Patch Tick Brute...

This morning my grandma and me went to Seaton Common to try and shake off a bogey bird of mine in the form of Caspian Gull. Meeting up with Michael Murphy, Harry Murphy and Andrew Kinghorn, I was greeted by mist and thick fog allowing me no views whatsoever of any gulls. After about an hour of waiting for the fog to lift, I received a phone call from Alan Curry (never good if I can't get to St. Mary's quickly) telling me that he had found a Glaucous Gull on the rocks near the first car park. So a quick change of plan saw us getting some lunch at Saltholme then heading back for St. Mary's. On arrival at 3 o'clock, I headed straight for the gull roost where I assumed it would be, and after about 10 seconds of looking I found it, what a brute!! I was thrilled to re-find it and finally patch tick it! Dan McGibbon turned up soon after and also saw it, a lifer for him which made it even better! 

Glauc.

Bee-Eater 3/11/12

After getting a call off Andrew and Kieran this morning, I had soon roped my dad into taking me to seaburn for the bee-eater. Setting off at half 1, we were at Seaburn for quarter past 2 and the bird showed wonderfully for the hour we were there, catching wasps and sitting on the aerials 15 feet away. Amazing bird!

Bee-Eater

Seawatching Weekend

After seeing the movement of little auks on Saturday, I decided to do some seawatching on Sunday morning. I was joined by Alan Jack and Steve Wales for a very good session, this is the totals:

Little Auk - 54
Teal - 100
Common Scoter - 84
Wigeon - 30
Red-Throated Diver - 14
Goldeneye - 3
Shelduck - 4
Long-Tailed Duck - 2
Red-Breasted Merganser - 7
Great Northern Diver - 1

So after that session, I decided to get up early this morning and go seawatching again, this time accompanied by Dan McGibbon. Michael and Joe joined us for the last hour or so, here are our totals for today:

Little Auk - 16
Common Scoter - 110
Red-Throated Diver - 14
Fulmar - 1
Shelduck - 1
Red-Breasted Mergasner - 1
Goldeneye - 3
Peregrine (Chasing starling over the sea) - 1
Great Northern Diver - 2
Long-Tailed Duck - 1
Great-Crested Grebe - 1
Woodcock - 1

Recent Sightings 9/9/12 - 22/9/12

 Baird's Sandpiper and Sanderling at Seaton Snook 9/9/12

 Peregrine at Seaton Snook 9/9/12

 Very Showy Ringed Plover at St. Mary's 22/9/12

 Short-Eared Owls continuing to show well at St. Mary's tonight! 22/9/12

 Snow Bunting at The Brier Dene car park, amazed to find this bird in September! 20/9/12

 St. Mary's Yellow-Browed Warbler showing well on and off this morning.

More St. Mary's Surprises 26/8/12

I decided to get up this morning to go in search of long-tailed skuas, got to the seawatching hide at 7am, but by 8:30am I had seen nothing of note apart from 4 arctic skuas so I decided to check the willows for warblers. On my way in, I spotted a reed warbler and a chiffchaff, a good sign! After seeing little else, I decided to try the stiles, and within 5 minutes of watching, I spotted a little warbler, and after getting it in the binoculars, I noticed a bright yellow supercilium and immediately thought yellow-browed, but on further inspection, it only had 1 wingbar, and just as I went for my camera, it flew off - damn! After searching for another 15 minutes, I heard a high pitched call, Greenish Warbler!! After running around the corner and over the stile,  I was photographing the little beauty! After reporting it and texting a few people, I had Mike Hodgson listening to my recording, and he confirmed my ID. Patch tick number 144, and my rarest yet!  

GREENISH WARBLER

Reed Warbler

Pied Flycatcher last week

Recent Sightings

I haven't been posting for a long while now because I am bunged down with revision and exams! But in between revision sessions, I have been managing to get out so I'm just going to do a post on all recent sightings since my last post (so not really very recent at all!), these are:

Spotted Flycatcher on Holy Island

Marsh Warbler at Hadston Carrs

Gorgeous Little Stint at Newbiggin


I'ev also just returned from St. Mary's after a fantastic seawatching session, 8 manx shearwater past, and 2 adult BLACK TERNS! A brilliant lifer for me!

Third time lucky!

I've managed to dip the long-billed dowitcher at Saltholme twice now, but today I finally nailed it at Greenabella Marsh! Showing for only 15 minutes, this gorgeous bird was another lifer for me, and a very rewarding one at that!

A record shot of the beautiful yank!