Hornsea Mere and Surrounds

The last few days have been dry and mainly bright and the cold snap is now a distant memory, with cool mornings the norm rather than cold mornings. I've been walking the paths as usual and they are getting increasingly boggy - boots are usually OK but wellies or similar are now getting more use.

Autumn is rolling on and the leaves are gradually disappearing but there are still large patches of green in the trees.

On the top of south cliff I found the reamins of what looked to be a Barn Owl. The pattern and colour together with the fact that the leading edge of the feathers have hooks leads me to think I'm right. There was no evidence of foul play but I suspect it.

Barn Owl feathers/remains

In the wood over at Wassand there's been a good number of birds which is great to see. We haven't had much to get excited about recently so a couple of days when there are lots of common birds to see is almost as good :)

Goldcrests fly in to Britain during Autumn to swell our numbers and I saw two separate small flocks of 4+ and 3+ birds.

Goldcrest

Woodcock Pilot

 In days gone by people didn't believe that a bird as small as a Goldcrest could fly very far. They didn't think Goldcrests could fly from continental Europe to our shores so they invented a story that they arrived here on the back of Woodcocks! This gave Goldcrests the nickname of Woodcock Pilot. Unbelieveable now, but was probably reasonable back in the day :)

As the leaves fall it is easier to see birds up in the trees so Treecreepers get noticed more. I saw 2 within a few minutes.

Treecreeper

The same Treecreeper

A different Treecreeper

Today I walked up the Trans Pennine Trail (the old railway line) to Great Hatfield and back after I'd done the Mere and hide. It was a good day's wandering and my much better half had sent me off with a flask of her chilli to keep me going - was I looking forward to lunch time? Oh yes!!!!!

I stopped for lunch in a small dip along the trail that had a few steps so I could sit down -

As I was eating I noticed a couple of wild flowers still in bloom, one that I recognised and one I didn't. Red Campion is probably known to everyone as it appears everywhere through Spring and Summer here in East Yorkshire. The white flower is an umbel and I had to check the reference book as there are so many of these and they are so similar...it is a Hogweed.

Hogweed

Red Campion