They came and went!!

Well, weekend off work and where had all the birds gone? Back to where ever I suppose but certainly not around here.  It was not too bad a day either, we started off at Crookfoot where we had a Yellow Legged Gull, Buzzard and a Greenland Race Wheatear.  At the Jewish cemetry there were two Wheatears and at the Headland the only birds of note were three Red Throated Divers and a Guillemot.  At Newburn there were all the common shore birds along with the Med Gull but we could not find the Little Stints at the golf course, only the Grey Plover was visible when we visited.

Two other sightings for the day were a Silver Y in the Borough Gardens and a rare Xmas Gull at Seaton Carew (Ha Ha!!)

Northern Wheatear - Jewish Cemetry

Collared Dove - Headland

Grey Plover - Seaton Golf Course

Xmas Gull !!

Med Gull

Dunlin

Redshank

Silver Y

The Expected Fall

Following the the extreme weather on Monday /Tuesday the expected fall of migrants happened with Yellow-browed Warbler, Red-breasted Flycatcher in the area.Many commoner migrants also showed with Common Redstarts plentful. Hopefully we will get out and about to catch up with as many as possible.

Red-breasted Flycatcher

Common Redstart

Waiting for the fall

The Expected fall of birds this weekend seemed to pass us by, with all the goodies tending to favour going either to the north or south of our area. We were not in the mood to travel far so had to put up with whatever was in our area. Started at Crookfoot and with the exception of 3 Bar-headed geese nothing exceptional here but did note good numbers of House Martin still present in the area. Hartlepool Headland did produce a Yellow-browed Warbler and we managed a couple of fleeting glimpses Sylvia also spotted a Lesser Whitethroat but that was about it. Further south in the Saltholme area 3 early Whooper Swans were on Dormans pool and the Marsh Harriers (3) were giving some good but distant aerial displays...........and that was about it for the day.

With the onset of a major storm on Monday and Tuesday hope that we get an opportunity to have a second bite of the cherry and hope we get something special drop in to the area.........here's hoping.

Marsh Harrier

Knot

A very quiet week

Well it's been a very quiet week for us. Visited Smardale Gill on Sunday and the bird life was just about non-existent. Did manage to locate a couple of  Red Squirrel feeding at a bird feeder. Haven't ventured out for the rest of the week.....................see if anything turns up this weekend.

Did manage 3 Whinchat on Seaton Common earlier when we had a brief visible migration.

Playing catch up over the last few days

Baird's Sandpiper

Pectoral Sandpiper

Short-eared Owl

Just posting a few photo's taken over the last few days, the Baird's Sandpiper is attracting plenty of attention while the the Pectoral Sandpiper looks like its moved on. The Short-eared Owl display (up to 8 birds) is also nice to see.

Short-eared Owl

Pectoral Sandpiper

Baird's Sandpiper

Bairds on the Beach.

After a tiring day back at school (a bit of a shock to the system after six weeks off) we headed off to North Gare to try and see the Bairds Sandpiper which had been found there and which had been around for a couple of days.  Thanks to a tip off from a friend we located it more or less straight away and with a bit of patience staying put we managed to get some reasonable views and record shots.  but unfortunately due to some mad dogs on the beach it eventually was chased away!!