We take the decision to travel 260 miles that takes us four & a half hours on a rainy morning up to Sunderland where the Scops Owl has been seen most days over the last few days.
Thinking that we must be mad but still looking forward to seeing the Owl that would be a lifer for all of us.
We found the town of Ryhope without to much trouble & parked off road not far from the under pass that led us to many birders with glum faces as the Owl was no where to be seen.
After 4 hours & with hardly any sign of the sun we have to give up on the Owl & also missed out on a Barred Warbler that had been reported.
Only good thing about being here is meeting up with Geoff & John after to long a time without seeing them.
Brian has visited North Yorkshire a few times over the years for work things so knows the area well & he takes us to the Moors just outside Harrogate & Jimmy & I pick up a year tick when we see some Red Grouse wandering about the moor.
Next we head to Bolton Abbey for another tick when we see a couple of Dippers on the beautiful fast flowing river that runs through the grounds of the abbey, Brian always tells us about this being a lovely place & now we have seen it for ourselves.
So Brian rescues the day for Jimmy & myself with a couple of ticks but never got anything tick wise out of the day & had the job of driving us home that took nearly six hours in horrible weather so a big thanks to him.
We nearly turned off half way up to Ryhope & head to Kilnsea where we would have got a few more ticks but the draw of the Scops Owl was too much so no regrets.
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