basic birding

[pheonix]

inspired by all the birders on this site i have decided to get back into birding and im enjoying it greatly
recovering the basics locally (garden, farm and woodland birds) and im getting into water birds and waders which i have never done before and im happy i can now even identify little grebes and tufted ducks!! and annoying my collegues by spending more time looking at birds than doing hedgerow surveys down in devon (although i did get to see stone chats and a grey wagtail two more firsts for me, and hear culews around the exe).

i have a list as long as my arm of things i want to see and places to go, but next week i have some time off (which is turning out to be a bit of a bus mans holiday) and my two objective are to go and watch red kites around the chilterns, and the other i need help.....

(finally getting to the point !) im going to scarborough for a few days and was after some tips or advice on where to go, what im likely to see, and anythng i should really keep my eyes open for?

any suggestions greatly appreciated

[nightshade]

Look at whitby abbey, just up the road,the large pond /small lake was thronged with birds with the abbey and the sea in the background as a bonus

[pheonix]

thanks, a collegue has also recommended filey/filey brigg and if its ok weather im going to try a get onto the moors

[pheonix]

oh and it turns out my curlews were actually redshanks, oh well still learnig

[Fourwings]

Originally Posted by pheonix

thanks, a collegue has also recommended filey/filey brigg and if its ok weather im going to try a get onto the moors

Filey Brigg is an excellent site Pheonix, its a brilliant point for sea watching & for migrants though its probably a little late in the year for those now!

You should see skuas, a variety of gulls, coastal waders such as turnstone, sanderling, knot & possibly purple sandpiper, little Auks is also a possibility, also divers & grebes on the sea itself.

The brigg is a wonderful place but extreme caution must be taken at all times,its usually slippery & it can be very dangerous in bad weather so please check both the weather forecasts and tide times before venturing out onto it.
You can sea-watch from the cliffs above it but it's just not the same.

By the way its also a good place to take photos

[pheonix]

thanks, for the advice and warnings.

i'll be sure to let you know what i have seen, im actually getting quite excited at the prospect of not knowing what im going to see and to know that many of them are going to be firsts for me!

(im not sure how much my girlfriend is going to let me go birding though )

[pheonix]

oh just a thought, any chance of any sea mammal sighting??

[nightshade]

Remember to take precautions on the moors a fog can come down quickly and there are a lot of pitfalls for the unwary,even a few hundred metres from your car
Do not know about sea mammals but around whitby you could possibly encounter a vampire bat!

[pheonix]

ah yes the site of which bram stoker wrote his famous dracula :-{ (nearly fangs!)

[pheonix]

well theres not alot to report really, i didnt have much time to go birding between visiting, eating, sleeping, romantic walks along the coast and many arcade machines
and although i didnt see anything of great interest i had fun identifying the few waders and thing that were about.
there were reports of a white stork in the area, that i didnt see and a humes leaf warbler there now.

anyhow this is my quite uninteresting list of sighting:
cormarant,
scooter/eider?,
ringed plover,
redshank,
turnstone,
sanderling,
dunlin,
oystercatcher,
and possibly my best sighting rock pipts.

i was quite amused by the vast numbers of turnstone behaving like pidgeons and seagulls, but annoyed at people encouraging their begging behaviour.

i just cant wait now to go back and do some proper birding and see those hen harriers as well as many others