Wednesday 24 October 2012

A Canny Weekend

Here is a few more bits and pieces from the weekend starting with Saturday when my Latte Drinking Compadre joined me for another scintillating day out in the wilds of Tyne and Wear.

It was still dark when I picked him up so a quick visit to Macydees and off we went to spend 15mins in Gosforth Feeding Station sipping our Lattes and although the sound track was superb we could see little as the sun was still tucked up under the Duvet.  Thirsts quenched and the events of the week discussed we now concentrated on the birding and headed to Holywell.  From the public hide there was only a few Mallards in view when I spotted a duck in The Toons colours coming in to land, Tufted Duck I casually mentioned to John and then looked away.  John replied "I dont think it is" and looking again we both agreed it was a Long Tailed Duck.  It never came really close to the hide so great pictures were not the order of the day (for a change LOL).



Continuing on towards the Wagonway we spotted first 1 Short Eared Owl on a Fencepost, then another hunting and finally another hunting with all 3 viewable at one stage.  They never came really close (like most birds nowadays so suspect a change of smellies might be required - now what should I do with all the bottles and cans of BRUT) but a superb hour was spent watching them.



We then headed for Prestwick Carr where some distant views of the Little Gull were had, a couple of Curlews, lots of Lapwings and some Redwing moving up the Sentry Box road then across to the West onto the tree line on the North of the Horse Field. A canny first venture out for a couple of weeks without a sore throat or a blocked up nose although I am sitting here at 5am typing this with my nose blocked up again and Carole now suffering with the symptoms I have had for the last couple of weeks as I sort out my gear for a few days in Dumfries and Galloway starting tomorrow.  (Just noticed that is 4 lines I have typed without punctuation as I recheck to make sure I haven't typed anything stupid, but cant be arsed to restructure the sentence/paragraph)

I also did the Short Walk round Big Waters on Sunday with the normal crew where the unbelievable highlight was the sighting of the Bittern (see previous post).  I must finish now as have a few things to sort out  for our trip to "Sunny Scotland" so here is a couple of pictures of one of my favourite places in the early morning mist





1 comment:

Johnnykinson said...

I had to check out the link to see who this "compadre" was in case you were two timing me !!!!
Nice image of the ass of a Shortie making a quick exit retreating from "the great smell of Brut"
YEA YEA YEA SPLASH IT ALL OWVER.
btw.
I'm sitting here at 8.25 having dropped the missus off at work so ive got the car waiting in a sweat for that new lens to be delivered hoping it comes nearer 9 than 5.