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Looking NW from the back of Garrowby Hill, 08/11/2021
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After nearly 10 years since I lost a smartphone whilst doing some voluntary work at Wheldrake Ings I've finally been persuaded to buy another😁📱 - a Samsung S10e. It's not about to change my life and I'm not gonna wax lyrical about it, but as these things go it's great. I'm re-discovering the joy of apps at the age of 62 and have found that I haven't taken a landscape picture with my SLR camera for a whole month such is the picture quality on this thing!
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| Looking NW from the back of Garrowby Hill, 08/11/2021 |
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Brambling, Garrowby Hill, 08/11/2021
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Those two were the first pics I took with it whilst I was walking down the back of Garrowby Hill - the village you can see in the mid distance is Kirby Underdale. It was a little patch of the Wolds I hadn't been to before - not many birds but a lovely walk. I flushed a
Woodcock from the public footpath at the top of the hill, counted 9
Buzzards in the sky and had 2
Bramblings 'toing and froing' from some dead sunflower heads.
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| Brambling, Garrowby Hill, 08/11/2021 |
A few days before, at the beginning of the November, I was out at the coast hoping for some late passage migrants and struck gold with a
Short Eared Owl, 3 Snow Buntings and a
Woodcock at Barmston, and a further 2
Woodcock (1 in off the sea at South Landing, and another flying over a road in Bridlington), and then the next day I saw the
Taiga Flycatcher &
Red-flanked Bluetail at South Landing ( see post here)
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| Pink Footed Geese, Barmston, 04/11/2021 |
The Short Eared Owl was from the sandy cliff tops just north of the caravan park - it flew along the beach for a bit and then dived back into the cliff spooking 3 Snow Buntings in the process - that's one way of getting another bird for the year list! A Woodcock flushed from the same cliff tops and a big skein of Pink Footed Geese flying in off the sea added to the sense of incoming birds.
If I hadn't been so stressed after a confrontation with a couple of hare coursers that had me both fuming and fearful, I would have tried for some pics of the Owl & Snow Buntings but I was in a rush, I'd taken some pictures of the enraged dumbwits and they knew where my car was!
I made it safely out of Barmston that day but 2 transit vans heading into the village as I was exiting had me thinking I'd got away with it!
Thankfully the rest of my trips out in November were drama free. I visited a couple more places I hadn't been to before. Mid month I did a circuit around the ancient field systems around Spaldington Common nr Howden and was pleasantly surprised with the amount of birds that were around. A couple of small flocks of Siskin, Nuthatch, a Sparrowhawk chasing a Redwing and about a hundred Lesser Black Backed Gulls in amongst many more Black Headed Gulls being the highlights.
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| Featherbed Lane, Spaldington Common, 19/11/2021 |
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| Siskin, Spaldington Common, 19/11/2021 |
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| Roe Deer, Spaldington Common, 19/11/2021 |
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Nunnington Church, 22/11/2021
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Always great to visit new places on your doorstep and a few days later I went up to Nunnington and Caukleys Bank, just north of the Howardian Hills in Ryedale and then to nearby Slingsby Carr. Nothing to write home about in terms of birds but got some more nice landscapes.
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| Looking south towards Slingsby Heights from Caukleys Bank, 22/11/2021 |
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| Caukleys Bank, 22/11/2021 |
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| Floodbank at Slingsby Carr, 22/11/2021 |
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Hay bails, Terrington Moor, 25/11/2021
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A walk around Terrington Moor was similarly quiet on the bird front but again, lovely walking weather and some nice vistas.
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| Looking south from Terrington Moor, 25/11/2021 |
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| Terrington Moor, 25/11/2021 |
Towards the end of the month I ventured down to the Humber and a walk around the fields and estuary side between Broomfleet and Faxfleet. I like it down here, apart from the odd dog walker it's always so undisturbed and, as is the case with most estuaries the world over, there's always something going on!
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Weighton Lock, 26/11/2022
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I noted some of the usual suspects as far as Humber birds are concerned -
Curlew, Wigeon, Teal, Shelduck, Dunlin, Marsh Harrier and a couple of
Bearded Tits but the most entertaining were a highly mobile flock of about 260
Golden Plover in the adjacent fields.
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| Golden Plover, Faxfleet, 26/11/2022 |
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| Reeds in the sunlight, Broomfleet, 26/11/2022 |
A few days later whilst out recruiting for YWT at
Askham Bog I had a surprise visitor on the boardwalk in the shape of a
Bank Vole that was scurrying about near my table!
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| Bank Vole, Askham Bog, 28/11/2022 |
Never fails to amaze me what you can see when you're more or less rooted to one spot all day!
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