'H' is for.......

Day off today, car in for service and my 6' 4" frame compressed into a Ford Ka, along with Mrs Liverbirder and kit and up north for a wee trip out.  With the 'anything Davy Tee can do, I can do (better)' attitude, it was 'H' is for Hulne (is it pronounced Hull-n or Hewn (as Hulme is pronounced Hew-m?).  But alas, 'H' is NOT for Hawfinch as an hour yielded cousins Green, Chaff and Gold but not the big fella.  And at 11:00 am, the call of a Tawny Owl, twice, from the tress to the right of the park gates.

Forgot to mention the onset of heavy snow as we drove north beyond Morpeth, where we bagged FIVE Common Buzzards circling over the woods to the east.

Off then to Ross, or Tee-side as it might now be called.  Check out the snow:

Got the limo parked off road, kit on, and it was off to the dunes.  Hods of Curlew, Starlings, Corvids, and Redshank.  A GSW briefly passed over the barrier and as we trudged off to the right, and looked back, a raptor was being mobbed by the Crows.  Grey plumage, black wing tips, Good Lord, 'H' is for Hundred (Year List) and more significantly Hen and Harrier.  Top B*llocks!!  And a female Merlin followed the profile of the dunes, making off north.

Got the the dunes via the necessary deviation to avoid the temporary lake and then the sight of a snow-covered beach:

Note: Mrs Liverbirder hogging all the coffee and Bamburgh Castle in the centre.  What a shame the Corvids picking at the seal skeleton cannot be easily made out.

Nothing much on the choppy old briny, plenty of LT Ducks, Shags, Gulls, Common Scoters and the odd Eider.  Too cold to stay too long, and a conscience about me having all the fun, we didn't dwell and it was back to the car pronto. 

Common Buzzards up and about, a few Oystercatchers to boot, and a few Linnets too as we walked back.

All in all, a bit of a disappointment, weather and birds (or lack thereof) combining to take the edge of what I had hoped would be a much more rewarding day to balance the 40 or so emails that will be waiting for me on monday morning when work resumes.

Davy Tee, you're the man!!