Doh!witcher

Early afternoon was spent at Cresswell - reports of a long-billed dowitcher were suffice to make up for the miscalculated weekend. Friday night was a late one, so Saturday morning on Holy Island was abandoned, while Sunday morning reports from Phil revealed that the arctic warbler was no more. Saved some petrol I guess...

The dowitcher was readily available from the hide, roosting with snipe.  It didn't do much... until the seemingly resident great skua decided to pop over for a visit. Up and off...

Forgive the picture quality - I'm test driving some new image processing software.

Hard Lad

Also present - 1 merlin (caught a dunlin), marsh harrier, greenshank, ruff and a single great-crested grebe.

Dark afternoons...

Mid afternoon spent at St Mary's - nothing exceptional, but a nice scattering of wet migrants... a few spotted flycatcher, pied flycatcher, several redstart, robin, song thrush and chiffchaff. Just inland at the cemetery a couple of redwing dropped in and there were many low hawking barn swallow.

Yellow Fever

Beautiful sunny morning at St Mary's, with an elusive yellow-browed warbler finally photographed over midday. Waited years to clinch a decent image, so was happy to get a satisfactory shot in nice conditions. Used the "focus on a branch and hope it goes there" approach...

The darkness

West Hartford had a wintry feel this evening - despite huge numbers of barn swallow ~ the appearance of 2 short-eared owl was a pleasant surprise. 30 mallard, six teal and a grey lag goose was about all that was available to fill the note book tonight.

Not a great deal

A quick late morning venture up the coast with stops at Lynemouth (ruff, dunlin, yellow wagtail and a surprise tree pipit) then Cresswell Pond where the great skua still resides - apparently favouring coot for sustenance. No killing while we were there, unfortunately.

Gastronomic success was had at Widdrington Farm, with the consumption of two sausage rolls, a bacon pasty, chicken and vegetable pie, finishing off with Maltese slice and hot tea.

Pip!

A calling tree pipit over the house was a nice surprise while getting out the car this morning. Knew nightshift would have advantages...