(To Everything There Is A Season) Tern! Tern! Tern!

Miles walked this year - 875

Bird species encountered today - 49

Notables - Common Tern (2)

Byrds a plenty on this morning's walk around the exciting wilderness that is south Hornsea.

I started off with watching a few Sedge Warblers flitting around the hedgerows, still singing away for all they're worth.

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Sedge Warbler

The Whitethroats are doing the same thing and I saw/heard a total of 11 of them today. Whitethroats seem to be doing well locally, and this is borne out nationally in the latest Breeding Bird Survey report from the BTO which shows a 21% increase over the last 23 years. Nice to see one of our breeding birds increasing.

Whitethroat

Yesterday I walked along the River Derwent for a few miles just to provide a bit of light relief from walking the same route almost every day. I counted 27 Willow Warblers. There weren't as many on my local walk today but I still ended up with 9 which isn't bad at all.

Willow Warbler

As I was watching Swallows and Sand Martins flying low over the water, and some of the Swallows touching the surface, I heard the unmistakable call of a Common Tern approaching. Next thing I knew it was right overhead:

Common Tern making itself heard

Swallow low over the water

Sand Martin taking a breather

I saw another two Common Blue butterflies today, on Bird's Foot Trefoil this time.

Common Blue

Common Blue looking a bit worn

This continuing spell of dry and breezy weather is getting a bit worrying as all the fields and meadows are drying out. House Martins will be having a hard time finding mud for their nests, but they are capable of flying good distances to source their building materials. Our pond is getting low so it's time to top it up and upset the resident frogs again 😂

One of our frogs

Got The Lockdown Blues

I'm not really blue at all but I needed a title for this blog post and I had a couple of blue-ish subjects...

Common Blue

The set-aside field that was fully planted with wild flowers last year was mown earlier in the year and laf of the field has been ploughed. The remainder is growing up now and some of last year's plants have self-seeded.

Phacelia

Lots of clover in there, some Field Speedwell and a few buckwheat stems are visible too. This morning a few poppies appeared and added a bit of colour.

Poppies with Phacelia in the background

Elsewhere the warm weather is getting to the wildlife as they try and chill out.

This rabbit stayed laying down rather than running off

 The hares that I've seen in the mornings have also been pretty dormant, with the roe deer seemingly the only ones still running about - although this one didn't leg it for long enough 😂

Roe doe thinking about when to run away

A couple of Skylarks were up and singing, and even with a mouthful of food their song is still a fantastic thing to hear.

Skylark with food

 On the woodland edge a few different wild flowers are appearing now, although Red Campion is still the most prevalent. The Garlic Mustard is going over a bit but is still nice to see.

Garlic Mustard amid the Red Campion

Wood Avens

 Swifts, Swallows, House Martins and Sand Martins were feeding over the Mere this morning in the strong south westerly wind. I'd have thought that the wind would have kept them away but obviously there was plenty of food to be had out there.

Swift over the Mere

Nikon P900 photos

Here are 6 photos taken this morning of a distant owl box using my Nikon P900, with increasing focal lengths from 24mm to 2000mm.

You can see the large fall off in quality.

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1 - 24mm

2 - 220mm

3 - 800mm

4 - 1000mm

5 - 1400mm

6 - 2000mm

It should be noted that auto-focus is not available at high magnification.

Pink-footed Goose taken this morning at 1500mm

Most of the photos I take are with a Canon 7D MkII

Hornsea Mere Circuit

The strong north easterly wind continued today, making me put my long trousers on again and drag my wooly hat out of summer hibernation. It was basically cold. The sun stuck its head out from the clouds a couple of times and a few showers fell on me as well. The light was abysmal but I took a few photos anyway with the settings turned up to brighten whatever images I managed to get.

Normally the route I take around the Mere is about 7.5 miles but I did 8 today - due to my wanderings trying to get photos of the Green Woodpecker and Swifts.

Jon informed me that an Osprey was flying over the Mere but unfortunately I was in Tesco car park loading up our weekly shopping haul. I drove down to the entrance on the off chance I'd catch a glimpse of it as it flew east, but no luck I'm afraid.

Once I'd delivered the shopping to my nearest and dearest,  I set off for my exercise and decided a circuit of the Mere was due, and I could check likely places for the Osprey too.

I stopped off in the small wood to see how the plants were coming along, and while there I heard a Great Spotted Woodpecker and saw a Treecreeper. Blackcap and Whitethroat were singing there, as they seemed to be most of the way round the Mere.

Up into the fields I always hope that there will be something different as I walk through but apart from a Barn Owl one time, there never has been. Would today be the day? No, it wasn't. Hope sadly dashed into smithereens once again, but at least the hedgerow sheltered me from the worst of the wind😉

Whitethroats, Linnets, Great Tits and several House Martins kept my interest going though, and a distant Brown Hare was a good sighting over there. A Yellowhammer briefly started its song but then thought better of it - way too cold and not sunny enough seemed to be its conclusion as it shut up.

Nothing had made me lift up my camera yet, until I got to the main Seaton Road and I heard a Greenfinch wheezing away like an old man with a 60-a-day habit. The light was naff and it was backlit but a couple of f stops added to the settings did the trick...

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Greenfinch wheezing

I expected to see a few dog walkers' cars parked down the drive to Wassand but there wasn't one to be seen. How lovely, I wouldn't have to divert my route to keep a proper social distance! I wandered off on my way and heard the distinctive yaffle of a Green Woodpecker. It was easily located clinging on to a tree trunk like a limpet.

Green Woodpecker

I was able to approach to within about 50 yards and heard it call again before it flew off into the wood.

Onwards and upwards (metaphorically but not physically) I walked on and past the reed bed on the south side. The sun came out for a few minutes and I managed to get a glimpse of a Sedge Warbler.

A sunny Sedge Warbler

In the fields by the Mere, Swifts were feeding, swooping and sweeping this way and that to catch their prey. I thought they would struggle to get any insects on a windy day like today but they seemed to be doing OK. Flying low over the fields and low over the water in the lee of the wind made sense as the insects wouldn't be wind-blown but they were also flying higher up over the trees too.

feeding Swift

Grey-looking Swifts over a grey Mere

Tomorrow's forecast looks better. Light north westerly winds and a high of 11 degrees😊 that'll do me thank you very much.

Sylvia's Mother *

 * by Dr Hook & The Medicine Show, 1972

A host of warblers all around this morning. Another Garden Warbler was found and positively id'd and I even got a photo too. Garden Warbler and Blackcap have almost identical songs and without seeing the bird I'm listening to I can't be sure which warbler it is so I was happy to see the Garden Warbler.

Garden Warblers and Blackcaps are two of several warblers in the genus Sylvia, which prompted my singing this song! We get 4 Sylia warblers here in summer, all of which are to be heard almost every day along the Mere footpaths.

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Sylvia borin - Garden Warbler near Wassand Hall

Sylvia communis - Whitethroat by the Mere

Sylvia curruca - Lesser Whitethroat near Wassand

Sylvia atricapilla - Blackcap at Wassand

Of course at least one of these is Sylvia's father, but that wouldn't work as well as Sylvia's mother.

Apart from the warblers singing, it's pretty quiet at the moment with all this settled high pressure weather. Things may change over the next few days as strong northerly winds are forecast.

Swifts and Swains, Leafy Lanes *

* by Amazing Blondel from Fantasia Lindum, 1971

The Swifts were flying pretty low this morning, feeding over the reed beds and trees. The easterly wind was chilly but the sun was shining and I was enjoying the fantastic sight of over 200 Swifts over The Mere. Sand Martins and Swallows were in there too but the spectacle was all about the Swifts today.

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Swift over the Mere

Most photos were taken with the birds flying into the easterly wind. They weren't exactly stationary but they did fly a little slower (I think!)

Phew! A couple of hours well spent I reckon :)

Well - the Swifts are covered off, I don't intend to post photos of any local Swains mainly because I didn't come across any today,  but here's a leafy lane from this morning's walk at The Mere...

Leafy lane as per the song

Believe it or not, other stuff was showing today as well as the swifts. Blackcaps are singing their way into female blackcap hearts (avian swains)

Singing Blackcap

Starlings have been in a feeding frenzy, collecting food as fast as they can. There is a constant stream of Starlings to and from The Mere, and the same is happening over our house too. The recent rain has woken up a mass of insects.

Starling leaving with supplies

Mute Swans have paired up and are nesting at various locations around the water's edge.

Mute Swans

Common Terns have been arriving in small numbers. I saw 3 yesterday but just 1 today. It was perched on one of the buoys preening itself in the warm sun.

A distant Common Tern

I watched a Yellowhammer collecting pieces of grass for its nest. It looked comical when it turned to face me and it looked for all the world like it had a large, white moustache 😃

Can't stay I'm in a rush, so moustache