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

A bit of everything. Feb 10

I have been away for a while so this is my first blog this month.

Here is a little update of the things I have seen this February:Nice Chaffinch in Kielder

Waxwings from Ashington

Sparrowhawk from Shiremoor Pochard from Killingworth Lake

Knot Flock Return 24/1/10

Been all over today, we started at St. Mary's. On the rocks in the north bay, we had 3 oystercatcher, 1 redshank, 2 ringed plovers and 1 knot. When we went for a closer look at the knot, we saw a flock of 30 grey birds flew in which turned out to be knot as well. We were excited to see that the knot had returned to St. Mary's after we thought they weren't going to. After a good start, we headed for big waters. The feeders were packed with chaffinch, siskin, reed bunting, blue tit etc. The siskins were very happy to stay on the same feeder for almost a hour and a half. They were not letting the goldfinches on in a hurry! After spending a lot of time there, we moved to Killingworth Lake on the way home. 5 goosanders were present, along with 3 pochard and a goldeneye naming a few. The usual stuff was there too of course! A very good day birding!

Knot Goosander

Common Gull SiskinChaffinch

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 few photos 8/1/10

This is just a little update of what is around:

Fieldfare in my garden after throwing some apple out (thanks Tim!)

Blackbird in my Garden Golden Plover came surprisingly close at St. Mary's Skylarks still at St. Mary's. (Better light than yesterday)

5 inches of snow in my garden!

My first post of 2010

We went to St. Mary's at the weekend (sorry haven't had time to post since then!) and the birds were nowhere to be seen. However, some of the scenes there were amazing, like the snow on the rocks etc. The only birds we saw of note where 3 skylarks in the carpark which was a little different. However, not much else to report except a garden tick. I thought this was quite unusual. I saw a grey wagtail in my garden. I haven't got a pond so I'm not sure why in came but it stayed for a couple of days then moved on. Another garden tick was a fieldfare. I know how unrare they are but I have never had one in the garden before Skylarks

Snow on the causewaySnow in my garden. Grey Wagtail (in my garden)

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Big Waters (well a tiny bit!)

Sorry about the lack of blogs, haven't been out much! Just arrive back from Big Waters. The pond is completely frozen apart from a tiny bit of water in the middle. There was a flock of fieldfare in the trees on ur way into the reserve which set us up for a good day birding. We made our way to the members hide after that. As we went in, Alan Johnson (the warden for Big Waters) told me to look at the top of a tree over in the corner of the pond and when I did, I saw that there was a female sparrowhawk sitting there! A good start. That would explain why there were no birds at the feeders. However, she soon left and the little birds returned in their numbers. There was 5 robins, blue tits, great tits, coal tits, blackbirds, a wren, chaffinches, greenfinches and goldfinches. As we sat and took many photos, the woodpecker dropped in. But very briefly. After that it went a bit quiet for a while until 2 nice surprises turned up. These were a male bullfinch and a male siskin. There was also 2 pheasants that strolled in towards the end just as we were leaving to watch Newcastle on the telly! A good day!

Robin Bullfinch Siskin Wren