Frampton Marsh.

Headed to Frampton this afternoon for a few hours as I had heard that a Black Winged Stilt was present.

Sure enough a pair were feeding in the reed beds, and by the looks of it mating. Both seemed to be building a nest of sorts and chasing away anything that came to close.

It is a really nice looking bird and I was surprised how long the legs are.

A Turtle dove has been seen around the reserve also but I lucked out today with a sighting.

A Stone Curlew was also present on the reed beds but only visible via a scope.

Not long before leaving a lone Temminck's Stint was found in the reed bed also.

After talking to a gent he said a group from Nottingham Uni were conducting a survey and as of 15:00 they were up to 80+ species and counting.

 

Bempton Cliffs.

Decided to head to Bempton cliffs this morning to tick off a few species that I knew would be about.
Really nice place with a great new visitor centre.

Plenty of Gannet around nesting and flying quite close to the cliff tops.

The Guillemot stayed a little further away and proved hard to gain a photo in flight as you have to shoot down on to them but loads about.

The Kittiwake were in the hundreds around the cliffs, busy gathering nesting material.

The Puffins were great to see not so many about compared to the other species but easy to spot when sitting with the gannet and guillemot.

Razorbill were about in good numbers also.

All in all a good few hours and the resident barn owl paid a brief visit.

I also managed to see a red kite near to home.

Pennington Flash.

Mark and I took a trip to Pennington Flash today, and the weather turned out to be ok.
The first couple of hides were quite quiet, with a few Redshank and the usual others.

We took a walk to the new screen unfortunately some cretins have decided to pinch half of the wood leaving only the supports. We did however manage to see a few Reed Buntings.

After a walk around we called in to Ramsdale Hide and Mark spotted a Reed Warbler right in front of the hide in amongst the reeds!!

Mark did manage to see the Cetti's next to Tom Edmondson hide along with another Reed Warbler.

Later on this afternoon Mark also headed to the coach road and found a few Yellow Wagtails showing well on the field edges.

Tawny Owl.

Mark was out and about near the usual Rainford haunts this week looking for anything of interest.
He told me he had found a Tawny owl chick in an old tree, sitting in a hole.
We headed there this morning for a quick look, and sure enough he was just sitting there watching the world go by. We waited for a couple of cars to pass and a few walkers and got a few quick photos, so as not to give away the location.
Nice to see a great bird so close to home.