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!

St. Mary's 22/3/11

Lovely light yesterday morning so before school I headed down there. The south bay was full of waders like bar-tailed godwit, dunlin, turnstone, redshank and sanderling. The north bay had oystercatchers and curlew but not a lot else. All my photos are from the south bay. After St. Mary's I went along to the cliffs at Whitley Bay to check out the fulmar colony; they are coming along well. At least 18 pairs there now! Fulmar This Turnstone found a crab on the beach and spend about 15 minutes eating it. Dunlin Bar-Tailed Godwit

A Dark-Bellied Day

I've just come back from St. Mary's Island, there was quite a bit there. In the north bay there was a Dark-Bellied Brent Goose, 2 bar-tailed godwits and plenty of ther waders like redshank, dunlin, sanderling and ringed plover. The golden plover numbers were higher than I've ever seen. Then as I looked round, there was a merlin that I just caught sight of as it flew over the rocks and out of sight. I've never seen a merlin there before. That's about all really, the merlin was the highlight with the brent goose a close second!

Brent Goose Bar-Tailed Godwit

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 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

Cresswell and Hauxley 27/4/09

After reading about everything that was at Cresswell such as the blue-headed wagtail, we went down to have a look. When we got there, nobody was looking in the field and we couldn't see anything on our way past so we went straight to the hide. As we parked our car, we noticed a hare in the field. On our way to the hide, we saw the pair of stonechats that live there and a robin. When we got to the hide, the mudflats were there but there was no waders. The rarest bird we saw was a male garganey in the corner of the pond. There were also a pair of herons that flew straight towards the hide before turning and flying over the field next to the hide. We left soon after to go to Hauxley. When we got there, we went straight to the feeding station. Unfortunately we couldn't get in the hide because a wren was nesting in it! So, we went to the first hide (Eric's Hide). When we got there we saw some big orange waders and brownish-white waders. We identified them as bar-tailed and black-tailed godwits. As we were watching them we noticed a duck with a long tail, and then saw that it was a pintail with it's head under it's wing. After watching these for quite a while we went to the wader hide. There wasn't much except a pair of gadwall and a redshank. On our way back we noticed the bar-headed goose in the field. We walked all the way round to the furthest hide because we saw some more godwits over there right outside the hide. And when we got there, sure enough they were there. Both types. As we were watching them, a crow flew in and stood in the water for a while. Then all of a sudden it starting pecking very hard into the ground and that was when we noticed it had a flatfish in it's beak!! A very successful day.

Redshank

Canada Goose Crow with Flatfish

Group of GodwitsBlack-Tailed Godwit