Shibdon Pond & Thornley Woods

18/01/2010

Started off my half a days birding by heading over to Shibdon Pond. I have been meaning to go here for some time, but the Pale-bellied Brent Goose that has been there since the 10th of January was the final kick up the backside to head down.
So I walked down towards the "feeding area" and came across the Goose straight away feeding with a flock of Moorhen on the short grass. I always find it funny seeing Moorhen so tame here, their not their usual self.

Pale-bellied Brent Goose and Moorhen . . . 2 Year Ticks

I then tried my best at getting some shots of the numerous gulls flying about the pond, mostly Black-headed, Herring and Common Gull. Got a few snap shots but when I looked at them on the computer, it looks like the lens needs cleaning as there are a few dark spots in the photos, Bugger!

Adult Winter Black-headed Gull

1st Winter Black-headed Gull

The two images above are good to compare the age differences in the 2 separate birds. The adult bird can be told staright away by the pure white tail and lacks the 1st winter black tail band. Also, the 1st winter bird has a paler bill and the Secondaries have a black trailing edge. As well as the Carpal Bar still being the colour of a Juvenille bird, a Gingerey Rufous colour.

I took a few other pics of some birds at the pond and I am happy with the photo below. The colour of the water reflected the Canada Goose well.

Canada Goose

Female Mallard

I moved on from Shibdon and headed back home calling into Thornley Woodlands Centre for an hour. On the way back there was a Red Kite flying over swalwell roundabout. Thornley Woods is a great set up and they always have plenty of feed out for the birds. Just I arrived a man in the hide said I had just missed a Female Sparrowhawk bathing in front of the hide, bugger! I sat down and scanned about and found this bird preening itself in the tree.

Giving itself a good preen!

I had plenty of the common species here but my main aim was to get Willow Tit onto my yearlist. After sitting about for half an hour or so, it appeared and kept going back and forth collecting seed from the table.

Poor photo but a Willow Tit all in all

The people who manage the reserve put flower basket over the seed to stop the ever growing population of Grey Squirrel getting to the seed. I will let you be the judge of whether it is working or not.

?

As I was about to leave I heard the quiet but distinctive call 'phew'. A Group of 3 Bullfinch, 2 male and one female. I love these birds and even the coffee colour of the female is great to look at.

Male Bullfinch

A short post with little writing but took me ages to do, bloody blogger acting up not letting me put photos on!

Chopwell Wood Crossbills!

07/01/10

Got up early this morning to go for a walk around chopwell woods. I thought I would start on my yearlist of 2010 and was all set and ready to walk with my camera, bins and notepad.


Walked up into Stother's wood and heard a Goldcrest calling and thought a quick check through the flock just incase of a wintering Firecrest. As I was checking through the flock all the birds around started alarming, me expecting a Red Kite to come over but.....a Tawny Owl, perched above me! Fumbling about to get the camera out was too long as I watched it took away into the Pine tree and out of view.

A walk up the fields produced a Sparrowhawk flying into the bottom of Chopwell Wood. Passed my favourite tree so had to take a photo of it for the blog!

Favourite Tree...

Moving on to the next spot gave me plenty photo opportunities with a Nuthatch, a bird with great character and was very curious of me.

Nuthatch...

All the birds were all foraging for food, a few birds looked sick and were just sitting there all fluffed up. Was a sad sight to see but thats nature at the end of the day. Although, the Nuthatch seemed to be doing well finding food in all the rotten wood.

Tasty food hiding in the rotten wood

There was a Dunnock in the same area as the Nuthatch but interestingly it had no tail feathers. Usually I only see this in the summer on the recently fledged young birds.

Dunnock looking for its tail.

Moving on from this spot I pushed on, walking further into Chopwell wood where things started to get a little more exciting. I seen a flock of finches over in the distance towards Victoria Garesfield and wondered whether there could be a rarity between them.

A View up towards Burnopfield

A short break and a walk later brought me to a small hamlet and some more of the commoner gardens birds including Blackbird, Song Thrush, Robin, Coal Tit, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Woodpigeon and Crow. Also had a skein of 20+ Pink-footed Geese over flying North-east.

Coal Tit looking cold.

Near the top of Chopwell wood I was trying to take an artistic photo of the snow gripping the side of the trees when a male Tawny Owl flew right infront of me then landed in the woods and started calling.

My attempt of tree art...

Just as I was about to head home for a large cup of Horlicks I heard a flock of Siskin heading towards me. I scanned the flock and a Large Red Finch popped up in my Binoculars, first thoughts were of course a massive rarity. So off I went to relocate the little blighter. Found a flock of Siskin, scanning through I see the large unmistakable bill of the Common Crossbill. I was chuffed to find this bird and as I moved in closer for some record shots, more and more kept coming in. I estimated at least 20 of them in the tree tops as they were scattered through a few of the Larch trees, calling to each other while feeding, Fantastic!

Top two photos of Male Common Crossbills; Bottom photo is a Female.

A good record for Gateshead and a good start to my yearlist for 2010.

My walk home was quiet and nothing much to report, probably because nothing much else could beat my sightings of the Crossbill.

Year List stands at a mear 34.

Trip to the North-West

27/12/2009

Sorted out a trip up to a friends near Carlisle who is avid about Wildlife and dabbles in a bit of Birding.

Set off from good ole' Rowlands Gill and not 2 mins down the down the icy road, did I find 2 cars, both crashed separately and must of just happened. Didn't know whether this was a sign to turn round but I soldiered on and soon arrived at Castle Carrock, home of Ewan Miles. A new blogger himself and does a good read when he gets round to updating it! Also had a Sparrowhawk over before setting off for our days birding.

So we headed off down to Port Carlisle as the Tide was out and looking good for the Long-billed Dowitcher which has been there for around 2 months now. A short 15 min drive and we arrived at said location and got ready for a bitterly cold walk along to the port. Before we set off we had a faff about walking over solid ice to see if we could crack it, it cracked.

After walking west along the path we met another birder who I think was Craig Shaw. He was on the bird and it was close in providing great views in the overcast weather. Was a great bird to see and I managed to get a photo with Ewan's camera.

Long-billed Dowitcher, Port Carlisle, 27/12/2009

We watched the bird for another 25 minutes or so when a bloody dog walker flushed the bird and it decided to move further away.

On the walk back to the car a Peregrine Falcon flew over heading west.

Next stop of the day was to head over to Talkin Tarn, where a Long-tailed Duck has took up residency for the past few weeks. so a short walk around the Tarn was in order. Scanned around but with no luck. There were plenty Goosander, Tufted Duck, Few Goldeneye and the hybrid mallards being fed by the passers by. On the walk round we heard a Kingfisher but never seen it.
A good first day with a new Lifer in the bag Long-billed Dowitcher.

28/12/2009

An early-ish start to the day had us walking down to Castle Carrock Reservoir. As we set off we had 2 Ravens overhead calling. A great bird in my eyes and a fantastic call always makes it rank highly on my list of favourite birds.

Not even 2 mins into our walk and a flash of white behind the trees revealed a Male day hunting Barn Owl, times must be tough in this cold winter weather.

At the Reservoir there was not much of note as the whole body of water was frozen except from a small patch, where Mallards were preening themselves. Also, a few Black Headed Gulls were flying about the place making little noise which is always surprising.

Castle Carrock Reservoir dam wall

On the way back Ewan took a photo of a Sessile Oak which is said to be 800 Years old, have a look for yourself, it has great character.

800 Year Old Sessile Oak

A careful walk back up to Ewan's was next and after a quick pit stop we headed East up the Geltsdale Valley. Nothing much was seen apart from around 5+ Roe Deer. The scenery up on Geltsdale is fantastic and a blog of geltsdale area can be found here.
Half way up the valley we stopped off for a snack, Penguin bars, and had a right laugh at the stupid jokes on each one! We are experts at the answers to the jokes now!

Moving on to near the top of the Valley we got a few snapshots of the deep snow against the moonlit background.

Moonlit photo of Snow formation at the top of Geltsdale

A walk back to the Miles residence was a quiet in terms of wildlife but eventful in Ewan falling over a few times to provide me with a laugh.

Back at the warm cottage, was a lovely spread on the table for us two to plough through and a a short time after I headed off home.

Thanks for reading.