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Wednesday 3 December 2014

Black Redstarts & Med Gulls

Saturday I went up to Newbiggin to check out the 4 Black Redstarts  that seemed faithful to a short stretch of beach , not the best of days very dull but at least not raining , birds located fairly quickly by just walking along the top of the dunes , but I could only get three and it took most of the afternoon  to finally get a total of four . I also tried a short seawatch  with only a few Wigeon and  two Velvet Scoter  as visibility was some what restricted , talking to AMc he picked up a Grey Phalarope as it crossed the headland and seemed to drop in the bay but it was not relocated .
Sunday we also called in to Newbiggin with the report of a Glaucous Gull on the breakwater and it was also a much brighter day , so I thought I would go around for the Redstarts  but when I got around the area they where frequenting was in shadow anyway  so I checked out the beach where  a concentration of birds where feeding on the shoreline . A quick look through and I picked out at least 12 Med Gulls in with the mass of Black Headed, Turnstone , Redshank and Sanderling , I could only see one Med with a colour ring on , several attempts made to get the number but without success 
Saturday 29th











Sunday 30th November




 The light fading fast

At least five Med Gulls in this shot by far the best place in Northumberland to see these fantastic looking Gulls 




3 comments:

notmanywords said...

Hi I was up at Newbiggin on the 1st of December for the Black Redstarts. I checked out the beach and there was only one Med gull there among the BHG while I was there. I managed to get a picture of it and it had a yellow colour ring on its left leg with the number 2H62. On its right leg it had a metal ring. I have tried to enlarge the picture to see if it had a number on it. I can make out the letters EY and then what looks like 776 (the last two numbers are indistinct and could be a T and something else I’m not sure).

Hope this helps

Ron

Johnnykinson said...

Hi Brian,
Must mention your header before i start, that's very nice. It's funny how you bump into birders regularly sometimes then never see them for ages ! Hope you're fit n well. E mail address is johnnykinson@hotmail.co.uk
Catch up with you soon.

Northumbrian Birding said...

Hi "not many words" There is a list of Colour ringed Med Gulls on Northumberland & Tyneside Bird Club it may have details of the bird you have seen ,if not it's worth reporting it , email me if you can't find the link.
Cheers.
Brian
Hi John , Good to hear from you will be in touch, have a good Christmas.
Brian