The First Days of March

On the first of the month it was just a case of sitting in the car waiting for the early morning rain to clear at Swalecliffe, I not one for getting wet. Then I walked out to meet Geoff, Ted and Philip huddled behind some bushes at the 'obs' trying not to get wet and seeing very little for their resolve  and they missed eight sanderling as I walked along to them! However, with nothing to photograph I went over to Hampton finding  four purple sandpipers posing on the rocks with a few redshank.

2nd March

I thought a visit to Wraik Hill might prove rewarding, however, too muddy so I drove along to Pye Alley Lane where my hopes were rewarded with a pair of yellowhammers.

Tried to get the car as close as possible to the perched male and without getting out I had to awkwardly twist out of the car window at an uncomfortable angle to snap a record shot but it didn't turn out that well. Going down to the seafront, the tide was out and no sign of the 4000 strong knot and dunlin flocks or much else, perhaps they have moved on. I didn't stop long and went over to the woods meeting up with Nick Smith, a regular flickr member who I''d never met. It was good to meet and had a good chat through the rest of the morning, later joined some of the 'big guns', Steve Ashton and Tim Gutsell plus a couple of my neighbours!. We all filled our boots with  nuthatch photos but nothing else turned up apart from blue and great tits.