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I saw a Cormorant on the marker, looked away for a few seconds and it had been replaced by a Gull!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

A day at the coast

Despite it being Easter weekend and a record hot one at that we went over to Scarborough on Saturday (my daughter's choice again). We are a bit restricted for family days out with my husband working a lot of weekends at the moment. So we were up and off early in order to try and avoid some of the crowds.

We spent a little time in Peasholm park,which is a well known spot for hand feeding squirrels, though someone forgot to tell them it was breakfast time today, mostly it was Pigeons and Gulls looking for food! The lake does have a fair few birds - Mallards, Coot, Moorhen, Tufted Ducks, Swans, Canada & Hybrid Geese and of course lots of Herring Gulls. A few Crows were holding their own and we saw a couple squabbling with the Gulls and coming out on top!

Tufted Duck

Canada Goose

Feral Pigeon

Wren 

Herring Gull

There is an island in the middle of the lake which used to be open to the public many years ago, I remember going across to it as a child (about 35 years ago!) and it having lots of rabbits, which we had to be careful not to let across the bridge. It is now open to the public again and it was odd to be crossing that bridge after so long. It's well kept and lots of flowers were blooming including Primula and Bluebells. At the top is a Japanese garden complete with pond full of fish. We saw Long-tailed Tits flitting around the trees and could hear a Chiffchaff. Across from the island on one of the mini islands used in the boat battles here a Grey Wagtail was wandering around.

Primula

A waterfall runs from the top of the island into the lake

Bluebells

Onto the front and the sun is already shining, we may have had a bacon sandwich to set us up for the long walk around Marine Drive............

I spotted this bird on one of the slipways on the walk around and the one in the second two photos on the way back later in the day - Rock Pipit I believe, i'm not sure if it's the same bird though.

Of course everywhere we went there were Gulls, the staple of the British seaside! We also found a couple of Turnstones on one of the piers. 

Herring Gull

3 CY Herring Gull (I think, probably wrong but I gave it a go!) with a Turnstone

Herring Gull on a fork lift truck

Turnstone

This Lesser Black-backed Gull was flying around the open air theatre

On the cliffs along Marine Drive lots of Kittiwakes are nesting, watched over by Peregrine, we spotted one sat in a crevice, too far off for a decent photo though. We saw the birds spooked a few times and they go crazy, calling and swooping about before settling again. 

The crowds were overpowering by early afternoon so we made the walk back along Marine Drive to the car and home.