Wasp Nest

Having had a small number of wasps in one of the bedrooms in the summer I sealed up a small crack between wall and ceiling. It ws evident we had wasps nesting in the roof space so I chose to wait until this time of year before I dealt with any nest, they were not doing us any harm.

Later we saw wasps entering the roof space at ridge level to the rear of the house, we do not have a garden so you do not get to see these things.

Come Saturday it was time to take a look. As soon as the roof hatch was up it was pretty evident. Having no experience of these things it was far bigger than expected.

The wasps themselves were a small type of wasp.

Snow Bunting

Traveling around the farm lanes at the back of West Ayton yesterday we came across this solitary Snow Bunting. As the crow flies it was to the rear of Wykeham Lakes where the excavations are getting close to the 'track' that leads you round towards Wykeham.

For the first time ever we were untypically faced with a car coming the other way and I did not see this little fellow again in the bright late sun.

Kestrel

Having spent the day at Fairburn Ings in glorious weather I had no pictures at all other than a distant Heron.


Very nice October day for birding having finally left the fog of the Vale of York behind. Enjoyed the many Gadwell and other species on the reserve.


The best was the last though when we went to the Lin Dyke Hide there was a good number of Fieldfare and Redwing in the fields and a Stonechat sitting very prominately a top a small favourite bush.


Having left the hide to set off for home I saw a hovering Kestrel which made of away from me immediately, turning the lens to 500mm I was surprised that I got half decent flight shots, vastly zoomed and croped in of course.


The nice contrasty sky showed what a mess my camera sensor is in with dust which I must do something about.

Red Knot

Series of pictures from Dornoch Beach of Red Knot. There must have been at least 200+.


Nice to see single birds, groups on the rocks, and in flight.


Seeing these small numbers it must be wonderful to see the thousands seen on the East Anglian Coast in the winter.

Snipe

The Snipe were showing extremely well at Filey Dams on Saturday afternoon in reasonable light. Having missed out on the Bluethroat and Grey Phalarope at Filey early afternoon, I went to The Dams having decide to give the highlights at Flamborough a miss.

The pictured Snipe was alone a reasonable distance from the hide but the other Snipe were all out in the open for once.

No sign of any Little Stint.

Embo Beach

Shots of an Oyster Catcher flying along the shore loine on Embo Beach. Nicely contrasting with the breaking wave on the shore line.

Buzzard

A week in North East Scotland at Embo north of Dornoch produced loads of birdlife.
There were a lot of Buzzards in the area and whilst I have visited areas where I have seen plenty of Buzzards in other parts of the country in this area they were on fence posts, telegraph poles, trees, bushes, everywhere.
I managed one or two handheld shots after leaving the car (not a good idea but if you are on the wrong side!) only for the bird to be away in moments. Not great quality but the best I have managed to date.