Good day yesterday was.
Start at half past seven bells with a damp (the bird and me) addition to the year's Locally Informative Species Tally with the Red-crested Pochard at Bothal.
The Middle smile-raiser was a dark raptor being mobbed by a duo of well 'ard corvids over the wood to the west of the Snowy Owl at a quarter to 17 bells. Suspecting a Common Buzzard, I was not thinking of stopping the car, but getting closer I noticed the light head. Panicked, pulled in, donned bins, and voila, female Marsh Harrier.
And the End? Nothing ornithological, but Level 42 at The Sage. I've seen them three times; 1985, 2008 and yesterday, with last night being by far the best. In fact, I would suggest they are better 30 years down the road than when they began. Absolutely awesome, dare I say!
Thursday, 7 October 2010
Sunday, 3 October 2010
Mellow-browed. Warbler!
At last, one of my many warbler-related excursion-ettes has yielded its quarry.
Yesterday, at 1:10 pm, I passed Tynemouth during a work-related journey and took a(nother) quick look near the pier for the Yellow-browed.
A couple from Cumbria had arrived a few minutes before and had spoken with a birder as s/he left who directed them towards the sycamores about 75m from the pier gates. And we all stood and looked, and looked and looked.
And after about ten minutes, voila! The little fella, lit by the sun, in a sheltered bowl of foliage, bordered by the berry-laden hawthorn and rose, in front of an in accessible apple tree at the top of the bank.
And after a chat about Poms and Hawfinches and other west coast birds, we three left, just as PC Wanderings arrived (nothing personal, you understand, Sir!).
So a more relaxed and less perplexed forehead for me, and one that will be more so if I can add Barred too!
Yesterday, at 1:10 pm, I passed Tynemouth during a work-related journey and took a(nother) quick look near the pier for the Yellow-browed.
A couple from Cumbria had arrived a few minutes before and had spoken with a birder as s/he left who directed them towards the sycamores about 75m from the pier gates. And we all stood and looked, and looked and looked.
And after about ten minutes, voila! The little fella, lit by the sun, in a sheltered bowl of foliage, bordered by the berry-laden hawthorn and rose, in front of an in accessible apple tree at the top of the bank.
And after a chat about Poms and Hawfinches and other west coast birds, we three left, just as PC Wanderings arrived (nothing personal, you understand, Sir!).
So a more relaxed and less perplexed forehead for me, and one that will be more so if I can add Barred too!
Friday, 1 October 2010
C'est Finit
Well, there you have it, eight days off work, back tomorrow, and what had promised to be an unusually self-indulgent 'feather fest' did not quite do it.
Sunday was the highlight, at Hartlepool, with the Shrike and a nice Snow Bunting. The generally low aspect has been my disappointment at not seeing a Barred or Yellow-browed Warbler despite the fact that the entire population of local birders have done so and many hours of my being in the right place at the wrong time, or vice versa.
I have been given some sound advice re. not always following others' birds, but I need to put time aside to do that and often I don't often have that luxury.
Holy Island yesterday was a beautiful if not over-crowded day. Great to meet Vee and Colin Pears (they're not 'a couple', it's just my poor grammar), and Gary Carroli Smith and Derek C, and like the Magnificent Seven, Messrs Forster, Gilbertson and McLevy (and others u/k) leaving the Great Grey 'School' Shrike and rounding the corner heading for the Vicar's Garden (VG) like Messrs Brynner, Bronson, McQueen et al.
The VG was heaving, but no Y-b W or R-b Flycatcher. The Lonnens were too quiet too.
And today, mixing birding with pre-work chores, Tynemouth's Warbler 'banker sites' did not yield, and neither did Trow nor Marsden Quarries, or Whitburn.
C'est la vie.
Sunday was the highlight, at Hartlepool, with the Shrike and a nice Snow Bunting. The generally low aspect has been my disappointment at not seeing a Barred or Yellow-browed Warbler despite the fact that the entire population of local birders have done so and many hours of my being in the right place at the wrong time, or vice versa.
I have been given some sound advice re. not always following others' birds, but I need to put time aside to do that and often I don't often have that luxury.
Holy Island yesterday was a beautiful if not over-crowded day. Great to meet Vee and Colin Pears (they're not 'a couple', it's just my poor grammar), and Gary Carroli Smith and Derek C, and like the Magnificent Seven, Messrs Forster, Gilbertson and McLevy (and others u/k) leaving the Great Grey 'School' Shrike and rounding the corner heading for the Vicar's Garden (VG) like Messrs Brynner, Bronson, McQueen et al.
The VG was heaving, but no Y-b W or R-b Flycatcher. The Lonnens were too quiet too.
And today, mixing birding with pre-work chores, Tynemouth's Warbler 'banker sites' did not yield, and neither did Trow nor Marsden Quarries, or Whitburn.
C'est la vie.
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