Sunday 27 January 2013

Dumfries and Galloway.

Keith picked me up at half seven and we headed straight to Threave to try to see the long staying but Illusive Blue-winged Teal, this is a returning bird for the third or fourth year. Safe to say we waited till half twelve and failed..... miserably... There were other birds to look through however. A Red-headed Smew was nice and possibly a second one flew in from the opposite direction of the first one. There were also a few Pink-footed Geese to search through. 5 Goosander showed nicely too. Really really distant shots of the Smew.






 
We then headed to Caerlaverock for a quick visit for the Green-winged Teal which we got straight.
away. As you can see it wasn't the day for pictures and the teal was taken through the window of the hide. We were in a rush so i didn't make an effort to get anything better than record shots.



Finished off birding the Solway on the Cumbria side for Grey Plover for Keith which we got easily.
All in all a successful day..

Saturday 26 January 2013

Mawbray

Mawbray over high tide today .
 
1 Little Egret flew south.
 

 

66 Bar-tailed Godwit

120 Knot

Thousands of Oyk and Curlew
 

 
 
100 Golden Plover

4 Sanderling

12 Turnstone.

1 Dunlin

Loads Gulls

4 Skylark

1 Stonechat


Near Blackdyke just 25 Pinks


Allonby 1 Grey Plover 6 Sanderling.

Thursday 24 January 2013

Hoodie X


A site visit on Monday to look at some work around Bassenthwaite lake produced 8 Crossbill over Derwent Foot Dodd Wood. 2 Whooper Swan and 11 Little Grebe on lake.
Then Wednesday again at work near Wigton a Kingfisher flew up the River .
Today however i had a report to check out of an Adult Yellow legged Gull at Whitehaven Harbour a returning bird probably. Couldn't find it today though but did get to see a Nordic (type) Jackdaw and this long staying Hooded Crow, with a tiny tiny bit of Carrion Crow init.. showed really nicely in the Snow...
 

 










 


 

Sunday 20 January 2013

North East

Well a leisurely start had Keith and I heading for Caerlaverock today, well it was until we got to Wigton and decided to head for the North east instead. Talk about last minuite decision...
So First we headed for Washington near Newcastle where Waxwings had been reported the previous day. When we finally got to the area where they had been reported all we could find were Redwings and Fieldfares.. DOH! God this was gonna be a bad day. So we left but on the way out i spotted a Waxwing in the top of a tree we had just been looking in..... Bingo!!! So we turned around and went back for a better look. We had 3 in the end. Brilliant...





We had a lot to do so couldn't wait for them to come any closer..So moved onto South Shields to look for some Snow Buntings, had a good ratch around but no sign today. Did flush a Woodcock though. So next stop was Hartlepool Marine for a Black-throated Diver. On arriving i straight away picked up a cracking Slavonion Grebe so called Keith over, but then he told me its been reported before darn ;-).




We had a search for the diver but couldn't find it so went for fish n chips. After this we moved to the opposite side of the Marina where we picked up the Black-throated Diver but distant. A few Red-breasted Merganser showed well and also a Little Grebe... odd.


Next stop was our second chance at some Snow Buntings so headed for Seaton Common and the zinc road. We found the area where 55 Snow Buntings were showing well although it was snowing and the light was really bad, as it had been all day really but i persevered and took some crappy record shots again same as id been doing all day ;-) They are lovely birds though.





We finished our day at Saltholme pools for Long-eared Owl but they had moved due to some twaty birder flushing them and spoiling it for everyone else this weekend.. IDIOTS!!!
So all in all a really really good and successful day! Wohooo.

PS Yesterday morning (19th) the Juvenile Glaucous Gull was still at Cockermouth but disappeared soon after.


Friday 18 January 2013

Glaucous Gull

Had a wander around Workington nothing much happening so took the opportunity to take some MORE pics of Stumpy the Adult Med Gull including a flight shot.







Also took a few shots of other gulls too. like this Juv Herring Gull sat on a car roof.




I then moved onto Cockermouth and saw this stunning Juv Glaucous Gull. It was happily feeding on a sheep carcase at one point.






 

Freeeezing cold day but in the end a successful one.