Spotting Gulls

A timely exit from work on Monday coincided with news that there was a Spotted Sandpiper nearby at Jarrow - fortuitous that the trusty Bins' are living in the car, I headed straight there.

As the working week progressed news broke of something much more meaty - in the form of two Gull-billed Terns, inland at Haughton Strother GP. Further, they'd been there since the start of the month!

Lots of discussion on Twitter and the like suggested that parking was to be interesting and that views would be distant - and indeed, Friday afternoons trip there confirmed that to be the case. However, a full fat UK and County tick for me, so more than content. Some incredible iPhone hand held to 'scope images follow...

All pictures video-stills!

Terns photographed on the island!

Unusual Suspects

Wednesdays ' commute home from work was abnormal, with a diversion to Ryhope to see the Scop's Owl that had been found earlier in the day. Armed with only my iPhone, I was dependant upon others generosity to view through optics...

Great view all considering, and perhaps a venture back should the owl remain.

Nearer home, on the return journey, another unanticipated bird - a nightjar - at St Mary's. Still without any optics of my own, other folks Scope's were put to use, even though the subject was roosting a mere few feet away!

Saturday saw a trip north - this time armed with camera and scope...

Goswick GC has held an obliging immature Long-tailed Skua this week - and some crippling views were obtained. Seems this bird has taken a fancy to try and eat golf balls - pecking furiously! Yellow-browed Warbler also present.

The return journey saw a pit stop at Stag Rocks, where only one of the Black Terns was picked up offshore - thankfully for me it was the White-winged.

The weekend that was...

Busy, busy, busy... a county tick (327) - it's taken a third county bird to catch up, but what a belter. Thanks to CB for use of the 600/1.4...  The first day of "Winter" - I'll take more like this.

Not forgetting the Saturday shrike... a few more from yesterday evening...

Isabelline Wheatear, Seaton Carew

A week of work and a late UK record of Isabelline Wheatear. Convenient as it was "just down the road".


Rather confiding, approaching the gathered...

Myrtle Warbler...

Winter Mega!

Woke up to the unexpected news that the County Durham Myrtle Warbler had been confirmed as still present and available to all... so after picking up Phil and Mark it was High Shincliffe bound.

Arrived at 1045, a half hour since the last sighting - we had a frustrating 2 hour wait before the bird was pieced up again - having enjoyed three waxwing, a brambling and redpoll and hods of goldfinch.

Given the circumstances we had decent binocular views as it fed on some feeders concealed in the roadside hedge - not great for the camera (and I only took the 400mm), but some record shots were managed.

Sneaky peak of the yellow rump...

Feeder concealed in dense hedge on roadside

Feeder across road near lamppost - not a bad sized crowd too...

Little Bunting

It's been a while, but finally caught up with another little bunting this morning. The last? September 1987 at Hauxley!

Despite the long wintering residency of this particular individual (and that it was un-noticed since the autumn), today was the first opportunity to venture south. Parked up about as far away as possible from the chosen feeding area, but it was worth the walk - the sun was even out...

It's always a bit frustrating resizing the images for the blog, image quality is not like I'd like to present, however, the few here give an indication of the dapper qualities of this eastern bunting.

Landing gear...

Alternate view of the Seaburn 'eater...

Winter Surprise!

A couple of quick snapshots of the amazing Seaburn Bee-eater... stalled to travel down for this as I didn't quite believe that there could be a bee-eater in November - so these pictures were taken mid afternoon as the sun was starting to dip... bit pushed for time this afternoon, so will have a better trawl through the images later in the weekend.

DDDip. Drip.

Highly unsuccessful trip out on Saturday, south of the Tyne to Teesside (no sign of the semipalmated sandpiper nor temminks stint at Saltholme).

The real reason for a trip to Saltholme RSPB

Closer to home, we managed to avoid any contact with the bonaparte's gull at Whitburn. So that was a complete result.

Then it rained. Alot.

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.

A little more

Little Tern, Crimdon Dene

Another image from yesterdays' enjoyable trip south. In the rush to upload images before the world cup final the photoshop processing of the little tern was not really up to scratch, so here is an alternative. In hindsight I should have taken more (and used a tripod)... the self inflicted dark cloud of a "dotterel dip" had distracted me somewhat from what of would been great photo opportunities as birds returned to the cordoned off nesting area. 

honey_b.king_e.little_t.

I spent a pleasant day with STH, ADMc and Phil south of the region today. First stop was Wykeham, North Yorkshire where we had very prompt views of honey buzzard - albeit distant, but prolonged and some amazing butterfly-clapping display. A good start! A further hour produced no more hb sightings, but tree pipit, bullfinch etc added to the day tally.

Further east we took the long walk to Filey Brigg, where reasonable views were had of the 1st summer king eider. Loafing with a female norther eider, the bird had been closer prior to our arrival, but given that it was a sunny day, there was a lot of disturbance from beach-trippers. Not to worry, its a rather grotty bird anyway!

Our journey home was paused with a brief look at the beach at Crimdon Dene -no sign of the colourful female dotterel that two of the party had seen the day previously, but there were plenty of little terns...

Right... time for the world cup final!

Lame Stint!

Monday afternoons plans to wash the car were shattered when the pager announced at 14.27  that there was an interesting stint sp. not to far down the road at Lamesley - in fact it was being put out that the aforementioned bird was a possible long-toed stint.... So, with a rinsed car that dried very streaky, I made my way south on the A1. Passing Gatesheads' Metro Centre news was broadcast that the bird was still present, but was thought to be a probable little stint...

A few were gathered at the site and it was clear that the bird was interesting - loosely associating with little ringed plover, this apparent pale legged bird has a nice white supercilium and rufous looking cap. In flight it was noted by others that the toes did not seem to project, but no one realy was committed to making a judgement!

I put a couple of images on Birdforum last night (note that the record shot was taken with both 1.4 and 2.0 convertors stacked, so pretty poor!!) and some video also appeared on Youtube... and not too long later opinion seemed to settle on little stint. Just shows, stint id' isn't too easy... Anyone remember the 1989 bird at Saltholme??? (think it turned out to be a presumed hybrid... pec sand * dunlin if I remember correct?)

Onwards....

Eastern Crowned Warbler / Autumn Colours

Fridays selection of images can only be regarded as record shots as the bird barely filled the central focus spot with the 500mm & 1.4 extender. However the colours of the sycamore leaves in the photographs provide a subtle distraction from the notequiteascloseasI'dliketohavebeento phyllosc.

My journey to seeing the bird was not quite as normal as... normal. I'd been on a pager-less nightshift on Thursday, so it wasn't until I was leaving work at 5am on Friday morning that I discovered that this mega was present via a bunch of text messages. Panic set in - I was due back to work at 13:30 and I needed some sleep. Do I stay awake and go there straight away. Do I dash home and have a power nap. Do I risk waiting till Saturday. Do I assume it's not going to be there....?

A tawny owl flapped past the car as I approached Cramlington

I woke up just after eight and much headless chicken mode ensued when I read that the bird was still present and apparently showing well.

After a quick call to arrange a pick-up of Dad we were off. Thankfully the Tyne Tunnel commute traffic had eased, so we arrived not long after nine. As I drove along the Leas looking for a parking space I spotted Mark heading back to his car - so the omen was good - I doubted that he'd leave the site so soon without the tick. A quick call confirmed it's presence and guidance for the best viewing.

First bird on view was a dapper yellow-browed warbler, closely followed by the eastern crowned. Result!

We spent the next three hours amongst the crowd of 150 - 200(?ish) listening to a variety of banter describing past twitches, near-fights, rapid journeys to the north-east and the strange and curious characters that this past-time attracts. It's fair to say that these sort of megas do attract the oddities of the human race. Readers of this blog excepted of course. ;-)