Tigers and Great Whites in the LDV?

This last week there's been a bit of movement through the local area, almost making me want to get out birding. Almost.

Jack and Ollie found two Bean Geese at Bubwith on Sunday, Ollie forced me into his car at gunpoint so I was forced to look at them. They were very distant and then flew out of view onto some arable fields. Pretty certain they were Taiga's based on several of the features we could see, however better/closer views would have been preferable. (Ollie and Chris had found Tundra Bean Geese at Castle Howard the day before and these looked very different but we were all wary of how messy the whole 'Bean Goose' issue is). There has certainly been quite a bit of Pink-footed Geese/Whooper Swan movement over the last week or so so there may well be other 'interesting' geese/swans dropping in.

Mid-week and I got an email from a local birder alerting me that he'd just seen a Great White Egret along the Pocklington Canal after a tip-off from another local who had seen the bird the day before. Presumably the bird that was knocking about the local area for some months last year. One to try and catch up with again.

York is on FIRE!

What a period the York Area is having... Todays highlights:

Richards Pipit - 1 flew south over Milford Common - there have been two previous records in the York area though I'm not sure if both have been accepted by YNU. If so, and this one gets accepted it will be the third record for the recording area. Both previous records were from my patch (not by me) in 1990 and 1999. I best get out looking!

Yellow-browed Warbler - 1 still present today at Bank Island - see my previous post below regarding this.

Great White Egret - 1 back at Wheldrake Ings this morning, this is also a pretty rare species in the York area, I'm not entirely sure of the numbers accepted to date, but not many.

What did I have today: 1 Brambling (my first of the autumn locally), 2 Kingfisher, 4 Water Rail, Marsh Harrier and a few other bits too... good birding today! See what tomorrow brings...

Autumn is here!

Grey Plover flew south over the village this morning in the mist, the sign of birds on the move.

A trip to Heslington East this afternoon produced Greenshank, 1 Whimbrel (heading NW), 5 Common Sandpiper, 3 Oystercatcher and 4 Lapwing. There was at least 14 Little Grebe present, 4 of these were fresh hatchlings - a great sight! Still a few young Moorhen chicks about too. Interestingly there was a flock of 32 Teal (site record count?) and 2 Shoveler. There may have been a Garganey, but as I've said before I don't do brown ducks.

Three Wheatear were the first returning birds of the autumn in the local area (to my knowledge). There was quite a few Swallow, House Martin and Sand Martin flying about, a lot less Wagtails and Linnet, however I think they were probably just somewhere else on the site.

Late news was that there was an Osprey at Castle Howard yesterday afternoon for an hour or so. I was heading past there this afternoon in the hope of Black Tern or something, but there was none, and the visibility was rubbish in the pouring rain.

It appears as though the Great White Egret has departed Wheldrake Ings now, one was seen flying south through Southfield Reservoir yesterday, likely the same bird...

Looking forward to seeing if tomorrow brings something new like Sanderling, Stint sp., Curlew Sandpiper, Black Tern... or better please... Wryneck or Booted Warbler in the local area would go down a treat!

A late Cuckoo

Had an hour on Skipwith Common this evening, there was a more autumnal feel with a large flock of Greylag and the air full of the sound of Teal.

A few Green Woodpeckers were calling and a Jay flew through. Tonnes of Swallow and House Martin were flying about. However, the highlight was this juvenile Cuckoo that showed nicely, if straight into the sun by the time I thought about getting a record shot on my phone.

Cuckoo - phone-scoped straight into the sun!

There has been a large gathering of House Martin over the garden/village over the last couple of days as adults and fledglings all swarm about getting ready to depart. "My" two pairs are both on their second broods - as are several other pairs in the street but there are at least 120 flying about (and also 50+ Swallow - probably attracted to the maize fields around the village to roost in). This number of birds has attracted the attention of the local Sparrowhawk, and more spectacularly the attention of the local Hobby! Great fun to watch, I just hope "my" families survive! Also had 1 Swift over the garden this afternoon.

The Great White Egret is still showing at Wheldrake Ings - best early in the morning.

Great White Egret and a Big Bird Fair...

The Great White Egret is still present at Wheldrake Ings - however thus far it has only ever been seen early morning, up till about 0800/0830 before it flies off elsewhere to feed for the day.

I popped across to Heslington East to see if yesterdays showers had dropped anything in. It was fairly quiet really, though the Greenshank and a moulting Common Redshank were still busy feeding together (as they were when I dropped in to the site on Friday afternoon). There was also the Little Egret busily feeding and 2 Common Sandpiper flying about. I counted 350 Greylag Geese, but there was more but I flushed them before I got through them all, decent flocks of finches and wagtails but nothing exciting in with them.

On the way to York I noticed a field of gulls, 89 Lesser Black-backed Gulls (pretty much all adults) and 2 adult Yellow-legged Gulls.

Saturday I went to the Rutland Bird Fair with my dad. Was a great day. I didn't go last year but it seemed a lot bigger than 2011? Saw tonnes of people I know through work, world birding, Uni, twitter, my blog, local birding etc. Was great to chat to so many people. Was good to check out some of the tour destinations I have my eye on for the next couple of years (though was disappointed to not find anything for Thailand, other than that in general tour company info) such as mainly Australia, Borneo, South Africa, India etc...

Had a really good chat with Mike Edgecombe (who I met in Malaysia) and Chris Gooddie both on the Oriental Bird Club stand who gave me some more good advice on Thailand. Chris also signed me a copy of his book The Jewel Hunter - his quest for seeing all the Pittas in the world! I'm looking forward to reading it, and also emulating his achievement (in my lifetime - not a year unfortunately!!), only 27 to go!!

I also got to meet Bruce Pearson, who very kindly signed me a very limited copy of his Troubled Waters book - some fantastic artwork.

More (proper) Great White Egret Pictures

I was very kindly sent these pictures of the Great White Egret (at Wheldrake Ings from Pool hide) by York Birder Robert Dawson (thank you) who was the only person down in the hide with me when the bird was showing this morning and as it flew off came within range of his camera! The photos below are reproduced with Roberts permission:

Great White Egret

Finally caught up with the Wheldrake Ings Great White Egret this morning. Was sat out in the open for a while before flying off.

There was no sign of it when I was there last night between 1800-2000 but there was 1 Little Egret, 8 Green Sandpiper, 1 Greenshank, 2 Ruff, 6 Snipe, 1 Water Rail, 1 Common Tern and about 8 Grey Heron.

This morning 0820-0830 there was 1 Great White Egret, 1 Little Egret, 6 Grey Heron, 2 Green Sandpiper, 2 Ruff and 3 Snipe. I didn't hang around so highly likely there was other waders about but I got what I wanted and then had to get to work!

A few record shots off my phone below as too far away for camera: