Just like Buses

A bad picture of a Redhead Smew

Well you wait all winter for a Smew and then you see two in a day, typical. Started off with a cracking male on Flask Lake Nosterfield and then called at Fairburn and guess what first bird I clapped eyes on was another, this time a Redhead but still a lovely bird. Also scored with Water Rail and Cettis Warbler here as well. Thats 131 in Yorkshire now for the year, come on Norway, in the words of one of your sports commentators "your taking a hell of a beating" !!!!!.

Saturday sunshine, Sunday misery

Well for once the weather forecasters got it right, sunshine all day Saturday gave way to a miserable wet and depressing day on Sunday. Nice log fire, rugby on the TV and a nap been the order of the day.


Taking full advantage of the weather I had a trip round over the moors and called in at Nosterfield GP and the Ings at Bishop Monkton on Saturday. The action on the moors was restricted totally to a few Red Grouse, no passerines at all.

Red Grouse

 After a break at the Cale household for a coffee and a biscuit it was onto Nosterfield GP to hopefully catch up with the Ring-necked Duck, this however did not show but on show was a fantastic selection of waterfowl including 119 Pochard and a flock of at least 2000 Lapwings which included 37 Curlew.

Pochard

Tufted Duck

The Ings were VERY wet following on from the recent floods and I put in a lot of leg work before finally finding where the Snipe had bunkered down. In the end 17 Snipe and a Jack Snipe were seen. In total five new year ticks bringing me upto 127 and just a hint of spring with the first Lesser Black-backed Gull of the year.

Weekend Update

With the Ticker enrolling the help of no other than the Trondelag Tick Master himself  (Tore Reinsborg) it his quest to take the Anglo-Norsk year list trophy back to Trondelag, I need to remain ahead of the game and pick up as many "winter" species as I can in this first winter period.

Whoopers near Yedingham

With this in mind I set off to try for the Wykeham GG Shrike and dipped again. Typically it had shown well all week and disappeared at the weekend, my only consolation was that no one saw it. I did manage three new species with Whooper Swan, Mandarin Duck and Grey Partridge taking me upto 121 for year.

With the combined force of the Trondelag Tick Twins scoring a nice "Brucie Bonus" with Ring-billed Gull the Mirfield bird having eluded me for three visits had to be seen. A very welcome text saying it was showing well on the island had Lindsay and the dog bundled in the van and a quick sprint down the M1 followed by a nervous few minutes before our goal revealed its self, result and now upto 122