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...

Slav

Saturday evening had seen me out with some of the Crammy and "nearly" Crammy Birders for a few beers - so Sunday dawned a little later than anticipated.  Its been a nice day weather wise, so  I headed up to Druridge Bay Country Park for a mid afternoon stroll with the better half for bit of fresh air.

A Slavonian Grebe had been reported on Saturday, and sure enough it was still present today. Rather obliging, but into the light for the camera. Seems to be feeding well on the pool edges.

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.

The wigs on

3 wigeon at West Hartford this afternoon were the first for a while. Otherwise not much avian excitement, with a couple of hundred bhg, 3 lbbg, cg, hg. 2 grey heron dropped in and a buzzard patrolled the river Blyth banks. Hundreds of wood pigeon in the area too.

Horton Burn produced the standard winter-fare ~ grey wagtail near the old fire station and the male kingfisher mid section.

Same old

Stuff as yesterday, pretty much. Reversed the cycle route, with kingfisher and grey wagtail early on. Later at West Hartford, two short-eared owl, five+ snipe, 1 lbbg and not a sniff of the hoped for water rail!

Local

Late afternoon on the bike was uneventful at West Hartford, with only a few gulls on the pool and a meadow pipit on the track. The action so to speak was as dusk descended, with a more productive stake out adjacent the old fire station - a mix of seasons, with three barn swallow south & the arrival of winter with approx 300 pink footed geese south (22 north) a single kingfisher and a grey wagtail on the burn.

Doh!witcher

Early afternoon was spent at Cresswell - reports of a long-billed dowitcher were suffice to make up for the miscalculated weekend. Friday night was a late one, so Saturday morning on Holy Island was abandoned, while Sunday morning reports from Phil revealed that the arctic warbler was no more. Saved some petrol I guess...

The dowitcher was readily available from the hide, roosting with snipe.  It didn't do much... until the seemingly resident great skua decided to pop over for a visit. Up and off...

Forgive the picture quality - I'm test driving some new image processing software.

Hard Lad

Also present - 1 merlin (caught a dunlin), marsh harrier, greenshank, ruff and a single great-crested grebe.

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...

The darkness

West Hartford had a wintry feel this evening - despite huge numbers of barn swallow ~ the appearance of 2 short-eared owl was a pleasant surprise. 30 mallard, six teal and a grey lag goose was about all that was available to fill the note book tonight.

Not a great deal

A quick late morning venture up the coast with stops at Lynemouth (ruff, dunlin, yellow wagtail and a surprise tree pipit) then Cresswell Pond where the great skua still resides - apparently favouring coot for sustenance. No killing while we were there, unfortunately.

Gastronomic success was had at Widdrington Farm, with the consumption of two sausage rolls, a bacon pasty, chicken and vegetable pie, finishing off with Maltese slice and hot tea.

Pip!

A calling tree pipit over the house was a nice surprise while getting out the car this morning. Knew nightshift would have advantages...