Early Morning Walk

First morning for a while I haven't had to de-ice the car so decided a early morning walk along the Tyne would be a good start to the day. Started off from the Quayside where the Kittiwakes are beginning to assemble.

Several little spats took place as they seemed to vie for position and the sight of them dropping together fighting then separating a couple of metres from the ground is quite a sight. Unfortunately all my shots of them doing this were severely out of focus.

Wandered along the Promenade in front of the Copthorne and this Curlew came screeching past me calling loudly. Didnt expect to see one this close to town.

Not much to see until you reach the first landing although several Blackbirds and a couple of Thrushes belted out a couple of top 10 hits as I walked along. Tide was quite well up as I got to the Landing forcing the birds quite close although they dont seem too bothered as a couple of runners passed me and a few bikes whistled along. I have a bell on my bike and always ring it if someone is walking away from me but only 1 in 5 seem to do that nowadays and the amount of frights you get as someone just whooshes past you is unbelievable. Anyway a few Shelduck and Curlew were scattered along the Tide Line with a multitude of Gulls.

Across the river in the Sun there were several pairs of Mute Swans.

Took several snaps of Gulls wheeling around the skies and quite like the one below

Several Teal also came out quite quickly from underneath the Jetty which was unusual as they normally all come out at first light or is a combination of light and tide or my noisy feet as I wandered around not thinking there was anything there the reason.

Anyway by this time it was 07:45 so had to get back into town quickly before some some Traffic Warden started booking cars right on the 8am start time.