Spring has Sprung

The warmer weather has brought out all sorts of signs of spring at last. There are Crocus everywhere including just two in my garden. The verges along Woodhouse Moor in Leeds look beautiful with them, lots of purple, white and yellow, looks lovely every year.

Daffodils are popping up and some look like they are about to bloom any minute, though they are not my favourite flower it means we are definitely coming out of these winter months. My Bluebells are just coming up too along with many others which I have to confess until some of the flowers open i'll have no idea what they are! My garden does need a really good tidy up though.

The birds have been pulling apart the head of some Pampas grass which my little one brought home from a friend (I don't know why?!) and we left by the hedge. It seems to be some good nesting material for them. The House Sparrows spend a lot of the day in the hedge in the front garden and have made a nice little dust bath under it, which they must use as a break from nest building. The Dunnocks have increased in number and spend a lot of time flitting about the branches flapping their wings at each other.

I also spotted two Woodpigeons building a nest in a tree right in the centre of Leeds, not sure if this is a good idea as the tree doesn't seem strong enough but I guess time will tell.

This afternoon I saw my first bee, which had snuck into the house, I did set it free of course. So some very welcome signs that spring is well on it's way, looking forward to what it brings next.

Finally....

The Snowdrops are opening, it's the first day i've managed to catch them!

Filey Brigg

We took the kids off for a long walk around the Brigg today, with a hope for me of spotting some new birds. On the way from Leeds we saw an awful lot of Crows and Rooks nest building, some of the Crows were carrying bunches of twigs bigger than them! Even more amazing was the number of Wood Pigeons we saw on the way there and back, huge flocks of them in some cases over the fields, there seem to be more than I remember seeing before.

As we drove up to the top car park at the Carr Naze pond - Map here - three Oystercatchers flew right over the car. At the pond there were a few more and a small grey bird that I couldn't quite make out - unfortunately I couldn't get a good enough shot to try and id it later either.

We walked up the cliffs a little way seeing a few Skylarks (edit after reading up I think it may have actually been some kind of Pipit as they weren't really staying up in the air, they just dropped back down again?) shooting up in the air around us. I spotted some Kittwakes on the cliff edges and made sure we kept a tight hold of the little one up there, there are no fences along the edges!



We made our way down onto the beach then and walked right along to the end of the Brigg. The kids loved searching for shells in the rock pools and even found a couple of fossilised stones too.


I saw Turnstones and a new one for me - Redshanks, there were 5 down past the cliffs. I spotted birds out on the water but my ID skills aren't good enough to tell what they are, even with my binoculars (which aren't great). The choppy seas didn't help as the birds were bobbing up and down all over the place.

Fortunately I had some help from a nice gentleman who was out spotting the birds and he let me know I was looking at Eider ducks and showed me the male in all it's glorious black and white plumage through his scope. There were Scoters further out but I missed them! The Eider made up for that though, what a gorgeous bird.

In this picture if you look closely (with a magnifying glass!!) you can just see a Turnstone on the rock in the middle.

We spent quite a long time out here exploring everywhere and had a great time. Walking back we saw a Kestrel hovering for a long time over the cliffs and as we were leaving a Peregrine Falcon flew overhead (which I almost overlooked but thanks to the helpful guy from earlier I didn't!).

We were going to visit Filey Dams Nature Reserve, but one of the main roads was closed and there were no signs for it, we got lost and to save frayed tempers we gave it up as a bad job!

So instead after a tip on the Yorkshire thread on Birdform (thank you!) we drove onto Scarborough instead in hope of spotting some Mediterranean Gulls. I always imagine when you go to find a specific bird you have to have lots of patience and a little luck and you might see it. Not with these, they were exactly where they were supposed to be - just waiting right in the car park as we drove in along with some Black Headed Gulls.

I was very impressed, they were in various stages of plumage but the bright red beaks and leg were very distinctive. The boys were unimpressed and my little one had fallen asleep within two minutes of getting in the car! But my husband did show interest and took a few photos and we did feed them a little leftover lunch.

Of course we had to stop for chips before we left and that meant the usual Herring Gulls!

A great day despite the cold and everybody enjoyed it and I got three new lifers - 12 more to the 100!

Almost......

There are Snowdrops popping up all over the garden now, but not one has fully opened yet! This little one has appeared on it's own in the lawn.


Hopefully over the next few days I should have lots of lovely open flowers!

Yeadon Dam

We had a brief walk around yesterday on the way to visit my parents. It was very cold and as we were early it was pretty quiet. We felt a little bad that we hadn't brought any food for the birds as they were obviously looking at it. We got surrounded by Canada Geese and Mallards at one point all quacking furiously!


There were plenty of Black Headed Gulls on the water too.



We spotted some Tufted Ducks (or fishing ducks as my little one called them) diving under the water and watched them a while trying to spot where they would pop up next. They can certainly cover a lot of ground under the water.

Everything looked very bare but the red branches on these added colour to the landscape - I don't know what they are?


This is at the top end of the water near the airport runway.

As we walked round we saw Coots, a lone Moorhen strutting up and down, even more Gulls, a pair of Mute Swans, Crows, Magpies, and Pochards.

The Moorhen is just about visible but I was too busy trying to stop the little one from getting in mud at the same time!



Then as we were about to leave I was finally able to see a pair of birds that had been part of a group in the middle of the water (I didn't have binoculars with me), they came close enough so I could make out they were Goosander's - my best sighting of these birds. You can just about see them on these photos.



A great visit and it's always nice to visit a place that has so many memories for me.

Snowdrops

Spotted these just peaking out under the hedge in our garden last week.

Today they are almost flowering but I think the snow over the past couple of days has put them off!

Lots of gardens around here already have flowering snowdrops even in the garden next door, I wonder why mine are taking their time!

RSPB Garden Watch

I took part in the RSPB Garden Watch on Saturday, my second time taking part. Despite the neighbours cats hanging about I managed quite a few birds.

1 Blackbird
2 Blue Tits
2 Collard Doves
1 Dunnock
3 Goldfinch
1 Great Tit
9 House Sparrows
1 Long Tailed Tit
2 Magpies
1 Robin
5 Starlings
3 Woodpigeons

I discovered that the Woodpigeon now has a mate, they flew in together but were soon followed by a third who followed them about the gardens. The Long Tailed Tit didn't last long at all as the Blue Tit soon chased it off, it only appeared near the end of the hour so it was nice to get.

It was good to be able to just sit and watch for an hour with no distractions (my husband took the little one out while I did my hour). I saw more birds and their behaviour than I normally would. I also got a couple of additional birds to last year too.

Of course about 20 minutes later the garden was full - 3 Blackbirds, 8 Goldfinch, 2 Great tits, 6 Starlings, 2 Dunnocks, Collared Dove, Robin and a couple of Sparrows all at once - typical!

My results are submitted now and i'll be looking out for the results later on in the year.