28-09-07 Friday......more seawatching great

Friday still down with that "Man Flu" you know the sort knocks the life out of you , the reason they call it "Man Flu" is that only men can handle it...........moving swiftly on, missed the morning session of seawatching so went up for an afternoon shift not as much as yesterday but there was a few Little Gulls,the first Goldeneye and we did have two fantastic Juvenile Sabine's Gulls ,these really are fantastic birds I was just reading about them after the adult of a couple of weeks ago, first discovered by Edward Sabine in 1818 on islands that now bear his name situated near Thule in West Greenland he was part of the crew looking for the North West Passage they had to shoot some to examine them now thankfully we use scopes etc, and can now be seen at a suitable location near you ...........if your lucky

Pipe fish still on the menu
This Juvenile Sandwich was having trouble in the strong wind I had to remove it from the road,adult called to young and young called to adult incessantly

27-09-07 Thursday

Thursday afternoon another session trying to get the Terns and Kittiwakes feeding in the river with better results before the sun went , so I went to the Sluice for a seawatch from 14:30- 18:30good selection of species including some good flocks of
Teal 90
Wigeon130
Common Scoter165
Barnacle 130
Sooty33
Velvet Scoter 3
Manx7
Arctic Skua3
also Red breasted merganser,Goosander,Shellduck, Bonxie, Scaup, Pintail a couple of little Auks though distant as was the large Shearwater which passed at 16:15 just too far to confirm as a Great and a small petrel at 16:30.plus the huge passage of Gannets, Gulls, Kittiwakes & still good numbers of Terns around Seawatching is more than just numbers it is a fantastic spectacle of bird movement , with the added expectation of something just that bit extra special may pass by, good days birding !!!!

ANGEL OF THE NORTH
FALLEN ANGEL

This does not look as spooky as it did floating past me, it's a rubber glove and thankfully noBODY in it !!!!!!!

21-09-09 Waiting for my Tern

Found myself down at the Quayside of Blyth in the late afternoon but without bins or camera, Juvenile Common & Arctic Terns feeding just at the edge the rain had stopped the water was calm the tide up and the sun shinning, perfect for photographing them dipping into the water or just hanging in the air, there was not enough time to go and get my gear so I just watched them in the setting sun, so the next afternoon armed with my camera I waited for some good shots but the wind was stronger and the river surface choppy , the sky overcast and the Terns where just passing along and not feeding so all I got was a couple of shots, so it pays to always have a camera to hand I did have a Kingfisher go down the river and a single Brent go up

This has just caught a small fly ,I wonder if the stiff hairs on the legs help to catch them A little to large for a Dragonfly , I like the shades !!!!!
Just a few of the hundreds of Golden Plover at St Mary's
one overhead
best laid plans and this is all I got

Taken through my bins from Blyth beach

Highlight of the past week was my first sighting of Minkie Whale off Newbiggin much larger than I expected it even blew a cloud of spray into the air, also a few Harbour Porpoise nearby ,still some Dragons around in the warm spells with Migrant Hawkers and this Female Black Darter. Saturday we took a small Hedgehog that I found beside the car at home took a lady that cares for them and then sends them on there way & Sunday like many others we waited for the arrival of the liner into the Tyne but it kept turning around and going back out so we gave up , I did get a couple of shots using my bins on the camera as it passed St Mary's , Monday afternoon I did a seawatch at Seaton Sluice not much passing although we did have a very close Balearic Shearwater, this being a very dark one , also Pink-footed geese, North & Skuas south along with a few Little Gulls ,tried again today from Newbiggin but nothing doing so on to Cresswell where I did see the Otter several times , Knot, Bar-tailed, and a few Dunlin with two Greenshank on the far side. Migrant Hawkers at several sites

Not sure if this is teneral male or a female Black Darter

This Seal was feeding in the bay on the incoming tide at St Mary's it had no problem catching fish this was the third it just seemed to eat the head area then discard and catch another

10-09-07 Seawatch

An afternoons seawatch with Sooty,Manx, Pom,Great,Arctic & Long Tailed Skua this flew over the point and I went outside to try and get a photo............"Sabine's" was shouted out, in with the Kittiwakes I just pointed and took a couple of shots they where past very quick,but forgetting to reset the camera they are very overexposed..................we failed to see the two Great Shearwaters pass , ah well there is always tomorrow.

Lesser Black-Backed with huge Eal, it swallowed it but it came back out and nearly got away,it had trouble to lift it due to wing moult.

Goldfinch with young
St Mary's


Every year there is always a large flock of House Martins at Seaton Sluice