A Catch Up

It's been a while so this is a bit of a hodge podge of things from the past couple of months. Life has been busy and eventful so my mind hasn't been on blogging and i've just realised I hadn't posted since August. 

I had a trip to Blacktoft Sands at the beginning of November, it's been a while since we've been and the highlight was the long staying White-tailed Lapwing that was a lifer for me. It was a miserable day and we spent most of the time hiding from the rain in the various hides - no big hardship!

White-tailed Lapwing

Grey Heron

Dunlin

We've been to the woods often before work, the weather has been hit and miss but it's worth it to start the day off well.

Kestrel 

Woodpigeons

We had our first frost (and snow) recently and the woods looked beautiful.

A Heron landed on the house across from ours early one morning and stopped a while, it's always odd to see such a large bird on a roof.

In the garden we've had young Hedgehogs, young Coal Tits, Blue Tits, Long-tailed Tits amongst others. It does mean we've seen more of the Sparrowhawk as there have been so many birds around. Late summer early autumn meant young Chiffchaff and Willow Warblers passing through the garden almost daily, often with the Tit flocks.

Young Woodpigeon

Sparrowhawk

Chiffchaff

Long-tailed Tits

We had an exciting garden first too with a Jay making a couple of appearances, I've barely seen them at all around town the past couple of years so to get one in the garden was brilliant. 

Our first snow of winter came at the end of November and of course I can't resist taking as many photos of it as possible, it can make nearly anything look pretty and we don't get it as often these days so we need to make the most of it.

Hopefuly it won't be as long until the next post.

A Weekend of Firsts

This weekend we didn't do much but what we did was pretty fantastic! 

On Saturday evening thanks to my very kind cousin we were able to watch Badgers at play - first time ever seeing them (roadkill does not count!). It meant a wait with a slightly damp numb bum but it was definitely worth it! 

We were pretty much eye level with the sett and whilst we waited watched young Rabbits, a Swallow swooping around in front of us, Geese, Cormorants overhead, we heard Curlews and Lapwings. 

First spot was of the back of one of the badgers as it came out of one of the holes just behind a slight ridge, a second followed and they ran across, sat down, scratched and then dived on each other and tumbled about. 

It was quite a magical moment and we watched them a little while before leaving them to their fun. Talk about smiles on our faces!

On Sunday we were up early and off to Bempton holding our breath that the current star attraction was still around and thankfully it was! A Black-browed Albatross has been hanging around the cliffs since the end of June, the third year it's been seen here and this is the longest it's stayed. It's a fair way off it's usual habitat in the Southern Hemisphere. 

We headed for the spot it's been seen often - the New Roll-up viewpoint and it was far out on the sea at first. Then it started to fly around and eventually flew right over our heads! Unfortunately I forgot the golden camera rule of checking your settings and my iso was still set very high from the Badgers last night so the only shot I got was a somewhat over exposed photo of it flying away! 

No saving this shot!

We walked up to Staple Newk and watched Gannets, Fulmars, Kittiwake chicks and distant Puffins. We were lucky enough to see the Albatross flying around again back at New Roll-up too. It's quite something to see and I never thought i'd be able to say that i'd seen an Albatross!

Jackdaw

Young Kittiwake

Guillemots

Gannets with Chicks

Meadow Brown

It was quite windy and I couldn't resist the Gannets in flight!

Photobomb!

What a weekend!