Hartlepool Headland
A brief windy visit to the Hartlepool Headland produced a good number of waders. First up were the regular waders Oystercatchers, Curlew and Turnstones then a flock of 10 Purple Sandpipers flew in Boom. New year tick!!!
There were no White-winged Gulls to be seen but a good Number of Eider Ducks were floating just of the shoreline. This is only the 2nd time I have seen Eider Ducks in the wild
Other birds seen in the area were 200+ Starlings, 2 Pied Wagtails, Numerous Gulls, 1 Rock Pipit 10+ Cormorants. A Good 2 hours in the North East
Slimbridge
Day out at Slimbridge in Search of Bewick and Water Rail
The Water Rail was seen briefly feeding under the feeders at the Willow Hide
Spent a bit of time photographing some of the captive birds. Practise makes perfect as they say!!
Female Smew (Red head)
Male Smew (somehow this photo had 25,000 on my flickr site)
Goldeneye
Walpole Park, Gosport, Hampshire
After returning to the same Gosport boating lake for 13 years I though it was about time to pay the Ring-billed Gull a visit. Ring-billed Gulls are rare visitors from America. This American visitor that has been visiting hampshire is so will known it even has its own notice board and nickname (Waldo)
I made the Journey south with two other Local birders Brian Thompson and Lee Gardiner and on arriving at Walpole Boating Lake, Gosport we meet up with my Uncle Ricky. We found the Ring-billed Gull after a few minutes of scanning the Black-headed Gulls and Common Gulls. We fired off a few record shots and decided to return later when the light was going to be better.
Ricky being a local took us to a few sites close to the naval harbour were we had a good chance of seeing Red-breasted Merganser and maybe even a Black Redstart. Red-breasted Merganser were seen in good numbers but unfortunately no Black Reds. Looking towards the Naval shipyard we could see a huge flock of waders these appeared to be mostly Dunlin. These came and landed on a few boats something i had not seen before.
The weather gradually got better and the afternoon saw bright sunshine so we headed back to Walpole Park for the main attraction.
it didn't disappoint
Also at Walpole there were several groups of Brent Geese not a rarity on the South Coast but a delight to us Bristol Birders
All in all a great day on the South Coast well worth the visit.
Bishopston - Rose-coloured Starling
A late start at work was the perfect excuse to get out and see the Rose-coloured Starling that had turned up in Inner Bristol. Arriving just after sun rise I met up with two other Local birders and we began to scout the streets. There was a lot on show considering we were only a few miles from the heart of Bristol. A Jay and Sparrowhawk were the highlights but the so say star of the show was in hiding. After a good hour, hour and half of searching we found the Rose-coloured Starling. Although at first it was very distant it did give us a few good close flight views. Sadly i had to work so the below distant shot was the best i got
