It's been a while since my last post, after getting back from Holland I've been flat out for the last week and a half, plus I've been getting my laptop updated (cheers Darren).

So anyway Holland.....

Last year I went to see Jim, it was mostly for a party and we did very little birding, we did however go to Texel (pronounced tessel, think of nipple) where we saw a Snedge Owl and sod all else but horizontal rain, it was without doubt the worst days birding I've ever had. So when Jim told me the weather forecast was for rain I was overjoyed, Gooses and more fecking rain......sweet.

I arrived at the ferry terminal to be greeted with gorgeous bright fog, and set about trying to find my way to Eindhoven without a map, where Jim was going to meet me to look for Crested Lark (his idea not mine). After only one wrong turn I got to the station which was bathed in blue skies and sun and met up with Jim who immediately pointed out a black guy who appeared to be feeding the ducks whilst facing a stone wall!!!

The Lark was seen within a minute or two and then we set of for Maastricht to look for Eagle Owl.

The Eagle Owls are in a disused corner of a massive quarry that's been allowed to scrub over and viewing isn't easy with only a few good vantage points, the first point we came across had well worn earth so we had a look, there were some blokes in the bottom making some noise so we didn't hold out much hope and Jim walked off in search of a better place to look from just as he did a maseeve Owl flew across the quarry, I couldn't see where it landed from my position but the racket the corvids made for the next 10 mins gave us a good idea, despite searching though we couldn't see it. We went to look at some Gooses and saw 3 Red breasted and lots of Barnacles and White fronts. We returned to the quarry later but there was no further sign despite staying til dark.

finally got my car in something like working order, in addition to the clutch going I've had to put two new tyres on it, change the oil, get some work done to the steering, fix a leak on the rear wash wipe that was filling the boot with screenwash and replaced the seal on the door which was filling the drivers side footwell with rainwater!!!! Feckin thing seems to be costing me an arm and a leg lately.

As for birding I've not really done a lot, managed a day in fife whilst on stand by with work so saw plenty of sea duck, and went out with Towel and Jack last weekend and saw a couple of Hen Harriers including a cracking ad male, but that's about it. I'm off to see Jim (sorry James now he's gone posh!) in Holland at the weekend so should have plenty of pics of gooses to put up next week!!

Got the car back last night so decided to give it a good road test and go see the Black throated Thrush at Newholm. I've seen a few of these before and know they can often take up residence in gardens a bit Blackbird like really, I didn't expect this thing to be quite so approachable though, a bit worrying when you see what's lurking in it's favourite garden! Not to worry though the cat belongs to Dave the bloke who found the bird so hopefully he'll keep an eye on things.

Don't panic the rusty tones to the undertail is caused by reflection from the apples!

Some of these shots were taken down to about 15 feet as the bird flew in and landed right in front of us, the snedge helped with shutter speeds but I can only wander how good they would have been if there'd been any sun. Anyway pretty pleased with them whatever and got the year off to a nice start, rare Thrushes are few and far between.

Feckin Car!

Managed to get it stuck in the snedge the other day which meant I had to ring my mate Paul to come pull me out with his Range Rover. Although this got me driving again it also means I'll never hear the end of it. I give him loads of grief for having such a ridiculous car, it really is massive does about 3 gallons to the mile and all he does is go to Elland road in it a couple of times a month! So he's gonna take every opportunity to give me stick about needing it to help me out.

Things got a lot worse when on Wed morning I set off to North Cave to look for Barn Owl and the clutch went. I got it to the garage and kept my fingers crossed. Should have crossed more, bastard thing cost me £760 to sort out. To be fair I should have expected it what with the horses tied up outside and the saloon doors into the office!

So Thurs I was without a car and had a bit of work to do locally so asked Paul if I could borrow his van. Turns out he was using it that day but said I could borrow the Rover. Oh god twice in a week I'd needed it, Friday night is not gonna be pleasant!

It's a weird thing driving round in one of these, they really are huge but don't feel it somehow. You do get a load of looks though, other motorists, cops women pushing prams, everybody looks at it. You quickly start to get a bit paranoid, within about 5 minutes I was shouting 'what you fucking looking at' to every other person in East Yorks. It was suggested the coppers checking it out might have thought I'd nicked it! As if, I'd nick something with a bit of poke like an EVO if I was off to do a bit of joyriding.

It's really not my style of transport at all but to be fair to it, it's a very impressive piece of kit. It's got a button for everything, heated seats, heated steering wheel! cameras to see where your going, wing mirrors that angle down when your reversing and best of all a button that lowers the suspension so it's easier to get in and out and remove your waitrose bags from the boot! RIDICULOUS.

Another side effect is you quickly think you really do own the road, well I think that anyway but it's magnified in this thing. I found myself shouting a lot more at other cars that waned to use the same roads as me, especially any 4x4 Audi's or BM's 'get a proper four wheel drive losers'!!!

Been a while since my last post, but then again I've not had the chance to go birding. Got an awful bug between xmas and new year and lost shit loads of weight with it, didn't even go out on new years eve I'd been that rough.

Since then I've been working a bit and only managed 1 day at Hornsea and a couple of checks of the pits round Brandesburton, which produced nothing!

I did have an hour the other day trying to get some pics of Bullfinch but the light was a bit crap despite loads of snedge on the ground. These are the best I could manage.

Work for this week has been cancelled so been out for the last few days just mooching about locally, best birds have been 3 Goosander on Weel pond.

There seems to be a lot of Snipe about at the moment, not sure if there's been a bit of an influx or if they've just been dispersed locally from frozen feeding areas but whatever they are flying around literally everywhere including over the road just along from the house!

Went to Hornsea today but failed to find anything. I chucked some bread at the Gulls and rattled off a load of shots. I'm pretty pleased with the results, I think they look ace lit from underneath by the snedge.

I've been flat out with various survey work over the last few weeks so not been out birding much at all and the camera has remained untouched.
I managed to get out for a bit in Dorset the other day and saw about 70 Med Gulls in Weymouth. Couldn't find any Diver or Grebes in Portland harbour or the 500 strong Brent flock on the Fleet until nearly dark and they were miles away so didn't even try to find the Black Brants that are in with them, and tried wthout success to find some Sibe Chiffs in Poole.
Whilst down there it was good to see my old mate Stan, and I managed to frighten his Daughter, seems to happen with most women!!!

I set off back at lunchtime on Fri and made good time despite the weather forecast predicting snow fueled doom and gloom, well until I got to North Cave that was then it all went tits up, 5 hours from Poole to North Cave and 3 and 3/4 to do the next 15 miles!!!! I was pretty sick of it by the time I got in.
Anyway got a bit of work on in the next week but will hopefully get out with the camera over christmas, I'm pretty tempted by the Gyr thats been seen on the Gower so there maybe a lifer in the pipeline.