Northumbrian Birding: 21-01-07 NORTH SEATON/LINTON

Thursday, 25 January 2007

21-01-07 NORTH SEATON/LINTON

This was a much better day than yesterday and all I could think of was we should have gone to Hulne Park today and had visions of a flock of Hawfinch just posing on the tree tops.
Anyway we went to North Seaton for the Waxwings turned up towards the cem and there they where just the two perched on the side of the road they then flew onto the Rowan to feed but did not seem settled and flew into the cem,i was amazed how many berries there where on the Rowans my garden tree gets loads but they are all gone before the end of August.
As we first watched a couple drove up stopped to look at them up in the tree ,went into the car park turned and came back down the road stopped again to look up bins and all, then drove off without even getting out, drive by Twitching it's a new one for me !!
Next stop Linton ponds I like these little pools and always think there should be more there than you see, a walk up the track (old road) and you can see both ponds lot's of Redwings along the hedge but again very flighty,Canadas in the east field but no sign of the Richardson's looking west I saw three in the corner of the pond so thought it worth going to the hide to check out ,this is a good hide with movable bench for Wheelchair use or you can set your scope up and move the bench behind,good numbers of gulls get on here from the nearby tip ,but I have never found anything in with them (but no gull expert)
The Geese where across in the west corner the Richardson's did not look as obvious as when I first took some Digiscoped shots of it with a Barnacle Goose ,so I took what I could with my scope as the light was just right, tried to get some shots of under the chin as I had read somewhere the white joins but I can't find it yet.
Shoveller,Gadwall,Teal,Mallard.Goldeneye,Wigeon.its probably not much for some people but if you like to Digiscope or take photos its a good place to sit,the other hide is not as comfortable to sit in.who the hell designs these things the seat is fixed with bars across to bang your legs on as you get in and out & the right hand window is to high with the left window to low(although this is for Wheelchair users so I cannot comment if it is any good).The Pinkfeet geese have been seen in the fields opposite.