Pink Stink

Spring Ice

The Iceland Gull remains at QEII, and was perhaps more apt given the cold conditions today. Otherwise, new birds for the year included Blackcap, House Martin, Swift (including an aberrant bird at DBCP - white bellied and white streaked on upper parts). 

The now dapper Long-billed Dowitcher continues at Cresswell, albeit a tad too far for the camera this  morning.

Definitely Maybe...

The first day of winter!

October has been a month of two halves; the first part was hectic with scarce migrants dominating proceedings. The latter was quieter, with overtime at work prevailing.

My last day of October was spent patrolling Ashington and North Seaton for what turned out to be elusive waxwing - not a sniff for me today!

The Cresswell area was rather quiet too - lots of lapwing on the north part of the pond, with a few golden plover, curlew, dunlin in the mix. Wildfowl was limited - c1,000 pink-footed geese flew past in the distant west, while on the pond, wigeon, tufted duck, teal, mallard, goldeneye were noted.

West Hartford looks good for some winter wildfowl, there is a lot of water in the flash - hopefully some duck will arrive soon. The only birds on the flash today were black-headed and common gull. No sign of the hoped for short-eared owl ~ we could do with a good "owl winter" as they have been scarce recently.

***

November can still be an exciting time for scarcities... it's not over yet... is it?

Wax_Ash

A drive through the northern limits of Ashington produced only brief views of waxwing ~ no more than six for me as they flew into the housing estates to the south of Woodhorn motors.

Later pager reports suggest a large re-convene of the group at North Seaton, scene of a pleasant afternoon photographing the species earlier this year - here and here and in 2006, here!.

Wouldn't mind a go with the nice autumn colours on the trees...