All over the place.

Catching up with a few days birding, here there and everywhere.

Caerlaverock 11th April.

Today I had my Health and Safety test in Carlisle, 1 and half answers wrong out of 50, bummer! ;-)  At least I passed.

Rach and I then went onto Caerlaverock Castle to meet our best Facebook friends Les and Sally Arnott with the kids Kate and Sarah.

We had a nice walk around the castle and gardens.

Les and Sally can only take so much of me or was it Rachel who knows ;0). So Rach and I decided to move onto Southerness where Colin had let me no the Red Breasted Goose was still in the area.

We found the flock but initially there was no sign but as I scoped the flying flocks I spotted it as it flew over our heads and into the fields in front of us, typical fencing was in the way. Nice scope views. I then Spotted a Dark Bellied Brent Goose and as I spotted it the whole flock took off and landed in fields miles away. A few more Holiday birders pulled up and for the next hour or so we struggled to find the RB Goose. The flock then finally flew close and after we had all scanned the flock 30 times between us all it miraculously appeared still a bit distant but great scope views. We couldn't re-find the Brent but a single Pinkfooted Goose was found. 300+ Golden Plover were in fields distantly. The Flock took flight again so that was our cue for food at Southerness and then home.

Soddy Gap 12th April

Chiffchaff singing outside the house this morning.

Low meadows return of a singing Blackcap.

Soddy Gap LT Duck, Drake Pintail and a Pinkfooted Goose with Greylags this morning. Still half a dozen Wigeon about.

Down south
We were heading to Chesterfield to see Rachels dad in the hospice so I thought we would have a 40 mile detour for the Thayers Gull near Scunthorpe.... DIPPED FECK!!! Oh well its not a full species YET!. We nipped into Hatfield Moor where we had 2 Summer plumaged Black Necked Grebe, I cant recall seeing Summer plum birds so this was superb. My first Swallow too.

Friday 13th April.

Before Visiting Rach's Dad we nipped up to Stanage Edge to see if any Ring Ouzel were about. On the drive up to the crags a Male and Female Mandarin Duck flew over the car. We walked got to the top of the crags when a female Ring Ouzel flew past. During the morning we had at least 3 Pairs and some giving good scope views, there were signs everywhere saying not to disturb the Ring Ouzel so we only watched from a distant. A load of Wheatear and Red Grouse were other birds of note.

Stanage Edge

Red Grouse

Meadow Pipit

Ring Ouzel

Soddy Gap

Id been Revising for a test ive got tomorrow and had just about finished when i got a text off Keith saying he had 2 Little Ringed Plovers on Low meadows which is a flooded bit of field near Soddy Gap. So i got there pretty quick and sure enough 2 cracking LRP's 3rd from the Soddy areas in as many weeks.

I then moved onto Soddy Gap itself and noticed plenty of gulls including a lovely 1st Summer Med Gull.

I got some pics then notice 2 waders roosting and just hidden by the island but i could tell they were Black-tailed Godwit. So i got to higher ground and took some pics. 

The Long-tailed Duck was still here and for once showing well, and there were now 2 Willow Warbler.

A good day for Soddy.

Keith and I had the day in Cumbria started at Geltsdale but nothing special. Then onto the Bowness nature reserve for Willow Tit, Willow Warbler and Blackcap.

Then onto Campfield marsh where the Great White Egret flew in and a year tick in the form of a Drake Garganey.AWhite Wagtail  was with a handful of Pied Wagtails on the flood on the left of the lonning.
We then had a Skua watch from the Viaduct between 12-30 and 15-45.

We had down 25 Red-throated divers but could have been many more.

A Bonxie went past at 15-15. 

35 Common scoter in 3 small groups.

3 Sandwich Tern

Flocks of 90+ Kittiwakes and a flock of 29 came in. The 90+ drifted past sat on the water.

Got 4k Barnacle Geese flying over.

1 Razorbill

1 Guillemot

2 Porpoise

1 Grey Seal

2 RB Merganser.

  

On way home at Lessonhall 5 Species of Goose 1 adult Greenland Whitefront, 2 Barnacle's, 2 Canada, 2 Greylag and 80+ Pinkfooted Geese.

Great Day out.

Garganey

Great white Egret

 Soddy Gap this evening.

Not a lot new in  but in the roost tonight...

LT duck still

14 Curlew

15 Tufties

6 Goosander

Teal, Wigeon, Coot, Mallard.

2 Buzzards

1 Roe Deer very near pond.

32 Black headed Gulls

Lapwing

Osprey

Bassenthwaite Osprey.......thats it!!!

Workington pier

Couple of mornings at Soddy Gap has produced nothing new except flocks of 14 and 24 Fieldfare over and a Bullfinch.
So after today's trip to Soddy i decided to do a couple hours at Workington whilst Rach was shopping.
I started off with a Sea watch. A few Common Scoter past then a Dark Phase Arctic Skua, to top it off a nice 1st Summer Med Gull flew North. I then pointed my scope towards the far rocks and could see a Wheatear then 2. At the same time a bird with a striking red tail flew South over the rocks towards the cliff. I new this had to be a Black Redstart, great area for them last year and Keith had 1 a couple weeks back, probably same bird lingering.  I walked down to the rocks and spotted the Wheatear but not the Black Redstart. Then i spotted it well hidden on the cliffs before if flew South along the cliffs and out of sight. I waited here doing a bit more of a sea watch notching up 2 Sandwich Tern, my 3rd year tick of the day, the other two being the Redstart and the Skua. There were a few Auks, Divers, Gannets and Kittiwakes out to sea oh and a few more smaller groups of Common Scoter. No more sign of the Black Red. Still not a bad couple of hours.

A picture I took in August last year

Leighton Moss 5th April

There i was working away at some Garden Fencing when i got a text off Keith saying he was heading South did i want to go.. Leighton Moss was the Destination.. Damn right i did. So just after mid day (after id finished my Jobs) Keith picked me up on route and we headed south. Keith did his job down there then we spent the next few hours at Leighton Moss. Firstly checking out the Public Hide. As soon as we got there i spotted a male Bearded Tit sat in the reeds, Really really good views but not sure what went wrong with my photos???????
A couple of Marsh Harrier and a White phase Snow Goose were in the area too.

We visited the main reserve and took the opportunity for some General digiscoping.

From the Hides more General Digiscoping

A year tick came in the form of a Cetti's Warbler singing from thick cover as they do.
We moved onto the Eric Morcambe pools where there were a great selection of birds including 24 Avocet, 2 maybe 3 Spotted Redshanks, 300+ Black-tailed Godwits, a single Knot and a nice Little Egret.

Spotted Redshank

Avocet

Little Egret

Superb afternoons Birding.



Soddy Whimbrel

Well i didn't do Soddy this morning, so guess what yes, 12 Whimbrel were reported on birdguides typical. So i went and had a look tonight and stopped till dark. Nothing great but a few things coming into roost. No Whimbrel though.

LT Duck still

1 Female Goldeneye

18 Curlew

15 Shelduck
17 Black headed Gulls

And 14 Goosander.

On way out a Cracking Short-eared Owl showing really well sat on a post by side of path.

Osprey

Well Ive now got a lot more free time on my hands works dried up so its time to look for something new.
So nipped to Soddy and then Bassenthwaite Lake in the meantime. Nothing new on Soddy but Male Osprey sat by last years nest on Bassenthwaite.
Ordered my CSCS card Health and safety card for working on construction sites, so once Ive got this ill be back to work hopefully. Ill do anything now.. times are hard for a lot of people so i ain't worried just yet.
More time for birding ;-)

St Bees

Started early at Soddy Gap this morning but nothing new in. Long tailed Duck still present.
Met Keith to Cover St Bees, at Broughton Bridge 4 Sand Martins.
St Bees was Quiet so the best we could do were 8 Puffin, 6 Black Guillemot, Thousands of Guillemots couple of Bridled. Plenty of Razorbill and a few Kittiwake and Fulmar showing nicely in the Sun.

Very few migrants just 1 Chiffchaff. 2 Buzzards were unusual. 3 pairs of Grey Partridge and a pair of Kestrel.

Puffin

 

Puffin



Black Guillemot

Fulmar

Razorbill

Guillemot

Razorbill

Razorbill