March 2nd ..........to the woods

Tuesday the 2nd March and yet another bright sunny day has Spring arrived , I went up to Plessey Woods area for a walk through the woods Great Spotted drumming , and just an air of renewal Snowdrops still looking bright and fresh and took some time trying to get some real close ups of them but found they where all slightly out of focus on the monitor , just enjoyed the walk masses of Ramsons just poking through, I like this plant with its clean white flowers, this year I have been in the garden and noted the Lords & Ladies is also just coming through, 2 Mergansers on the river which was flowing very fast and looking very murky, 3 Treecreeper just keeping ahead of me the sun was very warm in the open areas given the shelter of the trees, a very nice walk , I will have to get out earlier if this keeps up.

As the sun had moved over leaving me in shade I decided to stop at St Marys Island , walked along to the Briardene carpark and the adult Med gull dropped in showing most of its black hood, I also found it later in the north bay with 100+ Black headed, much colder now on the coast and the tide was high I had just come down a little to late, Teal & Gadwall on the wetland along with 80+ Redshank roosting and 186 Curlew in the field just off the track..........a good day out for a change !!!

These are just fabulous little birds and quite feisty when they have to be !!!! I would love to see those northern ones

Marsh Tit which is always nice to see, getting harder than it used to be .
Trying one of those arty shots , you can see what I was after but its not quite working !
Coal Tit I usually get these in the garden
Nuthatch another favourite very common at times.
This is the same bird as below but looks to have much less black on its head a trick of the light
Why this adult should haunt this carpark is a mystery there used to be one at Blyth beach carpark but that has not been seen for some time perhaps its the same bird !!

Round up of the week

Just a round up of the past week ,with visits to ,Holywell pond, St Mary's Island, Druridge pools ,Cresswell Pond, Big Waters, Dinnington area,

This Herring Gull sat like this for 1/2 hour or more till it eventually lay on the ice, a session at Holywell ,large area of the pond frozen, still plenty activity at the feeders, with a male Brambling dropping in briefly
Greenland Whitefronts at Woodhorn, also two Med Gulls (ad/2nd w)
Cresswell also the water levels very high with the area in front of the hide flooded, Goldeneyes displaying nearby ,but the afternoon dull, about a dozen Yellowhammers on the track with Reed Buntings the buntings feeding from the sheep troughs,
This day was bright and sunny so I went straight to Druridge for the Smew, which where located on the far side good to say four together ,plenty of Tufted also present , and it has not taken long for birds to use the new island ,with Redshanks roosting on it , some heavy showers kept me in the hide for awhile, but I went into the Oddie hide for my coffee, plenty or Curlews around at least 100 spread over the extensively flooded fields , un fortunatly your looking into the light but it was just good to have some sun on you, I checked the bay from the dunes ,but the bitter cold wind meant I did not stay long, several Red-throated Divers was all I saw.

Checked the geese flock on the way back all I got in with them was four Barnacle Geese.

Rainbow after a heavy shower Druridge
Redshanks on the new Island at Druridge
A (short) visit to St Mary's Island, another bright sunny day so I headed for St Mary's Island to catch up with the Water Pipit again, but I soon realised just how cold it was with a bitter wind coming in from the sea, no sign of the Water Pipit, the wetland still had numerous Teal and a few Gadwall , as I headed around the prom a trip bus pulled up and loads of people headed onto the rocks , so I thought better to cut the day short ,and I headed to Holywell , walking the hedge down to the hide it was like a summers day compared with the coast , but alas not much around today .

Mink at Big Waters a fairly large animal this one , unfortunately this was the best I got

Big Waters , as I had not been for some time I thought it time for a visit ,most of the pond frozen but there was a large number of Teal around ,I estimated about 250, could have easily been more as lots where on the edge and some just in from the edge , Goldeneye & Mallard. A large croup of Siskin along the boardwalk with a male singing and a few coming to the feeders, at least there is always something to see here plenty of Reed Buntings giving great views I only wish I could draw them properly, the call of "Mink" just outside and below from the hide , its a long time since I have seen one , it must have crossed the ice and flotsam as it was dense furry black and looked stunning in the second or two I saw it before it got into the thick branches, I got a couple of photos but they turned out rubbish, but they do reveal it now looks brownish in the shade !!.

Drove home via Dinnington had a Short -eared Owl, a couple of Buzzards, several Fielfare & a few Redwings , Long-tailed Tits seem to pairing off as I saw three separate groups of just two birds.

St Mary's ......Bright "n" Breezy

I was going to bin this but actually I think it just sums up Purple Sandpipers.

A much brighter day today but with it the cold ,cold wind, just finishing off what I had to do at home and about to get sorted for a couple hours out , it start to bleach down with snow and lying ,here we go again I thought. But it did not last long now even more determined to get out so I headed off ,started off at the head of the prom Water pipit briefly but heading along south, I walked along but it was always way ahead of me and with the tide coming in I went along the prom and up to the wetland which was full but had plenty Teal , a couple of Wigeon , Gadwall, numerous waders and Gulls , it was looking good . I had not brought the scope ,which was just as well the wind blasting across the water, going further along the prom towards the causeway large number of Black headed and in with them an Adult Med, and 12 or so Purple Sandpiper, but it was not till I got around fully to the causeway that the scale of the birds present could be fully appreciated ,easily a 1000 Black Headeds, with Herring Gulls and a few Common Gulls picking off the water and on the beach , more Purple Sandpipers, Knot ,Turnstones , Sanderling, Redshanks all massed tightly on the beach as the waves crashed ashore ,obviously providing a feast of some sort , what a fantastic sight , birding's not just about rare birds, to me its this sort of thing, just being at the right place at the right time ,without doubt the most birds I have ever seen at St Mary's Island , stacks of Lapwings & Golden Plover wheeling around and a few hundred waders over on the island .Blisteringly cold trying to get some shots my hands where numb and I could barely stand so I put the camera away and just watched ,eventually the cold got to me heading back along the prom to the south bay hundreds more Black Headeds picking off the surface and a single Barnacle Goose dropped onto the wetland . Fantastic few hours out for a change , I nearly let the snow put me off, but now I just can't wait to get back out.

Cresswell Butterflies 25-8-09

Tuesday was a much warmer day and a lot more Butterflies around one small area I stopped at on the way Cresswell had 25 Painted Ladies, 8 Peacock, 10 Wall Brown & a few Tortoiseshell, but no Hawkers which was what I was hoping for, ST's blog had many more Butterflies on this day.
Cresswell still had the Semi-P now settled on the pond with a fantastic showing of waders including 30 Black tailed Godwits, Wood Sandpiper & 3 Curlew Sandpiper, the hide getting rather busy now .

SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER 19-08-09

Wdnesday 19th the only shot I got showing palmations as it walked on the beach

There is nothing like the report of a bird on the pager whose name is in capital letters, so I went up to Cresswell got to the north end not a sole in sight so I checked the pool and the first bird I saw looked like a good candidate, no expert by any means on waders although I do have a interest in them .

The more I looked at it the more I thought this is the bird I saw on Monday of which I tried to get some digi shots of , and these still in the camera as I have had computer problems again ,anyway there was a report of Little Stint on Monday that had been seen from the hide but this bird at the top pool thought by me and others to be it , all I can say is at the time I thought its not the smallest Little Stint Iv'e seen and rather long legged , very difficult to digiscope in the strong wind, and I did not give it much thought after that.

Here are photos of Monday & today, there must be some cracking images of this bird given the crowd of today.

Monday 17th the best digiscoped shot although the head would be behind something but you can still make out the bill.

Monday 17th

Wednesday 19th on the beach when it looked like a totally different bird

back on the pool

strong wind not helping in digiscoping

A couple of grabs in flight