First Exhibition 2010

I will be holding an exhibition of my images this Easter weekend at RSPB Bempton Cliffs Reserve on Sat/Sun/Mon. If you are visiting the reserve this weekend please pop in and take a look or if you are at a loose end wondering what to do this Easter weekend why not visit the Bempton Cliffs Reserve. It is an amazing sight at this time of year as most of the seabirds are back in large numbers.

Welcome Back

Gannets

Kittiwake (juvenile)

Kittiwake

Fulmar

Yes folks, it's that amazing time of year again when the seabirds of Bempton Cliffs make their amazing journey's back to the reserve to start breeding. Its only early March and already the Gannets, Kittiwakes and Fulmars are back in big numbers. All the birds are busy with their courtship displaying and nest building.

It is only going to be a matter of a couple of weeks or so before we see phase two at Bempton - the return of the Auks! Guillemots, Razorbills and of course the ever popular Puffins will be back at Bempton soon and I will be waiting on the view points with my camera at the ready.

Black-throated Thrush

Every so often you get a quite period which for me has been to long. Then we get the snow, rain and winds and you just hope and pray that something will drop in to your local patch or at least a place nearby. In a small village just north of Whitby in North Yorkshire, UK called Newholm the above MEGA had taken a strong hold to a local garden feeding station.

Oh yes, a Black-throated Thrush of the atrogularis race had arrived coming over from northern europe probably Siberia. I woke up early this morning the weather was horrendous with heavy rain and extreme low level cloud totally a photographers nightmare. Well I made the effort to try and capture some images of this stunning bird.

I managed to get the above images, but could not seem to get a picture showing the back of the bird. I shouldn't complain because I got close views and the bird seemed very happy in the presence of lots of human activity (birders galore). I am going to pop back tomorrow as the weather forecast seems very good, hopefully I may get the shot that I am looking for, but I can guarantee it's going to be busy.

More Meds

December just seems to be a quiet month so I have decided to concentrate on the Med Gulls who have come back to winter with us. There are now 7 individuals who visit the Holbeck Car Park in Scarborough which consist of 5 adults and 2 second winter birds. I hope you don't get bored looking at these birds because I hope to be doing some more posts of these magnificent gulls soon - enjoy!

Return of the Meds

The Mediterranean Gulls have come back to the Holbeck Car Park area again for the winter. At the last count there has been 4 adult winter and 2 second winter birds present and the easiest way to have a close encounter is to take plenty of bread with you.

One of the second winter birds is holding a ring tag No. E913736 which was ringed in Belgium on the 27th May 2008 and also one of the adult birds is ringed too and apparently was tagged in Serbia. All the above information was found out by fellow wildlife photographer Dave Mansell who has also got some great images of the Meds on his website so please take a look - www.eastaytonbirding.com

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.