The Coast

As you might be aware we are now on a lock down in the UK for at least three weeks, I am working from home so it's garden birding for me for the foreseeable future. This post is from a day out we took a while back before everything changed.

We took a day out to the coast to try out our new car (not new new but hopefully one that doesn't eat money in repairs!) and give it a good run. The East coast is one of our favourite places - Filey, Bridlington, Scarborough.......

An early stop at the Holbeck car park in Scarborough on the off chance of a Mediterranean Gull, we didn't see any but the sun was shining and we had a walk down to the sea anyway.

It's a long way down

And a longer way back up....phew!!

On to Brid, the weather by now was a little mixed, cloud, sun, wind and it was pretty quiet everywhere. The tide was coming in and Turnstones were up on the walls around the harbour and I managed to spot two Purple Sandpipers on the beach.

Purple Sandpipers

Taking a bath with some Turnstones!

Turnstones

I saw a Cormorant on the marker, looked away for a few seconds and it had been replaced by a Gull!

There were Gulls everywhere of course, i'm still working through IDing them!

Herring Gulls

Black-headed Gull

Lots of Redshank were in the harbour

We found quite a few shells along the tideline and a few dead fish, some kind of Flounder perhaps?

A plant root I think?

Then my husband found this fossil - we've never found one before so it created a bit of excitement!

In the walls along the jetty's lots of snails were hiding.

This was the scene on the way home

I think nearly everyone who checks in on the blog is probably affected by Covid-19, I hope you're all staying safe and continue to do so. 

Old Moor

We spent a couple of hours at Old Moor last Saturday morning. There was a colder vibe in the air, it was definitely Autumnal and we saw fungus and plenty of berries around the reserve.

The Sunflower field was still full of flowers

We went first to the Reedbed Hide where we watched a Little Grebe successfully fishing right in front of the hide. There were Great Crested Grebes, Swans, Gadwall, Coot ,Heron, Moorhen, there had been a Spotted Crake seen from here over the past couple of days but we didn't see any sign.

By the Bittern hide we saw lots of these blue Beetles devouring the plants

*Edit* Alder Leaf Beetles - thank you! 

A Kingfisher flew across the path in front of us at one point but we couldn't see where it had gone. We saw a rabbit on the bank of the Mere and watched Canada Geese and a lone Common Gull. There were lots of Lapwings, which often flew up in a panic as they seem to do. We managed to pick out a couple of Golden Plovers in with them at one point though there was a large flock of Plovers there we only saw them flying off in the distance.

Lapwings & a Golden Plover

Through the viewing screen onto the apple trees we saw a Robin and a female Blackcap. From the hides we saw Spotted Redshank, a Dunlin, Greenshank, Teal, Chiffchaff, Shelduck and Pied Wagtail. Possibly 3 Black-tailed Godwits too but they were a bit distant for me to be sure.

We took a look at the Tree Sparrow Farm, where we accidentally spooked a Pheasant, a Squirrel was trying to bypass the Squirrel proof feeders and the odd Great Tit and Goldfinch were in the trees.

A good morning and three new birds for the year too.