Afterwork...

Cormorant takes a bite! 

Spring Ice

The Iceland Gull remains at QEII, and was perhaps more apt given the cold conditions today. Otherwise, new birds for the year included Blackcap, House Martin, Swift (including an aberrant bird at DBCP - white bellied and white streaked on upper parts). 

The now dapper Long-billed Dowitcher continues at Cresswell, albeit a tad too far for the camera this  morning.

Openings

Day 1 of 2016 was a humble affair, with a couple of mild pottering in the afternoon. Pottering 1 saw a quick visit to the delights of Killingworth and the smaller portion of the lake. Our quest was simple - the redhead Smew, which has remained teasingly close to Cramlington with residencies at both the private Shasun pool and over at Big Waters.

Ascot was not productive Asio-wise, but a number of common year list padders sufficed.

Pottering 2 was later in the afternoon, with a jaunt to West Hartford; fine views of hunting Barn Owl were obtained.


Day 2 has weather-wise been a torrid affair, the birding somewhat better though.

QEII Park at Washington provided great views of a 2nd Winter Iceland Gull. No camera other than the iPhone, so I tried my hand at "digi-binning" with moderate success...

Pity the BHG wasn't the main photographic objective, however a record shot of the Iceland I guess....

With the smell of success from the comfort of the car, destination two was to be a similar mission - Widdrington providing Great Northern Diver from the driving seat.

My arrival at East Chevington was made somewhat better with a Lesser Redpoll on the trackside. The North Pool still had the Slavonian Grebe along with some more usual suspects - including a nice party of Red-Breasted Merganser.

Heading up the road to Druridge Bay Country Park provided the biggest surprise of the trip - rolling down the bank to the water sport car park I noticed a bulky bird hunted on the grass next to the gravel path. Stopping, winding down the passenger window I raised my bins to be confronted by a stinking Pomarine Skua! Bizarre!

With the "success" of the Iceland Gull digi-binning I set my self up to grab a record shot - only to find the bird had lifted.... No sign anywhere despite a good look round the pool / car parks...

Druridge Pools did not provide any Water Pipit, but in compensation 1 drake Pintail and a scabby drake moulting Scaup were noted.

Cresswell appeared Dowitcher-less, but there was a chance it was handled up somewhere out of view. A few Snipe, 1 Water Rail and hods of Wigeon / Teal.

At Snab a half hearted sea watch in the wind, rain and depleting light did not provide much out of the ordinary - 1 Gannet, Kittiwake, Fulmar and a few Guillemot. Newbiggin didn't produce anything either - not even a Mediterranean Gull! Sea was spectacular though....

Final stop, River Blyth - few waders added to the day list and not much else.

Thaw?

A late afternoon visit to North Shields was productive, with the near adult and 2w iceland gull both present - the near adult remaining on the quay roof-top, while the 2w was a little more adventurous, dropping onto the water as the late afternoon murk turned to dusk...

2w and near-adult iceland gull almost together on the rooftop

Dropped in just as it started getting dark (100mm-400mm @ 400mm...)

Backlit Iceland

A lovely sunny morning despite feeling under the weather myself. Met Mark mid morning at North Shields Fish Quay and soon were watching the near adult iceland gull. Always good to see but tricky to get an angle on it that wasn't directly into the light as it flew over the river.

Might have to give this another go sometime...

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.

Gull.goose.duck

Saturday morning dawned reasonably bright, so Mark and I headed up the coast for a casual potter.

First stop was Newbiggin, where four adult and one 2nd Winter Mediterranean gull were readily available. It was cold and cloudy, so I did not venture onto the beach for any photographs - I'll save that for when the adults are developing their black hoods.


At Woodhorn Flash the goose flock was smaller and distinctly white-frontedless, we later found a larger and Greenland white-fronted inclusive flock (the four birds that have been present a week or so now) just north of Woodhorn Church.

Note in the photograph how much smaller than grey-lag geese the white-fronts are, along with the overall darker plumage, orangey bill and thin white trailing edge to the tail. These first winter birds don’t have much in terms of barring on the belly yet and the "white-front" is restricted. Click the image for a bigger and sharper version!

Druridge held three then four smew, including the 1st winter drake – I think this may be the first I’ve seen in this plumage. All four smew kept to the nothern side of the pool, which is a pity. The pools also held wigeon, mallard, teal, goldenye, red-breasted merganser, while overhead the predominantly pink-footed geese flock passed over a couple of times. It transpired later that the tundra bean geese (3) were also in the area today, so it’s feasible that we could have seen these had we looked!

At Blyth we had no luck with the droopy winged 2nd winter Iceland gull, it was reported later in the afternoon, so I’ll try again some other time.

And that was that, bacon and eggs were calling at Birdingsometimes HQ.

Nice to see Northumberland waxwing reports increasing and taiga & tundra bean geese reported in unusually high numbers today. This is proving to be an interesting time…

Sunshine and ice

After hearing about 5 jack snipe that had been seen at West Hartford earlier in the week I headed out into the marsh with Mark late morning.

No jacks, but several non-jacks lifted, plus 35ish teal and the occasional wren and reed bunting. The main pool held a pair of shelduck and the usual mix of gulls. Three roe deer were feeding in the western section of the field.

Blyth Harbour still held an increasingly bleached single iceland gull - I expect it will move on shortly. Also in the harbour were several eider, five kittiwake, cormorant, herring gull, rock pipit and pied wagtail.



An attempt at purchasing chips was curtailed not once but twice... with chippies at Blyth and Seaton Sluice having queues out onto the street.



Distinctly warm today, the spring migrants should be teaming up the UK now!

Early Doors

An early morning birding with Mark began at Blyth South Harbour, where the two immature iceland gull were readily available, standing (almost) together on the harbour buildings next to the gated pier. After a quick cuppa we headed off to St Mary's, where the long staying water pipit was soon located on the beach, along with several rock and one meadow pipit, plus some purple sandpiper, ringed plover,oyc etc. One red-throated diver headed north, while the wetland held gadwall, teal, mallard and wigeon.

Northumberland reports on the pager and blogs today include green-winged teal at Bothal Pond, adult iceland gull at Amble Harbour, smew at Bolam Lake... so a bit more stuff in the county to get me out the house tomorrow... ?

Blyth White Wings

It was another bright winter afternoon so I headed down to Blyth South Harbour where two iceland gull have recently been frequenting. Initial scanning of the harbour did not produce much, only a few herring, great black back and black-headed gull, long with a single red-breasted merganser and up to twenty eider. Feeling a bit despondent I started to work my way back from the harbour master building and quickly picked up an apparent immature iceland gull in flight - great! Moving closer to the area where the bird was I was surprised to find BB... photographing it on the water (initial reaction was that this was a glauc, bill was very two-tone... see Northumbrian birding blog to see why its' an iceland, a great advert for digital photography in use while birding) Not much later a second bird arrive, both lingered, allowing several photographs to be taken, although the light soon became tricky as the sun began to set. One bird was distinctly browner toned than the other, I expect this is down to individual wear, tear and bleaching through the birds life-cycle.

Glaucoides 2 of 2

Driving back home after a successful trip to North Shields I was pleasantly suprised to find that the large pale gull feeding on the roadside at South Beach (Blyth) was another iceland gull!

This is probably the bird that I dipped a week or so back in the harbour, and I assume its the bird that Brian (Northumbrian Birding) had seen a few days ago. Iceland gulls - they're just like buses eh, none for ages, then 2 on the same trip!

I pulled the car over (shunted up onto the verge) and managed to grab a few record shots hand holding the 500mm - blasting the shutter in the short gaps between the bemused cars that were passing. The gull soon lifted and drifted over the houses, presumably to another verge to feed. A great end to a short trip out.

Glaucoides 1 of 2

Headed to North Shields Fish Quay this morning, a trip that started well with ten waxwing at Blyth - feeding on bushes just east of the railway crossing. Pulled the car over and got the camera out... and they'd gone!

My arrival at NSFQ was rewarded with the immature iceland gull flying straight past the car - great!

I spent the next hour or so watching and photographing this delightful gull, with a short break to enjoy some chips courtesy of Mark. At 13:10 it was time to leave, but not until I blasted out a few shots of the gull which had decided to feed on the water opposite where we were standing!

Snow but no ice...

A quick trip to Blyth was 50% successful - I could not locate the immature iceland gull that has been frequenting the south harbour, but two snow bunting were readily available - feeding on the small sand dunes just over the wall. Although flighty, the snow bunting provided some delightful photographic oportunities in nice light. Upon arival home the iceland gull was reported again on the pager - so maybe I'll try again...