Non-additions and additions

Sauntered round the doors ... Usual fare, great grey shrike, little egret, kingfisher. Unusual fare in form of jack snipe and peregrine.

Buffy Stink.

A belated county tick for me this morning, and not the most glamorous rose-coloured starling I've had the fortune of seeing in the UK. Not quite a pink stink, more of a buffy stink...

Nevertheless, a nice bonus for the time of year. Given the urban setting in Prudhoe I opted for the 100-400 lens today.

Limited

A foray to Nortumberlands' finest locations this morning/afternoon produced a few noteworthy / useful "year ticks" and a couple of ommissions too.

Snow Buntings at Cambois were decent, with 16-17 present at the start of the outer pier, just south of the Alcan Hoppers.

At Warkworth Lane Tundra Bean Geese were still present, along with 7 Whooper Swan

Widdrington Moor lake was quiet over two visits...

East Chevington was where the action was - the Black-necked Grebe was accompanied by an unexpected Black-throated Diver and a Long-tailed Duck, with a bonus Eurasian White-fronted Goose among the Grey-lags on the entrance road. I'll not count the two Bar-headed Geese.

Druridge was difficult - hods of Eurasian Teal, but not a sniff of the Green-winged... probably still around, but the gusty conditions may not have helped, with many keeping in the grass.

West Hartford at dusk did not provide the hoped-for, and perhaps as compensation, Pink-footed Geese over the house later in the evening, ending another dour weekend.

Decent

Potter this morning resulted in a decent melody of species - great grey shrike continues along with little egret near to home, while at North  Shields a gull fest with 2 glaucous (1st year birds) a "Viking" glaucous x herring hybrid and a 2c Iceland Gull. Iphone at the ready for some images..,

Top 2 - Gaucous Gull

Middle - left "Viking", right Glaucous, Viking and GBBG.

Lower - 2c Iceland Gull

Little Twitch...

News of the Little Bustard at Fraisthorpe near Bridlington this morning put an end to plans to cycle around the local patch today. By 0910 I was packed up and ready to head south. Some time later, after a curious route courtesy of the sat-nab, I arrived and joined the hordes on the edge of a bleak, windy kale field. Perfect setting for January.

Fluked the Bustard with the first scan of the field - with its head sticking up between feeding sessions. To far for any standard images, so a bit of trusty emergency iPhone imagery and video today.

iPhone image (also appears in collage featured at top of this post)