Bank Holiday Washout!

Last night raged with gale force winds and rain and continued throughout this morning. The winds lost strength as the day went on and the sun showed its face late afternoon. I was determined to get out birding for a short while and cruised to Holme.

I parked by the 5-bar gate half way along the Firs Road. The light was beautiful with dramatic looming clouds and the wind was still pretty strong. I was looking forward to my peaceful walk – I needed some me time and time to think. Apart from one other birder and one dog walker, there was no one else here, magical! I started walking along the coastal footpath and was going to continue to NOA, but after seeing no birds of note, I decided not to bother. So, instead of walking back the same way, which I hate doing, I nipped across the Forestry and back onto the Firs Road to walk back to my car – this proved a good move as I saw three Marsh Harriers over the marsh and a Chiffchaff flew across the road perching momentarily on a bramble bush before disappearing. There were good numbers of birds on the pools including Shelduck, Wigeon, Shovelers, Mallards, Teal, Redshanks, Black-headed Gulls, Grey lag Geese, Curlews, a Pied Wagtail and a few Pheasants. I scanned the paddocks for Wheatears on the way back to my car, but no joy, but did see a Little Egret by a gate.

I was very sad to see that 'Sandy Ridge' has planning permission to be demolished and a new big house is going to be slapped in its place. My parents rented Sandy Ridge for a while when we were children. Another memory to be erased from Holme. Sandy Ridge is the last house on the left hand side opposite the wooden chalet (where the Collared Flycatcher was). I do wish people would build their massive holiday homes somewhere else, instead of trying to make an SSSI site look like a London suburb! There is a huge modern house already along the Firs Road with shingle front and lollipop trees (that's what they look like to me!) in a neat row – it looks so out of place here – if only I could turn the clocks back. I would turn them back to when we had the telegraph wires running adjacent to the Firs Road and the wonderful scenes of Swallows and Martins on the wires, along with Kestrels, Bee-eater etc etc. I know some things have to change and that's fine, but some things DON'T need to change! The telegraph wires didn't need to come down and we don't need skyscraper houses ruining the landscape of a very beautiful place!!! The amusing thing is that its only a matter of time before we get another, bigger storm surge and these newly erected, monstrous houses will be history!!! If I had the money to build houses like that, I wouldn't be building them so close to the sea, anywhere along the coast! Silly people, oh well.

Parked by Redwell Marsh NOA and sat in the hide for a while, which was even more peaceful. A Grey Heron flew across the marsh. On the pool were two Avocets, two Little Grebes, Shovelers, Mallards, 2 Redshank flew over and there were a few Black-headed Gulls. Some Jackdaws flew over the hide towards Holme Church. Its fabulous having that extra hour of light now, birding after work at last!

Big meeting tomorrow with parents, social workers etc in the afternoon. Hope to get out birding in the morning and then back to work on Wednesday.

It was very sad to hear via a friend on Facebook that today a 'fox red staff type dog, possible cross breed, wearing a red collar was found unsupervised in a field at the back of a house in Syderstone, no owner in sight, the dog was mauling a muntjac deer...........it has been reported to the police.' Like I keep saying, all dogs should be on a lead in public, especially ones that are likely to attack another animal or human being!