Lancashire Bewicks

Well my last day off work today but although its persisting it down i had to make the most of it. So Keith and i headed for Marton Mere and some Long-eared Owls. The morning started well again with a Barn Owl. But the owls went down the pan after this. We gave the long eared owls a few hours in the rain but they just weren't gonna show themselves and i dont blame them the weather was awful.
So we went for lunch and then headed for Lytham St annes for some Bewick Swans we wernt to be disappointed this time with at least 13 birds with 200 Whooper Swan. A mass flock of Tree Sparrows was nice here too. Pics not great but it was Pissing down as usual.

We then decided to head back north to Leighton Moss where we had a good selection of birds including 2 Spotted Redshank, a Greenshank, Pintail, Marsh Harrier and a good selection of Woodland birds including 3 smart looking Marsh Tits. I was amazed how well these turned out though.

We Finished the day with calling Bearded Tits  and nice views of 2 Water Rail as they ran along the path in front of us not bothered by us in the slightest as we followed them right to the public hide and even then they just wanderd around the path, although it was completely dark by now.
iso 6400 but you get the idea it was proper dark by now. Almost the very last bird of the day a Jack Snipe flew right over our heads calling.
Now on 111 Species after 2 days

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Welcome to 2013 everyone Happy new year, well my Year started off superbly well. Keith and i Headed For Loch Ryan.
We left at 6-30 to be at loch Ryan for 9am. On the way our first bird of the year a cracking Barn Owl in the headlights. As we were getting closer to Stranraer the light was getting better and eventually we had a stonking male Hen Harrier, then further down the road another.. no way! A Merlin dived past the car an a Full Hooded Crow was sat on the side of the road.  Once at Stranraer we headed for the beach to check for gulls n stuff. Not many gulls but loads of Great Scaup. A Red-throated diver, a few Great Crested Grebe and a few waders. We moved on towards Loch Ryan and checked a few spots on the way. We found a flock of Chaffinches with a Single female Brambling bingo!
On Loch Ryan we had Little Egret, 4 Long-tailed Duck, 6 Slavonian Grebes, Common Scoters, more Greater Scaup, Eider, Red-throated and Eventually a Great Northern Diver. Waders nothing unusual but a few Bar-tailed godwits.
The usual 100+ Twite were on the wig along with the flock of pale bellied Brent Geese.
We had seen all we came to see minus a Black throated diver so headed for West Freugh for the returning Greenland Whitefronted geese, we wernt to be disappointed but with just a small flock off ll but they were on the top of a hump so there could have been more hidden in a dip. A few hundred Pinkfooted Geese were close by. Our 3rd Hen Harrier from here, this time a nice Ringtail.
Onwards to lonningfoot for the Geese and on the way 3 Red Kite were a big bonus.
At Lonningfoot we checked the Barnacle geese into the sun, so no surprise we couldnt find any rare geese in this flock. Then someone told us where the Tavaners Canada Goose and Red-breasted Goose were  very close by so we made a quick dash for these. Firstly picking up the Canada goose.... Blimy that's big, id seen pictures of this bird and though it was probably a Tavaners but on seeing the bird for myself it was massive and just had to be a Todd's Canada Goose (Branta canadensis interior). So no tick for us just yet as its still pending acceptance although most have good credentials and i'm sure will become tickable in the future.

Then amazingly the Red-breasted Goose was in the same flock and again showed well... last year id tried for these two birds probably 5 times and failed, today they were close and together....You beauty!!!!!!!!!

 

So is it time for home erm No!!!! last stop Caerlaverock for a Green winged Teal... we couldnt fail the day we were having..... OK so we could by 20 min damn! but we did get the Tawny Owl in the owl box a great finish to the super dooper day.... oh yeh and Derby County Won WOOOHHHOOOOOOOOOOO

 Out tally for the day a respectable 81 Species.

 



Shortie

Well a really nice finish to the birding year with a cracking short-eared Owl hunting along side the road at Mawbray tonight. All shots take at high ISO 400-1600 so little grainy but generally for shots taken in this poor light i'm pretty happy.

 

 

A video below, best watched in HD

Last couple of days.

28th December...

Keith n i had a good look around for the geese today. 4000 Pinks in back fields at Blackdyke, nothing obvious but half a dozen Barnacles.

Geese up n down the Solway but generally just Barnacles and Pinks.
Eventually the lesser Canada goose was found back on Skinburness marsh after lunch by a couple of visiting birders but was flushed by a peregrine 10 min before we got there. Im having no luck with any of the rare geese this back end..
We Didn't really see many waders or anything out the ordinary after this.

29th December

Keith and I had a great spectacle of Waders at Grune this morning, hard to count but they were like starlings tens of thousands, maybe near 50000 waders, mix of Knot, Dunlin and Bar-tailed Godwits. Probably 700 Bar-tails. Good numbers of Curlew including a very pale bird. 600 Wigeon, smaller number of teal, Merganser and Mallard. Small Numbers of geese

Raptors just female Merlin and a Kestrel.
The waders were one of the best sights in Cumbria this year for me, almost like being at Snettisham in Norfolk.

Red Squirrel

Rach n I had a walk into knob a Gob along the river to Cockermouth Cemetary. The light was awful but a Heron showed nicely.

At the cemetary eventually the Red Squirrels showed nicely although the light was so bad getting a decent shot was ni on impossible.

Merry Christmas

Christmas day walk from the house, or should I say swim. Really needed waders.. But a nice Christmas surprise was flushing a Short-eared Owl from the small plantation between Dearham and Hawker Marsh. Also Woodcock, 30+ Lesser Redpoll no Common, Siskin, Goldcrest, Great-spotted Woodpecker, Buzzard, Fieldfare and Redwing.

Pretty quiet on the whole.

Whoopers

Well had a trip up the coast walked dog and checked a few spots for gulls n stuff. Very little anywhere really. At Black dyke the Whoopers were on good form and showing well. Checked the Barnacle Geese at Skinburness Marsh but just 4 pinks with the big numbers of Barnies. Plenty of Pinks in the air but couldnt find em on a drive around.

A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYOBODY AND AS ALWAYS A MASSIVE THANKS FOR LOOKING IN FROM TIME TO TIME

Dumfries

Well first time Keith and i had been out in some time so we headed for Dumfries and Galloway and Mereshead. We arrived mid morning and checked through the geese that were present, nothing much but a leucistic Barny, Onto the Hide it was incredible to see nearly 300 Pintail and a couple of hundred Teal as well as smaller numbers of Gadwall, Wigeon and Mallard. A couple of Tufties and a Goldeneye. We moved onto the next hide checking the Geese as we went still nothing special. A Good 30-40 Chaffinch's but no Brambling. In the next hide much the same as the first but 2 Canada Geese. Back at the visitor center 6 Tree Sparrows. We moved onto loaning foot checking more of the geese that rare one eluded us thought.

On the way home via Carsethorn were a few more Barnie's and 1 Pinkfoot. On the beach loads of Waders including Whimbrel, Grey plover, Ringed Plover, Dunlin, Redshank, Turnstone and Oystercatcher. On the sea 40+ Scaup and 5 Red-breasted Merganser.
On the whole a nice day, just nice to be out n about.

Update

Ok so i'm going to update you on what Ive been doing these last couple of weeks. Well i went to Disneyland Paris with the family and what a great time we all had with amazing fun and frolics. The Christmas Atmosphere was great.

 

 

 

Anyway enough of that your not here for Disney, although if ya wanna see more there's plenty of videos on my You tube page here and loads of pics here on my facebook page ;-)

Right, anyway birding.... its crap yeah crap. We Flew to Paris via Derby and on the way a Red Kite, Cumbria lancs border. In Disney a few really common birds like House Sparrow, Black Headed Gull a Heron and Blackbirds. The best stuff though was a Chiffchaff a Grey Wagtail and after looking at pics a raptor i can only think was a Buzzard. 
Have a look its the dot on the right ;-)

So On the way back from Derby/Chesterfield the A1 produce a single Waxwing somewhere near Fairburn. then a group of 25 somewhere along the A1. Lastly a Red Kite.

So now i'm back home, Ive been to a few places. Bass lake hosted a Woodcock, GS Woodpecker and a few Jays in Powter howe woods, 16 Little Grebe and the usual ducks. Maryport had some close Porpoise. Soddy Gap had 200 Goosander, 50 Teal, 3 Goldeneye and a Pochard. Siddick ponds had a very brief Otter and a Fly bye Bittern. Finally at Workington Stumpy the Med Gull and 14 Grey Seal was it really... God i hope 2013 brings something better otherwise bring on the end of the World!!!!

Soddy and Siddick

Well i did manage to get out, firstly covering Soddy masses of geese flew over including 200 Greylags which then landed on the pond and 90+ Pink footed Geese but they continued North.
180 Goosander still with smaller numbers of Teal, Wigeon, Mallard and 3 Goldeneye.
4 Snipe dropped in. Yellowhammer, Tree Sparrow, Skylark and a Few winter Thrush's was it really.

I moved onto Siddick Ponds by which time it had started to rain AGAIN! pissing me off now, i want to go get some digiscoping practice in, bloody weather. I did do just a bit of photography. Anyway the birds were crap as usual, another flock of Pinks going north 50+, Mute Swan, Goosander, Teal and Mallard. A few Snipe and a brief glimpse of a Water Rail.
No show for Bittern, Kingfisher or Otter. Here's today's efforts at some Digiscoping..

Nowt

Well I'm sorry to say no updates = no real birding done, been a busy time at work which is nice and any days Ive had off have been filled with other stuff at home. The weathers not been great either. I'm away as of this weekend so unless i get out birding tomorrow there will no blog posts till later next week if i'm lucky... seya peeps, thanks for continuing to look in from time to time...