Long-eared Owl a welcome sight.

Called in at Hurworth Burn Reservoir today to see the White-fronted Geese that had been reported, good to catch up with them before they head north. Another winter visitor was spotted at the Headland at Hartlepool with over 25 Snow Bunting on the beach around the old Steetley works. A call came in while I was there to let me know a Long-eared Owl had been spotted at Saltholme so I made a quick journey over and made contact easily with the bird , a second bird was also in the immediate area. 

Long-eared Owl

Greenland White-fronted Goose

5 WFG together

Snow Bunting

Single Waxwing still at Saltholme

Waxwing...............thirsty work!

Waxwings have been in very short supply this year........this one was unusually by itself at R.S.P.B. Saltholme. It was feeding and drinking well but did look a bit lonely. Pleased Sylvia caught up with one as she didn't want to dip out on one of her favorite birds.

 Waxwing

A dipper of a day.

On the way to horse riding today I stopped off at one of my favorite spots to see if the Dipper was there and sure enough as I looked down from the bridge there he was sat under the nest site.  The river was in full flow and there were not many rocks to sit on so he just sat on the edge of the water with not a care in the world.  He sat there motionless for a good ten minutes before flying to one of the only stones barely visible in the water.  There were plenty of birds in the churchyard singing in the sunshine and the snowdrops were in full bloom.  A lovely spring day.

Smardale

A visit today to Smardale Gill on the first day of reasonable weather for a while. 

Managed to see a Merlin on the way across and  heard a Green Woodpecker on arrival. Nuthatch were in abundance in the area along with sightings of Greater Spotted Woodpecker, Buzzard and Tawny Owl, the Raven's have rebuilt their nest, but only put in a brief appearance. Red Squirrel were also in short supply as we only managed to see two.

We also spotted our first Primrose of the year.
On the way home we stopped at Cleasby, Goosander, Goldeneye and Great-Crested Grebe gave distant views.

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Visited High Shincliffe today to see the Yellow-rumped Warbler, it put on quite a display singing and catching flies. The large group of onlookers were not disappointed and 3 distant Waxwings were an added bonus.

 Yellow-rumped Warbler

Waxwing

Glossy Ibis

Sylvia's list grows slowly with this weekends sightings. A visit to Foxglove Covert produced Lesser Redpoll, Bullfinch in numbers, Greenfinch ,Chaffinch,  and G.S.Wodpecker in appauling weather.

On Sunday we called at Belasis Avenue Billingham to see the Glossy Ibis that had taken up residence in a horses field. A Siskin was spotted en-route to Helmsley at a feeding station at Clay bank.......no sign of any Crossbill though.

Glossy Ibis

 Chaffinch

 Greater Spotted Woodpecker

Siskin and Great Tit