A good start to 2011

I haven't been blogging recent as I have had absolutely no time but I will try to blog more in 2011. I was at St. Mary's today and yesterday and there was a lot of birds there. It started in the car park with a reed bunting and redshanks in the field in front of the second car park. Both providing good views. In the north bay there was waders galore: turnstone, dunlin, curlew, golden plover, lapwing, knot, ringed plover and purple sandpiper. But the highlight came in the north bay on the posts. On the end post sat 2 fantastic snow buntings and they were the tamest snow buntings in have ever seen letting me get within 6 feet of them. They really were lovely. Then as we were leaving we saw a black bird on the sea which at the first glance I thought it was a Slovenian grebe but then after looking at the photos when I got back it looked more like a red-necked grebe but I wasn't sure, if anyone could identify it, that would be great.

Snow Buntings in the North Bay

Red-Necked Grebe?

Knot

Lapwing Redshank Ringed Plover

Reed Bunting

Purple Sandpiper

Recent Sightings 24/5/09 - 27/5/09

These are a few sightings that I have seen lately:

Lapwing and White Wagtail? (not sure) at Druridge Pools.

Does anyone know what type of caterpillar this is because I am not sure? (Also taken at Druridge Pools)

Lapwing Chick at Cresswell Little Egret at Hauxley NR (Had to wait about 15 minutes before it walked in front of the Eric's Hide)

Sparrowhawk, Song Thrush and Starling Chick taken in my garden.

A good day in the hills 10/4/09

My dad told me about a peregrine nest site that he had come across with his dad over 30 years ago high up in the Cheviots - he's never been back since. I asked him if he would take me to see if it was still being used today. We parked the car and walked for an hour into the hills until we came to a cliff face, it was raining slighting so we sheltered under a tree which gave us good views of the cliff. At first there appeared to be nothing there and we thought we had wasted our time when suddenly a female peregrine appeared overhead and flew onto a ledge high up on the cliff. She sat there watching and preening for 10 minutes before settling down until only her head was visible. After a while the male flew over and the female flew up to greet him before returning to the ledge. We watched for about an hour before quietly sneaking away so we didn't disturb them. I have read that some nest sites have been used for 100 years and we now know that this one has been used for at least 30 years. It occured to me that the next generation of our family was watching the next generation of the peregrine family. I wonder if I'll be showing my kids this wonderful sight in 30 years time!!

On the drive up there we drove through Elsdon where we saw a pair of dippers under the bridge and as we were watching them a pair of sand martins flew over. Other sightings were 100+ fieldfare, 6 red-legged partridges, 5 wheatear and lots of buzzards. Spectacular views of the peregrine LapwingRL Partridge Fieldfare

Hauxley, Druridge and Cresswell 8/4/09

For a little day out on Wednesday, my grandma took me to Hauxley, Druridge and Cresswell. We arrived at Hauxley first and went into the reception. The warden in the hide said that there was a bar-headed goose in the fields to the right. We couldn't see it so we waited for it to come. After 30 mins it still didn't show so we left. We went to the feeders which produced 3 pheasants, 6 tree sparrows and 4 chaffinches. So we moved on to the first hide. From there we saw 2 gadwall feeding just in front of us. Also, the teal numbers were good and two sailed just in front of us next to the gadwall. The other hides sadly didn't produce much except to lapwing in courtship so we went back to reception. The warden said that we had missed the bar-headed goose by 2 minutes. It flew across the pond just before we got there. Damn!! After that we went to Druridge Pools to see if we could see the little egret and garganey. When we got to the main pond, we saw a pair of mergansers and a Great Crested Grebe. The GCG was quite far away but not a bad photo either. We saw the little egret from the other hide but no garganey and the egret was in the reeds miles away! Cresswell, unfortunately was the worst reserve which is very rare. Nothing except a whooper swan on the far bank. Very dissapointing but the other reserves were good and produced some nice birds and photos.

Gadwall GC Grebe Pheasant Lapwing Courtship

Teal

A weeks worth of birding

I've had some interesting sightings during my travels this week starting with a pair of buzzards over the Snowy Owl pub in Cramlington. A fairly unsuccessful visit to St. Mary's resulted in a pair of greylags on the pond and a reed bunting. No sign of the garganey this time. Driving through Killingworth on Saturday morning we saw the short-eared owl hunting over it's usual field but when we went later, it wasn't there.

I visited Washington WWT today with my grandparents hoping to see the avocets. And sure enough there they were along with 20+ shelduck and a heron with a chick. A visit to the feeders revealed the usual birds such as bullfinches, chaffinches and blue tits although I was surprised to see a reed bunting on the feeder. Also there was a chiffchaff as we were walking around the reserve but it was too far off for a photo.

Avocet Chaffinch

Shelducks

Reed Bunting

Lapwing