Big Waters........11-10-09

I have been to Big Waters for awhile so I thought I would have a run there on Wednesday, 3 and then 2 Roe Deer out in the fields as I drove along the A19, it was bright when I arrived but soon became dull with some light rain although I seem to have missed the worst.
The Otter showed after about 30 mins feeding along the north side at one point it looked as though it was going onto the island , always a number of Tree Sparrows on the feeders , probably one of the easiest places to see them, a Sparrowhawk tried for one just below me it was all over in a flash, not sure if it got one or not ,it was some time before the birds returned in numbers.
Great Crested Grebe, a few assorted duck , 3 Goldeneye, a couple of snipe over , the water level very high ,where has all this water come from must have been some heavy rains through the nights.
Kingfisher put in a brief appearance no time to get a photo it flew off to the right of the hide probably to the willows to fish from.

This looked a little bit like a face, and no my nose is not as big as that !!

Digiscoped the Goldeneye

View from the front of the hide

and view from the side

Eastern Crowned Warbler........................Trow Quarry

Just a few of the birders ,with nearly as many up on the top !!!!!

Well the strange tale of the Eastern Crowned Warbler, I.D.'d from a photo posted as YB Warbler,and what a cracking photo it was , this is the first record for Britain , so you could expect a lot of people to turn up , I was there before first light but already about 100 birders were lined up waiting for some light , it showed quickly giving good views , a terrific supercilium, but I could not see the crown stripe . So I hung around and got a couple of brief views, until I went up to the edge of the quarry away to the side ,here it gave better views , chased by a Robin and later a Yellow Browed Warbler , I got much better views of the crown stripe which was hardly noticeable at the front but more prominent at the rear, I don't have any field guide on this bird so have just gleaned info from the net
There was no hope of photos at this stage , so I just enjoyed the views it was giving , at one stage it flew behind us into a single Sycamore just yards away , flitting around I just could not get onto it ,then a Robin chased it back into the main cover , this is when a good few birders ran back to the edge it was turning a bit into chaos, so I thought time to go ,I'm not going to get any better views and with more and more people turning up it was only going to get really crowded on the quarry edge.
Stopped into Blyth Cemetery and picked up the Black Redstart
Black Redstart Blyth

Brent Goose Newbiggin beach

Great Crested Grebe Blyth