Saturday 20 February 2010

WANSBECK RIVERSIDE PARK

A trip to wansbeck riverside park on the 4/2/10 my plan was to add the following birds to the patch list Grey wagtail ,fieldfare, and greater spotted woodpecker.
so i headed for the stream which runs through the woods and into the river next to the car park.
but their was no sign of any grey wagtails about maybe there is not enough insects this time of year.
i don't know I'm no expert.
so on to second target fieldfare i checked out the fields but maybe there is just not enough food around for them i have seen little in the way of berries or fruit around the park area.so on to the 3rd target great spotted woodpecker well i didn't have much look there either but i did hear one drumming so i should catch up with one soon, well that was a well planned day 3 targets and 0 achieved.but i did see the following

29 robin
30blue tit
31 long tailed tit
32 kestrel
33 blackbird
34 great tit
35 coal tit
36 dunnock
37 mistle thrush
38 feral pigeon
39 house sparrow
40 pheasant





greater black backed television





mute swan





















This was also knocking around in the field opposite the caravan site

Monday 1 February 2010

BACK ON PATCH

Bullfinch feeding on sea buckthorn berries
male and female

cormorant






female goldeneye



red breasted merganser












woody in garden

back on the patch on Thursday the 28th and went for a walk along the footpath firstly checking the island area added greater black backed gull and red breasted merganser to patch year list
then i went for a walk towards the road bridge near the estuary where i managed to find 4 otters
but too distant for a photo but hopefully i will get back soon to digiscope some pictures.
additions to patch list were
23 greater black backed gull
24 shellduck
25 red breasted merganser
26 goldfinch
27 sparrowhawk
28 bullfinch







Friday 29 January 2010

PATCH WATCHING

goosander
burnt out scooter
first day on the patch this year mon 25th jan a bit of a late start but better late than never checked out the island first there were plenty gulls about but no white wings mainly black heads common and herring,
in the horse field were a flock of roughly 70 redwings but no fieldfares yet{bogey bird}i am hoping to have a good go at patch listing this year after a couple of poor years where i have totally neglected the area theirs no point in having a blog called castle birding if i never visit the fucking place.
i have spent too many years chasing other people birds but this year i will be trying to find my own but i imagine i will get tempted away from my patch now and and again to see some rarities but whats wrong with that .
mon 25th
1herring gull
2 moorhen
3 lapwing
4 black headed gull
5 coot
6 teal
7 common gull
8 mallard
9 woodpigion
10 grey heron
11 carrion crow
12 little grebe
13 goldeneye
14 magpie
15 redwing
16 song thrush
17 chaffinch
18 starling
19 wren
20 goosander
21 mute swan
22 cormorant

Monday 25 January 2010

SMEW




Managed to get out bird watching last week for the first time this year it was cold and miserable so decided to head for some shelter and linton lane sounded a good bet as the hide is well sheltered ,it took me about 20mins to find the smew that has been reported here i tried to photograpth it but these 2 shots will win few awards but basically u can see what it is .
a quick stop at the Qe11 country park produced a whooper swan with a group of mute swans but it was too cold to stay here for long and there was more swans further up the road but i decided to get away , a quick stop at woodhorn produced very little
and i could not see any gulls around as there has been med gull reported here .
anyway hopefully i will get out again soon i will keep you posted bye for now.

Thursday 14 January 2010

GARDEN BONANZA

Im probably not alone but ive had some superb birds coming in to the garden lately over the xmas period a great spotted woodpecker was visiting my nut feeder and a male bullfinch came in to feed but the recent cold spell has brought some more unusual vistors including a mistle thrush a redwing {garden First}and best of all these superb bramblings{garden first}2 males and a female in total ,who knows whats coming next.

Tuesday 12 January 2010

Frozen







have not been birding much lately but was out for a walk at the weekend and did a circular around the Qe11 country park nothing unusual in the way of birds but it was great to get out and see some birds again most of the lake was frozen apart from a few areas were most of the birds congregated.



and the swans were certainly hungry.

Wednesday 14 October 2009

MORE GLOSSY PICS

get off my land its mine now stupid cow









you talking to me