Resuming

All of a sudden, 2018 ends and the first month of 2019 is almost over... some highlights and some images...

Snow Bunting, St Mary's Promenade December 2018. A chance to try an alternative camera body - 5D mark IV. Full frame, so some magnification lost ... but pleasing detail. 

Little Owl

Black Redstart

Glaucous Gull, Norfolk

January was busy with a good variety of species picked up in Northumberland... highlights including Firecrest, four species of Owl, Smew, Marsh Tit, Black Redstart, Snow Bunting, Chiffchaff and local Little Egrets. The final weekend was spent in Norfolk - a great place to boost the earliest and an abundance of good quality species. Highlights included Bewick's swan, Red-necked Grebe, Cattle/Great Egret, 11 species of BOP (inc Owl sp number 5, Hen Harrier, Rough-legged Buzzard), Water Pipits, Dartford Warbler, Brambling, Hawfinch and Arctic Redpoll

Rough-legged Buzzard... distant...

Little & Lesser

Little Owl - very easy to overlook!

 Headed out on the bike for a quick circuit of Cramlington, after Gordon's reports of Golden Plover and Goosander. Only successful on the later - a drake on Arcot. The Little Owl remains faithful to a favoured tree - and very easy to overlook as it lurks in a deep fork!

Later I head south to a certain residence in Tynemouth - a mis-timed visit to be honest, as the anticipated sun lit garden was almost entirely in shade. Nevertheless, the target was present, feeding on the closest feeders to the very much appreciated make-shift observation platform. An interesting bird indeed...

Lesser Whitethroat Sp.

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.

Another

Another picture of the LEO from this morning.

A bike ride this afternoon produced a little owl too... but no camera was to had. Still, a good day all round!

Little by little

Caught up with little owl this afternoon on a pleasant bike ride through Cramlington, plenty of yellowhammer too.

Not hearing much in the way of sedge or grasshopper warbler though...

Little and Large

above - great white egret, Druridge. Click the images for sharper versions...

With a bright start to the day, and no news on the Cleveland black-throated thrush, I headed back to Druridge for another look at the great white egret. Today the egret was settled on the western side of the Budge field - nice for watching but not brilliant for photography. The hopes for the egret to be hassled into coming closer to the hide by the resident grey heron did not materialise, so the attached images are with the 500mm and 2.0 extender. Not ideal, but better than yesterday I guess. This particular bird is good plumage, with ample plumes showing.

Good showing of plumes... pity the light had gone!

Waders today were represented by lapwing, oystercatcher and snipe, while numbers of black-headed gull were high. Near the hide a male reed bunting was vocal and a chiffchaff passed through the willows. Two sand martin made a brief appearance before heading off north.

above - oystercatcher

below - lapwing

As the morning progressed the light faded as cloud cover increased and the temperature dropped. Glad I left my coat in the car....

On the journey home I (at long last) managed to connect with little owl - easily over looked - they don't half blend in with the tree as they sit motionless!

above - little owl