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...

Beard, Neck, Throat etc.

Spent an hour or two up at East Chevington on a blustery "spring" morning with Mark. Some decent birding was had, with the long staying Red-necked Grebe, three Long-tailed Duck, a quick visit from the Black-throated Diver and, more surprisingly a fly-by Bearded Tit.

On the beach, a couple of Snow Bunting provided entertainment, with a lonesome Whooper Swan on the sea..

iPhoned male Snow Bunting...

And some iphoned video...

Rock hard

Day 2 saw the team heading up Cairngorm, in search of grouse and buntings. First port of call saw a single female black grouse flying past the parked car, while reds gave themselves up not long after.

The car park was quiet, so with cold weather gear on we started the moderate climb up alongside the mountain railway. Fresh snow began to dictate our route, and a good call from John B saw us heading south in search of snow free patches.

Within a few steps we were halted by an incredibly obliging party of ptarmigan - two females and a vocal male. The next few minutes were spent in admiration of the mountain specialists, with unanticipated good views...

With mission accomplished it was time for the easier stroll / slide back to the car park, but not until the customary team picture.

Back in the car park a small of snow bunting were picked up - maybe 20 birds in total but very mobile - a few smart males in the group:

Little Snow

But still enough to be a pain, so much for Spring....

Took the bike down to a raw feeling Blyth this afternoon, it was high tide with a rough sea, so the relative sanctuary of the harbour was to be the birding destination. And jolly good it was too.

Four little gull continue to show extremely well between the piers - with the feeding taking place only yards away I wish I had troubled myself to bring the SLR down... but no, the bike list demands light travel, so the new Powershot was taken.

Flight photography is very tricky when using the LCD screen, so I took many a "part" little gull and a heap of blurred images in the difficult windy conditions.

One record shot;

More obliging for the point and click was the snow bunting - nicely pointed out by Brian.

On the little beach between the piers a few waders fed - sanderling, turnstone and one purple sandpiper.

Sunshine and snow

Ventured to Blyth this morning to catch up with the snow bunting south of the cemetery. A small stubble field with amazing ability to conceal the hords of feeding finches and buntings ... Really good to see high numbers of yellowhammer, along with tree sparrow, chaffinch and a mere 5 snow bunting (which took a while to pick up). In addition a pair of grey partridge were useful. The journey back via the river added turnstone and red breasted merganser, while the Horton burn was decidedly quiet.

Desert Wheatear, Newbiggin

I spent a pleasant hour or so with the 1w desert wheatear this morning. The bird was rather obliging, feeding on the muddy banks and beach south of Beacon Point. At one point the wheatear landed within 50cm... (a tad too close for the auto focus).

A moderate selection of photographs were taken, some of which should appear here later in the week, as nightshift beckons.

A single snow bunting fed on the path north of Beacon Point.

Indulgence

I do love a patch tick...

1st day of winter: SNOW ALREADY!

More on the snow in a bit...

Started the day back in Cleveland for what turned out to be a very quiet potter around Saltholme and Dormans Pool with Mark and John B. Plenty of birds but little of note...

This afternoon the pace quickened, with a couple of hours back at trusty West Hartford. No harrier today (tho GM did manage a marsh harrier elsewhere in Cramlington today), but a minimum of two short-eared owl hunted the fields. I fear it will be a tricky species to nail photographically speaking...

Every time I locked focus on one it did this...

Into the grass... again!

Still, they're a pleasure to watch. As the first night of winter encroached, one bird settled on a not too distant (but not as close as I'd like) post.

And it was while snapping away at this when the phone range - STH with some exciting news. MH had had a snow bunting on the road leading into the site - luckily West Hartford has a few "marker" points - in this case it was on the road next to the discarded bath! I expect the snow bunting find eclipsed MHs' 1999 short-toed eagle adrenalin rush.

I proceeded calmly to the aforementioned spot and within a minute or two found the snow bunting on the overgrown pathway near the bath - bingo, a Cramlington tick! Light was seriously fading now, so a few record shots were rattle off (albeit not as late in the day as GM ended up taking - check these out!

This is the second snow bunting at West Hartford - Brian aka Northumbrian Birder had one a winter or two back, but it was todays' bird that furnished the Cramlington (ir)regulars with this species. Great end to the first day of winter!

Frosty start. Snowy end.

Mark and I headed to the "hawfinch hedge" just west of Morpeth this morning... and it was a cold one at that, saved by a beautiful blue, cloudless sky. A two hour vigil was suitably hawfinch-less, though marsh tit was appreciated.

We failed to locate any of the white-fronted geese at Woodhorn, though chips at Newbiggin were consumed while watching a couple of Mediterranean gull scavenge around the car park.

Blyth was the next port of call (pah!), and it was thanks to Brian that we connected with a distant red-necked grebe at the river mouth. Our journey back to the car was interrupted by six snow bunting, that photographically saved the day...

The final stop of the outing was the Burton House pub in Cramlington, where an apple-less apple tree failed to retain any of the waxwing that had been enjoyed a few days ago. No sign of the blackcap either!

A later report on the pager mentioned that there were 16 waxwing at the Shaw garden centre in Cramlington ~ while approx 40 were noted by Birdingsometimes Senior in Alexandra Park yesterday... probably the flock on the move...

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...