Bempton for a day

Five days away on the east coast saw me managing a couple of visits to Bempton cliffs and trying my hand at a few in flight shots of the Gannets,first visit the weather was overcast with some rain at times but on the plus side there was a nice stiff breeze which helped although very cold.I noticed early on in the day that the Gannets very rarely flew higher than the cliff top, on talking with others we came to the conclusion that it was due to them nest building collecting grass etc from the top part of the cliff face however here's a few pics mainly from my second visit when the weather was better(still need more practice).

The fulmar was a bit close and I nearly missed it

                                          
                                                               Thanks for looking.

Sizergh's Hawfinches

Tuesday morning was cold, windy,and raining nothing new about that other than it was my first visit to Sizergh Castle in the hope of seeing the legendary Hawfinches I wasn't disappointed .Research had pointed me to the right area of the car park and various piles of left over seed indicated I might be in the right spot,sure enough after placing a little more seed on a mound of grass and retreating a safe distance it wasn't long before I had a single Hawfinch down feeding before flying up into the Hornbeam' s .They don't spend long on the ground but I did managed four down at one time which according to the Ranger was a first for this season,the Ranger cones of part of the car park twice a week for so as not to disturb them on his Hawfinch watch.

Thanks to the Ranger for allowing me a little closer than I otherwise would have been ,a very enjoyable ninety mins shame about the weather.

Kestrel again !

Following on from my last post and the rewarding photo opportunity I had of the Kestrel with the Vole in its beak, I was surprised again today with what I believe to be the same bird in the same spot as the day before no Vole this time but allowing me another couple of shots.Its obviously good hunting ground around the feeding station,here's a couple of pics.

Capture in the morning sun

A frosty walk down to the pond this morning but at least I had a little sun on my back,the feeding station was quite busy but most pleasing of all was the increase in Tree sparrow numbers counting up to twelve on my walk down to the public hide.Curlew were next to catch my eye up to twenty off to my right in the flooded field and twelve to my left in the sheep field ,nothing of any note from the hide other than a pair of Canada Geese eying up the island as a poss nesting site.
At the members hide there was one lone Cormorant drying of on the wooden stakes and just as I was closing the shutters two Shellduck landed further down the pond to my right,the highlight of the morning came just as I approached the metal gate to leave the reserve this Kestrel flew onto the old post with his/her breakfast (I only managed one shot).

Dinner for two !!

Just finished my dinner as I looked out of the dining room window to see this fella looking for his,he is quite a patient chap always allowing me time to get the camera from the bag ,open the back door and fire off a few frames.He was unlucky today as the Goldfinch gave him the slip.

His new strategy now is to walk along the fence looking into the beech hedge to see who if any are hiding before going in after them.

New Year Suprise

With skeins of Geese overhead and appearing to be heading for Holywell Pond and a text from Holywell Birder reporting a female Scaup on the pond the previous day I headed towards the patch in glorious sunshine,a quick stop at the corner feeding station produced the usual suspects also good numbers of Tree Sparrows. (what no Rats!! )
Trying to count Geese numbers in the sheep field as I walked the path to the public hide I caught sight of birds flying down to the field edge to drink from the numerous puddles as I got closer it was a group of five Waxwings,here is a couple of efforts whilst trying to handhold a 500mm.

As I said only five but a nice first for me on patch,the Geese were quite active so ended up being a rough count of 267 mixed Pinkfoot and Greylag.Heading back to the members hide the Waxwings had been disturbed by dog walkers so no chance of more pics,the door into the members hide is in an awful state and to be honest it wasn't worth the effort of getting in just to view two Coots and a female Mallard and no sign of the Scaup.