Great White Egret

The Great White Egret has been seen again at Druridge so I thought

this would be a good time to put a couple of pics and a video from

last week up.  It didn't come too close but having a 60x zoom camera 

does help a little bit.

Lapwing buzzes the Egret

A few other pictures which I took on the same day

Godwits Galore

Ahmmm.......

Garden Tiger Moth Caterpillar

Howdon Wetlands

Last Wednesday I went to Howdon Wetlands for an early morning visit 

and ended up spending a great couple of hours there as the Mute Swans

were swimming around with their new young, a Mallard with 6 chicks was

all over the place, a Shelduck appeared on the berm which leads down to

the Tyne Dock with 4 young then headed back down and the most

worrying thing of all was a Fox roaming around keeping all the new families

on their toes.  Here are a few pictures from the morning but I was concentrating

so much on getting the video of the fox I forgot to take a couple of pictures of it,

so if you want to see it check out the video at the bottom of the post

A Mixed Bag from the Past Week

Once again  Blogging has taken a back seat due to family affairs but I did get away on occasions to take a few snaps and videos so here are a few:

The Multi coloured ringed Spoonbill has returned again, have sent off details 
but nothing back yet apart from an out of office reply in Dutch

Pheasant in stunning plumage

Very early morning Wheatear with the dawn sunlight just hitting it

Avocets, Garganey and Common Sandpiper

Sedge Warbler at Big Waters

Early morning at Cresswell

Swallow flying through a hide

First Large Red Damselfly of the year at Big Waters

An unusual sight just outside Edmondbyers

Finally a bundle of fur leaping off the Causeway at Cresswell

Around the Derwent Reservoir (Again)

I was down in the Derwent Reservoir a couple of days ago with Carole and did a bit of videoing.  

Here are the results

 and a couple of pictures

How to identify a Tree Pipit 101

Note the smallness of the rear claw compared to Meadow Pipit

(Thanks AJ)

We then moved on to some very accommodating Common Sandpipers who

were calling for England at one stage

Once again a couple of stills to go with the action

Decent views of the bird I go to see there still escape me but here is a video of it gracefully

soaring around in the distance

Finally a few odds and sods which I encountered around Derwent Reservoir and on the Moors

 ?????????? Escapee from local smallholding 

Added to my "Exotica List" as Wild Chicken with Barbara Windsor Bun on Head

 Big AAAAHHHHsss from Carole

Had loads more to post but you will no doubt be getting bored by now if you have even reached this point - So its 04:12 and I am off to Howdon Wetlands to see what Sunrise looks like

ps.  Hi and thanks to The Reservoir Birder

Sedge Warbler at Big Waters

Treecreeper

Some close up views of a Treecreeper at Big Waters at the weekend

Not where I was expecting it to return to so settings not quite correct

but I quite like the effect

Then it flew further away

Then it went into the classic pose but not quite were I was expecting it

Why cant these pesky little beautiful things read the photographers

book on how to take pictures of birds easily