That Was The Week That Was

Not much happening for me at the moment seem to have been all over with not much to show for it
Snow scene near Bolam

GULLS.GULLS,GULLS.................The scene at Linton
and through the scope a Glaucous in amongst them
digiscoped at 1/16 second
Bullfinch feeding on buds Honeysuckle ?

Not the best shot of Brambling but they where very wary

Nuthatch and I have just noticed some fungus also !!!! Zygodactyl feet funny some of the things you remember, two forward and two back or adaptable as in this bird I read that years ago and it stuck,wish I could recall everything I had read !!!!!!
This is an argh!!!!!! (pronounced softly.................)
Long Tailed on the pool at the country park with one south and also one on the sea (probably the same bird) As it has been a slack spell have took up whittling as I suggested to Boulmer Birder, inspired by Blyth Birder and his recent trip to The Gambia this is a Giant Kingfisher and if you dont think it's a giant thats a 50p piece at the base,actually I had it made in the Gambia I left my fieldguide with the guy and told him which one I wanted,the book was brand new for the trip ,but when I got it back it was well dogeared everyone and there granny must have copied stuff from it , most people where bringing home those awful bloody masks I just wanted to be different not bad for a tenner !!!!!!!

Glaucous Gulls

Short video showing the heavy bull neck & open wings.
"Glaucous from the Greek 'glaucos' meaning bright or gleaming" there seems to be a few around this winter these two at Linton pond on the 16th this one seems to have a full crop it seemed to drink constantly ,the strong light seemed to make the bird look darker at times,a second bird preening on one of the islands I thought was a second or third winter but it could just be the overexposed shot ,it did not hang around for long so I had no time to adjust the settings ,another bird a Hollywell pond on Friday and one briefly at Linton again today ,two Barnacle geese and a collared Greylag with the raucous Canada's.
Had a good chat with the infamous mystery birder as we waited for the gulls to drop in !!!!!!

1st year Glaucous at Linton 16th


Looking darker in the strong light
Another bird I thought it was a 2nd or 3rd winter
it looks grey in this shot
but not in this shot
1st year bird at Hollywell pond on the 18th

January it's the 13th already

I am still having trouble with my eyesight so not going to far ,I have managed to get Green Winged Teal, & Glaucous,down Warkworth Lane on Saturday and there was a good candidate for Water Pipit feeding along the edge of a small frozen pool with 14 Pied Wagtails, to far to get a good look will have to take my scope down for a better look.
Pixie or Vulcan !!!!!!!

Kingfisher was the star turn you can here the very strong wind in the background

List still under the 100 @99

The Quest continues

Started off at Seaton Sluice but still nothing new,on to the links near St Mary's to try for Med gulls but not a gull to be seen along the shoreline, next to Linton at least the Bullfinch showed well & Water Rail across in front of the hide,Whoopers on the way to Cresswell, where a Peregrine put on a fine display also Sparrowhawk ,with a Kingfisher in front of the hide,called in via QEII pon where I had Gadwall & Great Crested Grebe and the sight of 24 Pied Wagtails in the carpark, total would make a reasonable day list but given the weather it's not bad.

77 total to day four

Peregrine over Cresswell
Sparrowhawk wondering if it can take a Little Grebe

New Year Listing

The weather is not helping in my quest for 200, the very strong winds have cleared the gulls etc from Blyth harbour,on to Seaton Sluice for some seawatching but nothing new on to St Mary's where it was even stronger winds being more exposed so the some total was an other 11 species.
EDIT looking on the net there is a report of Couse's arctic Redpoll in the midlands I can't even find any information on the net as to it's origin ?presume it is one of the birds disccussed on the BIRDFORUM I.D. posts, redpolls are at times not that easy to see but are worthy of a good grilling.

64 for day two

New Year 1-1-08

Well what a crap start to the New Year weather wise at any rate, I left this morning as a man on a mission , but that soon faded as the rain got heavier, started at WE for the Water Pipit hard to see the pond let alone the bird, but it was easier to see the Pied Wagtails,so I let them find me the Pipit so after checking (all the salient features) and the rest of the area which also turned up Grey Wagtail, I thought I would go to Big Waters for the feeding station but it was rather quiet also but Goosander , GSW , Fieldfare the ever present Tree Sparrows with Sparrowhawk through,so I thought the next stop would be try for the Hen Harrier , fat chance in this weather , but there was always the hope of something else scanned the area from the road where I had seen it just the other day rain eased, but nothing, on to Cresswell , Smew, Scaup RB Merganser,Pochard,Tufted,Wigeon ,Teal no sign of the Ruff , the rain got fell heavy now and the light was going fast so I just ended the day there ,went home to do the math which took no effort on my part a total of only 53.
Hardly the start I had envisaged missing loads of easy stuff anyway the task is young it was not the intention to get a large day list that would have involved planning and much better weather.

53 for day one