Who ate all the (mince) pies ? !

There were some funny-shaped Robins at Hurworth Burn Reservoir today.


Is this what you call a round robin? The fattest Robin I've ever seen!


And what is going on with this guy?

I can't remember having seen 3 Great-spotted Woodpeckers in the same tree before, so the feeding station here was quite a treat.



There were 3 Willow Tits in the area and plenty of other very tame birds, like this Song Thursh, visiting the feeding station.



I must go back when the sun is shining!

Rubbish Photos - Great Birds!

During the Christmas period I have managed to demonstrate exactly how NOT to take digital photographs!

I did manage to get one or two images that were worth enhancing (much as I hate doing so) in these cases by taking the "brightness" control as high as it would go! I've put them under the originals to show the adjustment.

Here's how not to take pictures of birds ...

1] Don't use the automatic "portrait" setting !





2] Don't confuse the focus setting with the exposure setting!






In the end, these ones were almost bearable!





It's a shame as these Red Kites were absolutely magnificent, and right over the house. They must be one of the most beautiful birds of prey in the world, surely!

Best Bird Ever?

This Bohemian Waxwing was found exactly how Waxwing's should be found - from a moving car, almost causing an accident!



It's a first winter - no yellow on the inner edge of the primaries and only one 'wax' blob on the secondaries - and according to the Collins guide, the blurred lowered edge to the black bib could indicate it's a female.

This is my first and only Waxwing of the year and all the better for having stumbled across it myself.

They have a great call, they look comical and magical and they have one of the best names of any bird - Bohemian Waxwing must be one of the best birds ever!

That place looks perfect for Black Redstart !

I have walked or driven past Seaham Docks many times and thought - it looks great for Black Redstart down there! But I don't go in and look nearly often enough. Today I was doing my atlas square which includes the dock area and guess what I found?







One of the great things about Atlas work is that I end up birding in places I wouldn't normally go!

An autumn update.

It's been a frustrating Autumn! Lots of birds around but I've not found many myself. A Bluethroat on my local patch was the highlight but a calling Greenish Warbler which I couldn't see was the one that got away.

In the meantime I have been to Shetland with an entertaining crew! We missed the big fall by a couple of days.

Between us we found about 30 Yellow-browed Warblers, 1 Bluethroat, 1 Richard's Pipit, 1 Rosefinch, 2 Red-breasted Flycatchers, 2 Barred Warblers, 1 Little Stint, 1 Jack Snipe, 1 acrocephalus sp. (Reed probably!).


Hooded Crow


Herring Gull


Yellow-browed Warbler - a highlight of the trip was seeing two of these in the same tree at two different locations!


Scarlet Rosefinches

What a weekend!

Seawatching on Saturday morning was fantastic, with big numbers of Great and Arctic Skuas moving South. The highlights though were two juvenile Sabine's Gulls, two juvenile Long-tailed Skuas and two adult Pomarine Skuas.



Great Skuas - our biggest flock was 8!


Velvet Scoters

Then in the afternoon we heard that the coast was covered in migrants. It turned out not to be an exaggeration!

On my local patch I found a Bluethroat and a Greenish Warbler !!!!!!! in amongst Redstarts, Spotted Flycatchers, Pied Flycatchers, Willow Warblers, Garden Warblers, Blackcaps, Lesser whiethroats, Tree Pipit etc. etc.

Today there were much the same birds on the patch but the sun allowed some photographs.


Redstart


Lesser Whitethroat


Pied Flycatcher


Garden Warbler



Spotted Flycatchers (a patch tick yesterday!)


Willow Warbler

30th August 2008 Whitburn Obs

A fantastic seawatch from Whitburn OBS this morning.

Although I did learn that I can't count duck flocks! If you are just as bad as me at estimating flock numbers then try this link here. It's a good game even if it didn't make me any better!

Before 10.00am there was a duckfest and more:
>1000 Teal
>250 Common Scoter
50+ Wigeon
1 Shoveller
1 Gadwall
13 Shelduck
12 Eider
2 Mallard
90+ Manx Shearwaters
1 Sooty Shearwater
1 Pomarine Skua (adult with full spoons)
4 Bonxies
17 Arctic Skuas
10 Little Gulls
2 Whimbrel
and a flock of 12 Common Sandpipers!


How many Teal in this picture? Don't ask me!


2 adult Arctic Skuas make a getaway after nicking a pipefish from this gull!


a juvenile Arctic Skua - one of only a very few past Whitburn so far this year.


10 of the 12 Common Sandpipers - I've never seen a migrating flock of this species before!

Brilliant!

Dalton Park Dragons and Damsels

Finally today we had some sunshine, so I popped down to Dalton Park to look for dragonflies. Having never seen any at this site before I was surprised to find 5 different species:



Common Blue Damselfly


Blue-tailed Damselfly


Emerald Damselfly


Common Darter


Emperor !!!

I wonder if this site gets migrant species too?

Seawatching Fun

Good Seawatching so far this weekend. Took Friday off and was rewarded by

ADULT SABINES GULL

early on - picked up simultaneously by the two observatory residents!

Friday evening was a big disappointment with only a few Arctic Skuas migrating south in the Northerly wind and Manx Shearwaters coming past at 1 per hour!

Today was a little better - no increase in skuas or shearwaters but a small increase in Teal (91 N) and Common Scoters (68 N).

That is, until about 9.00am when for no apparent reason a Sooty Shearwater came North pretty much right in front of the obs!





Sooty Shearwater

Black Stork in County Durham

And today, a British tick in my home county!



thanks to who ever found it!

A week in British Columbia

A few good birds during a relaxing week in BC

Pine Siskin


Ruffed Grouse

... a tick!

Bald Eagle


and a mystery hummer

A visit to Tommy Thompson Park, Toronto - 28th July 2008

After attending a conference in Toronto, I had an afternoon trip to Tommy Thompson Park, a man-made spit sticking into Lake Ontario from the middle of Toronto.

View Larger Map


It is a brilliant place, with lagoons, lots of cover for passerine migrants and a huge colony of Double-crested Cormorants. The cormorants were magic, flying past almost constantly in large, dynamic flocks



lots of breeding Eastern Kingbirds giving good views



flocks of young hirundines:



and a few migrants, including this empidonax flycatcher that I'm still trying to identify:



What a fantastic place - I would love to bird here during the migration period.