A life tick day!

Today we were looking for a life tick - snow goose. We started of the day at Holy Island for the bearded tit. We watched for about 30 minutes and after no luck we went back to the car to beat the tide. On the way back we saw 3 sparrowhawks, a kestrel and a peregrine which was lovely to see after no bearded tit! On the way off the island, we saw a baby seal lying in the sun on the sand really close to the causeway which was lovely to see. Next we headed to Budle Bay. Unfortunately, the tide was right in and everything was on the sandbanks miles away. That wasn't much good so we went onto the best place of all - Stag Rocks. First we went to the rock itself to see 60 purple sandpiper which was brilliant and very photogenic. Next we scanned the sea after being told there was 2 slavonian grebes. I scanned it with my scope and saw them straight away. Two birds birds which were slavonian grebes. While we were watching them, I saw a little black and white bird and when I showed my dad, we decided that was the black guillemot that had been around for a while. We also got told there was 3 red-throated divers. SO we looked for them and eventually I did see 1. And right at the end of the sea watch, I saw a duck with a black and white head flying in towards the shore and when it landed I identified it as my first long-tailed duck. A very good session of sea watching in a new spot! And on the way out we saw a Brent goose fly past the shore which was very close but I only saw it at the last minute so no photos but good purple sands! No snow goose but better!

167 - LT Duck

168 - Slavonian Grebe

Purple Sandpiper Grey Seal

Saltholme RSPB 5/8/09

Went to Saltholme yesterday to look for the curlew and pectoral sandpipers. When we got there, we saw a grey wagtail in the car park. When we got to the reception hide we went over to the window to see what there was. The big colony of sand martins was busy, the terns were noisy and there was a cormorant diving all over the lake. We moved on to the wildlife watch point. Except it wasn't! There was only swans and coots. The feeders had nothing on them at all so we moved on to the second hide quite quickly! From that hide we saw 9 little egrets, 2 shoveler and lots of common terns. We wandered on to the next hide where the pectoral sandpiper was being seen from. When we went in and sat down, we saw some waders on the far side of the pond. We scanned them and a warden told us that there was 2 ruff which I saw because they were bigger than the redshank and dunlin. But we also saw a tiny wader which was my first ever little stint. No sign of the curlew or pectoral sandpipers. I asked the warden where they were and he said we had justed missed them and they were there yesterday morning. Typical! We went to the surrounding pools after Saltholme. However, there wasn't much anywhere except 10 black-tailed godwits at Calor Gas Pool.

Common Tern Small White? Not sure about the insects. Can anyone help?

Grey Seals at Seal Sands

Farne Islands 18/7/09

I have just returned from the farnes today. I love the Farnes. It's one of my favourite places to go so I have been wanting to go for weeks. Anyway, we got the 10am ferry across to Staple Island then to Inner Farne. We returned at 4:30pm. We spent 3 and a half hours on each island. The bad weather didn't stop us! We arrived in Seahouses at 9:30(ish) to have a look on the rocks. Not much around so we went straight to the ferry. It left prompt on 10 and we made our way to Staple Island. We saw the usual creatures on the way over such as: puffin, guillemot, razorbill, gannet, Arctic, common and sandwich terns and seals. When we arrived on Staple Island, we saw the big colony of guillemots on the way in which was astonishing to see that many (although I saw them last year it was still amazing!) I spent the first 30 minutes standing at the entrance of the island taking puffins in flight! After many attempts, I got a good one. We walked round the island and as we wandered round, we noticed that a few guillemots had white eye stripes but most of them didn't. We thought this was strange and don't know why that is. There was colonies everywhere such as: puffin, fulmar, razorbill, shag, guillemot... the list could nearly go on forever! When we got back to the boat and went to Inner Farne, we saw 2 whimbrel as we past Brownsman which was quite nice. Inner Farne was much the same but with a difference. The Terns. Arctic, Common and Sandwich Terns. As soon as we got onto the island we got attacked from everywhere by the arctic terns. Luckily, we had hats so they didn't hurt but their peck hurts if you don't have a hat. Most of them had young but a couple still had eggs. It is quite late in year for eggs, we only saw 3 nests with them. On the journey back to Seahouses, we saw loads of gannets. I was interested in seeing little terns, so I asked the warden where to see them and he suggested Long Nanny. So, we went there. When we got there, we saw loads of arctic terns and after looking carefully I managed to see 5 pairs of Little Terns. I had never seen little terns before and it was nice to them nesting. On the way back home, we saw a hare run off the road to the side where we took some photos. Puffins Galore! Babies Everywhere: Grey Seal Shag, Kittiwake and Arctic Tern Razorbill

Brown Hare