Far Ings 26-1-13

With the sun coming up and blue sky Jacqui and myself made tracks in the snow along the Humber bank,where around 100 Dunlin were feeding on the foreshore along with a few Common Redshank and Lapwing.
We continued along to Far Ings cutting down through Barton Reedbed stopping at Beardie corner for a few minutes but no sounds of pinging Bearded tit,we reached the visitor center and looked on the feeding station where Tony and Carol Horricks was already photographing,we adding Reed Bunting,Blue & Great tit and Chaffinch to our list but Jacqui added a Willow tit to get 1 up on me.
We carried on along the bank and on to the foreshore upto the old cement works where we picked up 3 Ringed Plover feeding,we then decided on walking to Ness Farm via Hotel pit where we bumped into Andy Sharp and Matt Taylor who pointed out the first winter male Smew.
We reached Ness Hide in the hope of Bittern where we where joined by Mandy West and Darren Matthews and it wasn't long before Bitterns started showing with 3-4 birds after a while we continued to Target Pit where 30-40 Pochard were present with the female Red-crested Pochard most I have seen on here for a while,with a couple of noisy birders in the hide we didn't hang around long and walked upto Chowder ness where we picked out Golden Plover & Curlew,with the cold setting in we moved to Reedy hide for some better views of Bittern again we joined Mandy & Darren who were already in the hide and had the same idea.
A very unwell female Goldeneye sat in the cut reeds in front of us again it wasn't a very long wait for the Bitterns with 1 landing in the nearest reedbed and a female flying in front of us landing on the ice at West marsh and walked onto the causeway and back onto the edge of Ness pit,just has we were already to leave I noticed a beak and head of a Bittern poking out of the reedbed right by us but it done a quick turn back into the reeds,so Jacqui and myself decided on staying for a few minutes longer just in case it came out but didn't and we was then joined by Gordon Bowes,we left the hide and headed off for home to get warmed up

Filey Brigg 13-1-13

After visiting the Great-grey Shrike on the 12th near Sancton E.Yorks a good lifer for Jacqui with Mandy and Darren,we all meet back up at the Sloop for a very relaxed meal and a few drinks and decided on a day out on the E.Yorks coast to see what we could find and clock up some year ticks.
Picking Mandy and Darren up at 8am and after a hour drive we arrived at Filey,but decided on having a coffee before making our way out onto the brigg which we were pleased about with having a Fox come close by with prey in it's mouth.
We made our way out to the brigg picking up Turnstone,Common Redshank,Curlew,Oystercatcher & Knot on the beach,a single Red-throated Diver flew across the bay.
We reached the first muscle bed were I picked out 2 Purple Sandpiper at the waters edge which flew off into the rocky out crop.
We continued along to the point where we picked out 2 Great-crested Grebes in the bay and Darren pointed out a Common Scoter on the edge of a kelp bed a lifer for Jacqui and Mandys best views of 1 using Darrens scope,we also found another Purple Sandpiper and a few more Red-throated Divers going through whilst grabbing the chance to scan the sea I picked out a few Gannet,Guillemot,Fulmar & Common Eider,we picked up a couple of Rock Pipit giving Jacqui her second lifer of the day.
Just a pity it wasn't the weather that was forecast,with time getting on we headed back to our car (Fred) for more coffee before heading off down to Bridlington for fish and chips.
A look around the Harbour produced plenty of Turnstone,3 Purple Sandpiper but told of a flock of around 30 birds on the outer wall,1 Barnacle Goose & Common Redshank.
Thinking about going to Hornsea Mere for the Little gull roost but decided on heading home with light fading
but a enjoyable day was had by all

Far Ings 5-1-13

Today Jacqui and myself decided on a walk up to the local patch to see if we could bump our year lists up a bit,which we did with some of the more commoner birds such has Common Redshank,Common Snipe,Shelduck ect but my main target was the male Smew and Jacqui's was Waxwing.
We walked along the Humber bank up to Reeds Hotel where we could see a lot of Waxwing sitting in the top of the tree,some where flycatching and others where simply going down into the Old Cement works for the Guelder Rose,so Jacqui set off for a closer look whilst I went off down to Bridge pit to look for the Smew but he wasn't present so I headed off for the Waxwings and a scan of Hotel pit which the Smew also favours but not today.
With brilliant views of the Waxwings I managed to catch back up with Jacqui and we headed for Chowder Ness which was very quiet apart from a few Curlew and Wigeon but we where getting hungry so we sat and ate our sandwiches and a welcomed hot coffee to wash them down with.
We then made our way for Ness pit via the New pits where the long staying female Red-crested Pochard was still present on New pit 3,we the walk through the wood and reached Ness hide which was again quiet but we still sat around until dusk in the hope a Bittern would give us a flyby but to no avail,with the temperature now quickly dropping we called it a day and headed off home,but a we enjoyed our day searching just about every bush on the reserve because you just never know what you will find.