What A Little Gem

This little gem of a bird dropped in to my local reserve at RSPB Bempton Cliffs, just a little bit different to look at to the normal gannets, puffins etc. I believe it was a first for Bempton and what a fantastic bird it proved to be. Showing very well the only downside was the weather which consisted of mist, thick cloud and very bad light conditions. All images above where taken on 1600 ISO @1/60 second.

What A Beauty!

Great Grey Shrike

After a tip off from Paul Scales (many thanks Paul) at 9.00pm on the 19th, of a Great Grey Shrike last seen that day at 3.30pm on the coastal path behind South Cliff Golf Club, Scarborough I just knew it had to be an early morning dash before work to see if this stunning bird was still in the area.

I gave Nick Addey (Scarborough Birders Recorder) a quick call again the night before just to let him know a GGS had been seen in our recording area and told him that I would be checking the area out first thing in the morning. So I arrived at the site the next morning and as I was setting up my equipment Nick pulled up in his car. We both made the short walk from the car park along the coastal path to the area which Paul Scales had so kindly given me directions too.

After a fair bit of scanning around Nick found the bird at the base of a bush halfway down the cliff side. We watched the bird for a good 10 minutes before it started to get active and then to our amazement the little beauty flew up to a bush just a few metres away. Both myself and Nick then spread the word to other fellow Scarborough Birders before I had to dash off to work. What a great start to the day, just hope it sticks around for a while.

Filey Brigg

Common Redstart

Velvet Scoter

Dunlin

Knot

Bar-tailed Godwit

Firstly apologies for the lack of posts to my blog recently. I have had a new edition to the Race family, another little boy "Sam Race", so as you can imagine things have been a bit hectic so I have changed holding a camera to holding a baby boy.

I did manage to get an afternoon out with the camera in between changing nappies, so I took a trip to Filey Brigg. Once I got on the beach the waders were showing well with 3 Dunlin and a large party of knot being very obliging. A single Bar-tailed Godwit kept its distance, but just managed to get a couple of record shots.

Took a walk to the Brigg end and bumped in to Ian Robinson from Filey Brigg Bird Group who had found a pair of Velvet Scoters feeding just off the south side of the brigg. Quite distant, again just managed a record shot. Got great view through the bins, it was great seeing these sea ducks fairly close to shore. Whilst watching the ducks a Blackbird flew in off the sea closely followed by a Goldcrest, I wonder how far those birds had travelled before they hit the brigg?

After staying with the Velvet Scoter for 30 minutes, I then decided to take a slow walk back to Filey Bay to find Ian again watching something moving about the rocks in front of him. It was a beautiful Common Redstart which for me was quite unusual to see perched on a rock on Filey Brigg.

I had taken this afternoon trip with fellow wildlife photographer Andy Shepherd from West Yorkshire who travels to the Yorkshire Coast quite often. Andy produces some outstanding images, so I can't wait to see what images he produced on the day!

Please keep checking out the blog and my website, updates will be a little slow but don't let that fool you in to thinking that I have stopped going out taking images, just have other important issues at the moment - right where did I put that dummy!