Saturday 16 November 2013

Fantastic Flamborough

Today we went to Flamborough. We got up at about 7:30am and then left the house at 8:00am. We arrived at Flamborough at around 9:00am. At Flamborough it was very sunny with hardly a cloud in the sky.

At first we decided to have a check in the Millennium Wood to look for the Serin which had been sighted there recently. On the way through the wood we asked a few people if it was still showing and they all replied yes. When we arrived at a weedy field we saw lots of birders at the other side of the field so we walked over there. While we were walking over 4 birds flew over our heads 3 of them were Goldfinch but the one at the back looked different and then the birders said to us just as we reached them they said the bird at the back was the Serin! We were very glad to have seen it even though we only got a quick glimpse. After a while of waiting the Serin was finally picked up again in some trees in the wood with some Goldfinches, we got some good views through the scope before it flew of again. We waited about an hour or so to see if it came back but it didn't so we carried on to the cliffs.

When we arrived at the cliffs we started walking down a path to get to a bit were we could get our scope set up to do a bit of sea watching. While we were walking down a man said  'there has been lots of Stonechats down this path' so we decided to take a path which entered a marshy type area. As we got about half way down the track we spotted a lovely male Stonechat! Afterwards we kept seeing loads more of them, there must have been at least 5 in the bushes. We watched these great little birds for about an hour before finding a spot to sea watch.
 
 
Stonechats
 
During our sea watching session we didn't see much apart from a Gannet, Shags and a few Oyster Catchers so we decided to walk back to the car to have one last quick check on the Serin to see if it was showing any better. On the way back to the car I spotted a big bird of prey fly over a hedge which was quite far away so I took a few photos of the bird and then shouted 'Short Eared Owl!!!'
This was amazing. We watched it for about 10mins before it disappeared over a hill in the background. It was fantastic to watch! Also on the way back to the car my Dad spotted a Stoat emerging from a bush a few meters away from us!
Short Eared Owl
 
Afterwards we only had about 10mins left before we had to go home so we had a very quick check on the Serin, and it tuned out to be showing slightly better than before! I managed a few record shots of the Serin. Also it showed nicely through the scope.
 
After a great day we left Flamborough with 2 great life ticks which included Serin and Short Eared  Owl.

2 comments:

  1. Excellent selection of photos Ellis on another great day out , well done to you and your dad.

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  2. Great adventures you and your Dad go on, love reading about them. Well done!

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