Outer Hebrides and Highlands

Just come back from Scotland on Saturday, we went to the Uists, Lewis and Harris and visited Skye on the last day. Fantastic trip, saw 120 species in total, including 69 buzzards and 26 short-eared owls. Including 6 I had never seen: Pomarine Skua, Arctic Skua, Great Skua, Corncrake, Corn Bunting and Red-Necked Phalarope. Here is a selection of photos:

Short-Eared Owl Corn Bunting

Redshank

White-Tailed Eagle on Skye Golden Plover Buzzard

Corncrake

Sanderling Whimbrel

Dunlin Hooded Crow Common Sandpiper

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

A nice surprise at Killingworth Lake

We went to Killingworth Lake and St. Mary's today. We went to look for the goosander at Killingworth and when we got there, we saw them straight away in all different places. As we were walking along to watch a male goosander at the other end of the lake, I was watching the ducks sitting on the bank next to the road and then a smaller duck left the bank and swam past us within 3 feet. I knew as soon as I saw it that it was a female mandarin duck. It was brilliant to watch it in the water then it climbed onto the bank again in front of us. After getting loads of photos of it, we went to see the goosander and then off to St. Mary's. The tide was nearly in at St. Mary's and there was very little rock but there was still quite a variety of waders. These included over 50 ringed plover, redshank, turnstone, curlew, oystercatcher and also 3 knot which were a little different. A nice end to the day!

Mandarin DuckGoosander Group of Waders: Top Left (Ringed Plover) Middle Top (Dunlin) Top Right (Redshank) Front (Knot)

A Glossy end to the day!

Yesterday, we decided to go on a big journey today with my new lens. It is a 70-200mm with a 1.7 converter. We started at Thornley Woods where there wasn’t much at all except stock doves, squirrels, coal tits and nuthatches! I was a bit disappointed with the outcome of Thornley. Next we went to Big Waters. We got there and went straight to the main hide. It was very busy so I just got a spot at the feeders although I still had a view of the main pond. After watching the goldfinches, blue tits, great tits and greenfinches for a while, I saw 3 snipe out of the window. They were a bit far off for photos but within 10 minutes they were right underneath the window. I got some great photos of birds that I have never seen that close before! We left soon after that to go to Cresswell to see the Glossy Ibis via St. Mary’s. We arrived at St. Mary’s and sat in the North Bay for half an hour on the rocks. It was fantastic sitting watching the waders feed around us, the dunlin came especially close. They we within 7 feet of us producing great views and photos. There was a curlew that came very close as well and I got a photo of that too. After sitting for 30 minutes we went to Cresswell. When we got there, there were loads of people in the car park but they told us that we had just missed the ibis my 15 minutes. After a while, someone got a call to say it was near Bell’s Pool. The car park cleared within 2 minutes. Everyone went to Bell’s Pool. We followed everyone and when we got there, we immediately saw mine and my dad’s first Glossy Ibis. It was in the field just beyond the pool but it soon flew onto the pool giving us great views. A glossy end to the day!!

Snipe

Goldfinch Redshank Curlew Dunlin

Glossy Ibis

Cresswell and Hauxley 27/4/09

After reading about everything that was at Cresswell such as the blue-headed wagtail, we went down to have a look. When we got there, nobody was looking in the field and we couldn't see anything on our way past so we went straight to the hide. As we parked our car, we noticed a hare in the field. On our way to the hide, we saw the pair of stonechats that live there and a robin. When we got to the hide, the mudflats were there but there was no waders. The rarest bird we saw was a male garganey in the corner of the pond. There were also a pair of herons that flew straight towards the hide before turning and flying over the field next to the hide. We left soon after to go to Hauxley. When we got there, we went straight to the feeding station. Unfortunately we couldn't get in the hide because a wren was nesting in it! So, we went to the first hide (Eric's Hide). When we got there we saw some big orange waders and brownish-white waders. We identified them as bar-tailed and black-tailed godwits. As we were watching them we noticed a duck with a long tail, and then saw that it was a pintail with it's head under it's wing. After watching these for quite a while we went to the wader hide. There wasn't much except a pair of gadwall and a redshank. On our way back we noticed the bar-headed goose in the field. We walked all the way round to the furthest hide because we saw some more godwits over there right outside the hide. And when we got there, sure enough they were there. Both types. As we were watching them, a crow flew in and stood in the water for a while. Then all of a sudden it starting pecking very hard into the ground and that was when we noticed it had a flatfish in it's beak!! A very successful day.

Redshank

Canada Goose Crow with Flatfish

Group of GodwitsBlack-Tailed Godwit