Titivation

At Potteric today there was that most rare of species - the sun!! Spent ages looking for the Lesser Pecker but had to settle for Siskin and Water Rail.

The Great and Blue Tits were disporting themselves in the car park and begged to have their portrait taken.

Bittern a Tench

Another trip to Potteric resulted in 3 Bitterns showing from the same hide!.



One obligingly posed and then went off hunting. It caught a small perch and then a much bigger Tench. It had trouble swallowing the fish and repeatedly shook its head and neck from side to side while trying to swallow it.

They are such enigmatic birds and draw a great number of admirers. I have been told they breed in Holland and come here to overwinter. The Wildlife Trust (Yorkshire) is trying everything to make them stay to breed.

On the Rails

I love Potteric Carr - no dogs!! As a wildlife photographer, they are an annoyance. Owners let their dogs 'run free' and off they go chasing birds and weeing up against my bag hide with me sat in it!!! Urgh!

The feeding station at Potteric is a worthwhile place to spend a few minutes. You never know what will appear. This peanut-eating water rail kept coming back for more but was put off a bit by some of the other residents.

Fickle Flamborough

Was going to Flamborough to see the Brown Flycatcher MEGA bird but typically when I got there, it had flown!!
Had a few consolation prizes of an Isabelline(Turkestan) shrike which I could not get near enough to photograph without disturbing it, a Yellow-browed Warbler deep in bushes and an obliging Red-Backed Shrike which happily caught wasps and posed for the many admirers fron atop a distant perch. A late Barred Warbler was looked for in vain. Not many photographs but a good day. If only my wife's car hadn't broken down the day before, the Brown Flycatcher would have been mine!!!

Dipper Delight

Went up the Calder Valley today in search of Dippers. They took a couple of hours to find but after much walking found a couple feeding on Caddis Fly. They caught the caddis and then thumped the case on a stone or piece of wood to dislodge the grub from the case. They seemed to be getting a lot of food. Stunning birds.

One Good Tern deserves a Slavonian Grebe

Anglers Country Park near Wakefield has a superb juvenile Arctic Tern flying around today. Spent an hour getting a good flight shot of it as it flew over the shallows.

There were two Slavonian grebe also on the lake but the dog-walkers dogs made its life a misery as it tried to find food in the shallows. Lots of Blue-green algae in the water. Wonder if it affects dogs? I managed to get a photo of one the grebes by sitting quietly under a bag-hide by the side of the lake and waiting for the grebe to come to me. Good job I'd taken a flask of coffee with me.

Strange looking Canada Goose with the semi-resident flock. A rather leucistic individual.