Not Much Birding This Weekend

I had a non birding weekend planned as Carole wanted to make a couple of visits but the best laid plans as usual go to pot.  Do something off the cuff and it normally works out well but our trip on Saturday was cancelled due to a few minor problems but even then I still only managed an hour on the coast and 2hrs at Big Waters.  The same happened on Sunday, didn't get out of the house until 09.05 and was back by 13.00 but Carole couldn't be bothered to cook so we headed out for a meal.  Most places were full so we hit the Fish Quay and a massive fish and chips each in the car at the Middens Car Park was much better than sitting in a restaurant acting proper.  We had 45mins of hilarity, listening to Radio 4, watching the public walking by, observing the birds swooping down for discarded food and the couple in the next car to us have the same worldly fare as us but using proper trays with the spongy bottoms, proper cutlery, a salt, pepper and vinegar set, napkins, tea in a flask and milk in a bottle, then washing and drying their cutlery (I thought we were bad keeping salt, vinegar and placcy forks in the boot).  When we were leaving Carole did mention that maybe I should take our picnic hamper next time so Sedgy Warbler and I could eat our MacDonalds and them flat square things that Sedgy eats in style.  We did do a scour round the Fish Quay, Low Lights etc but no sign of the White Seagulls.

Here is a few pics I took whilst out on Saturday and Sunday in no particular order.

Big Waters - I actually took this last weekend but the colour is so

nice I just wanted to post it, also we probably wont see scenes like

this for a while if you believe the BBC Weather Forecasts

A couple of the 13 Cormorants we saw yesterday at 

Big Waters.   A very high count for January

At last I managed to get a glimpse of a Willow Tit outside of the Feeding 

Station at Big Waters.  It doesn't hang around for photographers though.

About midday a lot of the birds in the area started moving around.  This is not

a common occurence but to see 3 male Pheasants take to the top of

the trees was not something I can recollect seeing.

At the Boating Lake in Tynemouth a Barnacle Goose is 

still meandering around with the Tufted Ducks

At Killingworth a Whooper Swan waddled over for a chat 

as I was dishing out a bit of sustenance

Then as a few Mute Swans came over a familiar one stopped in front of me - TBX - the female of the pair that has been breeding for quite a few years at Big Waters (must be on its holidays or probably a City Pond Break).  There was a male with her which had the same attributes (bolshy and aggressive) as her partner.  We presume they must be doing the same as last year when the pond was over-run with Swans and they vanished for a while but where the only ones to successfully breed on their return

Finally a collage from January 2012 showing some of the Wildlife we

observed last year.  Note the 3 weird species of Wildlife in the top left corner