Long Nanny, 28th May 2009

On this date last year I was watching a singing common rosefinch at Newton Pool, this year I've had to make do with a singing goldfinch at Newton Links Farm !

Goldfinch....

Apart from some easterlies and rain for a couple of days (about two weeks ago), this year May has passed by without any great weather for dropping in those scarce birds..... what a shame......

I'd love to see a nice spring male red backed shrike or bluethroat on the patch, but I'm feeling a bit negative, reckon the time has passed this year..... got easterlies forecast for the next few days, but also lovely clear sunny weather too, so not ideal....

I suppose there's the chance of a flyover something, or perhaps a rare wader, but there's no where at Newton suitable for waders anymore.... all the flooded fields are bone dry, just left with the Nanny (which rarely gets more than a dunlin... mmmm...... or a terek !), and the pool which as usual is full of water with not even a hint of a muddy margin....

Anyway I managed a quick visit to the Long Nanny this afternoon, highlights were a spotted flycatcher around the shit heap (surely a migrant ?), a wheatear on the saltmarsh at the Nanny, and 2 whimbrel on the beach....... but otherwise pretty quiet all round really....

Around 18 pairs of little terns are at the site, but just a few on eggs so far, the arctics seem down on numbers too.....

Arctic...

Anyway, gotta stay positive.... we're heading into June..... a classic time for vagrants..... with some easterlies...... make mine a broad-billed sandpiper on the Nanny please...... or a BLUE-CHEEKED BEE-EATER !!

MYSTERY BIRD........ BLIMEY !!

At least a couple of times a year I get people come up to me saying "we've had this funny looking bird in the garden"..... Most of the time it turns out to be a jay, or a green woodpecker, but sometimes its something a bit different.......

Today I was running an event on a farm, and this nice old farmer hands me the photo below......... taken in the third week of August 2007 in the garden of North Farm at Rennington !!

....BLIMEY indeed !!

This image has been blown up, it was taken through his kitchen window with a digital camera..... You can see he forgot to turn the flash off !

This wasn't strictly a mystery bird, he'd already been through the book and found out what it was himself, he just handed this to me and said "what do you think of that then ?".

Long Nanny & Tin Church, 22nd May 2009

The harshness of life (and death) has really hit home this week...... so I decided to rest my mashed up brain by taking a stroll up to the Nanny, blocking all the horrible shite out and immersing myself in the birds and the planet around me.....

When you're feeling shit nature can be a great soother, and today was no exception...... within minutes of getting outdoors I could feel the wind on my face washing away my negative thoughts...... fluffy clouds floating through the blue sky, a truly beautiful sight..... then little later on I stood for a while on the footbridge watching a little tern fishing at close range.... what a miracle worker nature is......

I breezed through the dunes like some stoned hippy ! Stoned on nature.....

Not really on top birding form today to be honest, but who cares...... I dropped in at the tern site, 2 1st summer little gulls were on the beach......

Very nice....

While at the tern site I noticed a fairly steady northwards passage of hirundines, mainly house martins but a few others too, and 1 swift....

On the shore a mixture of summer and winter plumage sanderling and dunlin delighted me, what awesome little birds they are !!

On the walk back towards Newton a lone whimbrel flew north calling....

I decided on a quick drop into the Tin Church area before heading home...... A garden warbler was singing here and my first spotted flycatcher of the year showed well flitting about over my head !

Little flitter...

On the walk back the car a barn owl flew past me so close I could have grabbed it !!.... This is what life is about !!

I'd like to dedicate this post to my good friend and fellow nature lover Ed who very sadly passed away this morning, I wish he could have been with me today enjoying the little terns......

Tin Church, Football Hole & High Newton, 17th May 2009

An early morning ringing today.... only 5 new birds ringed in three hours, but they were all nice warblers and this beauty....

Male barn swallow

By 7 o'clock it was bright sunshine and rather breezy so I packed up and went for a walk....

At the Tin Church the male pied flycatcher was showing well along the fenceline, showing off its shiny new jewellery.... at Newton Point a male wheatear was hopping around the meadow, and at Football Hole that bluethroat was still proving extremely elusive !!

I did see this tho.... anyone know what it is ?... and don't say a caterpillar !!

?

I finished up by heading up to High Newton to look for that tree sparrow....... no sparrows but another female pied flycatcher was flitting around the walled garden here..... also of note 3 singing garden warblers today, with 4 ringed in the last 2 days..... surely these must be migrants.....

Finally, the best sighting of the day..... a tree sparrow chirping from one of the nest boxes we put up !! Since putting these up last year its been a sparrow free zone...... so really good to see this bird.... not sure its a breeder, in fact I suspect its just a "floater".....but its a start isn't it.....

Low Newton & Newton Pool, 16th May 2009

BLUETHROATS 3 - STRINGER 0

Game over......I give up !!!

Great conditions for a scarce bird today after yesterdays torrential rain washout...... Still blowing easterly plus some mist on and off..... So, after some early morning ringing I flogged the patch again, fancied a bluethroat, or an iccy, or a red backed shrike, or a thrush nightingale, or a red throated pipit.....or a....... etc...etc....

In the end the best birds I got were 3 pied flycatchers and a cuckoo at the Tin Church, a cuckoo at Newton Pool, and a female marsh harrier flying north over High Newton........

1st summer male pied flycatcher...

Female pied flycatcher, this one showed subtle grey on the nape and rump..... but lack of a white flash at the base of the primaries flushed the collared fly thought from my mind.....

Seems like every site on the east coast had 2 pied flys and an iccy today, and some had wood warblers too, plus other goodies...... I just got 3 pied flys..... ARSE !! Shouldn't complain tho..... pied flys are well coooool !!

Also ringed a few sylvias today.... 3 garden warblers and lesser throat....

Lesser throat....

Another good bird in the nets was a meadow pipit...... yeah OK I know, they're common, ringed lots of these in the past, but this is the first one I've ever caught at Newton..... they have amazing hind claws too !!

.....Look at the length of that !!

Long Nanny, Football Hole and Newton Pool, 15th May 2009

As luck would have it I was working near Newton this afternoon, so as soon as I had finished I dropped in.....

Welcome to bluethroat mission part 2....

Easterlies.... heavy rain all day..... surely it would definitely be in the bag this time ? .......... and the result is.....

Bluethroats 2 - Stringer 0

Once again I flogged every patch of cover, this time from the Nanny down to Newton Pool..... and this time all I got was totally piss wet through !! No migrants other than a couple of wheatears and a whimbrel...... ARSE !!

It stopped raining at about 6pm so I took the opportunity to get a couple of hours ringing in.... nowt too impressive but this garden warbler is surely a migrant.... fairly sure they don't breed here anyway.... and it had a very high fat score too....

.... migrant ?

....Also good to see a couple of sedgies with my rings on from last year, and a lesser whitethroat was singing too (the first I've had here this year)

Well..... you'd think I'd know by now that torrential rain is not good for finding birds...... but strong easterlies and rain I just cannot resist...... I never learn eh....... Maybe tomorrow it'll be better.... assuming it stays cloudy tonight and dry in the morning.

Tune in tomorrow for the bluethroat mission part 3.......

Long Nanny, Football Hole & Tin Church, 14th May 2009

This evening I went on a bluethroat bashing mission.....

From the Nanny to the Tin Church not one patch of cover escaped a proper grilling....... the result ? ...............NO BLUETHROAT....... AGAIN !!

......Will I ever get one of these on the patch ??

On the plus side I managed a male ring ouzel at Football Hole and female redstart near the Tin Church..... so stuff is definitely moving !! Also 3 big wheatears at the Nanny and lone whimbrel over calling....

Lets hope the rain forecast for tomorrow delivers a shimmer of blue in the bushes at Football Hole.....

Thailand pics....

After seeing some of John Malloys recent gripping pics from his Thai trip HERE .......... I thought I'd post a few of mine up too !!......

In 2005 I was lucky enough to spend 5 weeks in Thailand helping to train the Gurney's Pitta team to trap, ring and radio tag birds..... we focused our efforts on Blue Pitta at Khao Yai NP as it was a similar species to Gurney's....

Blue Pitta

Siberian Rubythroats

Red-headed Trogon

Red-throated Flycatcher

OBP

Little Spiderhunter

Emerald Dove

Sibe Blue Robin

Low Newton, 13th May 2009

I managed a quick drop into Newton this evening....

The pool was pretty dead with just 4 gadwall and that bonkers swan chasing everything again....

I booted through the dunes in the off chance a nice scarce migrant off these easterlies..... guess you need the weather really tho...... nice tho it is, clear sunny skies are no good for me !!

Sedge warbler and reed bunting at the pool....

On the beach at Low Newton there was still 1 white wagtail and 1 wheatear..... and offshore a sum plum red throated diver was nice...

The best bird of the day tho was a lone but very vocal tree sparrow inhabiting an area at High Newton where I've never seen them before, this was very exciting !! A little way away from the couple of pairs I know are currently nesting at Newton Hall too. Going to keep a keen eye on this area now and see if there are any more tree sparrows lurking....

According to the forecast the weather for the weekend is looking a bit better... or worse.... depending how you look at it ! If we are getting some nice strong easterlies and heavy rain, I just hope its a bit clearer over the continent to encourage all of those red backed shrikes and bluethroats to set off towards Low Newton !!

Gotta think positive..... this year there is definitely a bluethroat out there with my name on it !!

The other woman....

When I am not out birding I'm often out on this.....

fast as f@*#.......

I've had this amazing machine for 2 years now and I still totally love her to bits !! A few minutes on her never fails to get me grinning from ear to ear....... How I still have a licence I'll never know......

Long Nanny, 10th May 2009

After a weekend of total madness..... trust me you've only heard the half of it on here......... I decided to drop in at Newton to clear my head......

A quick march up to the Nanny was nice..... 9 wheatears along the way included at least 4 of those big bright Greenland jobbies, some real stunners..... also this very upright looking izzy wannabe.... this bird made me stop and scope it !!

Izzy......Errrrr...... NOT !!

At the Nanny there was 16 dunlin and a good number of sanderling and ringies.... at the tern site it was good to see both arctics and little terns back...... 9 little terns to be precise.

On the walk back to Newton 7 whimbrel flew north calling all the way.....

OH MY GOD I'VE LOST THE PLOT !!!

Well thats it.......I've finally cracked and gone completely mental !!

I spent this weekend driving to feckin wales to get a bleedin dog !!..... YES I SAID A DOG !!

I must point out that this was certainly NOT MY IDEA !!

Since moving in with me, my gorgeous girlfriend, who I love very much, really misses her little white pom pom dog which has stayed at her parents house..... So after a few weeks of nagging...... ahem....... I mean discussion, I finally caved in and agreed she could get another dog.........

Plenty of dogs in Newcastle eh....... indeed, but I didn't bank on her finding her perfect dog in South Wales !! Once she'd seen him on the Internet and read his story of bad treatment her heart was set on rescuing him and giving him love, so no other dog would do.....

SOUTH WALES FFS !!!....... I tried to reason with her, but she was very quick to point out that as a man who would drive to Dorset non stop for a collared flycatcher, I was in no position to argue with her logic....

The result...... muggins here had to drive to south wales with her this weekend........ OK so I am too soft but I do still manage to get some things right.... As I was "wasting my weekend for a dog" I insisted that we go via Liverpool for the pallid swift that's been lingering for a few days.....

...... And her it is, I nicked this pic off the Internet... cracking bird.....

This was a real result, I've never bothered twitching one in the UK so this was a nice British tick for me.... I saw this bird on Friday after the crowds had gone, and as a result I was one of a crowd three observers...

....... and the dog ?........ well so far he has bitten me, had a shit in the kitchen and as I am writing this post he has just pissed on the carpet !! FUGGIN GREAT !! Just waiting for him to chew up my book collection now.....

All that aside he is actually a nice dog and I am slowly warming to him. Her indoors has promised me that she will sort him out and get him properly trained.....so I am sure it'll all be fine...... in the mean time anyone got any diazepam ?

Ben the Bichon

Low Newton & Newton Point, 7th May 2009

Due to weekend work commitments there has been a distinct lack of birding at Newton recently, a good job its been howling westerlies for a while....

The last couple of weekends I have been working, running guided walks up in the North Pennines, the highlights of these were a number of redstarts, black grouse, ring ouzels, a pied fly and a wood warbler.....

Anyway, I was starting to get Newton withdrawl symptoms - grumpy and irritable - maybe I should rephrase that as "MORE grumpy and irritable than usual"......

This afternoon after work I managed to drop in for a couple of hours, didn't think there would be much about, but I was surprised to see not 1, not 2 but 9 white wagtails on the beach !!

White wagtail selection... note the grey rumpage....

There was also 3 wheatears here, a handfull of turnstone and 1 purple sandpiper...

Female wheatear

Stunning sum plum turnstone.....

Terns offshore here included plenty of sandwich, 2 commons, 3 arctics and 2 littles, good to see them all back......

Round at the pool it was deathly quiet tho, just 2 gadwall and singles of coot, little grebe and mute swan..... pretty desperate really...... well until I had a swift (my first northumberland swift of the year), no white bits on it unfortunately.....

The flood field at Low Newton is now bone dry, but there were 2 whimbrel and a load of linnets here....

A quick walk to the point produced another whimbrel, and my first manx shearwater of the year......

Another whimbrel

Another busy weekend ahead, so probably no visits to Newton..... mmmmm..... maybe Sunday....... We'll see......