Blyth River

Checking along the river Blyth a few days ago The Little Egret still present also a couple of Seals near the loading dock of the long gone Bait's Pit also 3 Mergansers with two Goosanders well up river , 60 Golden plover on the spit, earlier in the day a look at Seaton Sluice only produced a single Common Scoter usually there is a small flock here and there is always the hope of something in with them single RTD also

Cresswell pond in the afternoon was a rather short visit due to some people who where very loud and insisted in pointing out the windows at things so I headed to the outflow for a look on the sea numerous Red Throats dotted about and 4-5 Pied Wagtails working the tideline

 Goosanders well up river

 Two Seals sunning themselves till the tide engulfed them

 Still a Little Egret hanging around

My last photos of the |Little Egret this one just to compare with a Curlew in the background

 Common Scoter on the sea

3 April Great White Egret..then on to.......Dunstanburgh

News of a Great White Egret on the Friday night saw me head up the coast Saturday it re located at Druridge pools smart looking bird took a couple of digi shots as it was a long way off , then headed up the coast to try and find myself a Black Redstart , headed for the beach beside Dunstanburgh , 6 Goldeneye and 2 Mergansers on the sea several Stonechats along the dunes and lots of Meadow Pipits taking advantage of the huge number of flies among the rocks , picked up a flock of 60 or so Twite with also a couple of Linnets ,walked along to Newton the path to the hide and area well flooded , no sign of any Black Redstarts anywhere , only more Stonechats 2 stunning males not letting me get anywhere near them, 4 Goldcrests working the bushes and 2 Kestrels , 6 Goldfinch, headed back just before the rain.Reed Bunting singing ,not the best songster in the bird world
Egret rather distant although nearer than it would have been at East Chevington

Goldcrests

Dunstanburgh Castle in the distance
Newton Pool looking towards Newton-by -the Sea
Flock of Twite
Twite

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 !!

Whaffling Blogger, Whiffling Geese

Another round up of my week Sunday we had a run along to the south end of Hauxley via the Carrs road ,the place was lifting with people so I only went as far as the Ponteland hide, a Great Spotted Woodpecker along the track, but just the usual geese on the pool with the water level very high, I noticed this survey ship very close inshore . Stopped at East Chevington on the way back it was good to get two Short Eared Owls over the south pool , with two Bean Geese in with the Pinks.

Another walk locally with Barn Owl, lots of Pinkfeet over, another large covey of Grey Partridge , noticeably more birds singing now , not perhaps full song but definatley they are feeling Spring is in the air and it's good to see the days getting longer, flock of Redpoll still around though impossible to pin down, a couple of Bullfinch keeping ahead of me , a couple of TiT flocks but getiing smaller and smaller, I was actually going to head to St Mary's but it went from nice sunny day to heavy rain within ten minutes so I headed off home.

Heading up to Big Waters I picked out two Roe Deer in a field and caught sight of a Buzzard sitting on a grass hummock near the Holiday Inn roundabout so I pulled over and waited for it to lift getting a few shots in as it sat , it lifted facing the right way got one shot and .....battery flat ,they always go at the wrong time. Big Waters partly frozen still loads of Teal but most tucked away so it was impossible to check them all for the hoped for Green Winged why this is something I always look for is hard to say , but its better to check yourself than see it reported just after youve left !!!, Goldeneye and the ever present Mallard, but there is always plenty to watch at the feeding station , Siskin showing very well , the area drying out after flooding so more ground feeders showing up , not seen Otter here for sometime now ?.

Another sunny day so I headed for East Chevington with the intention of spending the day there

I have never walked around the path that encircles the North Pond so I headed off with all my gear I could see the Pinkfeet on the West side and thought I would get a better view from the north Track but as from most areas of this pond your looking into the light, actually they showed better from the road in and had I stopped in the car would have been able to look through most of them, but being on foot the y spooked as soon as I stopped to check them out, and off they went . For once it stopped nice and sunny so I checked the sea, could only pick out about 10 Red Throated Divers , 8 Red Breasted Mergansers, and only 4 Scoter, with numerous Auks, walked along to the South Pool had two Short Eared Owls and A Barn Owl, one SEO trying to pursue the Barn Owl but they went out of sight , a birder came along a said the Barn Caught a Vole and the SEO tried to mob it, three Redhaed Smew on the pool, presumed some of the ones from Druridge, I stayed till the sun set which made nice change , having been a good day out !!!!!

I forgot about the three Bar Tailed Godwits roosting in with Lapwing on the ice.

This Survey ship seemed very close in , must have a very shallow draft.
SEO over the South Pool from the top gate
This Redpoll dropped in to drink but gone in a flash.
At Least this Stonechat was willing to pose for me
Siskin BigWaters
Stock Dove
Could only get the Bullfinch on the feeders so I cropped it out.
SEO looks like its hung up on the fence but its dropping on something

Just as I was leaving picked out this one sitting on the fence but the sun setting rapidly now ,they are always great to see !!!
The same bird but just a little warmer light
And finally the setting sun , although its setting over a spoil heap , but I cant change that around here !!

Another Week in Winter Wonderland

Well we are into February already, with another fall of snow I have just been local the past week had a walk along to the estuary ,Fieldfares still around ,Merganser and Great Crested Grebe also , a run to Holywell which was still partly frozen a couple of areas had open water not a great deal around, also a visit to Blyth harbour no sign of the Iceland gull and it looks like there is to be no Snow Buntings here this year, with little around to tempt me too far I just kept local it was good to find a Barn owl still around and having hopefully survived the winter, a Roe deer crossed my path and for once did not make a dash for it but just looked at me with curiosity , the light was very poor and I had on my cam jacket so perhaps it was not sure.

This winter I seem to spend a lot of time looking into the garden, one day the alarm calls where sounded and everything shot up a flash across the fence so fast I thought that has to be a Sparrowhawk so I legged it upstairs just in case it either had caught something or was sitting because it had not, and there it was in the neighbours garden so I took a couple of shots through the window.

Nothing to do with birding but I watched that new Sherlock Holmes movie this week ,its nothing like the others done before , like when Watson is trying to hold onto this big villain by pinning his arms back using the guys jacket and urging Holmes to "nut him", so Holmes takes a run leaps up (the guy is very tall) and " sticks one on him"............ its funny and not a magnifying glass or deerstalker in sight .

Redpolls

Roe I seem to have put up two of virtually the same shot
It was good to see this Barn Owl has so far survived the winter , they seem to have been decimated in some parts of the County, I just took this shot and left it in peace
A covey of 16 Grey Partridge
Wren Holywell it was the only bird I took the camera out of the bag for
Holywell Fungi in the feeding station, the feeders are now placed high incase of vandalsim


I have done it again posted 2 near identical shots , this Sparrowhawk from the upstairs window ,who would have thought they would become a fairly common sight in town gardens !!!