Thursday, May 24, 2007

Spoon river....






ADMc found this Spoonbill at Castle Island on the River Wansbeck at Ashington this morning. I thought I would call in to get a photo on my way home from work only to find that I had left my camera at home. Not to be outdone, my trusty mobile was put to use again. At least you can get the gist of it...

Now Spooners are annual in Northumberland these days, but at lunchtime I had a much rarer sighting. I was out for my lunch in Blyth town centre and crossing the market square and was amazed to see a female Holly Blue butterfly fluttering outside the Keel Row shopping centre! This is a very rare species up here, my last was in my garden in about 1993. This Blyth specimen drfted away across the main road and was lost outside Barclays Bank. Bizarre!

At Boulmer this evening 2 Little Terns on the beach and the 'one white winged Herring Gull' seen at Chevington on Sunday was offshore. They get about a bit these gulls dont they...

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Im pleased you got the spooney I viewed it from the opposite bank
just before you got there this is my local patch but Ive hardly Been up this year I was trying to point you in the right direction you may have heard some shouts coming over the water of Hoy stuuu Its Ower there but this seamed to get you more confused
im pleased somebody else keeps an I
On this Site As It Can Produce The Odd Rarity,But Its A Bit Limited.
ps whats this word verifcation thingy do you have to be in a wheelchair to fill it in or what

Anonymous said...

I heard someone shouting but thats about par for the location. I thought the voice said 'hoy eee ower there' and was afraid my Leica's would have been robbed and swapped for half an ounce of tac and five bottles of bella! I had a scan and was relieved not to see a step through 'ped bearing two chavs in balaclavas. You must have been hidden like a sniper on't other side...

Word Verif is to stop some of the spammers hitting me automatically :-)

Oh and Castle Island has had GW Egret and Red necked Stint in the past...

Mutterings and Meanderings said...

What a bizarre looking bird!

patsy said...

Thanks for your efforts in getting these fantastic pictures onto your blog. This exile gets quite homesick looking at your amazing views.
Bonio for Bunty too!

Anonymous said...

what is a white winged herring gull
stu is it a hybred,
by the way it sounds like you know castle island well i often have to dodge the peds when im up there
ive had ruff, curlew sandpiper ,perigrine, buzzard,little gull, scaup grasshopper warbler.but this spoonbill was special.
ps need some advice on how to write out holiday trip reports on the web.

Stewart said...

MM - Oh yes, they are a strange sort.
P - Cheers! Will try to keep it up.
F - WWHG is just what it says on the tin. No hybrid, only a partial albino HG. Keep up the Castle Island list, you will learn lots. As for the trip report, do a search on tinternet for trip reports in the same area and you will get the drift of it...

Thanks all.