A Blue Sunday

The balmy temperatures that brought about some half decent Moffing on Tuesday night have faded fast leaving a damn cold and breezy bank holiday weekend. The Herald and Purple Thorn were in the trap on Wednesday morning and a welcome addition to the dawn chorus was the Turtle Dove pictured.

Sunday morning saw Kes and me on the Long Nab headland at Scarborough along with four other members of Scarborough birders trying our best to keep warm and find hidden reserves of

enthusiasum for sea watching, as it turned out all our enthusiasum was miss placed and after a couple of hours it was off for some bush bashing, three Lesser Whitethroats a Garden Warbler and a Chiffchaff were just enough to keep me interested but alas they were all that showed.

Whilst sat in the van enjoying a much needed warm coffee the pager alerted me to a Blue Winged Teal near Northallerton, which with some creative driving I could hopefully collect on the way home. After a frustrating 20 mins when I could see the lake the bird had been reported from but not the way in, a friendly local pointed me in the right direction and there it was in its full glory a male Blue Winged Teal. A blue end to a day most brass monkies will be glad is over.