The Sun At Last

Last Sunday I walked along the cliffs in beautiful sunshine (see later).

 

It's been almost a week since we saw the sun last.

 

Monday to Friday was just grim every day - rain/drizzle, Easterlies or North easterlies, deep cloud cover making everything grey and dark. I didn't even go out walking on Thursday and Friday as I was just fed up of having rain on my glasses and not seeing anything of note anyway.

 

So this update covers just last Sunday (8 Feb) and today (14 Feb).

 

A walk through Rolston and back on the cliffs last Sunday boosted my mood as the day was sunny and dry with minimal wind. There were some good birds in Rolston but none were obliging enough to hang around for my camera to capture them. These included a singing Chiff Chaff (I assume it was an over-wintering bird rather than a very early migrant) a hooting Tawny Owl and a noisy Jay.

 

Along the cliff tops Skylarks and Meadow Pipits were moving in good numbers - all southward. Several hundred gulls were bobbing around on the sea, but I couldn't pick out anything other than the usual mix of our common species.

 

Looking North to Hornsea

Great Black-backed Gull and two youngsters wanting food on the beach

Meadow Pipit

Mipit

Mipit

Skylark singing over South Cliffs

Skylark  (and the six below)

Fast forward over the rest of the week (apart from one photo of the Oystercatcher) and we come to today.

Oystercatcher at the Mere 

Today was so much better, I breathed a sigh of relief this morning as I stepped out of the house into sunshine and no rain. I walked along Southorpe Road and past Weatherhill and then came back, as the ground is so wet that wellies are a better choice of footwear to go any further - I'll do that tomorrow morning. 

Lots of birds were singing, with Blue and Great Tits being particularly active and Dunnocks out-singing Robins. Three Song Thrushes were singing too but not on my Mere BirdTrack patch.

Blue Tits possibly pairing up already

Blue sky!?!? I'd forgotten what it looked like

Singing Dunnock

I cut short my walk in the morning as I had some work to do at home and went out in the afternoon, but only down to first field at the Mere - again the ground is too wet without wellies.

 

We've had up to 17 Scaup in the last ten days or so and I saw seven trhis afternoon.

Male and female Scaup

Female Scaup

Two male Scaup

Well, that's it for this update. A poor week really, although the Great Northern Diver stayed at the Mere and was seen again this afternoon. I am hopeful that next week will be better 😀