End of Year Birding

A steady period of birding over the past week-and-a-half interrupted frequently by work and family commitments.  The highlight was being able to eventually squeeze in a twitch for the Patrington Haven juvenile IVORY GULL on 20 December.  Alas I didn't arrive quite early enough to experience it's early-morning fishy-feed at no-yards and had to be happy with two hours of distant views as it sat out on the estuary rocks doing nothing much but digesting.  However, I was still chuffed to bits at seeing this stunningly scruffy boy, especially as it was a lifer to boot.  Two digiscoped shots of the bird, taken in a very strong wind below.

Ivory Gull (juvenile). Patrington Haven (East Yorks). 20 December 2013.

Ivory Gull (juvenile). Patrington Haven (East Yorks). 20 December 2013.

Apart from the Ivory I've managed a bit of local birding, two days on Teeside and a few visits to my old patch of Barrowford Reservoir, whilst staying with my folks over Christmas.  Not a lot to get too excited about on these trips but for an immature Glaucous Gull (either a 2nd or 3rd winter), 2 Snow Bunting, Twite, 2 Red Kite and several argentatus Herring Gulls.



Parrot Crossbills at Budby Common (Notts) - 13 December 2013

Whilst working down in Leicestershire last week I got the opportunity to shoot-up to Budby Common, in Nottinghamshire, to have a look at the Parrot Crossbills.  For once luck was on my side: no sooner had I got to the area where the crossbills had been frequenting, when there they were.  Over the next 3/4 hour the flock of 14 crossbills showed very well to all present, perched in two separate deciduous trees and dropping down to drink at several puddles.  Despite the insistence of the usual loud-mouthed, self-proclaimed expert (idiot), that several of the flock were "obviously Common Crossbills", that "you can't separate these birds from 'Scotbill'" and "it just makes a mockery of it all really", I thought that all 14 birds in the flock looked good for Parrot Crossbill.

 

I see a lot of Common Crossbills when out birding locally, and all 14 of the Budby birds were obviously different to Common Crossbill: larger headed with a bull-necked structure; big, deep bills; obviously deeper and bulging lower mandibles; sharply decurved mandibles towards the tip; and deeper and less metallic calls.  As for the Scottish Crossbill issue.  I'll worry about separating Common, Scottish and Parrot Crossbills when I'm in Speyside, but not when I'm in Nottinghamshire!

 

I even managed to (fuzzy) digiscope some of the birds, but alas I couldn't get my remembird to work properly, and thus failed to record any of them.

 

Parrot Crossbill (male). Budby Common (Notts). 13 December 2013.

Parrot Crossbill (male). Budby Common (Notts). 13 December 2013.

 

Recent Birding - Sunderland, the Tees and local.

When I started this blog just under a month ago (after many, many months of deliberation) I was going to be dynamic.  I was going to post frequently.  I was going to provide a detailed insight into what makes me tick as a birder.  I was going to finally solve some of the most difficult and compelling I.D. conundrums faced by today's modern birder.  But no, instead I've just managed three short posts in the space of a month.  Looks like a trend has been set already, and unfortunately this post is going to follow form, with just a brief run down of my birding highlights from the last three weeks.  I've not got much to report either, as it's all been rather steady.



Black-headed Gull (adult). Sunderland (Durham). 28-November-2013.





I've been working in Sunderland, Washington and around the Tees recently, which has enabled me to get a fair bit of both 'on-the-job' and 'extra-curricular' birding done.  Despite a lot of searching through flocks of gulls, waders and duck, over several days, highlights have quite literally been 3 Purple Sand, a Black-throated Diver and a Snow Bunting.  To say I felt a little frustrated and cheated after the effort was an understatement.



Turnstone. Sunderland (Durham). 28-November-2013.



Local birding, in my part of inland Northumberland, has been a bit more productive over the past few weeks - although, as with all things, it's relative.  By far the best local bird was a brief Waxwing in Wark, as I was taking the kids to school, on 26 November.  No bins or camera on me, and I couldn't refind it on my return from the school-run, but still nice to see nonetheless.  The two adult Greenland White-fronted Geese remained at Grindon Lough until 27 November, but I haven't seen them since.  There appear to be two Greenland Whitefronts on the coast at Woodhorn now, so I'm guessing that my birds have been kidnapped by the Northumberland coastal birders again.  It's happened before, and it'll happen again - some people just have no manners!  The only other good birds at Grindon have been regular Peregrines.  Elsewhere, I've stumbled across a 1st-winter Scaup at Sweethope Lough on 2 December and a 1st-winter Med Gull in the roost at Colt Crag Reservoir on 6 December.  There's also been quite a few crossbills and redpolls pinging around the Sweethope and Colt Crag area, but they've all just been very frustrating flyovers so far!

I promise to try harder this coming week...