St. Mary's Surprises 16/4/12

Arrived at St. Mary's with Dan yesterday morning at 9, seawatching until 11 produced quite a bit, ore than expected, with 5 sandwich terns, 1 common scoter, 2 red-throated divers, a few fulmar and hundreds of common gulls all heading north. Just as we were about to finish, we spotted a summer plumaged, great-northern diver on the sea, a very nice year and patch tick! On our way out, we stopped at the willows just to see what was around, we saw a little bird fly into the trees in front of us, and as it flew out, I noticed an extremely red/orange tail and a very white breast, so we followed it to get an ID, it then showed for another 10 seconds before diving for cover to reveal that it was a NIGHTINGALE! My first in the UK, and a wonderful surprise to the day!

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

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

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!

Desert Wheatear 10/12/11

Went up to Newbiggin again today to revisit the desert wheatear that has been hanging around, I saw it on Tuesday on the beach south of Beacon Point but today it was north of the point in the bay out of the wind. Met up with Kieran Lawrence on the way there, good to see you again mate. We set up on the bank overlooking the bay and within a couple of minutes of setting up, it flew onto a ledge about 15 feet away, this bird really seems to have little fear of people. After 10 minutes of watching it, it flew round the corner of the bay out of sight. I went round looking for it on the beach and didn't relocate it but saw 5 purple sandpipers and 4 grey plover which was a nice end to the day.

Desert Wheatear

Triple Vision 27/11/11

Finally managed to get out after being engaged for so long, and I decided I ought to pay a visit to Big Waters to check out the two Bewick's Swans that have taken up residence there. Most importantly though, I was desperate to get all three British swans in the same photo. I knew there were whoopers there as well so we made straight for the right hand hide on arrival. We were greeted by the whooper swans right outside the hide, there was also a couple of mutes to the left but at first, no Bewick's. After 10 minutes of searching, I got my eye on one of the Bewick's Swans behind the island feeding, surprisingly small compared with the mutes. I soon got my eye on the other to the right of the hide and it wasn't long before the two met in the middle allowing me to get the all important shot!

Got it! Bewick's, Mute then Whooper (Top to Bottom)

The size comparison between mute and Bewick's.

Finally the comparison between Bewick's (Top) and Whooper (Bottom)

We watched them for half an hour before the light disappeared and were just shutting up the hide when the otter swam right past. On a second look, I noticed there were actually three otters together right outside the hide. Unfortunately the light had gone but I did get one shot with all 3 heads all up together, fantastic end to the day!

Yank with an icelandic sidekick 13/11/11

After dipping on the Greater Yellowlegs at Chevy on Saturday, I got a report on my phone when I got home saying it was showing at Hauxley, damn. So after ringing on sunday morning, I went up to Hauxley to look for it. On arrival, we decided to try the wader hide on our way up to the Eric's hide, and completely unexpected, it was sitting just to the right of the hide. After waiting about an hour with the rest of the twitchers, the greater yellowlegs walked around right past the front of the hide, fantastic views, what a stunning wader as well. It then stopped and preened in front of the hide and in flew a smaller grey wader. Grey Phalarope. One of the best experiences I have ever had, two lifers in the same camera shot about 8 feet away. A also went back tonight to get another view of it, again wonderful views of the yellowlegs and a flypast from the phalarope. Hopefully they'll hang around a while until we get some better light for photos! Greater Yellowlegs Grey Phalarope The pair together.