It's been a while...

It's been a long time since my last post, and my exams have left little time for birding but the last couple of weeks have improved! Here's a few photos from the last few months:

 Caspian Gull at Amble this morning.

 Grayling at Cambois, July.

Med Gull at Brierdene Car Park, July.

 Ringlet at St. Mary's, July.

 Cuckoo at Druridge Pools, June.

Large Skipper at Havannah NR, June. 

 Small Pearl-Bordered Fritillary at Arnside, Cumbria, July.

 My first ever Stock Dove in my garden! June.

 Wrynose Pass in Cumbria, July.

 Iceland Gull at QE2, May.

 Wood Warbler at Allenbanks, May.

SPAIN TRIP - 5/4 - 12/4

 Bonelli's Eagle.

 Booted Eagle.

 Collared Pratincole.

 Greater Flamingo.

 Griffon Vulture.

 Little Swift.

 Slender-billed Gull.

Whinchat.

White-headed Duck.

First 3 Months.

It's been an extremely hectic 3 months of university, with very little birding getting done unfortunately, however here's a few things I have managed this year:

 Laughing Gull - New Brighton 

 Med Gull - St. Mary's

Glaucous Gull - North Shields Fish Quay

Iceland Gull - North Shields Fish Quay

 Harlequin Duck - Aberdeen 

 Spotted Sandpiper - Inverallochy, Aberdeenshire

PATCH TICK!!

After visiting the patch this morning and seeing very little apart from 2 Snow Buntings North, A phone call from Simon P and Alan C this evening had me panicking and sprinting from my house to the South Bay in 5 minutes flat, the words 'Juvenile Iceland Gull in the South Bay showing well' was all I needed to hear before I was out the house and within 5 minutes I was watching it, what a beast!! LONG overdue patch tick after missing a couple in the past, I was delighted with this one! Thanks to all that got in touch to let me know about it.

Iceland Gull

Other sightings from the past few days:

 Holywell Dipper

 Snow Buntings at Blyth

Local Willow Tits

Iceland Gull

FINALLY, A TWITCHABLE WHITE-WINGER IN NORTHUMBERLAND THIS YEAR!

After dipping it on Sunday, I thought about going looking for the Iceland Gull at Tynemouth again, when I got a call about a young Glaucous Gull at the Fish Quay. It gave me the run around for a couple of hours, until I got another call saying that the Iceland Gull was back on the Boating Lake, and I got it this time! After watching it for 10 minutes, it flew east and ended up at the Fish Quay, and then it became obvious that the earlier reported Glauc was this bird, a rather dark juvenile Iceland when it flew made it confusing at a glance!

Cairngorms then Collared!

On Friday, Me, Kieran Lawrence, Derek Lawrence and Michael Murphy made the trek to the Cairngorms for the long weekend kindly driven by Derek. Over the trip we managed 114 species just in Scotland including Surf Scoter at Musselburgh Lagoons on the way up, Michael also found a cracking Iceland Gull.

Iceland Gull

That night we went to look for Pine Martens and Badgers from a hide at Loch an Eileen, and after 2 hours waiting, we were watching 3 badgers and one pine marten showing very well!

Badger

The following morning we were up early in search of Capercaillie, and after getting reasonable but distant views of a lekking male at Loch Garten, we drove down the road towards Boat of Garten and on the way, we had mega views of a male lekking in a tree by the side of the road! This was followed by breakfast and then a trip out looking for golden eagles and hen harriers, however we did not score either species.

Capercaillie

Sunday was a different story! After an early start to go for ptarmigan, we got the ski lift to the top and within 100 metres of the centre was a stunning pair of ptarmigan, on the trip up we got a total of 8 birds! Also got a nice male snow bunting while we were there.

Ptarmigan

Afterwards, a trip through the Findhorn Valley was in order to try for golden eagle again and after almost 3 hours of searching, Kieran spotted one as we were driving out, an excellent find and put everyone in a very good mood, even though we dipped crested tit later in the day!

Monday was hometime, and we got up early and managed to get our first and only crested tit of the trip at Boat of Garten after another hour of waiting! Then we went on to Aberdeenshire to look for White-Billed Divers, no sign of any WBD but 7 stunning Great Northern Divers, 2 Black-Throats and 2 Red-Throats. Our final stop of the trip was Ythan Estuary for the drake King Eider where we met up with Joseph Nichols. Derek spotted the bird on the far bank asleep with eiders after a while, which was a relief and an excellent spot! Another lifer for me! We also got little terns here bringing our final total to 114. An excellent trip!

King Eider (2nd Bird from Left)

Record Shot of Crested Tit!

However, yesterday me and my grandma were on our way up to Hauxley to look for the GWE when my phone buzzed and I screamed 'COLLARED FLY!' and within 30 seconds the SatNav had been rearranged and within the hour, we were watching the stunning Collared Flycatcher at Low Newton, found by Gary Woodburn, cracking bird, the best I've seen for a long time! Stunning!

Best photos can be found here: http://www.birdguides.com/picture?f=395718

Ice 5/2/12

I haven't really been out a lot recently so had nothing to report, however, it was good to turn that around this morning with a very showy adult iceland gull at North Shields, we watch it fly around the fish quay and repeatedly battle other gulls for fish, even great black-backed gulls struggled to keep away from the battles! Eventually after 30 minutes, it flew up the river and out of site so we swung by the lighthouse on the way home, with not a lot of note on the tide lines we headed home, but did get a good view of a med gull flying along side the car before landing on the grass near the Brier Dene car park. Iceland Gull Med Gull