Mobile birding

A day out with Mark on a dull, cold and wet January Saturday.

Nothing in the way of decent light for photography, so the scope was brought out instead of the SLR camera. First stop was Tynemouth so Mark could catch up with the increasingly promising Lesser Whitethroat - trapped during the week, so hopefully conclusive DNA results will determine it's origin. Complemented visit with some delicious cake courtesy of Celia and a nice catch up with Colin. Some great views of the Lesser Whitethroat on the close feeding station too...

Onwards to the Tyne Tunnel and eventually, albeit in slow traffic, to Boldon. The two Glossy Ibis were still present and despite some attempts with the iPhone to photograph them, the video function prove to be better in the blustering conditions - 17 seconds of ibis action below!

Northwards after this to beloved Amble for "refreshments", via an unsuccessful stop at Woodhorn for the Greenland White-fronts. Not to worry, the chip shop was open at Amble, where from we headed back down the coast in a race against fading light.

East Chevington came up trumps with the Slavonian Grebe on the north pool, three Long-tailed Duck, hods of Goldeneye and an otter.

Druridge Pools continued to hold Green-winged Teal, my first for a few years so appreciated. In addition, Pintail, Shoveler, lots of Wigeon, and among the Redshank, a single Black-tailed Godwit.

Green-winged Teal, Druridge.

We casually checked the flooded fields to the south of Blakemoor Farm (Cresswell) just after 15:00 - no sign of the Friday single Glossy Ibis, just a Grey Heron. The fields in the general area look good for any Ibis that chooses to linger, and it wasn't with much surprise to find that it was reported again at 15:30 - Cresswell Hall Farm this time.

A cheeky check of the River Blyth didn't produce Great Northern Diver, but the final stop at Horton Burn (east end) did hold a Kingfisher (and Moorhen!).

And that was that - dusk twists into night and another day birding ceases...

Lesser 'throat & Pec

No sign of the presumed eastern lesser throat so far today, so here's another record shot from Saturday. For the record, this photo was taken at 17:55, ISO 1250 (should have bumped it up actually), 1/50th exposure, 500 + 1.4 extender, manual focus, fill flash.

Early Sunday afternoon saw me back at St Mary's - taking in distant views of the Pectoral Sandpiper on the wetland, then migrantless trudging around the north end and near-by cemetery.

Halimodendri Lesser Whitethroat

Visited St Mary's again today after news of a central asian lesser whitethroat was released on the pager.

This presumed halimodendri individual was very mobile and ended up spending most of its' time feeding high up in the willows at the north end of the wetland. The image here was taken late afternoon - 17:30 ~ 17:50 ish, and when natural light was extremely poor.

Camera focus was done manually and fill flash was used - without which I would have got no record at all.

There has been very little photoshop work in these images in an attempt to keep the as shot details of plumage as accurate as possible.

Hopefully the bird will stick and give another opportunity to get usable images...

Birding World has a good article on this form in volume 14 number 1 (January 2001 review). The bird here at St Mary's seems to match the bird in Sweden that was discussed, with reddish tone to mantle and rump, and hind-crown. Ear coverts grayish, slightly darker than crown, narrow white crescent under eye and dark lores. The bird did call once in my 4 hours spent at the site - a single high pitch "che".

If time permits and better images are not obtained, I'll post some more from this late afternoon session ...