After work I decided to visit Bank Island to check out the Grey Plover that was found yesterday (see post below). After a few minutes of scanning the vast area of mud the bird walked out into view, allowing me to get an excellent photo, before walking out of view and disappearing for a bit... Countryfile calendar here I come...
Grey Plover - York Area Year Tick 172...
As I said yesterday I had my first York Area Grey Plover last year, and this was my first one this year. Hopefully Tim caught up with it too? There was loads of hirundines flying about, including quite a few Sand Martin.
On the way back home I decided to check out a field gull of gulls c350+, mainly Lesser Black-backed Gull. Highlight however was at least 2 Yellow-legged Gulls. There is likely to be many more of these in with the vast (and rapidly increasing) number of gulls in the area. Last year I got up to about 15 Yellow-legged Gulls in the field near the house so I'll be trying to keep an eye on them this year! Didn't quite go as planned here as someone reported me to the farmer who came over and flushed all the gulls! As it turned out I wasn't walking round his field with a gun!!!
I then went across to the North Duffield Carrs to check out the Marsh Harrier roost. Unfortunately it was quite slow tonight for the majority of the evening, though did pick up nicely at the end with about 12 birds recorded coming in eventually. In addition to the harriers, some of which showed really well, other highlights were provided by two Hobbies. The first bird shot west through the centre of the site and the second came flying down the river, before heading back east. As further up the valley there was loads of hirundines flying around tonight, no doubt attracting the Hobbies. Barn Owl showed well in front of the hide just before I threw in the towel.
A rarity tomorrow, I'm actually getting out to do a survey! Time to bring out the thermals...
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