Yesterday,being a rare day recently without a medical appointment and a good weather forecast,Chris decided she was treating me to a day at a favourite spot on the North York Moors. The raptor viewpoint above the village of Wykeham,just inland from Scarborough,is noted locally for the Honey Buzzards which visit the area most summers and hopefully breed there.It is also a good flyway for any raptors passing through the area.No body seemed to be getting any 100% certain Honey Buzzards but there was a lot of interesting speculation when any birds showed.We did manage to get a couple of hawks that were seen well enough to write up as Goshawk,nice bird for the year list, a good number of Common Buzzards ,someone had an Osprey and a few earlier arrivals had a Hobby hunting over the farm over the valley.Some people managed to get Turtle Dove nearby,a bird that is almost as rare as Honey Buzzard in our little corner of the country.
If you are visiting the Yorkshire Coast area and have a couple of hours to spare it is worth a visit for any raptor enthusiast and if there are one or two other birders there it can be a social occasion as well.The main topic is of course birds of prey but it gets very varied at times.Great spot for a summers day and as we say on days when it is quiet a beautiful place to see nothing.
Pete
Birding is for everyone no matter how good or bad we are at it,enjoy it while you can