The Juvenile Birder

Winter Waterfowl! We arrived at Swine Moor at around 7:40am, with Dave, in hopes of spotting two Snow Geese roosting with the Pink-footed Geese. Once we made our way onto the very windy and exposed bank, we scanned the wetland, only to find all the geese had already left their roost and flown off. Disappointed, we waited around for a while, spotting a few Greylag Geese flying in along with five white Domestic Greylag Geese . Eventually, we gave up and decided to head over to Tophill Low NR. As soon as we arrived at Tophill Low, we made our way over to the main hide and started scanning through the thousands of ducks. It wasn't long until we spotted our first target, a pair of Red-crested Pochards , which were quite close to the hide in amongst a large flock of mixed Aythya ducks. Further out on the reservoir, we spotted many Shovelers , Pochards , Gadwalls , Wigeons , Tufted Ducks , Goldeneyes , Coots , Teals , Great Crested Grebes  & Mallards . We then moved on to ...

Notts Adventure! We arrived at Finningley Gravel Pits at around 5:30am in hopes of seeing a rare bird. As soon as we arrived, we made our way to the pool where it was last seen at. We noticed a few Sand Martins  feeding over the lake, as well as a Little Egret . We then met a birder who had just arrived, named Nigel. After a bit of waiting, a large flock of Lapwings flew in. I scanned the flock and noticed a slimmer, smaller bird at the bottom of the flock. It was getting mobbed by the lapwings and suddenly dipped just below the horizon long enough for me to see its plumage. It was our target bird, the Black-winged Pratincole ! It soon separated from the flock and flew in the direction of another pool just further down the track. We then made our way down the track, when suddenly we were met with a few cows in the middle of the path. Nigel quickly dealt with them, and we reached a viewpoint overlooking a large gravel pit. After a brief scan, we noticed around 200 Sand Martins feedi...

Twitching Top Ticks!  Part I Image from David Woodhouse (same bird, but taken on different date) We were offered a trip to see Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, at an undisclosed site, by a birder called Dave (who we had previously met at Easington & Potteric Carr YWT). We set off at 4:30am and arrived at his house at 7:00am and he took us to the bird location at 7:45am. We were ecstatic when we heard the distinctive drumming and travelled towards the noise. After looking in the wrong spot for a bit, we managed to find the correct area and heard the bird close by. We also met a local birder named Rob, who was also looking for these Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. He said it had been drumming for a bit. We walked towards the sound until it was right in front of us. There was a tree that looked like a stake and had multiple holes in it, so I checked it and I spotted just the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker 's head pecking rapidly at the tee. I alerted Dave & Rob and then moved to get a better...

 Rare Pochard and Lifer Pipit! We arrived at North Cave Wetlands at 7:20am in hopes of seeing a rare Red-Crested Pochard. The bird here was a female viewable from South Hide. We walked in and started scanning the waterfowl. We saw Little Grebe, Tufted Duck and a family of Swans. We then saw the Red-Crested Pochard (aka RCP). In the evening, we arrived at a site called Scarborough Harbour in hopes of seeing Rock Pipit and Purple Sandpiper. When we arrived, we went on East Pier and scanned the rock barrier for sandpipers. We didn't see any but did see a Rock Pipit as it flew off. We viewed it again as it defied gravity on a wall. We also saw another one feeding with the House Sparrows on our way back. Overall, a great day with two lifers, RCP and Rock Pipit.