Waxwings

Went to see the waxwings at Cramlington on Saturday. Luckily they were still there, but the tree they were in was in the shade quite a lot so I only managed one decent photo! The red-necked grebe wasn't at Blyth when I went to have a look and neither were the snow buntings so that was quite disappointing but the waxwings were good anyway! Waxwings

Birding Then Bird Ringing 23/1/11

Went to St. Mary's on Saturday to check what was around, the north bay was very active. There was turnstone, sanderling, purple sandpiper, knot, rock pipit and an eider on the sea. No long-tailed ducks today so we moved on. A trip to gosforth park paid off brilliantly with a kingfisher coming right next to the hide and the bittern showing very well. The bittern was a magnificent bird to see, it flew from the far side of the pond into the reeds to the right of the hide and didn't show again.

Then to Cherryburn on Sunday for a ringing session. Quite a few good birds caught with greenfinch, bullfinch, 7 lesser redpoll and a treecreeper. Greenfinch and treecreeper both ringing ticks for me!

Treecreeper (Highlight of the day)

Lesser Redpoll

Bullfinch Rock Pipit SanderlingKingfisher

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