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.

Cresswell ~ waders, an albino and a cuckoo

A couple of hours at Cresswell this morning was very productive, with little stint, ruff, water rail, spoonbill, curlew sandpiper, whimbrel, long-tailed duck, yellow wagtail, an albino barn swallow (amazing - flew south over pool), and greenshank noted.

A great display from a couple of stoats was set to be the highlight until the very last moments - when a cracking barn owl was watched hunting over the dunes and an amazingly obliging juv cuckoo fed along the entrance track!

A bit heat-hazed...

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

Spots, whiskers, wits & shanks

Started the birding day at Shibton Pond in Gateshead -  arrived not long after 08:00 to a full hide and plenty of birds to look at.

The spotted crake was feeding on the far shore - my second at the site - the last one I saw here was in 1989. For convenient comparison three water rail were also out feeding - they highlight that spotted crake are really very small, with the crake dwarfed!

Fellow north-east bloggers need not worry about missed crake photo opportunities at Shibton either - the image posted here is for illustration purposes only - this fine and ringed fellow was photographed at Marazion Marsh (Cornwall) in October 2007.

Two little egret remain at the pond and I note that another was noted on the River Tyne a little later after we had left. 1 greenshank was also noted.

We met John B and James at Saltholme just after nine, and it wasn't long before we were watching the immature whiskered tern (now approaching a months residence). A tick for Phil, albeit distant in the middle of the west pool. Frustratingly that's where it remained throughout our two watches from the roadside, even when fly-catching it remained faithful to the central part of the pool - never in contention for a photograph.

Wader species were well represented, with dunlin, ruff, ringed plover, greenshank, redshank, spotted redshank, black-tailed godwit and lapwing present and at least twelve little egret. Coot were very well represented on the east pool and a single black-necked grebe consorted with little and great-crested relatives. Yellow wagtail are still present on the reserve.

So no images from today but a nice few hours out catching up with the lads, with a few decent birds to boot.

Highlight for all was the "9 item" breakfast at the visitor centre...

Gateshead Egrets & Cleveland Whiskered Tern

As expected,  I pointed the car south today, picking up Mark prior to a quick stop-off at Cousin Robs' former patch to see the four little egret that had arrived earlier in the week.

Part of a mini-invasion to the region these four represent the first record for Shibton Pond and birds 2 - 5 for the Gateshead area (a colour ringed bird on the River Derwent has also been recorded recently - it was a juv from Norfolk that had been recorded at Bishop Middleham previously).

So a good start, albeit if the birds were un co-operative photograph wise, choosing to roost on the island throughout our visit. A lone barnacle goose looked thoroughly out of place with the canada goose flock.

Teesside was the next destination, and in true form I've continued my inability to photograph whiskered tern in the UK... This was my 4th encounter but my first juvenile, having seen adults at Pennington Flash (Greater Manchester), Lound (Notts) and three at Swillington Ings (Dipping collared pratincole, North Yorks).

Got out the car at the reclaimation pond, climbed the bank and promptly had the bird fly low over our heads off to to Saltholme. At Saltholme the bird was roosting distantly on the west pond, so we took opportunity for a cooked breakfast at the visitor centre.

Upon our return we discovered that the tern was back on the reclaimation pool, so that's where we headed. Good but distant views continued as the tern fed over the water (in company with a 1s little gull), and eventually the bird came in close - one unsatisfactory soft focus shot on approach (above) then I was completely unable to achieve focus lock on the camera as it drifted slowly over our heads again.... grrr!!!, much cursing followed.

The tern then settled distantly onto Dormans Pool - and with that we moved on - this was not going to be a good day for rarity images!

Saltholme was quiet - one little egret, a few black-tailed godwit,  a yellow wagatil and not much else of note. Greatham Creek was both spotted redshank and avocetless... and with that we headed back to Northumberland.

WAGtales

A text from Mark stating that he was able to head to Cresswell this afternoon was (again) too much of a temptation to resist... The black-headed wagtail was immediatley on view and it continues to be watched by a steady crowd of observers. Despite good light he never came as close as the other wagtails, so it was another black-less photo session. The other wagtails were more accomodating, with the "channel", white and yellow continuing to provide entertainment. Debate increases on which wagtail is the most appealing...

"Channel" Wagtail

White Wagtail

Yellow Wagtail

Click the images for a sharper version...

Wagtails continue to show at Cresswell...

Poor image of "channel" (blue-headed x yellow hybrid) wagtail at Cresswell, photographed at sunset... the only time it came within decent range!

 Part of a great wagtail afternoon, with the black-headed still present (until 17:00), minimum seven yellow, a mixed flock of 11+ white and pied. Good stuff.

Black-headed Wagtail...

A quite afternoon editing grasshopper warbler images was shattered by a pager message not long after 11:20 - there was a male black-headed wagtail at Cresswell!! Naturally I calmly headed north to try and see this county third (and first twitchable individual), and by about 11:45 I was watching this beauty feeding in the field just north of the causeway. A stunning bird accompanied by one white wagtail and up to six flavissima.

In the two hours or so that I spent with the bird the sunny sky was replaced by thick dark clouds and for the last hour it poured with cold rain. Luckily for us the wagtail continued to feed allowing some reasonable record images to be taken. As with all images here, click the pictures to see a bigger sharper version. A heap of images were taken, and when time permits I'll trawl through them and post (hopefully) better images.

I guess there will be some discussion on the racial id, and as it stands I have no contribution to make as I simply do not know the ins and outs of yellow wagtail taxonomy!! I'll let the debate commence and watch politley from the side...