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.

First Post of the Blog

Hello all, my name is Gary Storey and am new to blogging but not to the reading of several north-east birding related blogs and a few farther afield.
I like to think that I am a competant birder, with 15 years experience.
However, I have only really started getting into all the 'ups' and 'downs' of the twitching malarky that comes with the mad dash.

I dabble in a bit of bird photography from time to time so the blog will have some nice pretty pictures for you readers to look at (Ewan).

December

Didn't really get out much this month as I have just started a new job so the birding was down at the bottom on the to-do list. So just a quick review of what I seen will be all for this month until some better weather or some motivation spurs me on to do some proper birding.

Went for a 4 hour walk around Chopwell Woods on the 20th to take advantage of the freshly fallen snow the night before. I start off my walks into Strother Woods up and into Victoria Garesfield. On the walk up at dawn I had a count of 250+ Woodpigeon which had been flushed from their roost by first a Common Buzzard which was closely followed by 3 Red Kites.

Woodpigeon roost awaking

Moving on after attempting to take some photos of a snowy tree led me up into Chopwell Woods Itself.

Snowy Tree

Walking up into Chopwell Woods and it wasn't long until I heard the regular Green Woodpecker yaffling call. I have been up on this walk a few times this month and always here this bird. Taking in the cracking scenery of the fresh snow I had 3 more Red Kites passing through so a quick attempt of a photo didnt disappoint.

One of 3 Red Kites passing through

Stayed for a few more minutes faffing on with the camera settings to try and get a more artistic shot of the sun which I feel turned out quite well.

Pine Tree in the Sun

Moving on through the snow covered floor revealed many different mammal trails the main 3 were of Roe Deer, Red Fox and Rabbit.

Carrying on climbing higher up into Chopwell Wood led me to the small hamlet of houses situated in the middle of the wood. Here there were Blackbirds, Blue Tit, Coal Tit, Great Tit, Robin, Dunnock, Bullfinch and Crow in the gardens.

Blue Tit

I turned around shortly after and made my way back down towards home as breakfast was calling me aswell as the Newcastle game against Middlesborough. On the way back produced a tiny Dog which thought it was massive by threatening to bite my ankles. Also had 2 Fieldfare while crossing the road at the first set of houses at Victoria Garesfield.

Christmas Day

Seen a flock of c20 Redwing in the tree at the bottom of the street so couldn't resist the close views so got a couple photos of the beauties.

Redwings

Have a Very Merry Christmas!