In search of JR.......again

Juvenile Med Gull AAJR


Had a quick look at Newbiggin the other week in the vain hope I could find JR, this was a Juvenile Mediterranean Gull Colour ringed AAJR  found at St Mary's Island way back in 2006(one of two ringed) I did catch up with at Newbiggin details in the above link , now it will be coming up to 8 years old so may not be around , I would be very interested if anyone has seen this bird .
I tried a vain search of my own blog to find the year I first saw the bird with no luck so good old GOOGLE came up with it in an instant when I put the search" Juvenile Mediterranean Gull colour ringed St Mary's Island July"
and in a nano second top of the list was the above post   !!!

Glossy Ibis...... Tynemouth

I had tried some video of the Glossy Ibis that was at Tynemouth mainly because it was calling softly but the wind over the microphone drowned out the calls  so I took the sound out .
I am trying it through youtube as the blogger video seems to take forever to load and the quality does not look good.
Click on the link below
Glossy Ibis Tynemouth

Iceland Gull

The end of last Month I went back along to the Fish Quay ,but first called into the boating lake to check the Gulls for an Iceland or Glaucous only to find a sailing club in attendance with about 15 radio controlled yachts  milling about the duck , still a few gulls along the side they seem to adapt quickly to disturbance having their essential fresh  water bathe along the edge . Also called in to see the Lesser Whitethroat at Tynemouth which appeared and showed well after only ten minutes will process some shots but I can't add to the already well documented photos available . The fish quay was very quiet not many gulls around save for the usual mob at the car park, but I have never personally seen any white wingers at the car park or beach area . Well again  I walked back and forth along the Quay checking the shed roofs with nothing but then swimming out from the front of a boat in the channel an Iceland came into view allowing some shots before taking off , I soon realized I had the wrong camera for flight shots and despite it giving numerous fly pasts I got nothing , it finally settled up on the sheds  for awhile dropping into the channel again briefly and again back to the river side shed roof  which is where it was when I left. 

 I don't know if there was a race on or not these yacht sails are about 4' high

 Iceland on the water in the channel

 The closest I got as it swam past between moored boats

 I have overexposed the shots somewhat the  strong low sun giving very harsh light , but don't be fooled it's always cold here and this day no exception  one of the reasons to keep moving and always wrap up .

And it ends up on the shed roof  this side of the shed a favorite  of a lot of the gulls

Glossy Ibis -Tynemouth

Thought I might as well post some photos of the Glossy Ibis that re-appeared at Beaconsfield Tynemouth , a very unlikely venue for any bird to hang  around for long  but given  the fact that it returned to it's previous location more than once , I thought it worth going up for .

I vaguely remember what I thought was an old Manor house on the site years ago but it turns out it was a Dr Barnardo's home which was eventually demolished with the aim of building a luxury hotel and leisure complex  (bingo hall?)  which never materialized, although I remember going to the carboot sales held on the same site and bought some very good book bargains .

Anyway the bird seemed settled it was located just sitting up the small hill near some gulls so I stayed a reasonable distance away from the small pool  and it soon wandered down to feed coming closer and closer to me which is always a good thing , luckily the numerous dog walkers kept their animals under control and away from the temptation of running after it , numerous people called in even taking photos with their mobiles with five people lined up , mobiles raised snapping away as it happily fed on Earthworms.

Who would have thought Glossy Ibis would turn up on the seafront of Tynemouth  !!!

 The very wet ground providing a steady diet of Earthworms .