Bird Lover

After last Friday's Filey's pictures were posted some more arrived from 2 different sources.  It's been a busy week with lots of Bearded Tit and Hen Harrier photos to process, so these have taken longer than usual to add.  Better late than never! All photos (c) 2016 Mike Woods  unless stated otherwise Snow Bunting   Ditto   Ditto   Ditto   Ditto   Immature Male Blackcap   Ditto - note brown flecking in centre of cap   Being Released   Goldcrest   All remaining Photos (c) 2016 Pat Taylor Goldcrest   Tree Sparrow   Ditto

Tuesday was extremely calm, so I risked a visit across the Humber. The first half hour was extremely quiet, so it looked as though the Bearded Tit activity was over for a year.  However after 30 minutes the strong sun came over the hillside, and suddenly the reedbed was alive with birds.  This time we walked beyond the hide and were rewarded with amazingly close views of a party of about eight birds, who performed in the reeds, in a leafless hawthorn, and in the skeleton of an umbellifer.    Male Bearded Tit   A party of Beardies   Male Bearded Tit   Trio of Males   One female and 5 males   A plethora   In the Umbellifer   Portrait of a male   Ditto   Flying Female   Another Male   Ditto   Ditto   Ditto   Ditto   Black-tailed Godwits among Teal   Yellowhammer   Redwing   Snipe Among Teal   Immature Water Rail (c) 2016 Ben Coneyworth   Ditto   Ditto   Gossamer on Grass The following day we went to Spurn, but missed all the exciting birds of the day before.   Moulting Pintail from a Fort

During the last 2 afternoons this week I accidentally found 2 ringtail Hen Harriers hunting over a large set-aside area.  I was able to use my car as a hide to photograph these beautiful and graceful birds.  A local photographer must have already been aware of them as he'd set up a temporary hide in the field, and had probably obtained much better photographs than myself.  One of the Hen Harriers appeared to have much more gingery plumage than the other.  At one time yesterday they were joined by a male and female Marsh Harrier, which made the Hen Harriers more vocal while they were around.   We are due to be visiting this location during my classes in the next few weeks, so hopefully my 'students' will also get to see these birds too. Hen Harrier   Ancient & Modern   The Threatened & the Supported   Showing the white rump   A series showing the Hen Harrier Calling when the Marsh Harriers were around   2 Harrier Species   Male Marsh Harrier (top) & Hen Harrier