Dartford Waffler

For some time I have been amused by the RSPB’s singing bird cuddly toys, although the only one I have is the Lapwing. For those that haven’t seen them, there is an ever increasing range of species available, with many colourful and charismatic ones already created. When the toys are squeezed they utter a very […]

Yesterday I didn’t anticipate going out, but as the weather was sunny with no wind at all it was a case of go out whilst the weather lasts. I couldn’t be bothered to go far, so I took another walk to Eske.
Along the river very little was to be seen; a single Cormorant, an overhead […]

Today the sun came out. Not only did it come out, but the wind stopped and it became hot - I could almost believe that it was actually summer.
 Walking north along the River Hull the warmth from the sun was very pleasant and groups of House Martins and Swallows were feasting upon the insects that […]

With Sooty Shearwaters being seen all along the east coast of the UK in the last few days I decided to give Flamborough another try, despite the strong winds. The winds at Flamborough were very strong and it was difficult to stand up properly, but not that many seabirds were close to shore, even though […]

I woke up feeling like my legs needed stretching this morning and with strong winds I decided to head to the Drewton Estate near North Cave where plenty of woodland in a valley provides shelter.
This proved to be a good choice. The first birds of interest were huge numbers of House Martins and Swallows hawking […]

With a pronounced northerly wind it seemed that seawatching at Flamborough could be good, particularly with seabirds migrating at this time of year. On arrival at Flamborough the sea looked like it should be bringing in seabirds but once on the cliffs it was strange how quiet things were. Quiet in terms of seabirds that […]

When I looked out of the window this morning the sunshine and blue(ish) skies tempted me out for a walk. Sunshine has been a rather scarce commodity this summer so I thought, “let’s get out before it starts raining again”. Unfortunately things weren’t quite as good as they seemed. On arriving at Tickton and walking […]

It is hard to remember such a poor summer as this year’s has been, although I am told 1984 was pretty rough. With yet more wet and chilly weather forecast this wasn’t a natural choice of day to go out birdwatching, but I had electricians round my flat doing some work, so I decided to […]

I hadn’t been to Welton Waters for quite some time; it can be quite a good place for birds so I decided a visit could turn up something interesting. The weather turned out to be quite hot and there was not a breath of wind, possibly the warmest day this year.
The birds were a bit […]

I don’t often go to North Cave Wetlands as I usually find it too much of a “Coot Museum”, that is there is very little to see other than Coots, Greylag Geese and Mallards - this is a bit unfair really considering the list of birds that have been found there, but reflects my experience of […]