Med gull & Siberian Chiffchaff

Hats off to prof: Pochard (med) and the Dragonhunter (sibe) for coming up trumps with a Med Gull at whickham playing fields on fellside road and a Sibe Chiffy at far pastures, 2 chiffchaff are here but the paler bird is the sibe. Not much else happening in Gateshead today.

Adult Med gull

Siberian Chiffchaff

2 year ticks

Chiffchaff at far pastures was new for the year, so was Red-legged partridge x 6 at Kibblesworth grange.
Ruff still a Shibdon pond along with the 3 Nordic jackdaws which have being confirmed from Birdguides, Rare bird alert and other experts ;)
Pink-footed geese x 3 remain at Lamesley with the greylags.
1000+ lrg gulls in roost at Stargate, no white wingers yet?

The well marked bird on the right, more of a white collar than some Nordic photos on the internet ;)

3 un-ringed Pink-feet, just as good to put on a list as the greylags behind them ;)

2 year ticks

Green woodpecker at Kibblesworth brick works pools
Little owl and 3 pink-feet with 51 greylags at Kibblesworth grange
Not much about today but a report of a flock of twite near Marley hill will be worth checking out tomorrow, although i think they could just be linnets? meadow pipits and skylarks with the flock.

Little owl at Kibblesworth

Goldeneye showing well

14 dunlin - Derwenthaugh staithes
5 goldeneye - costco
3 pink-feet & 120 greylags - fields west of Lamesley wm
4 goldeneye, 4 goosander, wigeon and a water rail - Sled lane
1000+ lrg gulls in roost at Ryton, 1 possible viking gull
1000+ lrg gulls Stargate landfill
Good news for Gateshead gulls, Crawcrook quarry is to be turned into a landfill site :0 according to 1 resident, 10 more years of gulls!

Pink feet at Lamesley

3 x pink-footed geese were with 114 greylags in fields west of Lamesley wm.

3 x water rail were at Birtley reed beds, 3 little grebe were also here.
1 common seal was at Timber beach, tyne.
News from the past few days, kingfisher, willow tit, nuthatch, siskin, buzzard, red kite were at Far pastures, 51 tufted ducks and 1 drake pochard at Saltwell park.

Bad day

Here is a photo that will make you laugh, i sunk into the marsh when trying to photograph jack snipe :( mud everywhere, whilst washing in the stream a possible peregrine flew over high. My bins and camera were left hanging on a nearby post :( by the time i picked my bins up the bird had vanished, as pointed out by the dragonhunter i'm having a crap start to the year and a mega might turn up in gateshead when i'm in Nepal :( "cheers dragonhunter"  I'll come back fighting though ;)

jack snipe

Flushed a jack snipe today from the marsh behind the ravensworth hotel, lamesley. Also 2 snipe here.
109 greylags in field next to lamesley wm, still no white fronts.
Kibblesworth common had 100+ fieldfare.
Tyne at stella and fields near landfill had 1500-2000 lrg gulls, hard to view in strong winds though.
Tyne at costco had goldeneye.
Fields at ravensworth fell had flock of linnets 100+, need to have a closer look incase a few twite are with them?
So three new year ticks today, jack snipe, goldeneye and linnet, lets see whats about tomorrow in gateshead?

First twitch of the year :0

Parrot Crossbill x 14 at Budby common Notts, the birds showed very well for 30 mins before having a drink then flying off into the woods :) very happy to get my first lifer of 2014. On a bad note dipped the whitefronts at lamesley water meadows :( here is a few shots of the parrot crossbills.

3rd & 4th jan

Managed 3 hours on my foot it list for jan only, notched up 38 species and 5 species for my Gateshead list. Ive entered the 1 mile foot it, details and positions can be found on the birdingbyfoot.blogspot.com off for the parrot crossbills in morning :0 could they be my first lifer of 2014?

2nd Jan

3 more species added to Gateshead year list today - crossbill (chopwell woods), yellowhammer (bradley fell) and dunlin (derwenthaugh staithes). Managed to get some shots of the brambling today, hard to get close to them but i got these distant shots.

New years day

63 species seen today, best birds were 30+ brambling and ruff, blackcap and chiffchaff both seen today at shibdon, not by me though :( back out tomorrow hoping for a few photos and a few more ticks.