Cold and Quiet

Not too much to see in Druridge Bay this morning - the blue skies were brief as cloud covered by midday. Black-necked grebe still floats about Cresswell, and red-throated diver aplenty off Druridge Dunes. News of a northward ivory gull in Durham raised pulses slightly, hopefully a pinned down individual will be subject of the next blog entry...

Newtons Second Law

....Newton's second law of motion pertains to the behaviour of objects for which all existing forces are not balanced. 

A week off work and glorious sunny late November day - too good to start any decorating, my "forces" were clearly not balanced today, so a wander (ah, motion) up the coast back to the Newton area for a walk, a bit of birding and a delicious crab cake or two at The Ship. All hardships...

No "proper" camera today, just the trusty iPhone for scenary  and for the lingering Lesser Grey Shrike, a scope too.

Lesser Grey Shrike - iPhone and Swarovski 'scope, just after 15:00...

Beadnell Bay - Looking north from Newton Links

Battling with the crowds

Newton Haven, post The Ship refreshments

Late shrike

A busy weekend prevented a trip to the Newton area until today - thankfully the lesser grey shrike remains, albeit helped with mealworms. Temperatures are forecast to drop over the next few days, so it will be interesting see if the shrike moves on.

Always on view near the car park, but with a habit of sitting on the "wrong" side of the hedge between feeding forays, I had a bit of luck as the sun came out and foe once the shrike wasn't obscured by branches...

A little later, the shrike headed to a cattle feeder, so an atmospheric image to end:

Dusk

A mid afternoon vigil at West Hartford did not produce anything out of the ordinary, with a single stonechat being the highlight. Thrushes were represented by redwing, fieldfare and blackbird, while decent numbers of common, black-headed and herring gull frequented the hydrated flash. Most impressive were stock dove numbers with a couple of 10+ groups descending into the River Blyth bank side trees as darkness descended.

Owl-less tonight.

Dark nights / little time

Little time for birding this past fortnight with nightshift and late shift at work - a week of earlies may grant some afternoon trips this coming week. Odd highlights have been 2 garden rares - don't get too excited, they consist of "in garden" song thrush and common gull! Collared dove have peaked 10 "in the garden at once" so needless to say the expense if seeds is increasing as the temperatures drop.

Of non-bird interest, but of digi-scoping maybe, here's an iPhone pic of tonight's moon - iPhone / 95mm Swarovski at 70x zoom. Not bad all considering.