Pure magic

Today we’re bringing you a selection of birds from around our local area of Retford and from our seaside home on the east coast of Yorkshire.

The above greenfinch was spotted by Lee in King’s Park, Retford, and he was able to get quite a few photos of this lovely bird.  Greenfinches are lovely colourful birds, and can often be seen in our gardens, where they take advantage of any seeds and insects they can find.

This beautiful male blackbird was sheltering from a heavy rain shower at Whisker Hills woods.  Blackbirds can become quite vicious at this time of year, and will fight with other males to defend their territories and breeding partners.

The most special bird we’ve seen recently is this nightingale.  We found it at Whisby Nature Park near Lincoln, where we were treated to its astonishing song, which literally stopped us in our tracks.  We spent quite some time trying to see it and finally managed to capture a few photographs.  Nightingales are unfortunately not as common as they used to be, and we believe that the small population at Whisby is the furthest north they get in the UK.  We felt privileged to be able to stand and listen to it – a truly magical moment.

The rest of the birds we’ve brought today were all seen around our seaside home near Bridlington.  We found this delightful puffin at Bempton Cliffs RSPB reserve, along with other seabirds such as gannets, kittiwakes, razorbills and guillemots.  This one kept flying out to sea and then returning to the cliffs.

The beautiful short eared owl was also at Bempton.  The quality of the photo isn’t brilliant as it’s quite heavily cropped, but again such a pleasure to witness this bird hunting on a cold afternoon.

Lee was also lucky enough to capture a corn bunting and tree sparrow in the same picture.  There was a flock of around 50 corn buntings which we watched taking off into the air and then returning to the bushes around us.

Finally, this fantastic wheatear was on the beach at Barmston.  These summer visitors are not very widespread, so they are always a pleasure to see.

We’re hoping the weather’s going to improve now so we can get out and about more and find some more exciting birds.  We’ve been listening to a lesser whitethroat down the River Idle for the past few days but it’s very elusive and so far hasn’t let us get its picture.  Happy birding everyone!