Saturday 14 February 2009

Who says February is boring?















Quite sad looking, lonely this valentines day?

























A bit of a show-off!











Distant Glauc

I spent two hour at Blyth Harbour this morning to try and find the Glaucous Gull.
As soon as I arrived the Iceland Gull was standing on the edge of the pier only a meter away from me and was happy to have its picture taken.
It flew around the harbour a few times and settled on the pier opposite.
All the other Gulls in the harbour joined the Cormorants in raiding the boats coming into the harbour.
A quick scan and I found a 1st winter Glaucous Gull next to a group of Eiders on the water. I managed to get a distant shot of it to confirm it wasn’t another Iceland.
The Glauc swan under the pier the Iceland was sitting on, as if for comparison.
I noticed the difference straight away; the Glauc was much stockier with smaller wings and a more angry expression.
Eiders, Shag, female Merganser etc were also in the harbour.

I was in Manor Walks this afternoon and I got a text from Steve Holliday saying 13+ Tree Sparrow on the Beacon scrubland, I finished in Subway and was straight off to Beacon Lane.
After nearly breaking my neck on the ice, I took the over the bridge route to Beacon Lane and just as I crossed the bridge 10+ Tree Sparrows- Patch Tick, flew from the stubble field and into the trees.
The hedge row where they had first been seen was being cut by the council tree chopping van so I stood back and watched it flush out 10+ Tree Sparrow, 15+ Yellowhammer, 40+ Reed Bunting, 20+ Chaffinch, 16 Fieldfare and a Mistle Thrush.
Also 60+ Carrion Crow were flushed from the stubble and 50+ Skylark were flying over the field.That has to be the best twitch I have ever had in Crammy, what a day.

This week I have also seen 18 Fieldfare feeding on berries near Nelson Hill, have had a pair of Bullfinches visiting my garden everyday and had 50 Pink Footed Geese fly over Sainsburys car park today.

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