Partridge Families

Yesterday I spent the first hour down at Skeffling again...but no Harriers...or anything else of note for that matter...until......

Black Brant

Really chuffed to pick it out among the various groups of Brents. Although it IS rather distinctive!

On the way home I drove down Snakey, as I often do. 27th of January and no Partridges on the Year List. A flurry of birds in the stubble...

Sneaked a slightly closer one...

Grey Partridge (P.59, H.44)

Like Buses...

Red-legged Partridge (P.60, H.45)

Plenty of Yellowhammers (H.46) and Chaffinches (H.47) about and the Winter Thrush flock is still in residence. Belated additions! A late afternoon stroll revealed c20 Red-throated Divers offshore and a distant Stonechat (H.48) was still lingering by the Runnel...

Today started with a stiff walk up to Mill Hill from Cliff Farm via Old Hive. Nothing much was seen on the outward stroll. On returning to Old Hive a Stonechat suddenly appeared and started feeding on the grass...

Another flock of Winter Thrushes landed in the Copse...

A small skein of Pink-footed Geese headed North/Home?

22

As I was down the South end I decided to try for the Snow Buntings at the Gas Terminal. I tried North of the field to start with but no joy. I then tried further South and walked the coastal path as I could look down onto the beach...

I declined the Fisherman's cut out "kamikaze" path and viewed from above. Despite their superb camouflage I managed to locate them...

14 of 16 present

They were around 50 yds away for around 5 minutes before flying off South...

Skeffling

 More grey blanket this morning I'm afraid. Still it wasn't raining...at least to start with! I weaved my way down the dodgy road to the car park. As I passed the Church I noticed a large herd of Swans along a track West of the road...

Taken later from the car park

The birds were happily munching away on the brassicas present. Using the car as a hide, I was able to get some decent shots...

Then a Raptor...and not just any old Raptor...a Hen Harrier...

A couple of atmosphere aka poor pics! The bird never came close and the light was grim...in my defence!? I parked up on the floodbank and watched for a good hour. I had further views of the HH plus Marsh Harrier, Merlin and Peregrine. Plenty of Plovers around also with a mixed flock that easily passed 500...

Out on the water were impressive numbers of Shelduck...

...and a few Pintail...

Quality sighting of the morning though was undoubtedly the magnificent Whooper Swans (47)...

On the way home I spotted a small group of Geese at the beginning of Rysome Rd. The group included a Canada Goose (P.60, H.41) a couple of Heinz 57's....and Greylag (H.42) of course! I'll take it as a Year Tick...

I'll also take a dashing Merlin (P.61, H.43) on Snakey on the detour to Tesco late afternoon!

Raptors

A few things to do in Hull today, so I continued on to Duff for a 3 hour "sesh". Cloud cover was dense making for a dull outlook but always a pleasure. We had our traditional stroll out to the platform...

Always protective...

The open water was still 2/3rd's frozen which limited the birds present. Still there was still plenty to enjoy...especially Raptors. The first of which was a cc Marsh Harrier feeding on an expired Goose...

Then a familiar shape out on the ice...

Peregrine

Another?

Oh yes!

Can't remember seeing two birds so close here before?

They gave a few dramatic flybys scattering all and sundry. Three Marsh Harriers were present, plus 4 Buzzards...

...3 Kestrels and a Sparrowhawk. Around 50 Whooper Swans adorned the Reserve at various times with many commuting to and from the Farm opposite...

Sneaked my first Gadwall of the Year at extreme distance...

...and then saw 6 more almost immediately! The rain set in around two and I headed for home...

Year List 57

Pat' Haven

Fancied a good walk this afternoon..with no mud or pot-holed tracks! So, I headed down to Patrington Haven, parked up and walked out to the Pumping Station...

Memories of IVORY GULL

On the way down I checked out the new scrapes that have been created...

All still frozen today but much potential for the future. When I reached the Humber I was pleased to see a bench had been placed there, so I had a pleasant hour just watching the World go by. The sun was out and there was little wind. It was also "slightly" warmer. Good for contemplation! I'm not sure my companion agreed...

I had a decent, if fairly distant view across onto Welwick Marsh. I "had" a Barn Owl and a male Marsh Harrier but no sign of any Hen Harriers or SEO's.

Winter Wonderland

Few things on tomorrow and the Weekend, so as it was another spectacularly cold, clear and crisp Winter's day, I headed for Duff. A nice walk out onto the viewing platform for starters...

Then onto the fridge aka Geoff Smith Hide...

I'm biased but there aren't many better natural views from a Hide than this, in my book...

The water was 90% frozen but there were birds about, including a fine party of 13 Whooper Swans (5 juveniles) which were present throughout and added to the setting significantly. A Stonechat bobbed about in the reeds. Then a Greenfinch appeared and landed in a bush on the scrape...

An unusual occurrence

...other additions here were Pied Wagtail, Meadow Pipit and Cormorant.

Plenty of birds understandably feeding on or around the River creating quite a spectacle when they had a stretch...

The stars of today's show though were the Swans. I made my way down to Garganey Hide (which was even colder!) hoping to get closer to them...and eventually they arrived...

There were still a few Thrushes around but much reduced from previous visits, no doubt due to the frozen ground. "One of each" landed briefly by Garganey...managed one...

I returned to GS Hide for my last hour and I was rewarded with an unusually close fly-by Marsh Harrier...

I did have a brief visit on Monday afternoon as Louise had to go to York. As dusk approached and I was waiting for the show, a Birder at the other end of the Hide casually mentioned there was a Kingfisher fishing from a post right in front of the Hide...

Water colour!

My closest ever view here.

I did catch the beginning of the show before I had to pick Louise up...

Year List 55