All my current Autumn clients have now been asked if they'd like to return for the Winter sessions, so bookings are now being opened up to everyone else. There are most vacancies on Friday mornings, but there are also plenty of spaces on Tuesday mornings with 2 vacancies on all other sessions, as of today (16/12/23). Please note there are no Tuesday afternoon or Friday afternoon sessions. If you are interested in another session please ask. The classes resume on Tuesday 9th January 2024.
Saturday 16 December 2023
New Year Term
Friday 1 December 2023
Final Week for Some
I was unable to get out at the weekend, but a former attendee came to the rescue. She was lucky enough to find a score of Waxwings just outside her home.
All Waxwing Photos (c) 2023 Jane Robinson
Then, on Monday she travelled to Scarborough for the Great Northern Diver in partial breeding plumage. The light on the day caught the red eyes, which isn’t always visible, especially in poor light.
On Tuesday virtually no wind was forecast, so we were able to go to Barmston as planned. This time the tide was well on the way out, and we weren’t able to spot any interesting birds on the sea. There were distant Sanderlings running on the edge of the seashore like little clockwork toys. We walked a fair distance when Sue spotted a pair of Stonechats along the cliff edge. We did eventually see a couple of Turnstones, but they flew over us and headed away across the beach before flying along the sea. There were a few Oystercatchers, and only one flock of Teal passed over the sea. Only a couple of Cormorants were spotted. It was a lot quieter than our last visit. On the return journey Alison’s telescope showed that the flock of hunkered down birds were mainly Golden Plovers with a few Lapwings. Then Chris swung the telescope to examine some sods of earth near one of the WW2 lumps of concrete. Rather than large lumps of earth, they proved to be Grey Partridges - the first we had encountered during the classes all year!
Wednesday and Thursday were too cold for Barmston, so we switched to N. Cave Wetlands. The shallowest area of water had frozen up, but some of the deeper pools were still clear. We saw plenty of Wigeon with only small numbers of Tufted Duck, Shoveler and Gadwall. The Silt Pond held well-lit Lapwings, Redshanks, Teal and GBB Gulls. Symon found a Stoat in the farmyard, and we had another towards the end of our walk.
We heard a few Siskins at various moments of the walk, but the best were near South Hide in the morning, but around west walk after lunch
Mute Swan & Teal (c) 2023 Peter Moizer
Common Gull (c) 2023 Peter Moizer
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