Just like a White winged Gull...

A lunchtime dash down to North shields Fish Quay today soon located the arctic targets.

2 juc Glaucous Gulls showed very well indeed, its just a shame it was nearly dark and sleeting. The fw Iceland Gull was abit more reticent, keeping a comfortable distance. Thirdly the wintering fw Lesser Black Backed Gull was almost trod on and followed me around like Bunty asking for chips!

A worthy dinner time me thinks....

All images have more noise than an Amble beach party...still the birds were good. Glaucous Gull.

Big Chip Thief - Glaucous Gull

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I think the Jaws music should be playing on this one and that's just for the big ugly Glauc!

Our friends from the North...

Iceland Gull flyby, scoping chips.

The Iceland Gull is very pale with a face like a black headed gull, very different to the big Glaucous Gulls above.

The young Lesser Black Back, looked a bit sickly...

Iceland comes to the QEII...

Last year a fw Iceland Gull frequented the duck feeding area at the QEII Lake, Ashington. An unusual spot for a scarce gull, so what's the chances of history repeating? Well here we go, what looks like another first winter Iceland. Or is it? Could this actually be the same individual in retarded first plumage? There does seem to be odd grey feathers in the scapulars and mantle and second winters can have a dark eye too? Personally, I think it looks different to last spring's bird...Regardless its a nice bird and shows very well too. Best just say Iceland Gull 1 imm.

QEII...

Another call in to Ashingtons QEII park on my way to work this morning was finally a success. I must have popped in 5 times in recent weeks to see this first summer Iceland Gull. Pretty much out of season, but nice to see locally. It soon swan to be the most distant gull out of 80+ present, so off to work...

Grey Wagtail, Beal Bank, Warkworth.

Not a bad weekend for weather, with yesterday being the better of the two days. Today is dull and overcast with some mist all day.

On Saturday I had a short seawatch at Craster with little to show for it other than a few Shelduck N and 3 Red throated Divers on the sea with a dozen Gannets distantly. From here a short wander around produced the hoped for Willow Tits in the area with two birds calling and one seen well.

Today I've been down to see John at the Coquet Estuary.

Remarkably my very first bird of the day seen in the half light of dawn was from the moving car when a fw Iceland Gull was a shining beacon of white on the river above the weir at Warkworth. Much rarer than Glaucous Gull here, it was a surprise indeed. After hastily swinging the car into the layby and calling John who was waiting for me at the marina, we watched the gull bathe for 10 minutes or so before flying off down river where we couldn't relocate it.

The rest of the morning was spent covering the Warkworth Gut and North pier areas, but there was not much else of note. There were plenty of gulls, waders and wildfowl though, so we enjoyed checking through them....

 
Above - poor quality images of Iceland Gull, due to the low light levels...

  93.Willow Tit

Gulls Galore.

Above - Some of the gulls on Linton Pond.


Above - Smaller Glaucous Gull.




Above - Big Glaucous. Look at its gape, you could get your head in!

Yesterday afternoon the wind had swung lightly to the east and there had been some drizzle overnight so I thought I would check out likely looking Black Redstart spots at Boulmer this morning.

Seaton Point, the old farm buildings and the village cliffs were all visited without luck. A few Rock Pipits were on rotting seaweed, but thats about it really. On the way, a Sparrowhawk flashed over the road in front of the car.

Along the shore there was a distinct lack of any gulls and even the usual waders were in very short supply. The large flock of Sanderling seen the other day were no where to be seen. Maybe they have begun to head to more northerly breeding grounds?

A trip to seek dry cleaning and the organic veg bag this afternoon did have its upside. I used it as another excuse to visit Bothal and Linton. At Bothal, 170 Jackdaws were in a field near the road. I did see one likely candidate for Scandinavian Jack but they kept flying around and I lost the bird. It did have one major distinguishing feature though. It had a limp. So, if you see a gimpy Jackdaw at Bothal, let me know what you think.

On to Longhirst Flash where another 70 Jackdaws were present but no Vikings in here.

Then just as I entered the hide at Linton my phone rang. It was ADMc to say that he was watching a White Stork from his window at home. It soared high towards the A1 Morpeth bypass before moving off south. Nice garden tick...

In the hide a chap was watching the gulls and had seen a Glaucous. There were several hundred if not a thousand gulls out there but the Glauc was the closest bird to us so I took a picture or two. It flew off high to the west. Shortly after that, a second Glaucous was seen preening on the bankside with the other gulls. Both of these birds were huge meaty birds who you wouldn't want to mess with.

Then I picked out the adult Iceland Gull on the water. This bird was much smaller and even looked kittiwake like at certain angles. A lovely bird.

Another scan and I thought I had a juvenile Iceland Gull. Closer inspection showed this to be the third Glaucous Gull, a much, much smaller individual than the other two and slightly darker.

So a pretty successful trip out I say. Four white winged gulls at one spot, its better than North Shields in its hey day. Now where did that Stork get to. Maybe its next to a Ross's Gull...





Above - Adult Iceland Gull.

A Cautionary tale to all Birders...

Weather even worse today with northerly gales , hail and snow showers. The sea was mountainous.

This morning I took Bunts around Seaton Point. On the shore I had a strange pipit with a load of wagtails and Rock Pipits. I thought it looked quite unlike a Meadow Pipit, being creamy buff below and quite 'contrasty'. I pondered Tree Pipit then remembered the snow showers and promptly decided to leave well alone. Of course it was a Meadow Pipit...

After doing some chores and having a trip to Morpeth I got home at about 1pm. There was a message on the pager saying that the Shorelark and Lap Bunting were still at Cresswell and, in brackets, there was a Tree Pipit! That was enough for me. I knew that bird this morning was different, so I gave RBA a call and reported my Tree Pipit too!

No sooner had I done this I thought that no one was ever going to believe a TP as early as this with these weather conditions so I set off to get a photo. Sure enough, the birds were still there and, yes, so was the pipit doing its thing, tail pumping an all. Scope was set up and the target focussed, all I had to do was take the snap. Until I realised that this bird was indeed the commoner relative, all be it a neat and tidy one.

Oh no, thats the reputation in tatters. What to do now? Easy. Use the two bird theory and say that the Tree Pipit had gone and there was only a Meadow Pipit there, after all, no one would know. Send the record in and Bobs your proverbial.

How many times do people actually do that I wonder? Well, not me that's for sure, so the next message to come out gave the news, 'The reported tree pipit at Seaton Point is a Meadow Pipit' Oh the shame of it all.

Excuses, er, none. Except that my bird did look different, I think it was one of these western type mipits, showing a very buff tone below. Does the race whistleri really exist?

After all that I decided to have a seawatch from the point. There was less movement than yesterday with Gannets only at about 60 per hour north, and a couple of Fulmars. Then, at only 50yds out, a juvenile Iceland Gull slowly drifted out of a snow squall and carried on north. This is my first here and will do very nicely after the Xmas Glaucous Gull. The problem with seawatching is that you have no chance of a photo so I knocked this sketch up so you get the gist of it.



89. Iceland Gull