A Quiet Few Days

Tuesday morning quick trip to Killingworth Lake before work, saw both pairs of Great Crested Grebes, one pair definitely nesting but not sure about the ones on the main lake as they were in the middle for the hour I was there although they did venture over once enabling me to get a shot:

If you want to see better pics of them see Segedunum Warblers Blog.

Later on a lunchtime time walk down the business park and snapped away and rather liked this piccy of a common bird in an environment you normally get songbird pics from:

After hearing the hype on the tv last night about the probable spectacular sunrises resulting from the volcanic activity in Iceland I shot off to Newcastle this morning to get some pics along the Tyne hoping for some nice shots with the Sage, Millenium Bridge etc in but was extremely dissappointed when the sunrise was a complete flop.  Still snapped away quite happily though and got the following:

 The above was a piece of contemporary art that I have never seen before which I happened on by chance tucked away in an alley and I suspect it can only be seen properly in the late afternoon whey the sun is in the West.

 Nice shot of the Tyne Bridge with the Sage in the background although this would have been better with the reflection of the Sun on the Sage and lastly the shot that every happy snapper has taken of the high level bridge:

Back to the birdies now and a couple of Lesser Black Backed Gulls observing the traffic flow on Scotswood

I swapped a couple of feeders over at work today and immediately the finches were there chomping away

At lunchtime I shot up to Far Pastures for 30mins, not much on the pond but a solitary chiffchaff was plinking away outside the hide although it was lying at a weird angle on the branch but seemed to be OK is it worked its way around the Car Park.

On the stone in the Car Park where everyone seems to drop a bite to eat for the birds a crowd was forming

Also had some great views of a couple of Red Kites which flew around for 7-8minutes.  They always seem to come out more when the sun is shining.  Went down to the Derwent and immediately spotted a couple of Dippers just resting on the far bank, had a wander round taking a few snaps of a comma and a Peacock Butterflies then returned and found one of the Dippers still standing the same position .

On my way back to the car I came across a Pied Wagtail sitting on top of a small building in the car park.  This is the first time I have come across one down here.

Finally back to work, for those of you that think that I get massive lunch breaks all the time, its end of Term and we have no students so I tend to take a lengthy lunch break each Friday as I can get a parking place when I return.  One last pic of my favourite Mistle Thrush which I have managed to tempt down into the feeding station area with apples.