and today I had this cracking Northern Wheatear at Ryhope Little Dene
It appeared quite large and bright so may well be a Greenland Wheatear.
Saturday, 24 April 2010
Spring Migrants
A recent trip to the Blast Beach and Hawthorn Quarry (2nd April) produced this lovely Black Redstart!
and today I had this cracking Northern Wheatear at Ryhope Little Dene
It appeared quite large and bright so may well be a Greenland Wheatear.
and today I had this cracking Northern Wheatear at Ryhope Little Dene
It appeared quite large and bright so may well be a Greenland Wheatear.
Sunday, 31 January 2010
A little cracker!
There's been a Black-necked Grebe at Silksworth Lake for a while, so, now that the crowds of unruly birders have died down, I thought I would go along and have a look for it.
The lake was mostly frozen but there was a large area of open water very close to the road and the footpath which goes round the lake.
The Black-necked Grebe (and all of the other birds on the lake, including 3 species of gulls, Tufted Ducks, Mallards, Coots and Moorhens) seemed entirely oblivious of any people or dogs walking round the lake and were coming as close as the very edge of the water.
I've never seen BNG this close before - it was an absolutely gorgeous little thing, actively feeding the whole time I was there. It jumped right out of the water during each dive, the only exception being when it was being hassled by Black-headed Gulls. Then it submerged as fast as possible and re-appeared some distance from the gulls. They followed him for a while but soon gave up.
The light was fantastic so I hope this photo shows up well ...
The lake was mostly frozen but there was a large area of open water very close to the road and the footpath which goes round the lake.
The Black-necked Grebe (and all of the other birds on the lake, including 3 species of gulls, Tufted Ducks, Mallards, Coots and Moorhens) seemed entirely oblivious of any people or dogs walking round the lake and were coming as close as the very edge of the water.
I've never seen BNG this close before - it was an absolutely gorgeous little thing, actively feeding the whole time I was there. It jumped right out of the water during each dive, the only exception being when it was being hassled by Black-headed Gulls. Then it submerged as fast as possible and re-appeared some distance from the gulls. They followed him for a while but soon gave up.
The light was fantastic so I hope this photo shows up well ...
Sunday, 17 January 2010
Whitburn Steel pipits.
I went looking for the Water Pipit recently reported from Whitburn Steel. I did see the Water Pipit but, as can often be the case with the most interesting birds, it gave only brief views and flew off before I could photograph it. I got lots of Rock Pipit photos though. Here are a few which illustrate the variable appearance of these birds (and in the sunlight - none of them had dark legs!):
These birds are fairly dark-looking and what I would think of as typical for Rock Pipit (the last six are probably same bird).
This bird is perhaps a little paler:
... and this bird was particularly pale:
These birds are fairly dark-looking and what I would think of as typical for Rock Pipit (the last six are probably same bird).
This bird is perhaps a little paler:
... and this bird was particularly pale:
Saturday, 2 January 2010
Happy New Year
I found a Great Northern Diver at Sunderland South Dock on New Year's day. Some of us had been musing that this was a good potential site for divers to turn up, so it was nice to see a prediction come true.
On the same day, there was a remarkable southward passage of Skylarks. I counted 2610 in 70 minutes over the docks. The movement was most noticeable between the heavy snow showers but they kept coming no matter what, in flocks of up to 200 birds.
The accepted explanation for this appears to be that, in cold weather, birds move towards the coast and south.
Today there were much fewer Skylarks on the move but I did have a fly-over Snow Bunting and I managed to get a video of the Great Northern Diver using my new camcorder. This was taken at 70 x zoom and so the quality isn't too bad considering!
On the same day, there was a remarkable southward passage of Skylarks. I counted 2610 in 70 minutes over the docks. The movement was most noticeable between the heavy snow showers but they kept coming no matter what, in flocks of up to 200 birds.
The accepted explanation for this appears to be that, in cold weather, birds move towards the coast and south.
Today there were much fewer Skylarks on the move but I did have a fly-over Snow Bunting and I managed to get a video of the Great Northern Diver using my new camcorder. This was taken at 70 x zoom and so the quality isn't too bad considering!
Sunday, 29 November 2009
A Fantastic Winter Seawatch!
Mark phoned me on Friday and told me I might want to go seawatching on Sunday. How glad am I that I took his advice!
This was one of the best seawatches I have had. The wind was North-Westerly, force 6-7 and there were regular, torrential downpours - apart from that it was lovely!!
Almost all of the birds we saw were going North, into the wind, as seems to be the norm here. The theory is, at least after a strong northerly blow, that birds are returning North, having been pushed South by the wind. However on days like today, the birds are heading North before the wind has died down. Perhaps they drift South on the sea overnight, then feel they have to re-orient themselves the next day, regardless of how horrible the weather is!
The obvious highlights are indicated in blue below, but saying that we had 3 diver species, 3 skua species, 2 shearwater species, 2 petrel species, 4 auk species (without puffin!) and 11 duck species illustrates just how good it was today!!
Red-throated Diver 5N 6S
Black-throated Diver 1N
Great Northern Diver 4N
Manx Shearwater 2N
Balearic Shearwater 1N
Fulmar 230 N
"blue" Fulmar 1N
Leach's Petrel 1N
Storm Petrel 1N
Gannet 70N
Eider 11N 14S
Common Scoter 254N 12S
Velvet Scoter 2N
Long-tailed Duck 4N
Gadwall 2N
Wigeon 9N
Teal 19N 1S
Pochard 4N
Goldeneye 4N 1S
Red-breasted Merganser 10N 6S
Shoveller 2N
Grey Plover 11N
Bar-tailed Godwit 9N
Purple Sandpiper 4N
Snipe 1N
Bonxie 12N 1S
Pomarine Skua 1N
Arctic Skua 1N
Little Gull 8N
argentatus Herring Gull 2N
Kittiwake 2700+N
Black Guillemot 1N
Little Auk 2N
This was one of the best seawatches I have had. The wind was North-Westerly, force 6-7 and there were regular, torrential downpours - apart from that it was lovely!!
Almost all of the birds we saw were going North, into the wind, as seems to be the norm here. The theory is, at least after a strong northerly blow, that birds are returning North, having been pushed South by the wind. However on days like today, the birds are heading North before the wind has died down. Perhaps they drift South on the sea overnight, then feel they have to re-orient themselves the next day, regardless of how horrible the weather is!
The obvious highlights are indicated in blue below, but saying that we had 3 diver species, 3 skua species, 2 shearwater species, 2 petrel species, 4 auk species (without puffin!) and 11 duck species illustrates just how good it was today!!
Red-throated Diver 5N 6S
Black-throated Diver 1N
Great Northern Diver 4N
Manx Shearwater 2N
Balearic Shearwater 1N
Fulmar 230 N
"blue" Fulmar 1N
Leach's Petrel 1N
Storm Petrel 1N
Gannet 70N
Eider 11N 14S
Common Scoter 254N 12S
Velvet Scoter 2N
Long-tailed Duck 4N
Gadwall 2N
Wigeon 9N
Teal 19N 1S
Pochard 4N
Goldeneye 4N 1S
Red-breasted Merganser 10N 6S
Shoveller 2N
Grey Plover 11N
Bar-tailed Godwit 9N
Purple Sandpiper 4N
Snipe 1N
Bonxie 12N 1S
Pomarine Skua 1N
Arctic Skua 1N
Little Gull 8N
argentatus Herring Gull 2N
Kittiwake 2700+N
Black Guillemot 1N
Little Auk 2N
Saturday, 28 November 2009
More camera testing
This new dSLR has a video or "live view" mode. It really doesn't allow great results when hand-held, especially with the long lens on. However perhaps it might be useful for capturing fly-pasts during seawatching from a tripod. Here's a first attempt from the tripod - things can only get better!
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