Dartford Waffler

I needed to get out for some fresh air and to stretch my legs today so I took a walk to Eske, despite the strong winds. Well, it was freezing with a brisk northerly wind making it uncomfortable to hold my binoculars. As a result the only birds I saw on my walk to the […]

Another bright morning beckoned me out for a short walk on Swinemoor Common. The wind was brisk and quite cold though and made my eyes water a little - it certainly felt like winter is arriving.
Not so many birds around today with about 40-50 Lapwings and just a couple of dozen gulls: Black-headed and Common […]

A beautifully sunny morning saw me out on Swinemoor once again, although a little wind made things slightly chilly. As I walked past the hawthorn hedges a group of Redwings flew out along with 6 Fieldfares, 3 Chaffinches, 1 Blue Tit and a pair of Tree Sparrows.

Out on the floods a group of aroun 20 […]

A dim but very calm day today and the numbers of winter visitors are beginning to build up at Eske. On my walk to the lake this morning I saw just 2 Meadow Pipits and a group of about 100 Common Gulls on the way up. However, at the lake hundreds of Redwings and Fieldfares […]

Another chilly trip to Swinemoor this morning turned up some more nice birds. The, by now, customary Redwings greeted me as I walked through a copse of hawthorns, accompanied by a few a Long-tailed Tits and Chaffinches.
Out on the floods the numbers of gulls are still building up with around 150 Black-headed Gulls and 20 […]

A very sunny day was made surprisingly cold by a brisk north westerly wind, but I managed to find some sheltered, warm spots at the lake at Eske this morning. Although bird activity was not at its most spectacular today I noticed that there were still quite a few flowers around. I decided to see […]

I took another short walk around Swinemoor again this morning to see if any interesting waders were still to be found.
The first birds I came across was a party of 5 Redwings which flew away from their feeding spot on the hawthorn bushes. On the floods the numbers of Black-headed Gulls had increased to 45 […]

On Saturday morning my wife and I went to Hornsea Mere to feed the ducks - I’m afraid that statement alone says a lot about our so-called “research”. The ducks, geese and swans at Hornsea must be some of the best fed birds in the country, but whenever we turn up with some bread they […]

With the excitement of the good birds at Swinemoor yesterday, I took a quick look again this morning. Despite there being plenty of flooded patches for feeding waders the numbers of birds had decreased from yesterday.

Numbers of Lapwing were down to about 60-70 along with about 20 Black-headed Gulls and at first I didn’t find any […]

Well, this wasn’t so much a festival as a “small gig at an intimate venue”, but for this location the number and variety of waders present today was quite impressive. A misty start to the morning turned into a pleasant, sunny day and having seen a good number of birds on monday at Swinemoor I […]