First Border Crossing into Durham of the Year

Couple of more shots from last week which I have just got round to taking off the camera tonight.  

The first one is the Greylags arriving at Big Waters with one of the Barnacles tagging along on the end.

At Killingworth the lake was 75% frozen with all the Mute Swans tucked away in the biggest bit that was Ice Free and with this Gull looking on wondering if there is any space left for a swim.

Back to today and I had all sorts of things planned but the weather changed that so I thought a venture over to the other side of water starting at Shibdon where I bumped into George on his morning walk and had a nice catchup chat whilst looking over the pond for the Glaucous Gull.  Next visitor to the hide was Stephen B, a new birder but one who has the same Fuji as me but also has a TCx2 which he let me try out, thanks Stephen.  Then Ron H and his bazooka dropped in but unfortunately it didnt get much use as the Glaucous still did not appear but we were told it had been seen at Stella.  We did see a Kingfisher, several Dunlin, Snipe, couple of Sparrowhawk although the wind and rain at times did make viewing rather difficult.  Heres a couple of pics.

Had a quick run up to Far Pastures where several others had had the same idea and were wandering around the car park looking for the Firecrest but to no avail.  Several Goldcrests, a couple of Treecreepers, and the usual tits and finches kept us entertained especially when you put a little food down.  A couple of Red Kites wandered over but had put by camera away by then and only had long distance shots although it was a year tick.  My last port of call for the day was Lamesley where I saw my 2nd Kingfisher of the day but there was very little variety with only Curlews, Teal, Mallards and lots of Gulls on display which I studied but couldn't turn them into anything more exciting.

Back home early to get my new router installed by son Gazza and my new phone connected properly.  I remember 25 years ago I was teaching them how to programme in basic, building computers, communicating with compunet, black boxes etc etc and now I need them to get my bloody phone working.

Looking forward to my Sunday tour of Big Waters tomorrow providing that the BBC has predicted correctly