Thankyou

Its pouring down and theres no chance of any Swallows or Martins at Wetherhills pond tonight, I must thank Dave Watkins for the super picture of the pond he sent through tonight, it now my banner picture.

Lapwings over the pond

Salthome Double Whammy

A page mid morning alerted me to a Juvenile Whiskered Tern at Salthome on TeesSide so after work a quick trip home for the camera and bins and off northwards. About 10 mins out the pager went again and a bonus bird had shown up in the guise of a White-rumped Sandpiper which rather conveniently was stood right next to the Whiskered Tern when I arrived, two year ticks in the same scope view, what an evening.

As Kes had tollerated sitting in the car for quite some time we went onto the North Gare where one of us chased a stick and had a swim, whilst the other did some tern watching, which paid off as mixed in with several Common, Sandwich and a few Arctic was a nice adult Roseate. Unfortunately the Terns and the Sandpiper were too far off to get a picture but happily a fine Merlin sat on the fence near the car when we returned to it was more obliging.

Thats me upto 234 for the year now, waiting for an update from ticker.

Better late than never

In early july I was lucky enough to be invited to join a trip round the Western Isles surveying and ringing White-tailed Eagles, what a fantastic experience, I can report without giving too much away that the birds are doing quite well and there are a good number of birds breeding this year.

Mother

The Kids

I took along my moth trap and ran it from the cottage where we were staying, several "Northern Specialities" were, the most impressive in my book was the Saxon which was a new species for me.

The Hedge

Hi, upto a couple of weeks ago I was getting some friendly joshing from my neighbours as to when I was going to cut my rather unkempt privet hedge at the front of my house. My answer to them was that I was waiting for it to put on a show. Well its now in full bloom and is litteraly buzzing, its covered in a wonderfull array of insects from the huge bumble bees to the tinyist beetles and butterflies. Those same neighbours are now commenting how wonderfull it looks, sounds and smells, I personally think its a valuable lesson for us today in this world of obsessive tidyness.

Anglo Norsk scores update

Ticker has been busy over the early summer, but so have I. Ticker is now on 179 but I have managed to push on to 231.

Update

If there is anyone who actually reads this I am sorry for the lack of news. Its down to my incompetence/bad memory and been away with work far too much.

There is a lot of Moffing and Birding to catch up on but I will start with last night at Burniston where a small group of Scarborough locals and myself tried our luck with Stormies and really hit the mother load when at 12:30 not only did we catch two Stormies but also a Leach's Petrel. A fantastic bird and much appreciated by those present. The moth trap run at Dr Glaves house in Sawdon was very much a let down after that with very few moths caught, probably the best of which were a Dotted Clay and a Northern Spinach.

Shimmering Plover and Skulking Loco

An early finish for the bank holiday weekend gave time for a trip out to try for the White-tailed Plover at Seaforth and despite restricted viewing and a terrible heat haze the bird duely obliged, the lucky few with access to the reserve hide must have got some crippling views as from time to time it wandered to within 20ft of it. Thankfully Ticker got a shot of one in Oman, shown here.

The Savis Warbler at Old Moor near Barnsley was a different challenge, frustratingly singing its head off about 30ft right in front of us it allowed just fleeting glimpses and then not of all the bird, after about an hour and a half and in rapidly failing light I decided to head for the chip shop and home, thanks to the RSPB for arranging special out of hours access to the site. I think this will need the BVD (better view desired) suffix on my list.