moonlit

Alkborough Flats Sunday evening as the full moon appeared--pics do not do justice to the scene and the ambiance

on a roll

the morning did not start well with frequent heavy showers on a cold NW wind on the patch; by 09:45 I thought about giving up but did a quick check of the Humber in case of wildfowl or Little Auks; driving into the car park a superb first-winter Glaucous Gull flew over and headed east; stopping in the middle of the car park I jumped out and watched it turn back towards me; camera out of the boot in a flash but unfortunately it flew right over my head rather than to the north where it would have been lit by the sun; never mind a good bird and the first one on the patch for several years

return of the Smew

checking the local pits today I came across this drake Smew--it must be last winter's bird as it was feeding in exactly the same spot in a small channel where you never actually see anything as a rule; it caught a huge fish which seemed far too big for it to swallow but down it went

leaves

it has been a dull spell of late to brighten the blog some autumn leaves, a local sunset and some Shoveler and my local Starling roost

auks and waves

I always look forward to a November gale for the chance of seeing Little Auks but this movement seems to have left a lot of birds in poor condition; on the Lincs coast birds were going north then south, dropping on the sea and getting swamped by huge breakers; good seawatching for birders is often bad news for the seabirds. I liked this image as it puts the distinctly small size of the birds into perspective against the breaking wave

Click on the pics for bigger images

Little Auklets

I deliberately tried to show these birds against the power of the rough sea which had brought them south; the whipped icecream in the bottom shot makes an odd image

sanderling

always plenty of Sanderling to keep photographers entertained but today the light was often not helpful

beach and rainbow

the mix of rain showers, rain, showers, sun, blowing sand and wind made for some interesting beach vistas; it also saw my tripod burying its head in the wet sand and that does not now sound very good !

Purple

there appeared to be at least 3 different Purple Sands in the Trusthorpe area today as one flew north early am and two were on the outfall at low water

in off

one of several flocks of Starlings in off the sea today; also a number of Blackbirds came in but one very unfortunate bird was snaffled by a Great Black Back just 40m from the beach having flown the North Sea in a gale and rain it died just 100m short of safety; a single Short-eared Owl also drifted in late afternoon

tide and light means more large white birds

afternoon tides and some low light meant that this week was ideal for getting shots of my local Whoopers; hence the blog overload!

leaves fly, pipit and pigs

a mixed autumn bag

sun and swans

11 Whoopers now back at their traditional winter spot with just 2 juvs but the two make up for lack of numbers in their aggressive behaviour attacking Mute Swans with vigour

whoops more