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: