Little to report

Woken by the phone this morning - and always nice to find a message regarding a patch bird - Gordon had picked up the Horton Burn little egret - and while not a Cramlington tick as such, its the first on the burn that runs through our housing estate. Add kingfisher, grey wagtail, a couple of moorhen and fly over great black backed gull and redshank (a species that eluded me in Cramlington in 2013!) and the birding atmosphere was electric.

Mega!!

Later I headed north to Stag Rocks - the grey phalarope was a doddle, feeding in the surf below the car park - mixing with the black-headed gulls.

Iphoned...

No slav grebe on view (1 great crested), but 1 black throated diver in amongst the red throats, plenty of long tailed duck, common scoter etc... and some distant gannet.

Grey Phalarope - early morning on 15th...

Only shot taken on the "dawn raid"...

Dawn Raid

Got to Hauxley prior to 8 this morning - a good move as first three birds (in order) were redshank, greater yellowlegs and grey phalarope! Phew!

Too dark for any pics, but extremely close views from wader hide (unable to focus 500mm lens)

Took some mobile phone video, it may appear here later.

Hope they stick till later in week, as it's a busy day today....

Got home and there were 20 waxwing in the tree outside the house!

From the archive: December 2002

Heres' an old one digitally speaking... rufous turtle dove at Stromness, Orkney in December 2002. Image taken thru' scope with a 3 mega pixel compact... oh the days of digi-scoping!

It was a cold overnight drive to Scrabster, then with a day return ticket, we crossed to Stromness on the ferry. Luckily the target bird was within walking distance of the Orkney ferry terminal.

A great days birding was had, with two life ticks - the rufous turtle dove, and more embarrassingly, rock dove (!)...

Supporting cast included great northern diver, grey phalarope, twite, iceland gull, black guillemot and in the highlands the next day, great grey shrike, crested tit.

From the archive: October 2007

A quiet week for me, with nightshift restricting daylight birding motivation... so here's an image from October 2007 ~ grey phalarope at Cresswell Pond. This photograph was taken on a second early morning visit to the pond when the light was decent.