Black Redstart St Mary's

Heading to St Mary's Island just to have a look for any colour ringed waders Morgan informed me of a Black Redstart  feeding just at the start of the prom it was occasionally fly catching , this is a good find for anyone but Morgan  informed me he has not been birding very long (he did get the POTW on Birdguides  this year for an unusual shot of a Puffin) so its a very good find, the bird flitted around mostly in the shadows till it flew off north along the beach , so I headed down to the Sanderling for any colour ringed birds  plenty of them feeding along the shore and amongst the rocks just the one ringed bird . Black Redstart returned but it was the same, flitted up on the side of the prom now and then and onto the beach at one stage but mostly up in the now greater shadow of the cliff face now joined by a colourful Grey Wagtail , I did not get back along for it so these will have to do but young Jack Bucknall  did get an especially good shot of it just as it was taking off check his blog out it's a cracking shot !

 Black Redstart

 Sanderling along the South Shore ,only the one colour ringed bird

Black Redstart  momentarily hanging on the prom wall

 And here you could think it was bemused by it's shadow

Grey Wagtail adding a bit of colour to the shadows   !!!!

Gosforth Park, Killingworth Lake & Fish Quay

Last Fiday  I started out at Gosforth Park NHSN site , the walk to the pond had lots  of Chaffinch on the wood edge and I was hoping for Brambling, a Sparrowhawk bathing in the stream which probably had Woodcock and Snipe along it's muddy edges as the pond was frozen to about 97% , several Moorhen lifted from the reeds a couple of minutes later a Fox came out along the left cutting , but ten minutes later came over the pond , so no wonder I did not see any Bitterns.

Called at Killingworth Lake all the birds at the west end where the Swans are keeping it open , hoping to get some close-ups of Goldeneye etc: but they all still kept their distance.

I next went down to the Fish Quay  2 Icelands up on the shed roof not very active so I thought I would head to the boating lake which also had some open water but no Iceland here , Tufted & Pochard with a few mallard, back down to the quay walked the very small beach only 4 Sanderling one of which colour ringed , by now the sub-adult was flying around  but no boats in and the light fading so I called it a day.

 In this cold spell there must be the odd carcase to scavenge in the reeds ?

 half a glance at the birds in the pool before it went back into the reeds.

 The Male Pochard is a rather smart bird in good light

 Black - headed Gulls coming to bread  at the boating lake

Colour ringed Sanderling on the beach

Juvenile centre and sub adult top  sitting on the fish quay roof

Caught this Iceland just as it was going over the shed roof , it's cleaner this side without the smudge behind the eye !!!

Wild Weekend (but only the weather)

Saturday was a wild day to say the least,it was intention to go to Linton Pond to check out the gulls if around, I called in at QE11 lake but no Meds for me plenty of Black Headed & a few Common, the message of the Glossy Ibis near the Budge screen and showing well ,so I thought it would be in the small pool to the left, a good opportunity to get some decent photos, I was there in five minutes but the bird was way over to the right and had been there all morning , it showed briefly but you needed a scope to get a view till it went behind some vegetation, so I headed off to Linton instead.
Going through the small woodland it was like another world being sheltered, opened the shutters to find the pond covered with Geese a couple of hundred Pinkfeet soon lifted and dropped into the field out of sight before I could get a count , 536 Canadas present these must surely be increasing rapidly, perhaps the NWT could take some Christmas orders, about 100 Greylag but a lot just out of sight in the corner & good numbers of duck also here.
I have bought the Gulls book and having read at least the introduction fully I stated to sort out the gulls and successfully ID'd and aged all the gulls there ,but as there was only 3 it was not much of a problem.
Sunday a lazy morning till we decided to go up to Amble again to check out the gulls in the harbour ,no Meds for me here either, and the larger gulls over the far side ,they still have not started to repair the quay so you cant get fully along.
A drive around to the braid to have a scan with the scope on the rising tide , hundreds of waders across the far side mostly Redshanks with a few Bar tailed, Knot and 3 Grey Plover , large gull roost with the majority birds being adult Great Black backs , loads of Wigeon feeding on the edges.
Called in at Hauxley just for a walk around , but the west hide has been removed , to be replaced according to the notice (end October) to me it was along with the Ponteland hide the only ones worth visiting , the large hide is useless in the afternoon as you look into the sun, so it was a walk to the beach and back to end the day.
Monday just a ride on the bike to St Mary's via Blyth harbour there are gates and fences up everywhere, although at the moment open, there could be no access to any of the jetties.
St Mary's quiet the adult med still at the Briardene carpark odd how it has returned to the same spot (presuming it is the same bird) an adult used to hang around the Blyth beach area but no sign of late. Looking through the Sanderling(links) I picked out three colour ringed birds ,had some last year in the north bay ,actually my last three visits to the north bay I have had no waders. Sent off the details and awaiting a reply, also noted still some Turnstones with colour rings ,sent numerous records in a few years ago and still waiting a reply, I think it should be a condition of use of colour rings that birds be at least monitored or good notice given that the study has ended.

Two colour ringed birds ,second left and first right

Another bird 2nd left and one centre

This bird looks like a differant study, not sure if thats a double or large red ring