Thug Life

Impressive immature Glaucous Gull at North Shields on 13th March ...

(Click images for better viewing).

Off, On

IOC keeps Mealy on the Redpoll list, so this bird was nice and timely - at Low Lights, in low light.

Afterwork...

Cormorant takes a bite! 

Bitter

Bitterly cold start to the weekend... the brute of a Glaucous Gull must feel at home at North Shields. No Iceland counterpart during a brief exposure to the cold this morning.

The BIG dipper

A very overcast morning saw Mark and I head to North Shields Fish Quay - both glaucous and iceland gull had been reported a day previous.

We parked up opposite the boat sheds and ended up walking round to the Black Middens - with no sign of either gull and very wet conditions we opted for a pit stop back at the quay for coffee and a panini (we're so sophisticated).

Meanwhile STH had arrived - so a quick text from the warmth of the cafe to Steve to inform of our presence was rewarded with a call back informing that the glaucous had re-appeared. Result.

The monster gull spent most of its time up on the shed roofs, but luckily it took a fish scrap and flew past, giving one ok photo from a flyby sequence...

High-fives all round, we then headed back to Cramlington - a journey that was intercepted by Gordon with news that he had re-located the dipper on the Horton Burn. Tensions rose as we promptly headed to the burn!

Thankfully the dipper was still present - and hopefully will remain available over then next few days for a 2013 tick. This dipper is the first to be really available within urban Cramlington - birds on the River Blyth are really at the periphery of Cramlington acceptability!

A single kingfisher patrolled the burn while we grilled the dipper, and to complete the set, a grey wagtail flew over the house while I de-booted on the driveway.

Not a bad morning - perhaps more exciting for me than anyone who cares to waste there time reading this drivel!

Thaw?

A late afternoon visit to North Shields was productive, with the near adult and 2w iceland gull both present - the near adult remaining on the quay roof-top, while the 2w was a little more adventurous, dropping onto the water as the late afternoon murk turned to dusk...

2w and near-adult iceland gull almost together on the rooftop

Dropped in just as it started getting dark (100mm-400mm @ 400mm...)

Backlit Iceland

A lovely sunny morning despite feeling under the weather myself. Met Mark mid morning at North Shields Fish Quay and soon were watching the near adult iceland gull. Always good to see but tricky to get an angle on it that wasn't directly into the light as it flew over the river.

Might have to give this another go sometime...

Arctic

News that the sabine's gull had me back out to the rather cold fish quay at North Shields this afternoon. Again it was a sabine-less visit, however a very late juvenile arctic tern was a surprise as it flew up-stream.

A close look at the juv greater black backed gulls revealed one with its legs tangled in fishing line and one foot missing. Nice.

County tick, pec, chips and a sermon

Started Saturday's birding at Stag Rocks with Mark. After several years of trying we finally connected with black guillemot - a county tick for us both, a species which has been a bit of a bogey until now. BG's winter on the Farne's in small numbers and occasionally can be scoped from Stag Rocks. Today we were very lucky, as a single bird was about 400m offshore. Also seen during the watch were several guillemot, a gannet, red-breasted merganser, three red-throated diver, eider, bar-tailed godwit, oystercatcher and redshank. Interestingly there were no scoter offshore.

Monks House pool had held a snow goose for the past couple of days, but there was no sign on Saturday morning, just a few grey lags with mallard, shoveler and many black-headed gull. We later learnt that the snow goose was at Budle... and we had headed back south, via Swinhoe and it's amusing signpost -


Our next stop was the Beehive flash where a pectoral sandpiper had been reported off and on for a couple of days. Initially there was no sign and it was not until we drove off that the pec was seen (from the moving car) sunbathing in the long grass on the northern edge of the pool, hence the quirky shot below.

Next stop was the obligatory visit to the fish quay at North Shields for a nice portion of pie and chips, with a sab's on the side. Unfortunately for us, the pie and chips won the initial port of call, and after devouring them we discovered that the sabine's gull had been and gone while we were eating! This bird has lingered for a week now, but is becoming more mobile, spending time at both North Shields and South Shields. We had a check of Tynemouth Haven on route back home but there was no immediate sign.

My evening was spent back at the O2 Academy in Newcastle where Reverend and the Makers were performing. Pre-show was spent feeding up at the Canteen and Bar where a rather tasty steak and kidney pie was much enjoyed along with some rivot catcher beer. They were very good indeed, and with a Saturday 10pm curfew, continued their show (albeit Jon McClure and an acoustic guitar) in the car park adjacent to the venue!

After the show I managed to see a further two species - insomnia-ridden black-headed gull feeding on Clayton Street, Newcastle at 23:00, and barn owl - sitting on a roadsign on the A1/A19 slip-road.

Just can't get enough

A couple more from last Sunday... I had been back to the quay yesterday but only a brief view was had. I think I need to expand my birding horizons as I'm becoming a bit obsessed with this beauty!

A trip north is planned for today... more on that later.

Sabs' in flight

The sabine's gull spent the latter half of my Sunday visit feeding in the harbour at North Shields - and despite extremely close views (fly pasts of a couple of meters!) it was tricky to photograph - a smaller lens would have been much more useful. Light was poor to say the least, but maybe there will be another opportunity with better conditions as the gull appears to be lingering in the area.

The two images here are presented as an alternative to the standard flight view...

Yawn!

Another week of nightshift beckons for me - yawning is something I'll be joining the sabs' in doing very soon...

No birding today, I played catch up with some photograph processing and installed a wireless printer ...using a wire... which makes it pretty useless as of now.

Super Sabs

I spent a very enjoyable couple of hours at North Shields this afternoon in the company of Phil watching and photographing an immature sabine's gull.

Normally a pelagic species when recorded in Northumberland, this beauty gave itself up resting on the beach and later feeding in the harbour area.

A great deal of photographs were taken, so first up (as there is beer to tackle...) is a standard portrait shot, taken on the beach adjacent the car park.

I'll apologise in advance as I'm sure to post a few more images over the next few days - there is 7gb to work through first... with a few quirky shots that might amuse.

This bird was successfully twitched by a good number of the Northumberland birding community, even Mr & Mrs Birdingsometimes Seniors had a look!

It's been quite a good few days...