An unexpected movement!

Our regular visit to Crookfoot produced a couple of female Goldeneye but nothing else of note, Hurworth Burn was quiet and the GGShrike reported yesterday had moved on. Checked out the old Steetley Works at Hartlepool and we didn't manage to find the Snow Bunting....................looked like being one of  'those days'. At the headland Borough gardens we found several Redwing which were our first of the year, then a Brambling showed followed by 3 more later. Then out of nowhere a steady fall of Goldcrests happened with a constant stream of birds over the coming couple of hours. A nice end to slow day.

Redwing

Brambling

Goldcrest

Water, Water everywhere.

Well we managed to get up early - 6am on a Sunday!! and set off to go to Leighton Moss.  We went for petrol and the garage was shut so had to try and find petrol in Darlington.  Then we hit fog over Bowes Moor but eventually it cleared on the way down on the other side but low and behold think we went through a speed trap.  So if you head over that way watch out for yellow vans with a speed trap sign on the side, even at 8.15 on a morning.  Totally sickened me off I can tell you.

Anyway we arrived at Leighton Moss to find the paths still flooded so it was a good job we had our wellies.  The weather however was excellent and so were the birds.  We had a brilliant day watching the Bearded Tits and a Kingfisher

Bearded Tit

Kingfisher

Autumn Leaves

Green Sandpiper

 Greenshank

Spotted Redshank

Little Egret.

Back to basic's

It's all gone quiet in the area, so its back to watching our commoner birds. South Gare visited today and good numbers of Linnet, Stonechat, Pied Wagtails and a few Rock Pipits were seen. Also Guillemot, Eider and Bar-tailed Godwit present...........can't wait for the next local goodie to turn up to liven things up.

Meadow Pipit

Rock Pipit

Stonechat

Stonechat

Eider

Guillemot

Nice Find

Wryneck

Sunday was a day of trying to find any lingering migrants, it started by looking for Little Stint at Seaton Carew, but they had moved on, a visit to Saltholme was unproductive. At Dormans Pool we stopped for a quick look and initially it looked very quiet so we were about to give up when we both noticed a bird fly into a bush at the top car park, a quick look with the bino's revealed a Wryneck sitting out on a branch!!! Unfortunately it flew into cover, we alerted the local birding fraternity and after several members turned up the bird was briefly relocated and was seen by a few on about 3 occasions before flying into cover and was not located again. A nice find on an otherwise quiet day.
(Picture above was from a previous time as we didn't manage a picture this time).

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!!