North and East Yorkshire

I had a trip up to North Yorkshire yesterday, initially I hoped to photograph waders at dawn but the fog scuppered that idea.A very brief visit to the car park at Holbeck yielded the usual mediterranean gull and a visit to the harbour only resulted in a single turnstone.

On then to Forge Valley and the usual and very co-operative selection of common woodland birds did not let me down although fog again was an issue for most of the morning.

I was very pleased with a close encounter with a treecreeper as well as great spotted woodpecker-two species whereby a photograph is not always guaranteed here.

I really wanted a nice shot of a marsh tit but unfortunately they were not so co-operative.

I then popped for an hour to the raptor watchpoint at Wykeham. There were a few distant buzzards, bullfinch and a large hawk that may or may not have been a goshawk but on the whole it was a bit quiet.

Last port of call was Tophill Low. I headed for the North Marsh Hide with the hope of a view of an otter. Unfortunately there were none, but I did see roe deer, grey squirrel and rabbit.I did get a very fleeting glimpse of a kingfisher and heard very vocal tawny owls in the nearby wood.

I don't know if its been an exceptional year for snowdrops (usually I don't really notice) but they seem to have been around for ages.

With an hour of light left I headed for the EA hide at Watton, nice light made for nice conditions, here there was plenty of common wildfowl-the highlight being a single pintail.

All in all avery long and very enjoyable early Spring day.