From Dusk till...

"Made do" with a Dusky Warbler at Tynemouth this morning, albeit in heavy rain - no images, so some more from yesterday... the bizarre "influx" continues, with another, yet another closer to home!

Northumberland must have one too?

Frustrating!

Lateshift duties severely restricting birding opportunities this week...

Ridley Park in Blyth yesterday was devoid of any bluetail action - 50 or so redwing along with robins and blackbird were the only migrants on offer.

This morning, St Marys' - no sign of yesterdays dusky warbler, nor todays pallas's / long-eared owl. Hods of robin, redwing (dropping in out of the mist), brambling, goldcrest, blackbird.

Journey back produced a lone woodcock lifting out of a garden in Hartley.

It just could happen...

Birding Hong Kong: Part 2 of 2

To complete the loop here are a few more images from the HK trip... All photographs here are from the January 1st visit to Hong Kong Wetland Park. starting where we left yesterday, here is another crop of distant black-faced spoonbill, consorting with grey heron, little egret and great white egret. At least a few are awake in this picture! I had only taken the 100-400mm lens on this trip - given that birding turned out to have been very limited I should have really made the effort to take the 500mm / 1.4 extender...

A few white-breasted waterhen fed in the mangrove channel - they would scuttle back to the mangrove every time a group of noisy HK families paraded across the boardwalk - non birding visitors were much more interested in the mudskippers that fed on the muddy channel banks!

Dusky warbler were noted on a couple of occasions - this bird fed adjacent one of the boardwalks and was frustratingly hard to photograph as it fed frustratingly close in cover - chacking away frequently to hint at its location.

Long-tailed shrike were abundant on the reserve, and again, the 500mm would have been ideal for the better posing birds. This individual was close to the visitor centre late afternoon. Stunning birds indeed.

To complete the selection, here is another daurian redstart image - this female was feeding in shade but provides a better illustrative pose than the image from the first post.

 So that's it - short trip, very few photographs taken - but a reasonable selection given the circumstances.

As I conclude this short post, its just past midday in the north-east of the UK and temperatures outside have soared to a balmy -1.5 degrees C, and it's started snowing again... I can't wait to get out for some UK birding this weekend!

No Parking! ...Shorelark at Tynemouth

Re-visited Tynemouth this morning for another attempt at the shorelark that eluded me yesterday. The bird had become faithful to a small lawn adjacent Oxford Street car park. Quite surreal...!

A quick walk down to the priory provided hearings but not sightings of the dusky warbler... then it was a mad dash back to upload a couple of the shorelark images before work.

Bluetail still being reported at St Mary's, but no time today.

Bird on a wire: Bluetail

I was thoroughly fed up on Saturday evening - having worked an early shift at work disrupted with rarity news at Newbiggin and dipping the dusky warbler at Tynemouth and topping it all - driving past St Mary's oblivious to the presence of a red-flanked bluetail.

So it was clear - set the alarm and get there early on Sunday. Which I did. Though not quite as planned! Alarm was quickly silenced, I got dressed, headed downstairs... only to find it was not yet 5am... doh! I'd left my alarm on for work! So back to bed, with a 7am alarm set.

Up at 7, out by 10 past, parked up at Hartley at half past and at the north of the wetland by quarter to eight. It was very murky, and there were already a few birders searching the area.

I bumped into EB who kindly informed of the birds behavior yesterday, so together we stood and waited... and out of nowhere (actually, the willow on to the left of us.)...

... 08:10 - BINGO! 

Much gesticulation ensued (oo-er), it was clearly a relief for us both!

It was still very dark, but record images were most certainly required - so with and ISO of 1250 (later bumped to 1600) and a measly 1/40th - 1/60th second exposure some satisfactory images were achieved. Image stabilisation saves the day me thinks...

The other birders on site were summoned and over the next hour were were privileged to visits from the bluetail onto the wire fence and fence posts. Have to comment that the behaviour of the gathered was good - everyone got a good view as the bluetail went about its business.

From the font the flanks can be seen really quite nicely!

Later on the bluetail expanded its feeding circuit - heading out into the "gut" - & that (with increasing birder numbers) was my cue to head on - conveniently news had recently arrived advising that there was a chance at finally cracking the Tynemouth dusky warbler.

A great start to the day - my second Northumberland bluetail after the individual on Holy Island in 2008



I'll probably weaken and put another couple of images on the blog later in the week - rarity/migrant/time permitting! Or I might even go back...

Dusky Warbler, Tynemouth

Mid to late morning was spent back at Tynemouth - scene of last weeks yellow-browed warbler and yesterdays dip. Today was much more satisfactory, with the dusky warbler performing throughout, albeit high up the priory bank and in autumnal gloom. A few record images were obtained, but the warbler was typically very tricky, generally pausing behind foliage when not feeding. I was more impressed with the performance of the camera - the heavily cropped images here were taken at ISO1600!

The dusky warbler was calling throughout the visit - helping us to locate the bird on the bank side. Robin, blackbird and redwing were numerous and a redpoll flew over the car park.

News broke of a shorelark while I was there... but we couldn't locate it as it had flown off (later to be discovered a bit further west).

Blue tales...

Argh!!!!! 2 red-flanked bluetails - both 15 minutes away north / east from BSHQ... 1 PG Tips south of the river, dusky warbler at the mouth of the Tyne (and up at Beadnell too)...

Me? Work AM, Dipping PM.

Waited a while for the Tynemouth dusky warbler but no sight or sound, nor the great grey shrike - lots of robin and blackbird. A phone call to STH confirmed that the Newbiggin bluetail was against the odds, though there was a rumour of another at St Mary's (oh how we giggled... no one knew who was claiming it etc...)

Headed back and opted not to check St Mary's a the tide was in and the red-breasted fly was on the cut off island.

Grrrrrrrrr!!!!!!

Lesson learned?