Booted off

News of the Booted Warbler at Hadston on Saturday came too late for me - experimenting with DIY had reached a point of no return...

Sunday commenced with another rapid response trip to West Hartford to collect the little stint that had dropped into say hello to the seemingly resident sanderling. Another great Cramlington year-tick.

Little Stint and Sanderling - an unlikely duo at West Hartford - picture through the scope...

With the biggy (smally?) in the bag, I headed up the coast - negative news already from Hadston, so I called into East Chevington for a decent couple of hours. The spotted crake resides, and at time has forays out into the open - chasing off snipe, redshank and teal while I was there.

A black tern dropped in and fed actively over the northern section of the north pool, while waders were complimented with spotted redshank and ruff.

Spot Shank - again through the scope

With the sun breaking through I headed to Hadston Carrs - no sign of the booted warbler, and a quick look to sea provided manx shearwater, gannet, arctic skua and hods of kittiwake.

Cresswell had greenshank, 2 spotted redshank, avocet and a ruff. Otherwise quiet.

Out of the reeds...

Another trip to Hadston this afternoon, this time with Mark. Settled conditions and a bit of sunshine were more favourable, with the marsh warbler singing out in the open for most of our visit. Mimicry today included chaffinch, blackbird, sedge warbler, house sparrow and oystercatcher.

The "Reed" Warbler...

Spent a pleasant couple of hours trying to get images of the very vocal Hadston marsh warbler this afternoon. The clouds had lifted and the rain ceased, but the wind speed was not complimentary to a singing warbler - with the majority of viewing of the bird low in the reeds/scrub.

Most views were mid-range, but on a couple of instances he came very close - only to be obscured by reed!

Still, not often you get good views of marsh warbler, so thou shalt not complain... Lots of mimicry too, with barn swallow, blackbird, oystercatcher and common tern all thrown in for good measure!

More Sykes

Alternative sykes images from the northern isles ~ http://burravoebirding.blogspot.com/

Nice comparison, albeit a more accommodating bird.

Hadston Hippo

Record shots from this mornings trip to Hadston to see the reported Sykes Warbler... Left the tripod in the car as it had been very elusive earlier on in the morning ~ all shots hand held, 500mm, ISO 1250 ~ it was very dull and cold! cropped images below are at 100% size, hopefully can contribute to the correct id of the species... booted / sykes are incredibly hard to separate & I'm not in any position to judge!!

I hear that it has showed better now that the sun is out ~ expect to see much better images to appear from others on other websites etc...