Wrong Direction?

Headed south this morning to Teesside for a meet up with John B and Mark. Heavy rain predominated the visit, but we did manage to collect little ringed plover, avocet (many at Greatham Creek, good to see), reed warbler, 2 wood sandpiper, drake garganey, little egret, yellow wagtail and little gull.

Undoubted highlight of the trip was arriving at Cowpen Bewley late morning (no rain!), and being treated to very decent views of the singing nightingale - I think it's only the third I've actually "seen".

Look at the tree and listen to the nightingale here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZCFvrds3K8&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Nightingale... tick!

A second attempt for the singing nightingale was more successful this afternoon - news was released on the pager just as I awoke from my nightshift slumber, and by 14:30 I was listening then briefly seeing my first Northumberland nightingale. Splendid!

See the previous post comment for more details off Dave Britton for viewing/listening. (Thanks Dave!)

Nightingale... dip

Woke up early afternoon (I'm on nightshift, so thats reasonable I guess) to read not one, but two messages about a singing nightingale near Howlett Hall - and given it was a lovely sunny day I made my way there straight away.

So was the nightingale still singing? No.. Not a sniff!

Unlike when the morning visitors had been... (see PC Wanderings ) - at least I know that I was in the correct location!... never mind, a female redstart was nice to see and there was plenty of buzzards kicking about.