Unusual Suspects

Wednesdays ' commute home from work was abnormal, with a diversion to Ryhope to see the Scop's Owl that had been found earlier in the day. Armed with only my iPhone, I was dependant upon others generosity to view through optics...

Great view all considering, and perhaps a venture back should the owl remain.

Nearer home, on the return journey, another unanticipated bird - a nightjar - at St Mary's. Still without any optics of my own, other folks Scope's were put to use, even though the subject was roosting a mere few feet away!

Saturday saw a trip north - this time armed with camera and scope...

Goswick GC has held an obliging immature Long-tailed Skua this week - and some crippling views were obtained. Seems this bird has taken a fancy to try and eat golf balls - pecking furiously! Yellow-browed Warbler also present.

The return journey saw a pit stop at Stag Rocks, where only one of the Black Terns was picked up offshore - thankfully for me it was the White-winged.

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.

Early Rise

Down the coast

With a bright morning ahead I opted to try for another go at the drake black scoter, this time armed with a digital compact and scope ~ as can be seen below, I've lost any ability to digiscope - couldn't see the bird on the camera screen and the pictures were awful!...

Lots' of swallow moving north and two long-tailed duck lingered.

Further south I popped in to have a look at marsh harrier - 1 male noted, along with sedge warbler, grasshopper warbler, and further south again, 2 avocet on Cresswell.

West Hartford was quiet on Sunday - my first swallow and house martin were appreciated...

Black Scoter ~ display posture

No apologies for the poor quality image, the scoter flock was a considerable distance and it was approaching 20:00... however, several others have commented on the display posture and apparent calling from the drake black scoter - here's an image of the former from it's first night off Stag Rocks... Thick neck is illustrated rather well here.

Black Scoter, Stag Rocks: Record Shots...

Struggled to get anything decent on the drake black scoter - a combination of dull evening light and a not so close subject. Great thru' the scope, but tricky even with the 2.0 extender on the 500mm...

Still, my first UK tick of 2011 and a new county bird!

The journey up with Phil was just about to become tedious as we left the speedy A1 dual carraigeway and progressed north on the single lane north of Morpeth... but the casual westward drift over of the presumed just-left-east-chevington immature white-tailed eagle gave us a conversation point for the rest of the drive! The eagle was getting a lot of gip from some jackdaw, but our "right place, right time" gave us a fly over no more that 20 meters infront of the car and a height of only thirty feet!!

The thin line of the scoter flock can just be made out on the image below...

Black Scoter, Stag Rocks...

Just back from a late afternoon to dusk visit to Stag Rocks for the drake Black Scoter... Record shots online Friday...

Three dips and a BG

The plan was quite simple for Saturday morning - head up early morning to Holy Island, tick off the red-rumped swallow in the village and then have leisurely potter to the Lough for crippling views of the male bearded tit. We'd then head for Budle to take in the snow goose before heading to Stag Rocks for coffee and a sea watch.

That was the plan.

The reality was slightly different. Route was accomplished bar all the birds listed above!

No sign of the red-rump in the village from first light, and a walk to the Lough only provided a few mute swan and bathing herring gull. Tides were unfavourable so we had to bee off island by mid morning, and our stops along Budle Bay only provided barnacle and grey-lag geese. Maybe the snow goose is back with the others at Fenham-le-moor ;-)

Stag Rocks was a little better with the black guillemot detectable by binocular, and photographed (albeit very badly) with the 1.4 and 2.0 extenders stacked onto the 500mm. While we were watching the bg a kingfisher flew north, over the "stag" rock and round into Budle Bay. Half a dozen long-tailed duck were also present, along with red-throated diver, shag and eider. Could not see any slavonian grebe...

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.