Dull January Days...

 After a week of village birding where the white Blackbird was the highlight, on Sunday we took a short trip inland to Hedgely and Branton Gravel Pits. Its a site we used to do a Webs count but havent been for a while so it was nice to get back. When I say nice, I am being polite. The weather was dismal. The fog and light dampness came in at Branton so thickly we couldnt even see the water let alone birds on it.

Still, before that, the first stop in slightly better weather was at Hedgely where and American visitor, a drake Ring necked Duck has been present for a few weeks. Sure enough, it was an easy find on the most open, westerly, pool with around 35 Tufted Ducks and other assorted wildfowl including 100 Wigeon, 50 Gadwall, 3 Goosander, 37 Teal, 9 Goldeneye and 12 Little Grebes. The Ring neck was showing well and very active, swimming around as fast as its feet could paddle to female Tufties and occasionally doing some head up, bill nodding display to them. It was a very smart bird in full plumage, easily picked out from the male Tufted Ducks. When checking my photos back home I saw that one of the Wigeon has a very green band across its head. Apparently this is a natural variation more prevalent in birds from the far east?

  

Third from the left a green faced Wigeon stood out from more normally coloured birds.

Above Drake Ring Necked Duck

As the fog enveloped the view we walked around Branton looking at passerines close enough to see. A Marsh Tit and 2 Willow Tits were seen and heard, we were surprised to see the former here. A flock of 25+ Siskins fed in alders with 14 Long tailed Tits and a Treecreeper nearby.

That was a bout it, not too bad for dull January morning but I am looking forward to some brighter days. After this one, the bar is set pretty low...

Amble Harbour.

Today's weather turned out a lot better than expected. The forecast on Thursday said it would be raining all day and blowing a gale. It was windy, but the sun shone brightly most of the time.

I met up with John and we covered the Coquet Estuary area from Warkworth road bridge down to the harbour. Bird-wise it was all a bit same-old same-old so we just pottered around getting some nice photographs in bright sunshine.

This Turnstone on one of the trawlers in the harbour came out well. It is almost a full image, with only a very slight crop to balance it out.

Its not often I wish I hadn't left my small lens in the car, but this young Great black backed Gull was way too close for my 300! It spent the whole time pulling bits of flattie from the net, followed by an entourage of Turnstones cleaning up after it.

Wigeon are usually the most wary of wildfowl but here, half a dozen birds were pushed up by the rising tide to a point they were used to people wandering around the prom. The drakes are stunning in the sunshine, one to be appreciated when the opportunity presents itself.

They were accompanied by a nice adult Med Gull loafing just offshore...