Ice surprise this morning.

On the return leg of this mornings pretty fruitless dog walk I scanned the gulls "again" in Marine park. At last my first white winger for this site showed in the form of a Iceland gull which was bathing in the centre of the lake at first. Then after a short while it gave stunning views on the lake edge.

Bliss!!!

Off onto the small section of ice left for a preen

Ive got the bird down as a near adult because of the bill, I would welcome any one's thoughts on this.

Fly-by of the cafe..

After about 20 minutes of watching the bird I left feeling over joyed at seeing a Iceland gull actually landed on ST turf this year and especially on a patch I walk often.

Yesterdays Whitburn visits

Two visits to Whitburn yesterday either side of high tide. The first in the morning with Jan and Max in tow, the next just myself to enjoy the waders.
5 Grey plovers present-

8-10 Rock pipits

Great number of Bar-tailed Godwits for here..18 was my best count.

72 Wigeon just off the shore, a few come onto the rocks to feed as the tide was on the way out.

7 Knots

I reckon about 130+ Dunlin present along with- 32 Sanderling, 10 Purple sandpipers, 20+ Ringed plovers, 60+ Oystercatchers and plenty Redshanks and Turnstones.

Excellent few hours spent with the waders etc. Just love sitting and watching these birds.

Rifle range field- Golden plovers spread across the whole of this area in feeding mode along with a few Lapwings. Did'nt see any Curlews at these sites today.

On the way home the Marsden car park Med. gull put in a brief appearance...

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Pier today- 1 Great crested grebe off the surf at Sandhaven, 2 Red throated divers and 3 Guillemots. 3 Grey plovers almost landed on the pier but thought better of it and headed across the Tyne instead.

Here Wear go again.

Had a hour or so again today at the mouth of the Wear, its been a week or so since I visited last. Plenty lads fishing here again but hardly any gulls flying about whilst I was here. Could have been because it was high tide... I don't know?.. Canny few gulls rested up on the south pier area. After about 20 minutes I picked up a Juv. Iceland flying towards the fish quay area, that was the last I seen of this bird on this visit. Then walked around to the Marina area and the Adult Iceland gull circled a couple of times here before heading off ...last I seen of this one also on this visit.

Back at the old pier, a couple of Purple sandpipers feeding with the Turnstones here.

And a couple of Harbour porpoises between the piers which was a nice.

Dropped into the Marsden car park on the way back, no sign of the Med. gull (not seen it for a couple of weeks now). But around 70 Jackdaws had taken over the grassed area here mostly in small groups.

Quick look in Harton Cem. before heading home- looks like this Stock dove had a lucky escape from a predator not long back.

Like waiting for a bus!

First time Ive ventured down the big beach area(Sandhaven) for a few days this morning. Nowt exceptional in Marine park as I passed thro- except for getting "hacked off" about the about of bushes and shrubs being cut down to just over a metre high. This has occurred around the area I am living now also, the contractors explained when I asked about this- " Women especially feeling un-safe about dick heads lurking behind these whilst they walk past". Shame but that's the way it goes, the council is taking no chances.
So once on the dunes area today I picked up a few birds high up on the beach area....a few Dunlin and 10 or so Ringed plover. The south side of the pier was no resting place for waders today as the sea lashed against it.
A large flock of small waders "put up" as I approached the pier from the beach....Sanderling in numbers Ive not seen here so far this Winter! managed to count 73 birds (when they rested up for a short time). In fact this could be my largest count to date here! Another local lad had almost 60 of these birds here a couple of days back Ive just found out today, looks like a movement of these birds starting to take place.

The average count over the last few months has been around 10-20 Sanderling, which is lower than normal but Whitburn has had better numbers.

One bird did have signs of being colour ringed/flagged but only a green band(or what was left of a flag) was showing on its leg and I couldn't see any other rings.

Cracking sight love these little waders!

Nice place, nice sights,but don't flash the headlights.

After another pretty fruitless visit this morning on the normal dog walk ( the highlight being showing a few folk the male Woody banging away in Marine park after they where wondering what the noise was). I treated Jan to a couple of hours or so in Boldon later on this afternoon... No not Asda this time! but a area just south west of here. She was so thrilled at this prospect she came equipped with a book, blanket and reading glasses as I had mentioned we maybe waiting here a while.




I left Jan in the car to her book when I parked up and wandered up the small road to view the fields here. After walking 50 yards or so away from the car I picked up a Short-eared owl doing the edges of a field to the west just before seeing a Peregrine flying off to the east. Walked back and found Brian S. viewing half way back to the car, nice to see Brian again!.. So we got Jan onto the bird and then another Shorty flew up with the first..great stuff!

A first happened for me soon afterwards, one of the Shorties was "buzzed" by a large female Peregrine which flew onto a pylon after this. She rested here for a few minutes before flying off east.(probs the same bird I had seen earlier). I say first because it adds to the list of raptors etc. Ive seen Pergs. "Buzz". - White-tailed and Golden eagles, Hen Harriers, Kestrels, Sparrowhawks and Buzzards that I can think of off hand.

No Shorties showed in the half hour we stayed after this event..not surprised!

So a canny couple of hours, 2 Shorties, 1 Perg., 6 G.Partridge, a dozen or so Fieldfares and countless Woodpigeons coming into roost. And!........ Same Red van seen passing 4/5 times, Blue van 3 times, black vw passed at least 6 times and numerous other dodgy looking folk. Our lass was "eye balled" by a copper passing as she sat reading, don't know what they would have thought to her.....

No stunners photo wise but great all the same.

Passed the flats on the way home and you could hardly get parked. Since the Eagle owl story has hit the media it's gathered a lot of interest.

Still living in hope!

After all the Iceland gulls sighted in our region( north and south of ST) I was hoping I would connect to a one on the normal dog walk in Marine park over the last couple of weeks. My luck so far hasn't been in. So earlier this week I was driven to view the Tyne from beside the S/Shields yacht club. Sure enough what looked like a adult Iceland gull was on the river and then did a fly about of the fish quay across the water.

This bird I believe was ID'ed as a "near" full adult...The lads(5/6 of them at the time) viewing from the fish quay here would have had far better views from their position here on the edge of quayside. But I was happy just seeing this one from my vantage point.

The best Ive come up with so far on checking the gulls in Marine park is a odd Common gull or two having a wash here.( not "that" common a sight here).. Unlike the Durham county recorder on a brief visit here a couple of Sundays back. The morning's park activities here resulted in a 2nd winter Iceland gull buggering off minutes before I arrived!!!.

Jan got me out of bed a few days back to view this canny garden tick and he returned the next day also. Excellent for a tiny garden near the centre of South Shields and the feeders have only been up 6 weeks or so since we moved here.

Oh.. and the Whitburn point development!- The major ground work has now been almost completed with hopefully only a few minor issues to be sorted regarding this. This poor shot was taken on Thursday afternoon showing the North pond (we have named them now ..North and South). Already its starting to fill up naturally over the last week.

I don't want to stop any one's enjoyment of getting out and about when they can....BUT! I hope it pisses down for a week or so to fill the ponds up!

Update on the works and Hawthorn dene today

The second pond area was lined out on Friday. This liner was heavier than the one used on the first pond in front of the wooden viewing screen so a few of the groups volunteers lent a hand with this process. It took seven people to unfold and position this liner, such was the weight of it.

On Saturday morning a few of the volunteers gathered to cut back a few branches from the trees and bushes around the ditch areas. This is to allow the contractor to be able to clear out the existing ditches which will help in filling the ponds naturally we hope. The net work of these ditches was originally put in place when the ponds where first positioned here many years ago.

We where just pleased to see water on this morning in the liner! Wait till the first bird uses the new ponds!!!

It was another morning of deciding where to venture for a hour or two today. After a few sites where mentioned we headed 18 miles down the A19 to one of Jan's favourites - Hawthorn dene. Armed with a small bag of bird food we(+ Max) slowly headed down the muddy path to the known feeding area after parking up. Once at the feeding area it was apparent that no food had been placed here today, but I was beeing watched as I walked into this area.! A tit flock gathered and within seconds of placing seed down they dived in.

A pleasure to watch the birds feeding here without some of the restrictions of a hide- at least 3/4 Marsh tits, 4/5 Nuthatches, hoardes of Great tits! along with blues and coals plus the odd other commoner birds.

Also seen in the area of note- 3/4 Great spotted woodies, 2 Jays, 2 Roe deer legging it across a field, 5/6 Redwings, another 2 Marsh tits, and only managed 1 Treecreeper with Derek C's help who we had a natter with here.

Lovely short walk, the better half is paying for it now and will be tomorrow!