The weekend so far

Catch up with some returning migrants in the north-east - inland for swift, pied flycatcher, tree pipit, wood warbler, redstart, ring ouzel...

and always nice to see...

iPhone-scoped

"L"easter Sunday

With the moderate success of Saturday I headed out round the doors early again today. Noticeably cooler early on, and stops at both West Hartford and Arcot were devoid of any interest.

Up the coast, Druridge was apparently garganey-less though there were plenty of shoveler...

East Chevington eventually yielded the summer plumage black-necked grebe, one of three species available, with little and perhaps six great-crested too. An immature male marsh harrier drifted through, but hoped for sandwich tern etc were elsewhere.

Cresswell pitstop on the way home enabled two avocet to be added to the Northumberland year-list.

Reports of 2 common crane flying north got me back out at 1230, and an optimistic attempt to pick them up over West Hartford was soon kicked out of me, though the temperature had increased a bit.

Late afternoon provided another opportunity to confirm that there wasn't a great deal to see or hear at both West Hartford and Arcot, with highlights being 10+ sand martin, ever increasing numbers of willow warbler and the prospect of booze back at home this evening...

Cold and Quiet

Not too much to see in Druridge Bay this morning - the blue skies were brief as cloud covered by midday. Black-necked grebe still floats about Cresswell, and red-throated diver aplenty off Druridge Dunes. News of a northward ivory gull in Durham raised pulses slightly, hopefully a pinned down individual will be subject of the next blog entry...