Sunday's Saunter

Big John and I set off early on Sunday (06.30)and did the long walk round Big Waters.  Still no definite sign of the beginning of Spring but at least it was not below zero although the wind did pick up slightly.  We did have quite a few species including 6 Greylags, Snipe, Siskin, 6 Curlew, Skylarks, Linnets, 2 Pied Wagtails, 3 Oystercatchers, lots of Meadow Pipits, Woodcock, 4 Little Grebe, Great Crested Grebe, a largish flock of c70 mixed Fieldfare and Redwings having a good time flitting around being disturbed by walkers, horse riders etc and all the usual species.  Graeme B joined us for the last part of the walk on his bike as he had a tight time frame, something about a Plane, Cyprus etc.   Unfortunately I pressed the wrong button on the camera and deleted all the pics of this walk so you will have to forego the pictorial delights, the good news is that I didn't delete the ones from the next visit to Gosforth Park.

After a cup of coffee we headed to Gosforth Park, with the thought of a quick visit to the Feeding Station then a short look around as we had still heard it was a bit muddy.  The society has stopped putting out food now so we enticed a few species in with a bit of my own.  It is great place just to stop, sit and watch the normal species with the chance of something you don't normally see close view of (the Fieldfare that were there on our last visit for example).  Here is a few pics from our half hour or so spent there.

I wonder what they are up to ?

After you, no, after you, no, after you

We then decided to go for a wander round and remembering a blog from Brian a day or so ago we were prepared to abort as we were only wearing boots but were pleasantly suprised to find little mud.  We decided to see if we could beat his total of 43 Bird Species during his visit but unfortunately we only managed 40 although we missed out on several species we expected to see/hear such as Green Woodpecker, Jay, Buzzard and Sparrowhawk.  We finished the day off with a quick visit to Killingworth Lake to see how things are getting on with the Great Crested Grebes.  We could see 2 although they seemed as distant as they could be, never coming within 20m of each other.

A Canny Day