Iceland

I had a ride out to the coast this morning in extremely cold conditions. It was a weird kind of frost-the roads were bone dry, the trees were covered in heavy white frost crystals and the temperature gauge said -10.

First stop was Spurn-I was hoping for some waders feeding in the fields at high tide but there were none so I had a slow drive north with a destination of Hornsea Mere.

The drive up was pretty uneventful, the odd grey partridge, a few winter thrushes and pheasants was about the best of it.

As I arrived at Hornsea Mere it warmed up quite nicely to -6 but by now the wind had got up so not quite so tropical.

The Iceland gull was quite distant at the start, there were a few distant goldeneye on a patch of unfrozen water, a barnacle goose flock on the ice and the flock of bean geese put in an appearance.

After a wait of about 2 hours the Iceland Gull finally woke from its slumber and came to bread just off the jetties.

Quite a nice bird really, it performed well for about half an hour delighting the massive crowd of 3 with some quite close views.

East Park Redpolls

I thought I would have an hour on est park this morning in the hope that the cold weather would push something unusual in.

I headed for the car park and there were quite a few birds feeding on the seed heads including 4 lesser redpolls. Also there were blue tit, great tit, robin, goldfinch and a small flock of house sparrows that were sent reeling as a sparrowhawk crashed into them.

On the water there were the usual common wildfowl plus a few distant goosander.

perhaps the most unusual birds were the single dunlin feeding along the edge of the lake wall, a lapwing and another flythrough wader that looked greenshank-ish.

Not bad for an hour in the snow.

Sanderling

I had a walk round Beacon Ponds today in almost sub-arctic temperatures.Nothing outstanding on view however sanderling, redshank, knot and turnstone were along the shoreline on the way up.

Red-breasted merganser and scaup were the best birds on the ponds also flyover peregrine and 4 whooper swans were on the new scrapes.

There was a decent flock of brent geese on long bank with a sprinkle of pale bellied birds.

I had a drive back through some of the more secluded roads hoping for a decent raptor or owl but didn't see either., just a few flocks of winter thrushes and golden plovers.

Extremely chilly so kept in the car most of the time, might get out in the morning for some snowy shots.

White Stork & Wheatear

I had a plan to catch three Yorkshire rares today and managed 2 so not too bad.

First call was the cattle egret at Tophil Low, but it didn't show despite a report of it being around the farm near the main entrance. I did manage pintail and smew at Watton as a small consolation.

Then off to Fraisthorpe for the white stork. I was very fortunate to find it after it had relocated and it only stayed put for about 5 minutes.

then off to Bempton for the desert wheatear. I was still as obliging as ever and starting to look a lot smarter than it did before Christmas.

All in all not a bad day.

Cattle Egret

I've not posted for a while due to lack of any real quality shots (been on an unsuccessful mission to photograph hen harriers), but managed to connect with the cattle egret that has been hanging around Tophill Low.

I went to Hempholme yesterday and didn't connect, then went to Tophill today and walked to Hempholme! (5 mile round trip)

It was hanging around one of the farms then flew briefly into a farmyard then flew off back into fields again.

A nice bird and another addition to the list.