Cresswell Owl

A short trip to Cresswell Pond this afternoon failed to produce the Bittern, though a extremely close fly by from a Barn Owl made up for it. There was also a female Long-tailed Duck and 4 Red-breasted Mergansers.

Barn Owl

Teesmouth, 19.2.13

Two days ago I went to Teesmouth, which was quite succesful. We started off at Seaton where we could see 2 Glaucous Gulls flying around the tip. There were also at least 2 Lesser Black-backed Gulls and a gull which I was unsure about, it might have been a Yellow-legged Gull (comments welcome). The main difference was that on the tertials it lacked the white notches of a Herring Gull, instead the tertials had smooth white edges. It also had quite a lot of grey on the mantle, though I think the head profile was wrong for Caspian Gull. It did have a all black bill which I wouldn't expect from a first year Herring Gull.

Glaucous Gull

Unidentified Gull

Next we went to Dorman's Pool where the Green-winged Teal was showing along with 3 Smew and a Kingfisher.

Green-winged Teal record shot

At the Phil Stead hide there was a Water Rail and lots of Goldfinches around the feeders.

Goldfinches

We also managed to see the Bean Goose at Cowpen Marsh, though it took 4 attempts and at Greenabella there was a Spotted Redshank and a Greenshank.

Vindolanda and Grindon Lough

A family trip to Vindolanda today resulted in a few common woodland birds, including these Chaffinches and Robin which fed on cake crumbs near the cafe.

Robin

Chaffinches

On the way back I checked Grindon Lough and found a Greenland White-fronted Goose with the Canada Geese.

Greenland White-front