Picking up

Spring may have finally sprung, with Cramlington year-ticks accumulated this afternoon and evening:

Willow warbler in full orchestral song at West Hartford this afternoon - maybe 5+ singing, two sand martin and a belated addition of Jay too.

Later, to the East of West, three wheatear in the ploughed field behind the football pitch - Cramlington birders duly alerted, though PA had clearly left the mobile at home.

At Laverock, a minimum of 4 tree sparrow on the territory side of the patch and a few barn swallow too.

Chiffies abundant... it's finally starting to happen...

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

Hiru

2 barn swallow at West Hartford this afternoon, brightening a rather quiet visit - with only 4 shelduck and 15 teal, 1 curlew and a couple of lapwing. Had hoped for a garganey, but there's time yet.

Chiffchaff and a willow warbler belting song out, not long till the other spring arrivals join them...

New arrivals and hangers on

A steady potter to Druridge Bay on a dull day produced a nice selection of new arrivals and hangers on.

Cresswell held 2 avocet and little else. The hoped for white wagtail could not be found on the north pool and a walk along the lane did not produce the common crane.

The journey to Druridge provided a male wheatear and some twite, while from the budge screen the 2 pintail remain and a male marsh harrier patrolled distant fields.

East Chevington produced a cream headed marsh harrier and 6 sandwich tern.

Refreshed with chips at Amble the return leg included a stop at Hauxley, where puffin covered the sea round Coquet Island (which had both Canada and grey lag geese on it), many gannet flew north and 3 barn swallow were my first of the year.

A final stop at Warkworth Lane delivered the most distant of distant common crane...

Not a bad trip out!

1/3

Just returned from a third visit to St Mary's for this week. It's the second "dip" on the elusive greenish warbler, and thanks to a price increase by North Tyneside council, I've only wasted £1.20 in parking fees - less than others who have not caught up with this county rare. That's a 1 in 3 strike rate for me so far.

A beautiful morning no less, with common whitethroat and willow warbler in the "gut", sandwich tern off shore and the occasional barn swallow over. Robin "ticking" gave a nice autumn feel to the air.

The East Yorkshire twitch is still on hold (and unlikely to happen) as lateshifts at work and a much looked-forward-to Muse concert in Manchester on Saturday obstruct.

Shifts next week are better for some birding, so if the east coast continues its good run there should hopefully be birds to go and look at...

Quiet Sunny Sunday

Spent the day re-arranging the garden feeders, hopefully to provide some photo opportunites over the next few weeks. Much coffee was drunk and a couple of chocolate doughnuts "disappeared" during the garden activities...

This colourful starling had no hesitation in trying out an old post that's cable tied to the re-hashed bird table!

An evening visit to West Hartford was pleasing with nine sand martin and a single barn swallow hawking the pool - the first of 2010 on the patch. Two shelduck remain, with up to six teal. Skylark and meadow pipit continue to sing. There were hundreds of wood pigeon loafing up and down the River Blyth wooded banks.

Grasshopper warbler was reported in Cramlington this morning, hopefully West Hartford will get a "reeler" soon.

Barn Swallow

A couple more of the american form of barn swallow ~ Navy Pier, Chicago

Chicago birds

This was the least birdy trip that I've done for a while and the holiday list was paltry. Of the few bird images taken a brief selection is included here. The picture above is a white-throated sparrow, taken in Olive Park on the Lake Michigan waterfront. Bonny birds.

This immature cedar waxwing was very confiding. Could do with another one of these in the UK! This bird appears to have a bit of cob-web stuck to it's bill. A yellow warbler was feeding above, but did not come into range for the 400mm lens. Boo.

Olive Park held a family of eastern kingbirds - and they proved difficult to photograph as they commuted via the lamp posts - teasingly flying off just as the camera was aligned.

I seem to be posting a lot of barn swallow images of late... this bird was at Navy Pier, part of a family group using boat rigging as a perch. Cliff swallow were also present, but did not alight.

[Dry pigeon.dry swallow]

July continues to experience unsettled weather in the north-east of England - it's been another dull and wet day here in Northumberland, so continuing very roughly with the pigeon and swallow themed posts of late, here are a couple of images of "dry"... pigeon guillemot (at sea, Strait of Juan de Fuca, south of Vancouver Island August 2008) and barn swallow (American form, Vancouver August 2008).

Wet Hirundo

I headed to a rainy Newton Pool with Mark this morning. After Fridays' heavy rain we had thoughts of many dumped waders on the ponds muddy shore... two common sandpiper (and no mud) were our wader lot. Three moorhen, a scattering of mallard, little grebe, teal and three grey heron were on the pool, with several barn swallow hawking. On the dunes a couple of reed bunting were half heartily singing, while off shore a party of gannet were diving just past the breakers.

Back in the village a damp barn swallow (above) sat looking very miserable in a gutter.

Fortunately the chippie at Amble was en-route home, so chips and curry sauce made up for the lack of water rail, little gull etc that NS has had the pleasure of viewing this past week.

Newbiggin held two mediterranean gull on the beach, and with that, we called it a day.

Got home and the sun came out. Briefly.