Last post on this blog

Well its goodbye to my Gateshead blog :( and hello to my new blog :) you can find it here reservoirbirder.blogspot.co.uk thanks for looking at my gateshead blog but i hope you enjoy my new one goodbye all from this blog

osprey at the reservoir

Past 2 days at derwent reservoir and surrounding area produced osprey fishing, 2 female black grouse, 5 pied flycatchers, 6+ cuckoo, tree pipit, 9 wigeon, 2 goosander, little ringed plover, 6 common sandpipers, 6 great crested grebes, many red grouse, common tern, grey wagtail and 2 dippers were the highlights. New blog coming soon "Reservoir Birder" cheers for the name dragonhunter it grew on me ;) lol sorry i couldn't produce an osprey for you on sunday but the pied flys, lrp and common tern were canny birds ;)

Exciting stuff :)

Didn't have time to do the normal rounds today as iv'e had to move some catering equipment to a new storage room ready for my move, so just had a look at a few sites around gateshead.
shibdon pond had: 2 shelduck, oystercatcher, teal, mallard, coot, moorhen, lbbgull and herring gull.
flash pool had: redshank and 2 mallard.
lamsley wm had: 2 mute swan, dunlin, lrp, lapwing, starling, redshank, moorhen, coot and swallow.
burdon moor was the best with: 4 wheatear, sedge warbler, swallow, skylark, mipit and lapwing.
Then called it a day early to wash the van.

Tree pipit singing

Had tree pipit today at slaley :) took a while to find it but as soon as it started to sing i was straight onto it, had a look around waskerley and other reservoirs today but not much about, weather was nice but the wind was keeping everything down.

Osprey at the reservoir

At last Osprey at derwent reservoir for me :) i have missed a few passing birds but caught up with one today as it was being mobbed by gulls near the hide, the bird was found yesterday according to the sightings board, other birds of interest today 2 cuckoo, 8 wigeon, 4 common sandpipers, 9 great crested grebes, garden warbler, 5 common buzzard, 2 kestrel and a sparrowhawk. shame the light was crap or i could have some cracking photos to post.

Osprey taking the plunge

strange pair

distant cuckoo

First common cuckoo

Plenty to see on today's rounds of the reservoir and derwent valley, had common cuckoo showing well at blanchland moor and found a new pond for some dragonflies :0 also here was a common crossbill and a roe deer, had the usual breeding waders around, golden plover, snipe, oystercatcher, common sandpiper, lapwing and redshank. red grouse were all over the moors but no ring ouzel and wheatear today :( pow hill had the couple of showy red squirrels and the usual redpolls and siskin, buzzards and kestrels and a single red kite were around the reservoir and the pair of wigeon is still about also new in was a singing garden warbler. The stars off the show had to be the 4 pied flycatchers and 2 wood warblers further down the derwent valley, great birds to watch as they sing from their perches :) last call was to the quarry pond near ebchester where i had little grebe which was another patch tick also here was 200+mallard, 2 tufted ducks, 3 teal, 4 moorhens and 200+ nesting sand martins at the sand bank, so new ticks for the patch today were: cuckoo, garden warbler, pied flycatcher, wood warbler and little grebe.

Few year ticks at shibdon

Shibdon pond had a mini fall today with common tern, sedge warbler and lesser whitethroat all new for the year with garden warbler, whitethroat and 2 gadwall here also. Next up was to view a possible new house :0 very nice indeed ;) only a few miles from derwent reservoir i couldn't resist a quick look around the reservoir, nothing new in so just took a few photos from around the reservoir.

many redshank along with other breeding waders in the area

view from ne corner of dam wall

view from se corner of dam wall

black grouse area

blanchland moor with reservoir in background

and behind me nightjar area :) :0

Just another mega ticked ;)

Pied-billed grebe ticked today at Greenock, Clyde, loch thom. Set off at a delayed 4:15am :0 and arrived at loch thom for 7:30am after a couple of pit stops, 2 birders on site and no sign of the bird :( i had a good walk around from the east shore to the west shore and still no sign, then i drove around a couple of other lochs in the area and still couldn't locate the bird. I decided just to have a 1/2 hour nap and let other birders do the work in hope they would put the news out on the pager if they found it? when i woke up i had a coffee and decided to go into Greenock for a bit of breakfast but when i was leaving the loch i noticed a line of birders in the nw corner of loch thom and a few cars making there way up the minor road :0 i thought they must have the bird so followed the crowd, good job i did as they were onto the bird which was tucked into small bay in the nw corner of the loch out of sight from where the bird was seen yesterday (i reported it to rba as soon as i had the bird! hint). It showed well in the scope but a little to far for good shots, after an hour of watching the grebe i decided to do a spot of birding on the Clyde estuary, managed a few year ticks but the best birds had to be the black guillemots in the harbour at Greenock. Another great twitch with some good birds chucked in :) enjoy the photos.

wet and foggy at the reservoir

Spent the morning at derwent reservoir again, had a walk from carricks picnic site to blanchland and picked a few common species up, 2 x tawny owl, blackcap, dipper, treecreeper, nuthatch, collared dove were a few, 2 x roe deer were in the woods near carricks. I topped the feeders up at the nature reserve and the pheasants were in feeding before i had finished topping up :) lol. the long-tailed duck has now gone. Quiet day today, but to be expected due to the weather.

Bank holiday outing

Back to Derwent reservoir again today and more exploring, this time up at Blanchland moor where i had a male black grouse fly across the road and land in the long grass and vanish, could not miss it, big black bird with bold white wing bars :) more exploring around the reservoir gave views of redstart, ring ouzels, crossbill, golden plover, wheatear, great crested grebes, red grouse and what was unusual was 2 goldeneye m+f flying up to the moors at Edmunbuyers and appeared to land :0 good day out again, then it was back to my parents for something to eat. On the way home i popped into shibdon pond for the black-tailed godwit, then down to lamesley wm where i had 5 yellow wagtails, 10+ white wagtails and 10+ pied wagtails. i almost forgot to mention that before i went to derwent reservoir i popped down to far pastures and got the grasshopper warbler and the common whitehroat at last. todays weather was foggy in the morning lifting by 12pm temp max 16c. could be a chance of some black terns or arctic terns at the reservoir tomorrow :0