Once bittern

Tales of the unexpected continue, with nightshift and tides preventing the opportunity to head to Holy Island for the UKs' 5th Siberian Accentor (!) and Isabelline Shrike, a Brucie-bonus in the form of a Bittern at St Mary's Wetland - paraded itself remarkably well, just wish I'd had the bigger lens!

Before and After

A lovely sunny day in the North-East, perfect for some household chores - a lawn to cut and a car to wash.

"Pre" all of that was spent at West Hartford, catching up with both Gordon and his previous evening find, a single ruff. Not had one at West Hartford for a few years, so good to see.

"Post" all of that was spent on the bike - heading down the coast on a journey that not only was in a head wind pretty much all the way, but also included a 100% puncture - no slowly decreasing tyre pressure, just straight to flat. Damn them hawthorn thorns!  The target of the journey was thankfully secured, with the intermittent singing marsh warbler at St Mary's Wetland. A good addition to the bike list.

Frustrating!

Lateshift duties severely restricting birding opportunities this week...

Ridley Park in Blyth yesterday was devoid of any bluetail action - 50 or so redwing along with robins and blackbird were the only migrants on offer.

This morning, St Marys' - no sign of yesterdays dusky warbler, nor todays pallas's / long-eared owl. Hods of robin, redwing (dropping in out of the mist), brambling, goldcrest, blackbird.

Journey back produced a lone woodcock lifting out of a garden in Hartley.

It just could happen...

Bits and Pieces

Selection of un-edited pictures from Saturday - light and posture can make an appearance look different in a matter of seconds. All at 100% size cropped from original RAW file / no saturation adjustment etc.

War and peace...

An interesting morning at St Mary's...

& yellow-browed too. Nice.

Dark afternoons...

Mid afternoon spent at St Mary's - nothing exceptional, but a nice scattering of wet migrants... a few spotted flycatcher, pied flycatcher, several redstart, robin, song thrush and chiffchaff. Just inland at the cemetery a couple of redwing dropped in and there were many low hawking barn swallow.

Yellow Fever

Beautiful sunny morning at St Mary's, with an elusive yellow-browed warbler finally photographed over midday. Waited years to clinch a decent image, so was happy to get a satisfactory shot in nice conditions. Used the "focus on a branch and hope it goes there" approach...

More of the same?

 ...Nearly not, as I discovered a disinct lack of memory cards when I set the camera up at St Mary's this afternoon. Thanks to AC for the lend of a compact flash card!

No easier than yesterday, but with a little assistance of the tripod (remembered it today!), a few snaps were managed as the firecrest(s) (two?) fed actively on the northern most mound.

1 woodcock flew in, a peregrine circled, and redwing frolicked... all very nice.

Crest has fallen...

Every now and then I have the smart idea that leaving the tripod in the car is a good idea, and that it's easier to photograph very small migrants hand holding the 500. Wrong!

This afternoons trip to St Mary's was on the back of promising weather, a rainy start with south easterlies. 2 firecrest and a yellow-browed warbler had already been put out on the pager, and since SMI is only a few minutes away it seemed the best bet in the decreasing amount of light that afternoons currently have.

All quiet round the wetland - I did not see or hear the YBW, but there were loads of blackbird and robin, plus a single male blackcap.

A tip off had me walking north to the first mound, where very quickly I was watching the dazzling firecrest. Had I had the tripod I suspect I may have fared better...

Plenty of amusing chat was had and tales of the Shetland rubythroat [you can get there by train apparantly :) ] were gripping. Unlike my autumn so far....

Barred on Saturday, Sprite on Sunday

A text from IF early morning saw me heading down to St Mary's rather than sit at the computer editing some of yesterdays barred warbler images. The target species this morning was only seen briefly twice during a two hour watch - pallas's warbler still alludes the camera! They're a beautiful species ~ I look forward to the day that I manage an image of a seven-striped-sprite worthy of presentation.

There was a good number of birders out, and the pallas's was enough to lure a certain stringer from northern territories.

Also of note were six tree sparrow over, plus redpoll sp in flight (mealy had been present on Saturday), siskin and a great spotted woodpecker.

Back home for coffee and lunch (I maintain the correct priorities in life), then a spot of photo editing. The barred warbler image above is a rework of an attempt from yesterday - I had not got the colour balance right after incorrectly exposing the shot in bright sunshine. Note the under-tail coverts...

Blue Sunshine

Life is somewhat complicated at the moment; my mobile phone has ceased to function and I'm on lateshift... and the rares' continue. So rather than progress a mobile phone repair or relax before another shift on the front line I opted to revisit St Mary's.

As anticipated the red-flanked bluetail continues, albeit to a somewhat larger and noisier crowd of observers than Sunday morning.

Why do people feel the urge to rush the bird? This beauty has an established feeding routine and with patience, will stop close by inbetween insect sorties. Rant over.

What a cracker this bird is...

Bird on a wire: Bluetail

I was thoroughly fed up on Saturday evening - having worked an early shift at work disrupted with rarity news at Newbiggin and dipping the dusky warbler at Tynemouth and topping it all - driving past St Mary's oblivious to the presence of a red-flanked bluetail.

So it was clear - set the alarm and get there early on Sunday. Which I did. Though not quite as planned! Alarm was quickly silenced, I got dressed, headed downstairs... only to find it was not yet 5am... doh! I'd left my alarm on for work! So back to bed, with a 7am alarm set.

Up at 7, out by 10 past, parked up at Hartley at half past and at the north of the wetland by quarter to eight. It was very murky, and there were already a few birders searching the area.

I bumped into EB who kindly informed of the birds behavior yesterday, so together we stood and waited... and out of nowhere (actually, the willow on to the left of us.)...

... 08:10 - BINGO! 

Much gesticulation ensued (oo-er), it was clearly a relief for us both!

It was still very dark, but record images were most certainly required - so with and ISO of 1250 (later bumped to 1600) and a measly 1/40th - 1/60th second exposure some satisfactory images were achieved. Image stabilisation saves the day me thinks...

The other birders on site were summoned and over the next hour were were privileged to visits from the bluetail onto the wire fence and fence posts. Have to comment that the behaviour of the gathered was good - everyone got a good view as the bluetail went about its business.

From the font the flanks can be seen really quite nicely!

Later on the bluetail expanded its feeding circuit - heading out into the "gut" - & that (with increasing birder numbers) was my cue to head on - conveniently news had recently arrived advising that there was a chance at finally cracking the Tynemouth dusky warbler.

A great start to the day - my second Northumberland bluetail after the individual on Holy Island in 2008



I'll probably weaken and put another couple of images on the blog later in the week - rarity/migrant/time permitting! Or I might even go back...

Blue tales...

Argh!!!!! 2 red-flanked bluetails - both 15 minutes away north / east from BSHQ... 1 PG Tips south of the river, dusky warbler at the mouth of the Tyne (and up at Beadnell too)...

Me? Work AM, Dipping PM.

Waited a while for the Tynemouth dusky warbler but no sight or sound, nor the great grey shrike - lots of robin and blackbird. A phone call to STH confirmed that the Newbiggin bluetail was against the odds, though there was a rumour of another at St Mary's (oh how we giggled... no one knew who was claiming it etc...)

Headed back and opted not to check St Mary's a the tide was in and the red-breasted fly was on the cut off island.

Grrrrrrrrr!!!!!!

Lesson learned?

Barred Warbler

Mid-to-late afternoon was spent watching / glimpsing the immature barred warbler just north of St Mary's - feeding alongside blackcap, whitethroat, chiffchaff, robin and song thrush on the rifle butts.

Cracking bird but camera shy!

Finish nightshift Friday morning, so hoping for a decent weekend...

Here we go?

Woke up just after 13.00 and after a quick check of the pager over breakfast (great grey shrike Holy Island, yellow-brows, woodchat, shorelark etc to the south...) I headed out, back to St Mary's.

Pager reports from the morning had suggested new arrivals - 3 pied flycatcher, 4 redstart etc... but my visit was quieter. Much quieter!

One redstart, several goldcrest, a single brambling and not much else. Robin and thrush numbers less than yesterday.

Arriving home local news informs of another shorelark (closer to home than the earlier report), continued yellow-brows, a barred warbler etc all within striking distance...

Maybe tomorrow?

Here we go...

With a week of nightshift looming and extra working hours to cover absence, I took a trip to the coast this morning to try and cash-in on the favourable weather conditions. Two visits to St Mary's - 11-12, 13-14hrs... Visit one was most productive, with 3 - 6 brambling, tens of arriving redwing, robin, blackbird, goldcrest, 3+ blackcap and a garden warbler.

Inbetween St Mary's I ventured in to Whitley Bay Cemetary (where I'd had pied flycatcher on Sunday) - little of note, plenty of robin "ticking" and many blackbird.

Lots of good birds being picked up on the Farnes... and Sacha reports lots of goodies "fresh in" on Norfolks' Blakeney Point (he's had to make do with hen harrier and short-eared owl circling above him as he grilled the flycatcher sp!... along with osprey, jack snipe and many common migrants...).

Could be a stressful week ahead!

Chatting & Spotting

Here are a few images from yesterdays afternoon potter with some fall migrants. The weather here in the north-east has settled somewhat and only a few of the migrants are being reported today - it may be a while before conditions return to favourble. 

The whinchat pictured to the above and below is the same individual - a mobile bird at Seaton Sluices' "Rocky Island". 

The spotted flycatcher presented below was one of two birds at St Mary's - actively feeding at the top of the wetland. I wasn't quick enough to capture the glorious male redstart that was also present. Forgot to mention yesterday that in addition to the birds listed, there was also a single tree pipit over too.

Catching up with the migrants

Messed up by not getting out on Tuesday, so today I tried to make amends. A pleasant trip was had birding from Seaton Sluice - St Mary's - Whitley Bay Cemetery.

Numbers were low but a reasonable selection was had;

Whinchat - 1 @ SS
Wheatear - 2 @ SS
Reed Warbler - 1 @ SS
Spotted Flycatcher - 2 @ SM
Pied Flycatcher - 1 @ SM
Great Spotted Woodpecker - 1 in the "gut" at SM
Redstart - 1m @ SM

No sign of the reported Barred Warbler / Wood Warbler at SM.

Hopefully there will be more to come, late Northumberland  news from today included booted, greenish, marsh warblers, ortolan bunting, more wryneck....

1/3

Just returned from a third visit to St Mary's for this week. It's the second "dip" on the elusive greenish warbler, and thanks to a price increase by North Tyneside council, I've only wasted £1.20 in parking fees - less than others who have not caught up with this county rare. That's a 1 in 3 strike rate for me so far.

A beautiful morning no less, with common whitethroat and willow warbler in the "gut", sandwich tern off shore and the occasional barn swallow over. Robin "ticking" gave a nice autumn feel to the air.

The East Yorkshire twitch is still on hold (and unlikely to happen) as lateshifts at work and a much looked-forward-to Muse concert in Manchester on Saturday obstruct.

Shifts next week are better for some birding, so if the east coast continues its good run there should hopefully be birds to go and look at...

Greenish before work...

A text from IF got me moving towards St Mary's this morning - a greenish warbler was showing intermittently near the dipping pool. No photographs in my brief sortie, but  some good banter with the lads was had. News of barred warbler near the rifle butts had a few trekking north, but a text just received is negative. With the Bonaparte's gull seemingly settled at Whitburn Steele it looks like the pace is quickening...