Shore Lark and Snow Buntings at Cleethorpes.

I was up early this morning to do the rounds of the feeding stations to top up the feeders.  As it was a cracking morning I decided to have a trip down to Cleethorpes to attempt to find the shore lark that has been showing well recently.  I had no difficulty locating the bird when I parked up; all I had to do was look for the photographers.  By the time I had squidged through the mud of the salt marsh the bird had flown off.  Undeterred I wandered down the beach to see if I could find any snow buntings.  It didn't take me long to find a group of four that were extremely confiding; in fact I nearly trod on them!!!  Having spent some time watching and photographing these delightful birds I walked back to see if the shore lark had returned.  By now the other photographers had left so when I found the bird I had it to myself.  If I thought that the buntings were confiding this was remarkably so and as well as photographing it I had wonderfully close views with the naked eye.

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Little Egret

Little Egret

Little Egret

Shore Lark

Shore Lark

Shore Lark

Shore Lark

Snow Bunting

Snow Bunting

Snow Bunting

Snow Bunting

Snow Bunting

Snow Bunting

Shore Lark

Shore Lark

Snow Bunting

Finally Getting to Grips with Some Shore Larks

Friend Nigel was keen to have a day bird watching so we decided to head down the coast to Saltfleetby/Theddlethorpe NNR to try to find the trio of shorelarks which have been showing well recently.  Although hazy, it was a bright warm morning when we pulled up the car park at the Brickyard Lane entrance to the reserve, but, as we were to find out when we hit the beach, there was a brisk cold easterly wind.  We didn't have the spot to ourselves as there were a few dog walkers and another couple of birders, both looking for the shore larks.  Despite the fact that this is a huge windswept beach we came upon the birds quite quickly, although they were a bit flighty.  We had good views and I managed one or two reasonable images.

After a bit of lunch we decided to call in at Donna Nook NNR to try for the flock of 70 twite that had been seen here but to no avail.  We had more luck with the two drake goosanders on our way home but by now a sea fret had rolled in and the light was poor for photography.

A good day.

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