Thursday 28 February 2013

On foot

Today's birding was on foot, trying to add a few speices to my foot list, my route was Winlaton mill-landswood-thornley woods-thornley lane-thornley woods hide-coopers wood-derwent cp-nine arches-derwent cp-winlaton mill, on the way met with the centurion at thornley woods hide.
new species added to foot list are :-
jay
mistle thrush
greenfinch
tree sparrow
starling
yellowhammer
buzzard ;)
kestrel
A total of 31 species seen today, nice to see the red kites mating and next to the nest, both i haven't seen before :)





Wednesday 27 February 2013

Another gateshead tick

Forgot to mention that jack snipe was new for both gateshead and british yesr list, also had a single oystercatcher on tyne at stella this morning.

Its raining jack snipe

Started at stella looking at gulls, only birds of interest today were a poss viking gull? Glaucous x Herring and 2 colour ringed Herring gulls. Then i decided to have a walk threw the marsh at Newburn haugh where i flushed 7 Jack Snipe! amazing to watch as they were like butterlies fluttering before dropping back down within 50 yards :) managed a few shots aswell. Since i was in the Jack Snipe mood, i decided to check the marsh at lamesley behind the ravensworth arms for some more, couldnt believe it when i put one straight up which dropped back down on the other side of the pond. I walked back threw the field only to put another poss JS up, i dropped my pager at the same time in the mud :( by the time i managed to get back onto the bird it had dropped into the marsh about 60 yards away, i tried to flush it again but it must of went into the grass. So that was 8 JS and a poss 9 in one day :)







possible Viking Gull? 
colour ringed Herring Gull - 1367
colour ringed Herring Gull - 2z2b
all gull shots taken with phone and scope



Tuesday 26 February 2013

Gull update

Had news back on the gull, its a 1w leucistic herring gull and not the same bird that gets to north shields. Thats this one solved, just need to get out on find the real one tomorrow :)

Leucistic gull or hybrid iceland x herring gull

A leucistic large gull or maybe hybrid iceland x herring was on the tyne at stella today, maybe this is the bird seen at north shields? i thought it was an iceland gull at first, it looked like a 2w iceland gull, but rba said it wasnt an iceland. They said it was a leucistic large gull, but couldnt say what species? Just maybe a herring.



This could be the north shields bird as its not reported at North Shields when it is in Gateshead (mid week)? would be interested to hear from someone that's had the bird at North Shields.

Monday 25 February 2013

6 hour dip

Arrived at north shields fish quay at 8am in search of the iceland gull which had being reported on sunday, no sign of the bird on the shed roofs so decided to have a walk to black middens rocks, where i found 500+ large gulls. I just managed to scan threw them when the p&o ferry sailed past and put all the gulls up, they scattered in all directions :( only about 100 gulls remained at the fish quay. I spent the next 5 hours looking around the fish quay in search of the iceland with no luck, i did get two new year ticks (kittiwake, gannet). I checked the gull roost on the tyne this evening, 10,000+ mixed gulls came in to roost ''amazing''. i'm sure the iceland gull will be in the roost? this is my mission tomorrow, finding the iceland gull in gateshead :)







Sunday 24 February 2013

2w med gull

Another med gull in gateshead, this time a 2w bird gave great views at shibdon pond today. A lesser black backed gull was also at shibdon.




2nd winter mediterranean gull at shibdon pond


Friday 22 February 2013

Day 1 foot list

My route today started at Winlaton mill - derwent river - over swawell bridge - shibdon pond (hide & reserve) - axwell park - derwent river - winlaton mill. i managed to tick off 46 species of bird, heres my list in order i spotted them.

great spotted woodpecker
blue tit
great tit
carrion crow
bh gull
woodpigeon
robin
song thrush
lesser redpoll
blackbird
lt tit
dipper
mallard
common gull
treecreeper
grey heron
grey wagtail
dunnock
chaffinch
mute swan
canada goose
coot
jackdaw
gbb gull
shelduck
teal
moorhen
snipe
herring gull
pochard
magpie
goldfinch
reed bunting
wren
pheasant
bullfinch
redwing
greenfinch
siskin
coal tit
nuthatch
goldcrest
sparrowhawk
feral pigeon
red kite
house sparrow

Thursday 21 February 2013

I love lists

Professor Pochard put forward an idea for another list? foot list :) so for my love of lists, i decided to start a foot list :o unfortunatley i have to work on a fri & sat morning :( so im limited to my birding lol :) i thought it would be a good idea to start this list on them days when i take tilly for a walk. Also due to the rising fuel prices and doing my bit for the planet, i thought it would be a good idea to go on foot for a 3rd day of the week, my target will be 120 species of birds come the end off the year. This list will be birds seen when ive left my house, but wont include birds in my garden (already got garden list going). This list will start tomorrow with a walk along the river derwent to shibdon and back. I wonder what list will be next? im sure there will be a comment or two lol :)

Tuesday 19 February 2013

What no gulls!

No gulls today at landfill and fields around the landfill, this is the first time i haven't seen any gulls in the area :( a good walk around shibdon didn't produce anything, then it was back to a bit of garden watching. stock dove numbers was 10+ and all the usual birds were showing, nothing new to report from the garden :( here's a few garden photos.




back online :)

Had a week of ups and downs, the downs were, no internet and the clutch going on the landrover on the moors :( i managed to limp back home and pop it into a garage, still waiting to get it back and find out what the bill will be :(. but on the other hand the ups were three trips away and a hat full of new 2013 ticks :) i'll not go into the trips to much, but the birds in red are new for 2013 and the places visited were, dumfries & galloway, cumbria & lanchshire, teeside & durham, heres the highlights :)

Surf scoter - loch ryan
Green winged teal - caerlaverock
Hawfinch - sizergh castle
Black guillemot - loch ryan
Merlin - loch ryan
Scaup - loch ryan - 2000+
Guillemot - loch ryan
Bean goose - geenabella marsh
Black tailed godwit - tidal pool - teeside
Little owl - allendale
Raven - brough
Red grouse - alston
Marsh tit - leighton moss
Black grouse - langdon beck
Corn bunting - bishop middleham
Greenshank - seal sands
Spotted redshank - seal sands
This takes my year list to 149 :)

Other highlights were

pink footed goose
little egret
barn owl x 2
red throated diver 30 +
red breasted merganser
peregrine
brent goose
bar tailed godwit
great crested grebe
great northern diver
razorbill
scoter
slav grebe
long tailed duck
red kite
barnacle goose
whooper swan
pintail

Other highlights of the week were a Green woodpecker in my garden!!!

Will be spending most of my time in gateshead now, checking the gulls and looking for any new gateshead ticks :) unless anything turns up?














Monday 11 February 2013

New 2013 tick

Had a walk around gibside today and had 2 grey partridge on the skyline trail, then it was off to the landfill where there were 1500+ large gulls, but still nothing rare! just looked at weather forcast, more snow on the way :(

Sunday 10 February 2013

Med gull at shibdon pond

an adult med gull (87) was spotted by the centurion at shibdon pond this am :) nice one alan, a new gateshead year tick for all at shibdon today. very few gulls at the landfill, chiffchaff at far pastures still. looks like my dumfries & galloway trip is cancelled again due to snow in the area, hopefully next weekend or later in the week? just as soon as the weather is right i'll have to go for it, as time is running out for this trip :(