A Sunny and Calm Day

Yesterday was a wonderful day for being out and walking the paths around Hornsea. It was sunny and almost wind-less, cold of course 'cos it's still January. As I walked onto Kirkholme Point the sun was showing itself in all its glory. Unfortunately I only had my long lens so I didn't really get decent photos.

Sunrise over The Mere

Common Gull and Black-headed Gull

On The Mere the Long-tailed Duck and the Common Scoter were still present, although they were very elusive and never came in close to shore to allow photos to be taken. Hopefully over the coming days I'll be able to get a photo to show the continuing development of the LTD.

Meanwhile there were plenty of other birds, particularly in Wassand Wood, to watch and photograph. As I stood in one place for a while to let the wildlife get used to my presence, a small flock of about 12 Long-tailed Tits appeared. Aha, when you see such a small gathering of tits moving through a wood you can usually expect to see other species being dragged along in their wake - Treecreepers and Goldcrests are commonly seen - so I hoped to see them at reasonably close quarters.

As I hoped, along came Treecreeper and Goldcrest!! My Goldcrest pics were rubbish though, although I've put one up...

Goldcrest jumping from branch to branch

This photo seems to show a Goldcrest jumping from branch to branch as opposed to flying - it probably has its wings closed during a glide phase of its flight though. That's my best guess.

Treecreeper

Treecreeper

Long-tailed Tit

There were 4 Great Spotted Woodpeckers and 2 Green Woodpeckers calling high in the canopy. Two of the GSWs were drumming and a pair were chasing each other so Spring can't be far away now.

The best views of the day were given by the pair of Stonechats in 1st field though. The sun had just struggled above the horizon so the light was lovely and soft:

female Stonechat

female Stonechat

male Stonechat