I had a drive up to Burton Riggs on Sunday. Overcast at first but the sun came out in the last hour of daylight. Chiff-chaffs singing, fish jumping a beautiful setting sun. For a couple of hours all seemed good in the world ..read more

Judging by the weather on Saturday morning I could have renamed this post early Spring at Spurn as the weather was gorgeous! I was up early and headed for Kilnsea Wetlands. The sunrise lit up the sky and put some beautiful colours on the flat calm water. Spring was definitely in the air as skylarks, meadow pipits and curlews were all trying to out-compete each other. The resident barn owl turned up on cue and common wildfowl duly obliged. The resident whooper swan flock remained distant at the back of the reserve. After sunrise I headed off for Skeffling. I had a rather optimistic target of th ..read more

I’ve just got round to processing some images from the weeked and what a weekend it was! We arrived at Kilnsea on Friday night just in time to see a magnificent sunset over the Humber and a little later the night sky was lit up like daylight under s beautiful silvery moon. I just had enough time to set up our trail camera before it got dark and we were treat to some nice photos and video of a badger helping itself to the peanuts we’d put out for it. I was up early on Saturday morning and the moon looked just as magnificent over the Humber. First stop was Skeffling but I didnt fancy it-the Humb ..read more

February Fill Dyke -A rural appellation for the month of February, when rain or melting snow fills dykes with water, says Wikipedia. That has certainly been the case of late and the dykes are literally fulll as are the fields and everywhere underfoot is somewhere between soggy and boggy. It would appear that has had no detrimental effect on the birds, in fact in the case of Long Bank Marsh, it has come into its own this winter, it seems the more water the better it gets. So my plan was to hear there early on Saturday morning and as the forecasted mist didnt materialise the light was quite good ..read more

I’ve had a couple of trips out over January. One up north to Scarborough and Bridlington and the other to Skeffling then North Cave. A few photos from each below. Great Northern Diver-Scarborough Great Northern Diver-Scarborough Red-Throated Diver-Scarborough Red-Throated Diver-Scarborough Red-Throated Diver-Scarborough Red-Throated Diver-Scarborough Red-Throated Diver-Scarborough Great Northern Diver-Scarborough Turnstone-Bridlington Purple Sandpiper-Bridlington Purple Sandpiper-Bridlington Purple Sandpiper-Bridlington Great Black-Backed Gull-Bridlington Great Black-Backed Gull ..read more

I had a bit of a dilema on Sunday. Do I go up to Scarborough for a smart red-breasted merganser in the harbour along with a great northern diver or do I put my faith in staying relatively local. Well relatively local won and soon I was heading out to Skeffling. I’d heard that a flock of twite had been seen near the pumping station. Twite are a red listed species in the UK and unfortunately their decline continues. Breeding in the uplands they spend winter at lower levels either on the coast or in the rough grassland around the estuary. They could be confused with linnet but they have a shorter ..read more

As regular followers of this blog will be aware I have been fixated with photographing raptors on the Humber this winter. Saturday was no exception and what a great day it turned out to be. Arriving at day break I was pleased to see I was the only one there. I hurredly made my way to my preferred vantage point and settled down for a days viewing and photography. A barn owl hunting distantly followed by a distsnt marsh harrier got things going. A buzzard flew purposefully directly overhead and veered off dramatically as it realised I was only a matter of metres below it. Before long, the prize ..read more

I’ve spent most of my photography time this winter down on the Humber bank focussing mainly on hen harriers with the odd hour or two on the short-eared owls. The abundance of voles as well as some pristine habitat has created dream conditions for the birds and wildlife watchers alike. Just recently the area was featured on bbc news a link to the article is here There is no doubt that the sight of a hunting hen harrier in bright sunlight is an exhilarating sight, all of a sudden they will twist and turn in mid flight then disappear into the scrub only to re-appear seconds later (or stay down if ..read more

I had a very narrow window of opportunity yesterday, narrow for 2 reasons. One, the forecast was for sunny spells up until lunchtime and two, I had to take my mum to the eye hospital in the afternoon. I got to my chosen spot pretty early and the first thing I saw was a buzzard then a barn owl with a vole-signs were good! I got myself set up and waited, firstly a sparrowhawk flew accross apparently oblivious to my presence. Then a distant marsh harrier quickly followed by a merlin-the raptor count was increasing rapidly! I thought that given the deluge of rain the day before, the birds would be ..read more

I used to fish in the now disbanded Withernsea Sea Angling Club in the early eighties. We used to fish mainly around the Withernsea area but we had a couple of fall back venues in The Humber to go to when the sea was too rough. One of those venues was a place we used to call Robbies. There was a large mudbank off shore and we used to fish the channel between the bank and the mudbank. as the tide ebbed the channel got narrower and the fish were compacted. The fish we caught were mainly flounder and we had some memorable days there. Why am I telling you this I can hear you asking. Well I’ve not ..read more