Local patch's

Started at Siddick this morning with 2 Bittern being the main highlight.

Workington just stumpy the Med Gull and a Whooper swan and a Cormorant showed well.

At Whitehaven 1 Shag in Harbour, 18 Common Scoter 2 Purple Sand but very few gulls. 1 Nordic type Jackdaw again

Also some normal Jackdaws

Finished at the dump for the owls 3-4 Short-eared Owl, 3 Tawny Owl. No Sign of any Barn owl tonight but the highlight being once back at the car a Little Owl calling which we saw fly in and out of a tree nearby.

5-6 Woodcock, 4 Kestrel, 2 Buzzard and 8 Stock Dove

What a place!!!

A nice collection of Folk tonight too, words getting around.

Snow Bunting

Mixed day, found a Snow Bunting on Snakes Pass Derbyshire on the walk to my Work site but lost me hat :0(

Red Breasted Goose.

Today was a family day out just me n Rach, so i asked her where she wanted to go. Solway was the answer....Good answer i thought. So we took the scenic route up the coast past Blackdyke, no geese or swans and ended up at Abbeytown. A Red Deer was near silloth.There was a good number of geese here but the light was absolutely terrible and when i say terrible lovely Sunshine but completely in the wrong direction making checking the geese tough if not impossible for some. I could count 22 European Whitefronts in with 500 or so Pinkfeet, lots of Greylag and in the corner just about visible when the sun went in 4 Bean Geese... this was a big bonus....A few Whoopers dropped in and small numbers of pinks started to leave. The sun got really strong and made viewing any of the other geese impossible so decided to move on.
Passing Anthorn i had a text off Nick saying he had found a Red-breasted Goose on Burgh mash but it had been flushed pretty quickly by dog walkers so carried on my search for other stuff. I stopped to look through a group of Barnacle geese in Flight, nothing in them,  then i checked a smaller group of 25 in flight...What the hells that i thought, good god it was only the Red-Breasted Goose... AMAZING! so i rang Darren, Nick and Keith in high excitment sorry guys ;-) and watched the bird drift off towards Cardunock and the masts. Nick and Darren [passed us as we were turning around, stopped and we went to look through the big group of barnacle geese that had now dropped in by the masts 100 yards from Cardunock and Bingo the Red Breasted Goose was with them giving good scope views.. pics don't do it justice really. A Merlin flew over which was a year tick.

After a good crack with the guys we moved on and had a quick look at the Great White Egret as we passed Campfield scrape and had Lunch in the pub. We did the same journey on the way back but didn't really see much else. oh Except a Whimbrel came past Nick and I at Port Carlilse calling

A Really great day but as I'm back working away probably one of my last too... boooo.
Very Nearly forgot to say finished once again at the dump for 3 Shorties and 3 Tawnys...

Soddy Gap

Gave the place a good Grilling this morning.

1 Jack Snipe with 3 Common Snipe..

162 Male Goosander 173 Female/1st Winter Goosander = 335 give or take a few and more birds coming in but not many.

Long-tailed Duck on small Middle Pond with 4 Tuftie and 2 Mallard.

33 Teal

12 Goldeneye including 4 Cracking males.

7 Tufted Ducks

2 Pochard

15 Mallard

9 Wigeon

17 BH Gull 1 LBB Gull

 2 Grey Heron

1 Buzzard 1 Kestrel.

6 Long-tailed Tit

Small groups of Redwing and Fieldfare feeding.

Evening at Derwent Forest aka the dump
2 Shorties tonight although very surprised to see these as the weather wasn't great. A Peregrine put in an appearance stooping for pigeons and a few Buzzards, Kestrels, and a Great Spotted Woodpecker.
2 Roe Deer were also here.

A few more nights of Owling proved Successful at Derwent Forest aka the Dump. Up to 5 Short-eared Owl, 2 Barn Owl and a minimum of 2 Tawny Owls calling. Loads of Woodcock seem to be around.
On one occasion i got there at 4pm and immediately saw Shorties Hunting and a Barn Owl, great scope views in the light, the Shorties also tended to land on buildings and in the trees on occasions.
Now Ive come to the conclusion that the Shorties are hunting in the dump but at least 3 of them are heading off to Soddy Gap to roost after dark as that's the way they keep going every night.
There's plenty of good habitat for them to roost and in previous years Ive found them roosting in trees and in the marsh.
Owls are just tremendous.
Plenty of folk have been to see the Owls now and i think they have all gone away very happy. A couple more nights of Owling hopefully before going away.

16th Jan GWE

Finished my jobs today a little early so tagged along with keith where we searched various spots along the Solway, there was nothing of note until we got to the area just befor North plain farm, we Spotted the Great White Egret just south of the roadside scrape. our target of the day...
We took a few pics of some Turnstone in the sun at Silloth.

15th Jan Iceland Gull.

Well this has to be the best few months of my life birding in Cumbria itself, because today i helped Keith put up his fence in the morning then went out looking for Iceland Gulls in the Afternoon.
We Searched all the usual spots, Workington, Harrington, and then Whitehaven. At Workington just the usual Stumpy the Med Gull....

Harrington nothing of note but after searching a few spots at Whitehaven we looked out to sea where a Fishing boat was coming in. Now i picked up a Gull miles and miles away just in front of the Fishing vessel and i said to Keith its maybe the sun but i recon i have an Iceland Gull, i could see the paleness of the wings and the overall impression was of an Iceland Gull, i was expecting to be wrong however. Erm no i wasn't it was only a bloody darkish Juv Iceland Gull WOW! Now a friend of Mine told me he'd had an Iceland Gull off here yesterday so wasn't overly excited, but as the Fishing Vessel came closer i then noticed a 2nd Iceland Gull but a much paler Juv bird, i later found out this is the bird my friend had yesterday...So two Iceland Gulls and i would class 1 as Self found for Keith and I. We Lost the Pale bird but managed to stay on the darker bird till Darren turned up and got it.

A really really bad shot of the paler Iceland Gull...

I also noted a Nordic "type" Jackdaw feeding in front of us. Now i no this purple patch of ours just cant go on any longer......can it ;-)

We Once again finished off by Watching the Owls at The Dump again, for anyone wanting to go, a Google map here of where to stand. http://g.co/maps/ehf7x.

Oh yeh a record 6 Short-eared Owls 5 together in the scope, 2 Barn Owls and 2 Tawny Owl with a few Woodcock... What a spot. ill be working away soon so birding will be limited and be back to normal.

14th Jan Green Winged Teal.

Well yesterday couldnt be repeated could it? Well nearly, I started off by looking for yesterdays Iceland gull along the Maryport to Crosscanonby coast line but the tide was well out which made viewing the gulls difficult so no Iceland Gull. I did however see 15 Whooper Swans and some Pinkfeet go past but not much else.
So i came back and did some jobs at home. Just after dinner i picked Keith up and headed for Siddick. The Weather was wonderful so seeing Bitterns was looking promising. 15 Whooper Swans were the first thing we noticed, may have been the birds that flew over me this morning.

I then spotted a teal very distantly in the reeds that looked good for Green Winged Teal, i said to Keith I'm probably clutching at straws here but that looks like a Green-winged Teal. Keith had spotted the bird too but wasn't sure. So whilst waiting for it to awaken and come out the reeds we saw 4 Bitterns flying out of different parts of the reed bed, also 3 Water Rail and a year tick in the form of a Lesser Redpoll. The Goosanders showed well today too.

Eventually a Mallard gave the teal a nudge and low and behold Green Winged Teal it was... unbelievable wohhoooo, just unreal.

We saw the Bitterns flying around some more and then left to do Workington. We checked a spot for Kingfisher but no luck. We realised the tide was full in and so decided to give Workington a miss and head straight for Crosscanonby for the high tide as the birds were easier to see here now. What a mistake that was as an Adult Iceland gull was then reported from Workington...that could have been ours, oh well cant win em all.
We didn't see much on the sea so headed back to Derwent Forest for the Owls. We got here in the daylight for a change and we managed Barn Owl and Short-eared Owl in full sun. As it got Darker a few more folk turned up and we had a Further 4 Shorties 3 of which once again headed for Soddy Gap, 2 Tawny Owl and 2 Woodcock.. an amazing point to watch the Derwent forest area found by Keith.
Ive done my fair share of Moaning about how shit Cumbria is but just lately its been fantastic and i now would rather bird in Cumbria than out of it!
Well Jobs to do for Keith tomorrow morning but what will the afternoon bring!

13th Jan Glaucous Gull

Well who said Friday the 13th is unlucky, certainly not for me today. I managed to get all my jobs finished at work and decided id carry on up the Motorway to Kirk Loch for my 4th Attempt at seeing the over wintering American Wigeon. When i arrived I finally found the Drake American Wigeon, and what a relief.
The sun was out but in the wrong direction so the pics were awful.

I then returned to Cumbria via the Solway stopping at Sandsfield to have a look through the Geese. First bird i picked up however was a Cracking Male Hen Harrier. There was a birder further down the track so went to show him the Harrier.  We were looking through the Geese when i started to look through the Gulls, not sure why they were a long way off but i did manage to find a Juv Glaucous Gull an amazing record for Cumbria, I managed to get John Poland (the other birder) onto the bird before it disappeared when two canoeist went past. Couldn't find the Ross's Goose again unfortunatly.
I then heard about an Iceland Gull that had been found at Maryport this morning so headed straight back to there. Managed to get before dark and found the Juv Iceland Gull from Crosscanoby, a two white winger day in Cumbria... unheard off!!!!!  I managed to get Keith onto his latest lifer, wicked...
Just as you think this day couldnt get better, I made my way to Derwent Forest the old Ammunition dump withing walking distance of Soddy Gap. Keith had found a good Owl spot so met him there...
Amazingly we had 5 Short-eared Owl with 3 heading towards Soddy Gap, 2 Barn Owls, 2 Tawny Owls and 2 Woodcock... amazing site!!!! by 6 o'clock it was pitch black and time for home..What an amazing afternoon.

10th Jan Owl Fest

Well i think i broke the speed barrier tonight trying to get to Soddy with enough light to see some Owls that Keith had spotted last night but firstly on the way home i managed to spot the typical shape and flight of a Little Owl as it  flew along the A66 between Embelton and  Cockermouth. 

Keith and I had split up tonight Keith covering Broughton Dump and myself covering Soddy.

I had 2 Barn Owl fighting and a Short-eared Owl

Keith had 2 Tawny Owl and 2 Short -eared Owl... i still need Tawny Owl so that will be my stop hopefully tomorrow if i get the time. 

So Weather and time permitting same again tomorrow.  

Also at Soddy I had 240 Goosander and Greylags flew in after dark, I could hear Teal and Snipe.

7th January. The East...

Well i decided late last night that id nip over to the east coast as there was quite a bit about, especially Cleveland and Northumbria. There was a couple of lifers for Keith so gave him a shout and he agreed to come along. So at 7am Keith picked me up and by before 9am we were watching Keiths first lifer of the day in the form of a Drake Ring-necked Duck at Cowpen Bewely.

There were plenty of Tree Sparrows on the car park feeders to entertain us too.

After here we looked around the area but didn't see much else of real note except at Seal Sands a couple of Common Seal on show.

Eventually we got to Hartlepool fish quay after searching the other quays and bays. We locked eyes on many close Red-throated Divers, Red-breasted Mergansers and Some Guillemots. We then Viewed the Quay from another area where we managed to see a Juv Glaucous Gull another lifer for Keith.

Juv Glaucous Gull honest

I then Spotted our next prey, a Black-throated Diver. Things were going well, although we were running out of time to do everything.
Next we looked of the sea at the battle abutments or whatever its called and saw Common Scoter and our next target a Velvet Scoter.

Velvet Scoter

No sign of any Iceland gulls was a shame. we had dinner here and new it was time to head north to Northumberland for the long staying 1st Winter Female Lesser Scaup, at Marden Quarry, which showed nicely another great duck.

Finally it was time for our last stop Prestwick Carr for the lovely looking Short-eared Owls where there were at least 3 on show, no sign of the GG Shrike though, it was getting dark. The Owl shot below taken in Virtual darkness so what a great shot even if i do say so myself ;-)

A great finish to a great days birding on the East.
Once again my camera never went below 400 iso, one day the light will be good...........
Must cover the local patch tomorrow.

3rd January Snow Goose

Well today i was either supposed to be at work or Decorating the Bathroom, but somehow id gone birding, and I'm glad i did. Keith picked me up and we headed to Soddy Gap for the long staying Female Long-tailed duck for the year list. 291 Goosander were also present, Soddy is becoming nationally important for Goosander with max counts over 300.

After this we Drove the lanes to Abbeytown where we had found the Bewicks and Whitefronts yesterday. Today there were a lot more Geese and after a bit of Scanning we noticed a superb Blue morph Snow goose, what a find usually these are hybrids but this one looks like the real deal. Its really difficult taking photos at the moment the weather is just so poor.

The Whoopers were hidden so we only managed a couple of Bewicks but still 50 odd Whitefronts. We had a hunt round for some Bean Geese and the Ross's Goose but no luck with those today.
Almost forgot the Little Egret that flew past us at Old Sandfield.

2nd January 2012 Own Stuff

Today Keith and I's task was to find our own stuff so made our way along the back lanes to Abbeytown where on the way we saw very little it was still early and a bit dark. We Arrived at Abbeytown to check some Geese and Swans we found, It was a Great surprise when we noticed around 50 Whitefronted Geese mainly European with some Greenland, so whilst i was counting these Keith noticed a couple of Bewick Swans...Bingo then i found another 3.  So that was a great start to our day.

Euro Whitefronts

Bewick Swan and Greenland Whitefronts

Bewick Swan

We moved onto Old Sandsfield overlooking Rockcliff marsh, checking any geese on the way. When we got there thousands of Barnacles were present including 3 Leucistic individuals and 12 Euro Whitefronts. After a while i spotted a Snow goose type slightly bigger than Barnys with a gleaming white head and belly but dark back a clear hybrid but just way too far for positive parentage. The Ross's Goose was no where to be seen, although it flew in for other birders later... We found our way to Scotland stopping at Castle loch for a reported American wigeon, but couldn't find it. We did find a small flock of Pinks with 13 Euro Whitefronts and a Greenland Whitefront. We finished our day back in Cumbria trailing around the back lanes again but didn't see anything out the ordinary, including missing some Bean Geese that had returned to the spot Keith and i found before Christmas (Blackdyke).
Still another very very Good Day.

Well Happy new year readers. My birding day started off well with Keith and I heading for South Cumbria and North Lancashire toting up 76 species. Started at Whinfell Tarn for Keiths 1st lifer of the Year with Red-headed Smew and a few year ticks to boot. Not the best weather for photography.

We were passing Seizergh Castle but no Hawfinchs. Finally got to Leighton Moss where a Marsh Harrier was showing well, then the Glossy Ibis was where i left it last week and made a great early edition to the year list.

I checked my phone to see 3 Snow Geese had flew over Leighton Moss and hour earlier....bugger but arriving at the Eric Morecambe hide we noticed they were here on the Marsh although with Greylags oh dear. erm Snow goose of unknown origin then ;-).

I noticed through the rain sodden glass hide windows what looked to be a Spotted Redshank, but it disappeared without a trace....for now ;-) Usual suspects from the hides. Checking the birds from the railway produced the much looked for Spotted Redshank..Bingo!
We had lunch in the cafe and moved onto the main reserve not seeing an awful lot but Marsh tit and Little Egret being the pick of the bunch.

We finished of at Heysham where a Glaucous Gull had been reported but there was no sign this evening, But a nice selection of other stuff including Shag, Guillemot, Adult Med Gull, Red breasted Merganser and lots of Kittiwakes. It was now time for Home....