14-02-08 Castle Island

Northumbrian Birding
Thursday 14th decided to have a look at Castle Island area in the hope of the Iceland would be around, parked and walked down, the first thing of note the water was gone leaving a narrow channel with at least 20 little Grebes beside the bridge ,Long Tailed duck, Tufted ,Teal and Wigeon + Shellduck and 3 Heron, I wanted to go for a walk so I had not brought the scope ,checked what I could of the Gulls most of the nearer ones Black headed & Common with the larger Gulls more distant,walked along west to the weir plenty more BH picking along the exposed shore, Redwings on the north side just down from the houses, GSW calling, hoping for Green but no,pair of Goosanders just further along and another Heron, had to walk up the hill and through the estate to get back on the south side and back along to Castle island, for another check 2 jay in the bushes on the hillside, but nothing else new but I did have a SEO on the way home, managed one digiscoped shot and a couple of other shots as the light fell, a good walk on a fine sunny day, there was three what looked like white mallards on the island just like the one I saw at Holywell.
7 of at least 20 little Grebes near the rail bridge you can see how low the river is
Goosanders where the stream joins the river
SEO slow shutter speed in the gloom
Only one of 5 that I digiscoped came out due to the very slow shutter speed.