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

Past few days on the patch..

Nice week or so at St. Mary's, with the arrival of my new scope, I was itching to get it out. To kick things off, I located the Med Gull with the Black-Head flock yesterday, and today found a cracking juvenile Scaup on the wetland! I was over the moon with this bird, and only the second time I have seen one on patch, the first time being seawatching fly-bys! Wetland first! Also had a Black Redstart on the rocks on the island last week.

 Black Redstart

 Scaup

Med Gull

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

2 surprises in 1 hour! 15/7/10

The Med Gull at Brier Dene car park has returned after only being away for 3 months! I photographed it in March and then again yesterday after the breeding season. After photographing it for a while we went onto Gosforth Park reserve. Amazingly, as soon as we got to the hide, there was a kingfisher sitting just outside it about 5 metres away! The luck was definitely on our side! While we sat there watching the kingfisher and the tern colony, there was a reed warbler feeding chicks very near the hide which were very photogenic. Some nice surprises which some great pictures to show for them.

Kingfisher at Gosforth Park Med Gull at Brier Dene. Top - July 2010, Bottom - March 2010 Reed Warbler

Black-Headed Med Gull and St. Mary's

Because my school finishes early on a Tuesday, I went to St. Mary's with my dad after school. As soon as we arrived we spotted a kestrel sitting in a tree and went to see it. It let me get amazingly close to it to get decent photos of it (it must be used to people). We had the weather, we had the birds but we didn't have the most important thing... the tide! It was right in so no chance of knot but we did get two lovely rock pipits on the rocks on the path to the causeway. Unfortunately not much else so we went to Brier Dene to check on the Med Gull. Success! It now has half a black-head and because I don't think it will be here much longer, we got plenty of photos. Med Gull

Rock Pipit Kestrel

The Med Gull is back!

Called in to the Brier Dene car park, after St. Mary's didn't produce much except turnstone and redshank, to find the med gull that has come back from last year. It was sitting in amongst the black-headed gulls when we got there but it moved around the car park and kept moving closer to us which was very nice. It's very tame and gives great opportunities for photos!