Bradshaw - Soil Hill Top - Ogden Water - Bradshaw Farms

8:45 - 13:00

A coolish, silent start to the day - got quite HOT by lunchtime.

I had a very enjoyable stroll up to and over Soil Hill Top around Ogden Water and home via Crabtree Hall Farm track.

Hardly a breeze on Soil Hill and it was quiet as a mouse with lovely scenery.

I enjoyed my obligatory coffee and Yorkie Bar ( No Twix on offer again!) with volunteers  Pat and Steve.

I did one circuit of the water eyeballing B.S's Widgeon pair , that he reported were here this a.m.

I'm either a rubbish birder or the earlier 8 Teal had left - probably the first option and I just didn't see 'em. 

I May have got one Teal , very distant on the west side - seen from the prom. but the photo is poor - see what you think.

Got home, made mesen a chicken salad, mowed the lawn then did a quick rendition of Danny Farrell as I made my coffee.

Sat roasting in the garden for a while.

I'm a bit late posting this .... someone forced me to go for a beer in The Fleece in Bradshaw this evening -  as  if.

Birds:-

Taylor Lane to Ogden Water.

c30 Common Gull and 1 Black Headed Gull on Percy Road.

Kestrel.

A few Meadow Pipit and Linnet.

8 Goldfinch and 6 Skylark on Soil Hill Top,

Chaffinch and Long Tailed Tit.

Ogden Water to Home.

c80 Small and c60 Large Gulls.

4 Cormorant, Raven, 2 Nuthatch, Buzzard,

Little Grebe,

3 Chiffchaff. Siskin.

Pr. Wigeon.

A Kestrel was being plagued by a pair of Jackdaw nearer home.

 

Skylark.

Maybe a Teal - Maybe a Mallard??

Bradshaw Fields

18:00 - 19:00

I enjoyed a late evening walk along the Bradshaw Fields (but not far).

The rain had packed in and the low bright sun shone in me face.

Later it became cloudy and gloomy and I followed suit with not much happening.

Birds:-

c20 Meadow Pipit.

2 Little Owl.

5 Herring Gull.

1 Lesser Black-backed Gull.
Not a lot else.

Thornwick Bay Carvan Park Hoilday.

This week I have been on holiday with my niece, Vanessa in a huge caravan with all mod. cons. at Haven Holiday Park - Thornwick Bay.

The weather was really good for late September.

Monday 21st September 2026.

Nice and sunny today.

Got here at 4 ish and settled in - went to the Viking Inn for tea.

Tuesday 22nd September - 2026.

Nice and sunny today.

Flamborough Head.

......

We drove down to park in the Flamborough Head car park where the dreaded cash-less carpark machines sat looming over us.

Fortunately Vanessa is 'with it' so she downloaded the "MIPermit" app. and managed to pay for parking via Apple Pay - all clever stuff (Or not very clever if you are me!).

Many senior people were baffled or annoyed (or a mixture of both) with this new arrangement. With many saying - let's go somehwhere else.

I wonder how many different carpark payment apps are in existence?

.....

We enjoyed a butty for lunch and a walk along the cliffs.

Thousands of Starling were on lines.

Seals. Gannets. Linnets. Meadow Pipits.

Little Egret. Oystercatcher. Kestrel.

Guillemot. Cormorant.

Tree Sparrows on the turquoise feeding bucket here.

There was a couple of "feeding frenzy" areas, way out to sea that someone said were caused by Dolphin rounding up fish into a large shoal?

Thornwick Bay Bird Hide.

(Not much juice in the pond)

Teal. 1 Snipe.

Greylag Geese. Linnet. 

Singing Chiffchaff.

House Martins.

Pied Wagtail.

Wednesday 23rd September 2026.

A dull morning here and I decided to have a walk down to the bird hide.

Thornwick Bay Bird Hide.

I had the place to myself and the cold wind was blowing through the open viewing 'flaps' brrrrr. but the weather improved nicely as the day progressed.

Much the same as yesterday but a Dunlin did drop in.

A bit later many very distant calling Geese, which I wrongly  assumed to be Pink Feet circled and landed on the pond - 184 Greylag, give or take a gander or two.

Later on we walked to the north side cliff path and turned right along the cliff to meet the road at "The Viking Inn".

Gannets, a Kestrel and over 100 Rock Dove were seen along the walk.

Someone dragged me inside and I was handed a "Marry me glass".

Funny that  - the letters on the glass - when messed about with, read the same as its contents "Sammy's Lager".

Thornwick Bay Bird Hide.

A late evening look at the bird hide had the addition of 2 Wigeon Duck and the Dunlin was present.

Leaving to walk back to the caravan I met 6 local birders on a serious hunt for a reported possible sighting of a scarce "Rufous Tailed Robin".

I joined in the hunt (which meant walking back and forth over 100 yds or so) but no one saw the bird and at 19:10 we left -  by now, it was quite a cold dark evening.

Thursday 24th September, 2026.

Another sunny day after a chilly night.

Today we drove to Filey and enjoyed some relaxed shopping.

We walked along the sea front and I did a short birding stint along the beach to Filey Brigg.

The place was packed, given this great weather.

Short Filey Birding Walk.

2 Sanderlings were on Filey beach, everything else was distant on Filey Brigg rocks.

Thornwick Bay Bird Hide.

Late evening I headed down to the bird hide where there were 3 Snipe a Dunlin the usual Teal and Linnet and a bonus of a Corn Bunting

Not a mega serious birding outing but a really enjoyable few days away on the beautiful East Yorkshire Coast.

FILEY.

Bradshaw - Soil Hill Top - Ogden Water - Bradshaw Fields

13:10 - 16:40

A much improved afternoon, weather wise, dry with sunny periods.

On Soil Hill Top, however, the wind speed was probably in excess of 40 mph - kiboshing the job a bit.

In contrast my Ogden Water circuit was quite warm and pleasant.

Going by today's bird experience, if I was a country and western singer, I'd have the stage name "Slim Pickings".

At one point all the 'roosting' Gulls went skyward and landed on the water - but I did not eyeball the reason.

Birds:-

Bradshaw - Soil Hill.

House Sparrow, Goldfinch, Pied Wagtail.

5 Skylark flushed from Soil Hill Top.

A few Meadow Pipit bobbing about.

Ogden Water to Home.

c160 Small Gulls.

c120 Large Gulls.

2 Tufted Duck.

5 Cormorants. 2 Pied Wagtail. 2 Chiffchaff.

Long Tailed Tits 'plentiful' contact calling all along the east side bushes.

Pheasant.

Little Owl.

(Fox).

And a few of the regulars.

A couple of Skylark photos:-

This looks a bit Reed Bunting-esque but I think it's a trick of the light?

Ringstone Reservoir

16:15 - 17:15

I had a visit to make White Windows Care Home this afternoon and afterwards I decided to check out Ringstone Reservoir where last week I saw a Knot.

I've just checked my records and I did not realise that last week's  Knot was a Calderdale first for me.

Today Ringstone was extremely windy and cool with large dark clouds about.

I stopped it raining by donning my waterproof trousers.

I did a walk along the west side wall to the end where I dawdled about for quite a while.

On my arrival at the reservoir gate , Canada Geese took to the sky and left.

Very soon after a large flock of Lapwing and c130 mostly Black Headed Gulls took to the air, flew around erratically and landed way off at the east side.

The Great Crested Grebe was asleep on the water, a Cormorant dropped by and 2 Pied Wagtail and a pair of Mallard were seen.

On my way home I stopped on the east side (where the wind was even stronger) to get a better view of the Lapwing, but again, they all took to the sky and  the sun came out putting the birds in silhouette.

Not a memorable visit (not like last week).