Legs and Co

Headed north mid morning after the heavy rain took a break, with Beadnell Bay being the first port of call. 

The Lesser Yellowlegs, albeit distant, was  readily available on the flash north of the Long Nanny burn, with Little and Arctic Tern flying over the dunes too.

Further north at the flooded fields near Hoppen Kiln the Pectoral Sandpiper was added to the day list, along with a Wood Sandpiper and four Garganey (1 drake). On the roadside a Tree Sparrow was nesting.

West Hartford was enroute home, and a flyover Yellow Wagtail was a bonus. On the flash were two Shelduck and a single Moorhen, while the reeds continue to hold many Reed Bunting. Swift were in their tens over the River Blyth.

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

Chesty

A late morning - early afternoon potter up the coast with Mark produced a fair selection, given the time of year. First stop was Cresswell - a Pectoral Sandpiper had been found the day previously, and was still showing today, albeit on the northern edge of the north pool. Record shots only today, but I can't complain as I've had better Pecs' in the past.

Avocet still present at Cresswell along with yellow wagtail, and a bit further north, long-eared owl was only heard today. Marsh harrier were noted in a couple of localities,with both a male and female seen.

No sign of the apparently still present red backed shrike at East Chevington in "early spring" rather than "mid summer" conditions...

Distant Pec Sand

County tick, pec, chips and a sermon

Started Saturday's birding at Stag Rocks with Mark. After several years of trying we finally connected with black guillemot - a county tick for us both, a species which has been a bit of a bogey until now. BG's winter on the Farne's in small numbers and occasionally can be scoped from Stag Rocks. Today we were very lucky, as a single bird was about 400m offshore. Also seen during the watch were several guillemot, a gannet, red-breasted merganser, three red-throated diver, eider, bar-tailed godwit, oystercatcher and redshank. Interestingly there were no scoter offshore.

Monks House pool had held a snow goose for the past couple of days, but there was no sign on Saturday morning, just a few grey lags with mallard, shoveler and many black-headed gull. We later learnt that the snow goose was at Budle... and we had headed back south, via Swinhoe and it's amusing signpost -


Our next stop was the Beehive flash where a pectoral sandpiper had been reported off and on for a couple of days. Initially there was no sign and it was not until we drove off that the pec was seen (from the moving car) sunbathing in the long grass on the northern edge of the pool, hence the quirky shot below.

Next stop was the obligatory visit to the fish quay at North Shields for a nice portion of pie and chips, with a sab's on the side. Unfortunately for us, the pie and chips won the initial port of call, and after devouring them we discovered that the sabine's gull had been and gone while we were eating! This bird has lingered for a week now, but is becoming more mobile, spending time at both North Shields and South Shields. We had a check of Tynemouth Haven on route back home but there was no immediate sign.

My evening was spent back at the O2 Academy in Newcastle where Reverend and the Makers were performing. Pre-show was spent feeding up at the Canteen and Bar where a rather tasty steak and kidney pie was much enjoyed along with some rivot catcher beer. They were very good indeed, and with a Saturday 10pm curfew, continued their show (albeit Jon McClure and an acoustic guitar) in the car park adjacent to the venue!

After the show I managed to see a further two species - insomnia-ridden black-headed gull feeding on Clayton Street, Newcastle at 23:00, and barn owl - sitting on a roadsign on the A1/A19 slip-road.

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.