Happy Birding 2012 - Favourite Photos from 2011

I thought I'd follow the trend of the 'final post' on the year with a summary of my favourite moments and photos from 2011:

To start, a photograph taken at sunset of 4 whooper swans coming into land at Marton Mere reserve at Blackpool.

Another of my favourites is this one, from mine and my dads annual Scotland visits, this time to the Uists, this short-eared owl was taken by the road on North Uist.

A photograph of a parent and juvenile tree sparrows at Big Waters. After spending so long without a decent photo of a tree sparrow, this opportunity came along.

A recent one, taken at the start of the month at the redeveloped Gosforth Park, fantastically cut back and allows views of birds like this secretive bittern, I was lucky enough to photograph this bird at about 10 metres.

Now for my favourite bird of all time, the kestrel. This female showed very little fear of me as I followed it around the car park at Big Waters watching it catch worms and mice in the wooded area next to the car park.

This bird has always been the one I couldn't not get, no matter how long I tried for, so I visited my local patch, St. Mary's, which provided me with an opportunity I couldn't refuse, a low-flying swift.

My only mammal pf the collection is this wood mouse photographed at Low Newton, again showing no fear whatsoever as this photo is taken with a 18-105mm lens, at 105mm this photo is uncropped, I had never seen a wood mouse so close which made the experience so special.

Another of my favourites from the year, taken at Northumberland Park was this beautiful drake mandarin, another bird that showed little fear of people.

For a lot of May, June and July, I was attempting to photograph this species in many different locations, including St. Mary's, Druridge Pools and finally where this photo was taken, Arcot Pond.

I thought it would be rude not to include this beauty in my collection, this desert wheatear at Newbiggin I have photographed on many occasions and never ceases to amaze me how approachable this bird is, such a stunning bird as well.

And finally my favourite image of 2011. We have had many rarities in Northumberland this year including, Greater Yellowlegs - Hauxley, Desert Wheatear - Newbiggin, Lesser Scaup - Marden Quarry, Eastern Black Redstart - Holy Island and many more but my favourite photograph of 2011 was taken 5 minutes from my house at St. Mary's Island. I felt that the colours, light and the pose of this stunning bar-tailed godwit couldn't be beaten...

Happy New Year and Good Birding to all in 2012!

Hauxley, Druridge, East Chev and Cresswell.

On Sunday we went to Cresswell to see these wagtails that we can never find! As always, they weren't there and there wasn't much on the pond so we went to Druridge. We went to the mini-pond first which produced 3 black-wits, 6 dunlin and not much else. So we moved on to the bigger pond. On our way, we saw a whitethroat on our way to the hides. It just flew as we saw it so no picture unfortunately. From the first hide we saw 10 dunlin, 6 ringed plover and 2 nesting greylags. There was nothing at all on the main pond so we went to East Chev. On our way in, as we walked across the bridge, we saw a sedge warbler fly into the reeds. After 20 mins of looking, it never showed again. Just then it started to rain - heavily!! We ran to the hide and dived in. Not much on the pond and if it hadn't been for the 3 wheatears to the right side of the hide, we would have had nothing to watch! After it stopped raining we left the hide and went to Hauxley. On the board, in the reception hide there had been a marsh harrier seen 1 hour before we got there. As we walked round we saw 2 muscovy ducks on the little pond near the Eric's Hide. There were 2 gadwall in front of the hide but nothing else unusual expect a bar-wit on the far side. Not a bad day although not excellent. Wheatear Muscovy Ducks Gadwall

A little extra!: This year I set myself a challenge - to get a half-decent photo of a swift. This is what I came out with: