Outer Hebs/Speyside Trip

 

Yes, unfortunately we dipped Harlequin and Snowy Owl, good start to the post. I'll let the photos do the talking:

Corncrake at Balranald

Curlew Sandpiper in Stinky Bay, Benbecula

Dotterel on Cairn Gorm

Golden Eagles Everywhere! Taken on North Uist.

Hen Harrier on North Uist

Little Gull at Stinky Bay, Benbecula

Ptarmigan on Cairn Gorm

Corn Bunting at Balranald

Short-Eared Owl

Patch Gulls 23/2/13

After the boredom of the period between winter and spring started to set in, I decided to go for a seawatch in the hope of a migrant or two. Among 6 common scoter, 15 gannets and 30 fulmars, was a juvenile Glaucous Gull flying north, nice surprise to the seawatch! 

My photos of the glauc from North Shields.

Then after a text from Alan Curry this afternoon, I went flying back down to the South Bay just in time to catch up with 4 Adult Little Gulls with the Black-Heads. Showed amazingly well, down to 3 feet at times! Also saw the adult Med Gull.

Great Birds.

Recent Sightings (Mainly Gulls)

Haven't been able to do many posts recently so I thought I would do a round up of all my recent sightings. I start with my trip to Norfolk, although we didn't get many photos I did get a good number of life ticks. I picked up golden pheasant, shore lark and black brant. We did dip on a few birds such as rough-legged buzzard and hawfinch though. We finished at Titchwell where I took the opportunity to photograph a black-tailed godwit at close range next to the path!

Black-Tailed Godwit

So when we got back home, I noticed a very interesting report on birdguides, it seems a certain fish quay was holding a lot of gulls I was interested in seeing, including kumlien's, glaucous and little gull. I am talking of course about Hartlepool Headland, on arrival we picked up all of these gulls at very close range within ten minutes, and the light was simply wonderful.

Glaucous Gull

Little Gull Kumlien's Gull

Arcot and Killingworth 1/8/11

After not going out for a while, I decided to pop down to Arcot to look for the grasshopper warbler after reading about it John's blog. As soon as we pulled up we could hear it reeling and sure enough, we saw it straight away sitting on top of the bush next to the track. As we got closer and closer, it continued reeling and let us get very close. Without disturbing the bird, I got plenty of photos and videos of it then left it to it's business. We looked for the little egrets that were reported as well but there was no sign of them. On our way back home, we stopped in at killingworth after seeing the little gulls last week, I went back with my camera. As we drove past, I could see both of them with the terns right next to the road so we parked the car and walked along. They provided excellent views I have never had of little gulls before. A successful day birding!

Grasshopper Warbler

Little Gulls