Monday 31 December 2012

Friday 14 December 2012

Red Throated Diver

Red Throated Diver
08/12/2012
Scarborough Harbour Mouth

Following on from the last post a few pictures of 4 or 5 Red Throated Divers fishing around the harbour mouth.

A beautiful sleek bird, still beautiful in it's winter plumage, though unbelievably special in its summer breeding colours, if your lucky enough to see them much further north.




Ringed Diving Shag

Ringed Diving Shag
08/12/2012
Scarborough Harbour Mouth

A Beautiful Saturday morning provided a couple of lovely sightings of a fishing and diving Shag and a number of Red Throated Divers (see later blog for photographs).

Many thanks to Nick at Scarborough Birders for locating the Shag's ID from the ringing details sent to their facebook site.

The information was that the blue HUZ Shag was ringed as a chick on 07/06/11 on the Isle of May (BTO ring number 1452962).





Cold, Frosty and Beautiful

Cold, Frosty and Beautiful
13/12/2012
Brompton By Sawdon

A quick ride out at diner time on Thursday lunch time to Brompton Ponds, in the cold, sunny and frequently misty conditions, produced some lovely sights only seen a few times a year, fantastic!!!

For later reading and records, Friday the next day and the date this blog was posted was very wet, windy and grey, a truly horrible English winters day!!!











Tuesday 4 December 2012

Waxwings

Waxwings
02/12/2012
Taylors Way, Eastfield, Scarborough

Another day, same place as previous post and more Waxwings!!!!

What a beautiful bird and they show so well, except when being chased away by a local Sparrow Hawk!!!










Tuesday 27 November 2012

Waxwings

Waxwings
23/11/2012
Taylors Way, Eastfield, Scarborough
 
Many thanks to Adrian Ewart for the text saying there were Waxwings about at Eastfield, Scarborough last Friday. Luckily I had a local site meeting and was able to get to see them for about 1/2 and hour at lunch time before rushing back to work.


These bird are fantastic to watch, with the waxwing is a winter visitor to the UK and can really only be seen between October and March to feed on berries, particularly rowan and hawthorn, but also cotoneaster and rose.

It is just smaller than a starling with a prominent crest, generally a reddish-brown with a black throat and black mask round its eye, along yellow and white in the wings and a yellow-tipped tail.


 











 

Monday 19 November 2012

Wigeons

 
Eurasian Wigeons
Scalby Mills, Scarborough
18/11/2012

Visit to Scalby Mills, Scarborough on a beautiful bright sunny Sunday morning, saw a large number of Wigeon feeding at near high tide level, at least 100 number in total.

The wigeon is a medium-sized duck. Though the birds do breed in Scotland, many birds visit the UK in winter, from Iceland, Scandinavia and Russia.


 
 Male (front) and female (rear)


 
Male (rear) and female (front)