Hornsea Wildlife and Walks: 2019

Sunday 1 December 2019

Smew and Long-tailed Duck at The Mere

Both long staying ducks were seen today, with the red-head Smew over by the north side and the Long-tailed Duck in its usual location off the jetties on the south side of Kirkholme Point.

Smew

Long-tailed Duck

LTD photo from Nov 20

The lack of leaves on the trees makes spotting Great Spotted Woodpeckers much easier 😀

A fox was mooching around in the field behind our house, being followed by a magpie for some reason. The fox stopped for a while to catch and eat something so perhaps the magpie was looking for some left-overs.

Sunday 27 October 2019

On The Beach and Inland - still very wet

After the torrential rain it was lovely to wander down the promenade this morning with the rising sun off my starboard quarter and a gentle westerly breeze wafting in from....well, from the west 😀

I took my Nikon with me this morning to get a few close ups and views rather than just wildlife. Some of these are actually OK I think.

The usual sunrise shot

Morning sun reflected in Broadway's windows

Groyne looking nice in the orange glow

The orange glow of the sun and the blue sky made a nice contrast

Beach hut city

The standing water has receded quite a lot from yesterday afternoon thankfully.

Ducks and geese having a (Grainger's) field day

Arty seascape

Spindrift off the waves

Alpha Italia crude oil tanker and Aldebaran J container ship off Hornsea


The Sanderlings are back!! 17 of them this morning.

Looks like some of the barnacles on the groynes have been disturbed

15 Whooper Swans flew south - a fantastic sight

After a bit of sea watching (nothing much just a few Auks and the usual Gannets) I walked off to The Mere to see if the redhead Smew was showing.

No sign of the Smew but a Pied Wagtail was on the flooded jetties so practised getting the camera down to eye level with it.

Pied Wagtail eye to eye

Low level view from KP

A flooded jetty with added lens flare (unintentional of course)

Sunday 20 October 2019

Holy Island

Our first visit to Holy Island was an absolute joy. A really lovely and relaxing atmosphere with good food and drink and welcoming locals in the bars :)

The castle is visible from most places on the island

If you don't see real birds on the island then you must have an issue with your vision, but just in case there are a few wicker representations to put your mind at rest:

Swallows


Geese

I spent a fantastic hour on the east coast when the wind was quite strong from the west and lots of birds went through in the lee of the wind.

Starlings

Turnstones

Oystercatchers

A single Med Gull

Golden Plovers

Curlew

All along the beach there were birds to be found: Rock Pipits, Ringed Plovers, Curlews, Dunlin, Oystercatchers and Turnstones. Nothing outstandingly different but there were so many and a good species mix that it was just great to enjoy them.

Curlew inspecting a leaf

Golden plovers

Golden Plovers - upwards of 1500


Ringed Plovers

Red-breasted Merganser

Eiders and RBM in foreground

Another wonderful sunrise

We stayed in the Crown and Anchor which was warm, comfy and welcoming and is recommended if you fancy a visit.

Sunrise at The Crown and Anchor

Bamburgh Castle is also visible from the town, as are the Farne Islands.

Bamburgh Castle

Farne Islands

Monday 7 October 2019

Frustrating Kingfisher photos

One of the members of Wassand Bird Hide has been good enough to stick a couple of perches in the water either side of the hide - aimed at bringing in Kingfishers.

We've had Kingfishers flying to and past the hide over the last few weeks, landing on the lower tree branches or even on reeds so a solid, visible perch or two were great additions to their options.

I'd been in the hide for 2 minutes this morning when a Kingfisher landed on the left hand perch. Camera ready? No. Missed the photo opportunity? Yes.

Next time one landed I was ready and got a few pics before the bird flew off having bashed a fish on the head and eaten it. However - I am very disappointed with the resulting images from my Nikon P900 bridge camera. I've had it for a couple of years and I know it has limitations when the zoom is in use. Close ups are brilliant, 50mm photos are good.

Kingfisher lands with fish 1/50sec 800 ISO 320mm zoom

The photo above was taken just as the bird landed with a fish. The Kingfisher bashed the fish on the branch and eat it - meanwhile I am faffing with the camera to get a decent closer focus and a faster shutter speed.

A full frame Kingfisher 1/30sec 1000 ISO 2000mm zoom

I zoomed to the max that auto focus would allow (2000mm) and the image looked OK through the view finder, but the photo above is grainy and slightly out of focus to me. Grainy probably due to the 1000 ISO auto selected, even to get a 1/30 sec shutter speed.

1/30sec 900 ISO 2000mm zoom

Still grainy at 900 ISO and still not fully focussed, then the bird flew off so no further chances to improve.

The Nikon P900 has been upgraded to the P1000 so I hope the new camera performs better than the P900 when the zoom is in use over about 200mm.

Anyway, enough of my tribulations...or maybe not. As I was waiting for the Kingfisher to come back (it didn't) I took a few photos of a Great Crested Grebe catching fish in front of the hide.

Great Crested Grebe 1/250sec 590 ISO 1800mm zoom

GCG with fish 1/250sec 800 ISO 2000mm zoom

The auto focus indicator on the camera was green, meaning the object was in focus, but the image isn't clear at all. I understand that 2000mm is the top end of the zoom range but the Kingfishers should be a lot clearer given they were taken at a distance of about 20 yards.