Saturday and Sunday Birding, Monday and Tuesday Bedding

Howdon Wetlands
Saturday Morning I nipped down to Howdon Wetlands to fill up feeders and have a quick look round as I had promised to spend the day with Carole, I was back by 9 so that was my days birding.  Its beginning to fill up a bit with a 100+ Teal seen this week and 100+ Redshank flitting between the Dock and Wetlands.  A couple of Snipe, a few Reed Bunting, Tufted Ducks, a few Curlew and the Grey Herons into double figures were also hanging around.

The Teal being skittish as normal

 Redshanks in the Tyne Dock area

Snipe by the Large Pond

Wren right in front of the hide (again)

Teal settling down on the pond with a Tufted

Now I know its too late for one of these but if you look closely it is completely covered in cobwebs and has been there for at least 2 months in the Ground Floor section of the hide.  I was tempted to give the place a brush out but there are some great looking web formations (bit like my shed at home)

Big Waters

On Sunday the normal walk round Big Waters, although today we did the long one for a change as the weather was a bit better than the last few weeks.  It was a good start to the month with 60 species in a few hours including a Big Waters Lifer, a Merlin which tried to take a Skylark, failed and then headed off towards the pond.   Great walk around with the guys with the normal fascinating banter but the percentage of banter about flying objects which are non warm blooded and non vertabrate is slightly on the increase.  So here are a few pictures from the day.  A small flock of Lapwing which flew around for a few minutes but didn't come near the North Scrape possibly because the Sparrowhawk had just been zipping through.

One of two Jays that were in the field next to the entrance of the reserve

Getting a decent picture of these has been added to my list, just under Shoveller.

First shot of Redwing for quite a while

Now that the leaves are vanishing this picture was taken in a hedgerow we pass by

every walk only about 4-6inches into the hedge yet we have never seen it previously.

The locals A&I (Alan and Ian, not Artificial Intelligence hmmm.....) cast their opinion

on what it was but after looking at pictures of both Bee's and Wasp's Nests I am still

not sure 

Next are two of my favourite views of Big Waters which I take quite reguarly

although the second one is the first for about 6 weeks and it still looks stunning in Autumn

73 Greylags coming onto the Pond (go on, I dare you to count them)

 One of those non warm blooded, non vertebrate, I haven't identified yet

Because of all those suppression rumours that have been going around I sneakily took a photograph of the Big Waters Secret Log Book to show to the public, unfortunately it is self redacting when a camera is pointed at it so if anyone wants to know what is in it then have a look yourself and don't forget to write in what you see

The only reason I am writing this earlier than usual as after Alan dragging me myself around the BIG WALK on Sunday I am not feeling too good and for the first time in years I have taken a couple of sick days and the lovely Carole who is just recovering (cos she has passed all the germs onto me) from the same thing is bringing me copious amounts of pills and potions and mugs of hot steaming Tea in my sick bed and switching off the laptop, which I have been prodding with one finger, when I fall asleep.  She is just paying in kind for all the time I spent looking after her when she was ill (which no doubt she would have told you about if she blogged)cos I am such a suppaaaa hubbie. 

Stage Directions:  Sick Person reaches over to bedside cabinet, takes a sip of Lemsip, supplied by wife who looks ravishing despite looking after Sick Person then he places head onto pillow and wife tucks him in.

Camera Direction: Pull back slowly unfocussing then cut (Bit like some of Sick Persons pictures)

Well its Wednesday again before I can get round to blogging, got to make more of an effort instead of resting on Mondays after a hard weekend, talking to Carole on Tuesdays (not too much yesterday actually as Autumn Watch was on) and we have Autumn Watch tomorrow as well as Life Story so getting a bit square eyed but will suffer the pain in the furtherance of my Wildlife knowledge.  At the weekend Mr Sedgeum and I headed up to Cresswell where was lots of ducks and very little sand for those little guys and gals who like digging in it.  We then headed off to Druridge but met a couple of birders coming out and after a quick discussion we headed up to Widdrington to look for the Buzzard who doesn't use Immac.  There were plenty of Buzzards who did use Immac and a few Birders there who didn't (apart from Mr Common who is too young to have used any skin products yet) so another failed local twitch.  We did get some great views of a Peregrine though who was taking a paddle in the far side of the lake and decided to go for a bath as well, and it was well worth watching.  We then went on another local twitch to Tynemouth for the large flock  3 Ravens that had been reported but it was once again a negative result.  So then we went home.  I did take a couple of pictures but nothing to worry the competitors in any of the local or national competitions, as a matter of fact nothing worth looking at but to hell with it here are two I took.

Tynemouth Pier (taken from the side where there was no wind) 

 A Kestrel (on the windy side of the Pier, just hanging)

On Sunday I headed straight to Big Waters for a change and went to the hide for an hour or two to get out of the wind and (none forecasted) rain before the walk.  A Curlew went over, a Kingfisher whizzed through, Water Rails squealing away, 32 Swans + 11 Juveniles battled occasionally round the lake, a few Shoveller were a bit distant (still not a good picture) and a nice flock of about 30 Goldfinches settled down on a tree next to the feeding station but didn't bother visiting.   After the walk which was done in record time due to the strong winds and once again the unforecast rain.  It was quite a good session in the hide with plenty to see and count, even I got my counter out and managed 169 Greylag (same count as Keith).  Golden Eye still on the pond along with many assorted Ducks.  Here are a few pictures from the day.

 Wonder if the wife will mind me upsizing, I could fit a shed in the roof

Some of the 169 Greylag arriving (quick count showed 165 Alan)

Then some of them leaving

The Vole eating Heron despite waiting patiently failed to score whilst we were in the hide

Then descending onto the Kingfisher perch without as much as a sorry for not doing the hair.....

My first shot of all this years 7 Juveniles from Big Waters practising their flying skills

Finally the highlight of the day was the appearance of a mother and her 2 does which we first saw a few months ago but today popped up on the scrape next to the hide

A great little video of the Deers on the scrape at Big Waters

Big Waters Just Before the Big Hurricane (that sort of fizzled out over here - well I didn't see much from the Office)

Sunday I did a quick trip to Howdon Wetlands but it was low water so there was not a great lot present  so shot off up to Big Waters to meet the walkers and we walked all the way to the hide as the rain was coming down.  There was a lot of movement on the pond with the rain, wind and an Otter keeping things moving around.  Here are some of the shots I managed.

Great welcoming shot at 9.30am 

Goldeneye, the first one since March

A Black-tailed Godwit dropped in for a few minutes 

 

A slightly better shot of a Shoveller than the ones I have been getting the last few weeks

Big Waters is always a great place for Woodpecker sightings

A youngish looking Grey Wagtail graced the scrape for a few minutes

 

This is the regular "Big Waters Coot Oaks", very much like the the Epsom one but about a mile shorter.  We have no starting problems here though as our regular starter, Mr O Lutrinae, can guarantee to get them moving at the first twitch of a whisker.

Searching for a scrap on the scrape

Now, for some reason I forgot to do a blog from Big Waters the previous week so here are a couple of more pictures for you lucky people

A Sparrowhawk causing chaos at the North and West end of the reserve 

Another Hawk over the reserve

It was closely followed by a Hercules

If you look closely you can see the Sparrowhawk that was terrorising the North scrape just over a week ago (think its the same one above) and could have been the one that dispatched the Grey Phalarope  (a nice pic of the Phalarope can be seen at Phil H's Blog here)

We stood looking at each other about 75m apart for a couple of minutes

 Another couple grazing on the North Scrape for over 30minutes

The end of another week, thats another week towards retirement CAN'T WAIT