Sunday 17 January 2010

First Lifer of 2010!

Before going back to Teesside I went out with SH and DMcK this morning to do the webs count. Nothing out of the ordinary was seen during the count at Castle Island.

Before heading to Castle Island we stopped at the field at Newsham were the Bewick’s Swans- Lifer, had been the night before.
Luckily I got a lift from LMcD on Saturday afternoon and saw them straight away so todays’ viewing was slightly more relaxed.

After the webs count we went to East Chevington but it was only a brief stop as we heard about the two Shorelark near Boulmer.
When we arrived at Longhoughton Steel and found the right area we were told that they hadn’t been seen for a while so we searched the surrounding fields and dunes.
In the end we didn’t find them but did get good views of a Snow Bunting amongst with the Skylark feeding next to a group of sheep.

Our next stop was a Linton Pond to look for the Smew which had been reported. It took a bit of finding but eventually the redhead appeared in the North West corner of the main pond.
The suprise bird of the day was a Green Woodpecker which yaffled from behind the hide.

At the field next to Alcan a good number of Whooper Swans were feeding with the Mutes and 400+ Pink Footed Geese flew over.

There was no sign of the Iceland Gull at Blyth Harbour and we couldn’t flush out any Jack Snipe or Water Rail from the Bates Filtration Pools.

Today more than made up for not being able to get out on the 1st of January lets hope there are more days like this to come this year.

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