to look at this pond  again which was more like a flash than a proper pond (being about the same size as the Dunlin Pools at Pleasley ) and was pleasantly  surprised to see a badger running along ,followed a few moments later by a hare also in a great hurry,this rounded off a cracking day nicely.

I cant possibly do justice to describing a trip to the Farne Isles here.The sights ,sounds ,smell and atmosphere of these Islands is amazing.Well ok maybe the smell of hundreds of thousands (millions?) of seabirds collective pooh isnt amazing ,its pungent and unforgetable.We left from Seahouses on a packed Billy Shiels boat ,the majority of people on the boat were Spanish and a few other nationalities,there were many large camera lenses in evidence.It was a roasting hot day ,the sea breeze once the boat got going was lovely .It felt like being abroad as it was so hot and the only voices around us that we could hear were Spanish ,until that is the uninteligible Geodie accents shattered the illusion .The guy giving a commentry on the boat informed us that Puffins are known locally as Tommy Noddys,this apparently amused most people myself and nice wife included.By the time we had got to the first Island we had seen in the sea or sky : puffins ,sorry Tommy Noddys,guilemots ,was that a Great Northern Diver or did I imagine that? ,the gannets were real (,they dont breed oin Farne of course) Arctic Terns,Cormorants ,Shags,Razorbills,Kittiwakesand various gulls.There was a huge colony of Sandwich Terns on one of the Islands  that we didnt land on.If you have ever been to Farne before you will know all about the Arctic Terns dive bombing people  as they walk along the path where their nests are nearby,my head was pecked several times ,I can confirm that they do have sharp beaks .What an amazing bird is the Arctic Tern the most widely travelled bird in the world ,and here they were in their thousands ,in your face,up close and personal.There was a party of School kids ,they were loving being attacked by Arctic Terns ,pretending that they were scared .The Arctic Tern chicks were starting to mostly look grown up. cute?definately.The Sandwich Terns young had lovely markings , a bit like an immature gull,what a striking bird the adult is.Common Terns were far fewer in number than Arctic and Sandwich Terns ,Roseate Terns according to a warden have not been seen for a couple of years ,nor bred on Farne,however a guy on the boat saw one on the sea.Farne is the only place Ive seen Roseate Terns before.There were some day old Ringed Plover chicks ,they had to be the cutest chicks seen! In sharp contrast the offspring of the Shags resembled sheep their feathers looking like brown wool,the adult shags being a beautiful shade of deep green.The Guilemot chicks look like minature penguins (any one seen the film Happy Feet? )The air was full of repeated cries of Kittiwake !,Kittiwake! on both of the Islands that we landed on ,their chicks too are of course very cute.Not nearly as many Fulmars ,you dont want to mess with one of these mini Albatross look a likes as they will spray you with a foul smelling liquid ,which if you get on your clothes the smell wont wash out!The Tommy Noddy were magic ,I must have taken about a hundred pictures of them.A Herring Gull managed to kill a Puffin chick ,sadly this not the first time that we have witnessed this on these Islands.The Tommy Noddys looked funny poking their heads out of their burrows, some of them had beaks stuffed full of sand eels,which is cant be taken for granted nowadays as elsewhere in the British Isles Puffin colonies have suffered greatly as a result of the unavailability of their main food source the sand eel.Current thinking is the warming of the seas ,disrupting the food chain as sand eels feed cant survive as a result leaving seabirds like puffins struggling .Was surprized to learn that Starlings have bred successful on Farne very recently -a first ,hopefully a trend as these birds are in trouble too ,having suffered a 75% decline in recent timesWe some Starlings and they looked out of place here..A pied wagtail had a fully laden beak .Razorbills also in huge numbers had young too ,several members of the public comparing them to penguins  -they have a point.There were some Eiders present ,more of them could be seen at Seahouses where the boat had sailed from ,some of the Eider drakes had started moult their handsome breeding colours.On the surrounding rocks I tore myself away from puffins for long enough to notice the rock doves.On the boat back to Seahouses we slowed down to look at some seals , I found myself looking at a  Turnstone in amongst the seals. The time had flown by ,it had been a brilliant day that we both thoroughly enjoyed the weather had been perfect too,cant wait to go back again!

Another roasting hot day ,we were camping nearby ,after a long journey we went for a walk in the evening having put the tent up.The campsite was rather run down ,the toilets for example along with the showers were filthy ,the grass long ,the place was full of drunken Geodies with an apparently permanent barbeque that stunk of animal flesh,something thats pretty much abhorant to a pair of veggies.

                  The coastline here is beautiful and unspoilt ,the beach is superb and surprizingly empty of people.We watched the sun go down ,the air filled with the distinctive call of curlews.Waders like Oystercatchers pottered around ,the ducks were just silouettes as it was getting dark ,they didnt look like the unique shape of eiders.Unmistakeable was the sillouted Heron launching into flight.Tommorow would be the highlight of the trip -the Farne Isles.

It was a nice sunny day when we set off.............It was chucking it down with rain at coombes Valley ,no matter it was still warm and a walk around this picturesque RSPB reserve is always worthwhile.We had joined the RSPB at this reserve about six years ago and visit at least once a year.There are around 200 pied flycatchers fledge annually from Coombes Valley ,thanks to the nestboxs provided.its also good for a lot of other species.We didnt see much in the way of birds,due to the rain.Whitethroats seemed to be everywhere and in fine voice still .Treecreepers crept up trees , a Raven cronked loudly flying over.We took dived into  in the education centre to await the rain stopping it did -but promptly started again a few hundred yards down the path.

Craving a look at some seabirds,we headed off to one of our favourire RSPB reserves at Bempton cliffs.Pulling into the carpark ,there was bright sunshine ,however a short stroll to the cliff edge seafront later and we were in rolling mist or was it rolling fog? Suffice to say ,visibility was poor.This didnt stop us feasting our eyes and ears on the sea bird colonys.There were about a dozen puffins that we saw ,in previous years we have only seen puffins in ones and twos .Everybody loves puffins of course ,myself included ,but I did feel like saying to a few puffin obsssed members of the public there are other birds here too.Quite a few people who couldnt find the puffins had a peek through my scope.The gannets are absolutely magnificent ,a joy to behold and great to see so many of them Last month in Wales we had seen a single gannet in flight all week and it was a  wow and a  look at that beautiful bird ,its absolutely cracking.I like them then.Good numbers of the not often seen rock doves and to a philostine they look like feral pigeons ,emm its the other way around I felt like saying to one or two people there ,these were the bird watchers ,not the general public who probably didnt even notice the rock doves.Its always great seeing razorbills and guilemots on the nest ,(We hope to get to the Farne Isles soon ) The kittiwakes were making a racket calling their own name and had lots of cute fluffy chicks.Kittiwakes are handsome birds ,not sure I could say the same for fulmars though ,but what an amazing flying machine the fulmar is.Was glad to see fulmars ,thought we would have to go to nearby Filey Brig to get them ,we missed these in wales .Through the fog we clapped our eyes on aflying shag ,there werent many of these about today.The Herring Gull chick was cute too,did its parent predate any of the other chicks I wondered.The seabirds were drowning out the background skylark song ,the skylarks being difficult to see in the fog (being a lover of these birds I made sure I saw one )along the coastal path swallows flew low hawking for insects ,flying towards you and over your head at the last moment.No sign of any corn buntings.A dubious report of a crossbill seen drinking from a puddle on the (very busy ) cliff top path ,I am taking with apinch of salt.Despite the mist ,butterflys were out and about ,probably as it was sunny  a few haundred yards in land.A painted lady flutterd by ,on some vegetation were some tiny moths (that I couldnt identify)

 At Filey Brig ,the fog had closed in ,the mist making our hair and clothes wet ,we walked down the cliffs onto the beach listening to skylarks singing and checking out tiny shrimps in the rock pools.We were hoping for a look at the elusive purple sandpipers that we miss everytime we come here ,we never saw any,an enjoyable day none the less.