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Birding Local

This is a dedicated page about the area of North Yorkshire where I live.

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Flamborough

Birding Flamborough

We were lucky enough to be staying in Flamborough over the bank holiday weekend at the end of April. This in turn meant that when all the crowds had gone we had the cliff-tops to ourselves. I’m not being selfish, Flamborough's North landing can get pretty crowded.

The film below was all shot later in the day when activity amongst the colony is high with most of the birds either feeding or collecting nest material. There is something about North Landing, especially the very quiet area behind the cafe. This, for me is the most stunning part of this area and very few people go there.

Bridlington

Purple Sandpiper
Now for me this really is a very special bird. For many years I have been aware of a small flock of this very hardy bird. Often they hang around with the much bigger and equally robust turnstones. And Turnstones do just that! They turn stones over looking for food, small crustaceans.

The film below was taken early evening in the lower part of Bridlington old harbour. It shows the Turnstones in the foreground and the smaller Purple Sandpipers in the background. Also below is the sound recording of individual Purple Sandpipers.

The Turnstones are the larger more mottled birds and the Purple Sandpipers are smaller with a grey head. The name comes from the fact they are from the species Sandpiper but also they have a Purple colouring as adult birds in good light.

Sound of Purple Sandpiper

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Above: Some of the many thousands of Gannets returning in the evening.
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Above: Northern Fulmar.
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Above: Kittiwake collecting mud and grass as nesting material.

It's a Night Heron

I use an alert system which is countrywide to alert me to birds that are locally or nationally scarce or rare. If they are very rare, they are called Mega's. For these birds below, there was and still is at the time of writing this a pair in Ossett West Yorkshire. This is nothing short of a miracle.
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The Species is Nycticorax (Latin Name) the bird looks a little grey but is in fact very white with slightly skin tone ish legs. It was fascinating to watch it feeding.

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Attenborough Nature Reserve

I really hope 2023 is much better for us all, much better for wildlife and much better for birds and birding. 2022 wasn't a bad year, in fact, it was quite a good one, more people seemed gentler, more in tune with nature, people spent more time outside, noticing more and intern "kinder".
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Common Birds but plenty of joy.

I have never seen a nature reserve as busy as Nottingham's Attenborough nature reserve and visitor centre. People are desperate for the freedom that being outdoors brings. There were hundreds and hundreds of people with children and dogs all enjoying this vast open space.

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Above: Egyptian Goose (more in the video)
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Above: Gull on the Ice.
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Above: Grey Heron and Great White Egret heading for trouble.
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Above: Grey Heron and Great White Egret nearly collide in the mist.
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Above: Great White Egret in the mist.

Two Days in the North

Two Days in The North East
A Video Diary
Above film in UHD.
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It's January and a few trips planned

Blacktoft Sands, Yorkshire.

It was a quiet day at Blacktoft Sands, not many birds about, it was cold though…very cold and crisp. I saw some ponies walking towards us, probably half a mile away. Within what seemed to be a couple of minutes they were in the water.

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Made by Steve Farley