Ring

Another venture up Druridge Bay on another sunny day. Ring-necked Duck back at Hauxley, just out of the lenses reach, and then at Druridge a Great White Egret consorting with a Little Egret...

3 Little Egret closer to home.

Viewings

Potter out this morning provides further viewings / Great white egret, garganey, little egret, Bonaparte's Gull...

Home Birds

Back in 1987 I rushed up to Cresswell Pond with my Dad to twitch our first Little Egret. Quite an uncommon bird then. 

Now? They winter in our housing estate...

3 this morning...

Prior to this I was watching unco-operative Bohemian Waxwing at Blyth - Nine birds this morning feeding at the back of a fenced off paddock of sorts.

Yesterday evening was spent at West Hartford, watching the day disappear into night. Two Cormorant and 50 Lapwing were about to be the highlight until a Barn Owl appeared, hunting the fields. Delightful.

In the suburbs

One of two, iPhone, "no handies" on the bike...

Round the doors.

Potter on the bike this morning was productive:

Great Grey Shrike still distant at West Hartford. Plus Stonechat and 60 Lapwing over.

On the Horton Burn an incredible 4 Little Egret together on the middle (park) section, plus one of the group (or another) near the old fire station.

Also on the burn, six Mallard, 1 Teal, 1 Grey Wagtail, 1 Moorhen and an obliging Kingfisher.

The weekend

Little birding this weekend but a couple of highlights -

Saturday afternoon saw a last hour of sunlight trip to Briardene for the vocal Hume's Warbler - it had been a while since my last, but constituted my 5th in the county.

Sunday afternoon saw a house tick in the form of Little Egret, flying up and down the Horton Burn at dusk. Hopefully to become a regular sight along the burn as temperatures drop for winter. 

Legs and Co

Entirely unexpected, not the bird, the views.

"Showing Well"

mmm...

Still, nice to get another go at the Stilt Sandpiper this morning, tucked in with Lapwing on the Budge Field. A few Snipe and  a Little Egret too.

Black Curlews and traffic Egrets

It was a bit frustrating to have taken the wrong road back to Cramlington from Cresswell on Saturday, so news this morning that the Glossy Ibis was still present at Lynemouth was to close to home to resist, despite having seen the two in Durham yesterday.

Bleak weather stalled the journey, but by 11:00 I was there, and so was the Ibis, or, given the inclement weather, a rather black looking curlew, stood looking confused as to why the Spanish climate was so unfavourable. Still, a decent bird (for now) in Northumberland - a blocker until a few years back!

Black Curlew

"I'm sure the brochure said the weather would be better than this"

I didn't hang round for long, opting to try for Mediterranean Gull at Newbiggin. For the first time that I can recall I could not see any there!

The sea was mighty rough too... click the image to see full size.

Low tide at Newbiggin

Closer to home, the drive across the rain-swollen  Horton Burn delivered the Little Egret - a nice ending to a purposeful mission.

The great little tawny finch

The last few days have been spent local.

Sunday saw an afternoon visit to the River Blyth to see the Great Northern Diver at the confluence of the Sleekburn.

Weekday birding has been round the doors, with a cracking Tawny Owl perched on the roadside at the delightful industrial estate near home, worth the 05:20 departure for earlyshift...

After work, mild excitement in the form of a male chaffinch in the garden - possibly the fourth "in garden" record... not sure why this species is so unusual here - less than 100m from the door I see them regularly on the Horton Burn... the next destination in this rambling post - with todays potter along revealing the Little Egret as close to the house as it could get, a kingfisher too.

West Hartford still has teal - I feel a green-winged will appear soon... and 4 wigeon, an infrequent visitor to the flash pool.

Horton Burn - The Little Egret is on this picture (the white dot on the far bank to the left of the photo... honest)

Continuing Cramlington

After the hardship of a single nightshift, I was back out round the northern delights of Cramlington on Friday 3rd, and today, 4th, a more extensive pedal driven route throughout the hamlet that Northumberland's finest new town is.

Some decent birds, Cramlington-wise over the two days, with the little egret remaining on the first trip (though not yet seen today), jack snipe, 6 grey partridge, lesser redpoll, little owl, willow tit, more great back backed gulls, the resident lesser black backed gull, kingfisher.

So... 55 patch species so far with not too much effort - and some nice easy ones still to collect.

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.

Great dull morning

Woke up with a bit of a cold developing this morning - sufficient excuse not to do any exercise (again), but not enough to prevent a potter birding.

The excitement began at home, with a garden rare - male chaffinch!

At Prestwick Carr the great grey shrike was distant, but appreciated for the 2013 year list - no camera other than the iPhone, so some practice record shots - the shrike was approximately 400 yards away, so I'm quite happy with the result:

The excitement didn't end there, with willow tit also at Prestwick Carr, and a call in to West Hartford produced my first ever little egret on the patch... happy days

Two Yanks and a Little 'grin.

Worth getting up for!

It was an early start on Sunday to get onto St Mary's just as the tide receded - for another attempt at iphone-scoping the American Golden Plover... Still not quite getting the results I had hoped for, and I'll use the blustery conditions as a contributory excuse for now...

Best of a bad bunch...

Further north at Cresswell, another American, this time in the form of a Pectoral Sandpiper occasionally came within the iPhones range for record shots. Better still were flyover little egret and a soaring peregrine - both very belated 2013 ticks!

Pectoral Sandpiper and, to the left, Ruff

Little to report...

As rare as a "Turkish Robin" (it still huts), here's a blog update. Basically work has predominated June so birding has been very limited - and in fashon true to form the birding pace has weakend with all the migrants settling to breed. West Hartford has been visited but there is nothing to report! Arcot this morning was better, with me finally making the effort to "twitch" a Cramlington rarity - Phil had found this little egret earlier in the week ~ and it looks rather settled this morning, roosting and observing from the trees in the south west corner of the pool.
The water levels here are decreasing, so waders could be a real possibility later in July...

Ring-necked and Long-eared, but no Arctic...

Headed out for my belated first UK birding trip this morning. Picked up Mark at 0800 and by 0845 we were parking up at a cold and wet Cowpen Bewley Woodland Park. In the car park there was a familiar face ~ GM aka The Liver Birder was scoping the bird feeders having already been up to and back from the main site target.

At the pool we met up with John B and James. They had arrived earlier and had the drake ring-necked duck lined up for us nicely. Presumably its the returning drake from last year. Today's views were not as close as last time - the pool is ice free, so the ducks are out towards the back. The rnd was feeding with some tufties, gadwall and coot. The weather deteriorated somewhat so we moved on...

Seal Sands was very quiet, so we quickly retired to the cafe at Saltholme. Suitably refreshed we headed off to see the long-eared owl roost. Only one bird was visible this morning, as can be clearly seen from the photograph below.



Easy, eh?


The remainder of the reserve was quiet - one little egret appeared to be having a chomp at some apples, while the feeding station outside the visitor centre was busy with greenfinch, goldfinch, fieldfare and starling.

The journey north was pit-stopped with my first visit to Rainton Meadow. Today it was possibly the most windswept part of Durham! Sure, we found the redpoll flock, plenty of lesser and mealies... but no clear coue's arctic types. Granted, the flock was mobile, and when feeding many of the birds chose the deck rather than the feeders... may be I'll try again. Siskin and goldfinch spiced up the finch flock on the hillside, while at the visitor centre, chaffinch and bullfinch mixed with great and blue tit.

West Hartford remains bleak (1 grey heron) and the Horton Burn was low on the avian activity front too...

Spots, whiskers, wits & shanks

Started the birding day at Shibton Pond in Gateshead -  arrived not long after 08:00 to a full hide and plenty of birds to look at.

The spotted crake was feeding on the far shore - my second at the site - the last one I saw here was in 1989. For convenient comparison three water rail were also out feeding - they highlight that spotted crake are really very small, with the crake dwarfed!

Fellow north-east bloggers need not worry about missed crake photo opportunities at Shibton either - the image posted here is for illustration purposes only - this fine and ringed fellow was photographed at Marazion Marsh (Cornwall) in October 2007.

Two little egret remain at the pond and I note that another was noted on the River Tyne a little later after we had left. 1 greenshank was also noted.

We met John B and James at Saltholme just after nine, and it wasn't long before we were watching the immature whiskered tern (now approaching a months residence). A tick for Phil, albeit distant in the middle of the west pool. Frustratingly that's where it remained throughout our two watches from the roadside, even when fly-catching it remained faithful to the central part of the pool - never in contention for a photograph.

Wader species were well represented, with dunlin, ruff, ringed plover, greenshank, redshank, spotted redshank, black-tailed godwit and lapwing present and at least twelve little egret. Coot were very well represented on the east pool and a single black-necked grebe consorted with little and great-crested relatives. Yellow wagtail are still present on the reserve.

So no images from today but a nice few hours out catching up with the lads, with a few decent birds to boot.

Highlight for all was the "9 item" breakfast at the visitor centre...

Gateshead Egrets & Cleveland Whiskered Tern

As expected,  I pointed the car south today, picking up Mark prior to a quick stop-off at Cousin Robs' former patch to see the four little egret that had arrived earlier in the week.

Part of a mini-invasion to the region these four represent the first record for Shibton Pond and birds 2 - 5 for the Gateshead area (a colour ringed bird on the River Derwent has also been recorded recently - it was a juv from Norfolk that had been recorded at Bishop Middleham previously).

So a good start, albeit if the birds were un co-operative photograph wise, choosing to roost on the island throughout our visit. A lone barnacle goose looked thoroughly out of place with the canada goose flock.

Teesside was the next destination, and in true form I've continued my inability to photograph whiskered tern in the UK... This was my 4th encounter but my first juvenile, having seen adults at Pennington Flash (Greater Manchester), Lound (Notts) and three at Swillington Ings (Dipping collared pratincole, North Yorks).

Got out the car at the reclaimation pond, climbed the bank and promptly had the bird fly low over our heads off to to Saltholme. At Saltholme the bird was roosting distantly on the west pond, so we took opportunity for a cooked breakfast at the visitor centre.

Upon our return we discovered that the tern was back on the reclaimation pool, so that's where we headed. Good but distant views continued as the tern fed over the water (in company with a 1s little gull), and eventually the bird came in close - one unsatisfactory soft focus shot on approach (above) then I was completely unable to achieve focus lock on the camera as it drifted slowly over our heads again.... grrr!!!, much cursing followed.

The tern then settled distantly onto Dormans Pool - and with that we moved on - this was not going to be a good day for rarity images!

Saltholme was quiet - one little egret, a few black-tailed godwit,  a yellow wagatil and not much else of note. Greatham Creek was both spotted redshank and avocetless... and with that we headed back to Northumberland.

The Oriental Express

Spent an enjoyable day out with Phil of Crammy Birder fame in Lincolnshires' Frampton Marsh. Predictably this visit was a twitch for the oriental pratincole. It was positive news on the pager early morning, so our journey down was quite relaxed. Arriving at the reserve just after 10.00, we were watching this delightful pratincole soon after, as it hawked for insects over the fields.

Our initial viewpoint was from a track just beyond the 360 hide, and viewing proved to be distant. So we walked on, and what a good vantage point the east hide prove to be, as the pratincole hawked very close indeed!

 Above - Oriental Pratincole, Frampton Marsh RSPB. Click the image for a sharper version

There were lots of "oohs" and "aahs" as this eastern mega swooped very close to the assembled mass! Occasionally the pratincole would land (weirdly always in the same spot as it had left) and many digi-scopers are sure to have got some very decent images. It was in flight when photography was more of a challenge as this bird could really shift as it hawked! I've a load of "blurredpratincoleinsky" shots, some of which don't even have the "blurredpratincolein"...!!! However, I had a lucky flypast where a sequence were nearly in focus and (more importantly for me) the light was suffice so that you could see the smart plumage and colouration of this bird without too much need for photoshop editing. 

The oriental pratincole was a significant bird for me - it completes my UK set of pratincoles (those recorded so far anyway!) and it was my 400th UK tick. (!)

In addition to the pratincole there was some good birding to be had - wood sandpiper, little-ringed plover, garganey, corn bunting, little egret, three 1s little gull, dark-bellied brent geese were all nice padders, while we missed both temmink's stint and curlew sandpiper.

The journey back north was broken with a time-constrained visit to Potteric Carr. What a huge reserve! Arriving after 15.00, we had to be back to the car by 17.00 (note to self - don't park in the gated car park next time!). After paying for a permit Phil and I headed as quickly as we could to the St Catherine's field area of the reserve where we instantly could hear the very vocal iberian chiffchaff singing in trees on the M18 embankment. Cracking! Annoyingly we could not see the chiffie, though others could, albeit very briefly.

Time moved quickly and it was not long before we had to head back to the car - a shame for Phil - a tick so near but so far... There'll be others. And with that we headed back, arriving at 19.00, exactly 12 hours after we had started our day. Exhausted but well worth the effort!

Chevington

I spent a couple of hours at East Chevington on Monday afternoon - just after a little egret had met it's demise on the south pool - all that was left was a lifeless heap of white feathers on the mud near top corner. Good start eh!

On the south pool (and still alive) were plenty of lapwing, three bar-tailed godwit, 2+ greenshank, 5 dunlin, 1 common sandpiper plus plenty of black-headed gull and a few grey heron.

The north pool was busier - two 1s little gull, plenty of arctic/common and sandwich tern, 12 knot (one colour ringed - white on right, red/green(flag)/yellow on left.) ringed plover, cormorant and most surprisingly - a single brent goose... winter is here already??? The presence of reed warbler and grasshopper suggested it may still be summer.

Looking forward to the pace picking up soon...

Again no photographs... I'm sure I caught my camera trying to ring the Samaritans to talk about abandonment...

Quick video clip below is of a new cure show soon to be released... Paris 2008. Bit like my July birding... it's never enough.

Arcot 2 - West Hartford 0

A text message from STH yesterday evening lightened up what had been a relatively dull evening.

Steve had just found an adult little egret at Arcot. Nationally not very significant, county-wise good and Cramlington-wise, MEGA!! A great find and long awaited addition to the Cramlington list. As good a record as it is, it's even more remarkable to think that Arcot has scored for two egret species within a month!

The little egret was, like the great white, made most unwelcome by the grey heron frequenting the pool - after a brief chase around the pool the little egret flew up and landed in the trees to the west of the pool - to roost? Nah,to get a better view of it's escape route - it flew high east at about 20.40...

I always thought that West Hartford would be the place to find an egret - I've been proven wrong twice now!

Patch birding - great stuff!