Recent Sightings 9/9/12 - 22/9/12

 Baird's Sandpiper and Sanderling at Seaton Snook 9/9/12

 Peregrine at Seaton Snook 9/9/12

 Very Showy Ringed Plover at St. Mary's 22/9/12

 Short-Eared Owls continuing to show well at St. Mary's tonight! 22/9/12

 Snow Bunting at The Brier Dene car park, amazed to find this bird in September! 20/9/12

 St. Mary's Yellow-Browed Warbler showing well on and off this morning.

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

Grey Plover and Kingfisher at St. Mary's

We popped down to St. Mary's for a hour this morning and got some nice surprises. The bay was full of waders. Ringed Plover in their numbers coming very close, dunlin and golden plover very close too. All the usual birds but there was 2 rarer ones. There was a bar-tailed godwit at the end of the bay. We also saw my favourite wader fly past us, Grey Plover. It flew around for a while before landing at the far end. We thought it wasn't going to come very close but if you just sit on a rock, it will come very close. We were very impressed! I was also impressed with the photos that the D90 takes in the dull weather. Just as we were leaving the bay, a kingfisher flew past us. A very rare sighting for St. Mary's!

Grey PloverGolden Plover

Ringed Plover Bar-Tailed Godwit

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 good hour of birding 6/10/09

Just come back from St. Mary’s. The tide was coming in fast so I just got 10 minutes but it was worth it. The North Bay contained a bar-tailed godwit, 2 curlews, 3 redshank, 24 sanderling, 9 turnstone, 3 ringed plover, 50 golden plover and a cormorant fishing. I tried to get photos of all of them in the short time that the tide let me have! I called into Briar Dene Car Park on the way back, no sign of med gull but there were 2 common gulls present. We also saw a grey wagtail fly over then land quite close to the car park down under the bridge in the little stream. As this was a first at St. Mary’s for me we went and got a few photos before moving on. After that we went to Tynemouth Boating Lake to see the barnacle goose. When we arrived there was only one goose there and it was the barnacle goose. Quite easy to spot! The wind picked up a bit while we were there but it soon settled letting me get some photos. A good hour of birding! Cormorant Curlew

Bar-Tailed GodwitRinged Plover Grey Wagtail

Common Gull

Barnacle Goose