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

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

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

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.

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.

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.