Not long back from a week at Whitby. Not for birding, I didn't even bother packing the bins.
No interesting birds of prey were visible on the drive up although a fallow doe and her fawn crossed the road in front of me while driving across Ashridge Common. Not a common site at 9:30 in the morning but the deer are spooked by dog walkers often enough to require special care on that road at any time of day.
Whitby itself is still a reasonably active fishing port although with the decine of North Sea stocks there seem to be fewer trawlers there every time I visit. Naturally the town itself is full of herring gulls. I took to wearing ear plugs at night as they provide a VERY loud dawn chorus at 5am. I rather regretted not having the camera on me at one point as I saw a juvenile pecking at the red spot on its parent's beak to prompt it to regurgitate. Its a pretty disgusting sight as a sack of grey goo is dropped in front of the young one.
Turnstones can be seen poking in the harbour mud which seems unatural to me as I am used to seeing them turning the cockleshells at Leigh. Out on the rocks at low tide there was a very noisy collection of oystercatchers which were only drowned out when something disturbed the kittiwakes on the cliff under the coastguard station.
Rennovation work on the East Pier seems to have displaced some of the fulmers and they were no longer obvious along the cliff edge above the beach although a decent number were roosting on the unconnected end of the East Pier.
I was told of an osprey on a reservoir nearby but with a long drive home I had to resist the temptation to start with a detour to the north.
No interesting birds of prey were visible on the drive up although a fallow doe and her fawn crossed the road in front of me while driving across Ashridge Common. Not a common site at 9:30 in the morning but the deer are spooked by dog walkers often enough to require special care on that road at any time of day.
Whitby itself is still a reasonably active fishing port although with the decine of North Sea stocks there seem to be fewer trawlers there every time I visit. Naturally the town itself is full of herring gulls. I took to wearing ear plugs at night as they provide a VERY loud dawn chorus at 5am. I rather regretted not having the camera on me at one point as I saw a juvenile pecking at the red spot on its parent's beak to prompt it to regurgitate. Its a pretty disgusting sight as a sack of grey goo is dropped in front of the young one.
Turnstones can be seen poking in the harbour mud which seems unatural to me as I am used to seeing them turning the cockleshells at Leigh. Out on the rocks at low tide there was a very noisy collection of oystercatchers which were only drowned out when something disturbed the kittiwakes on the cliff under the coastguard station.
Rennovation work on the East Pier seems to have displaced some of the fulmers and they were no longer obvious along the cliff edge above the beach although a decent number were roosting on the unconnected end of the East Pier.
I was told of an osprey on a reservoir nearby but with a long drive home I had to resist the temptation to start with a detour to the north.
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