Perspectives

Cycled the burn this morning, little of general interest, but a relative patch mega to finish the trip...

Highlights - noticeably high numbers of redwing, 1 fieldfare, grey heron, 2 moorhen, siskin. No egrets today but... A dipper - only the second winter we've had one.

i-binned...

Waxdipping

With a week of nightshift beckoning, a grey day reflected my mood - until the familiar trill of waxwing got my attention...

Initially 50 birds were present around the house this morning, while a venture out on the bike later on in the afternoon resulted in 21 lingering towards the park. The light was dreadful today, more of a "murk" in fact. The flock were not particularly doing much, and despite close views, were not in classic waxwing photography position - from the underside on  dull day like today they can look merely like grey starlings.

Still, always good to see. So what next? A potter further down the Horton Burn provided a much better highlight (for me at least), with the dipper back. I managed to grab a couple of pictures before a loose dog wandered to close, pushing the dipper downstream from the road bridge. I dare say a dipper anywhere else would not be so appealing, but when its on the patch, in-between the houses no less, then its "mint-tastic". Rather enjoyed watching the dipper feeding - amazing ability to swim in the fast flowing rapids that have been swollen with snow melt.

The old fire station end of the burn failed to produce anything, so I opted for a slow meander to West Hartford, which was in turn, rather quiet. A single buzzard was mobbed by carrion crow over the back and 1 siskin flew over. It seems January will remain short-eared owl-less, unless my luck changes this week...

The BIG dipper

A very overcast morning saw Mark and I head to North Shields Fish Quay - both glaucous and iceland gull had been reported a day previous.

We parked up opposite the boat sheds and ended up walking round to the Black Middens - with no sign of either gull and very wet conditions we opted for a pit stop back at the quay for coffee and a panini (we're so sophisticated).

Meanwhile STH had arrived - so a quick text from the warmth of the cafe to Steve to inform of our presence was rewarded with a call back informing that the glaucous had re-appeared. Result.

The monster gull spent most of its time up on the shed roofs, but luckily it took a fish scrap and flew past, giving one ok photo from a flyby sequence...

High-fives all round, we then headed back to Cramlington - a journey that was intercepted by Gordon with news that he had re-located the dipper on the Horton Burn. Tensions rose as we promptly headed to the burn!

Thankfully the dipper was still present - and hopefully will remain available over then next few days for a 2013 tick. This dipper is the first to be really available within urban Cramlington - birds on the River Blyth are really at the periphery of Cramlington acceptability!

A single kingfisher patrolled the burn while we grilled the dipper, and to complete the set, a grey wagtail flew over the house while I de-booted on the driveway.

Not a bad morning - perhaps more exciting for me than anyone who cares to waste there time reading this drivel!

Allen Banks

I headed west this morning for a spot of birding at Allen Banks with Mark. It was a sunny if slightly windy morning, so hopes were high for a good show from our targeted migrant species.

Two pied flycatcher were singing during our visit - a very smart species in spring. Both birds were mobile, singing frequently - I assume these are very recent arrivals and have not yet established their territories yet.

Allen Banks has also proven to be reliable for wood warbler in recent years, and this mornings visit heralded just one mobile singing bird. Wood warbler is actually becoming a tricky bird to catch up with in Northumberland, so this is generally the best time of year to nail the species in the county (in 2007 there were no recorded observations in the autumn!).

Overhead swift were conspicuous and on the river itself a pair of dipper were active, taking plenty of food into a nest.

Also noted were goosander, grey wagtail, mallard, chiffchaff, blackcap, nuthatch, treecreeper and wren. Redstart was neither seen nor heard.

A quick stop-off on the journey back home produced one yellow wagtail at Whittle Dene, with a pair of swallow apparantly intent on nesting in the hide.