Friday 28 February 2014

More amazing Aurora Borealis!

Last night I checked Twitter at about 8 o'clock. I saw that the Aurora Borealis had been seen from Norfolk, so that meant they should be visible from Northumberland! It wasn't long before reports of it from my home county were coming in, so I persuaded my family to go and have a look.

We were ready just five minutes later and heading out the house towards Cresswell, which is where we thought the view would be good from. We arrived to see a faint green glow, which got brighter and it wasn't long before the first streaks appeared.

I then noticed a faint red glow on either side of the green, which also got brighter, a colour I wasn't expecting to see so well. When the green was at it's brightest with the red it was one of the best things I've ever seen!

This was my first experience of the Northern Lights, and I certainly wasn't disappointed. I was also quite pleased with my first ever attempt at night photography. It was amazing to see the mixture of green and red stretching up into the sky in front of you.

While we were there shooting stars also lit up the sky, and Tawny Owls called from the woods behind.

21:05


 21:10



21:48



21:55


21:58



21:59






22:10





22:40



22:50




And lastly a rubbish photo of a shooting star...


Sunday 23 February 2014

Showy Slavonian

A family trip to Warkworth today gave me the opportunity to photograph the Slavonian Grebe which had been around for the past few days. Once we worked out the circuit it was doing, it was only a matter of time before it came close. It duly did after a while of swimming around on the opposite side of the river.

A Red-necked Grebe, Long-tailed Duck and female Marsh Harrier were at East Chevington on the way back.







Slavonian Grebe


Eider

Saturday 22 February 2014

Blythi

The long-staying Siberian Lesser Whitethroat was the only bird of note that we could find in Tynemouth and North Shields this morning. DNA has proved this bird to be a Siberian Lesser Whitethroat (blythi) rather than Central Asian Lesser Whitethroat (halimondendri).







Siberian Lesser Whitethroat



Thursday 20 February 2014

Caspian Gull in North Yorkshire

This stunning first-winter Caspian Gull was the best bird in the huge gull roost at Lingham Lake, Nosterfield in North Yorkshire. An leucistic Black-headed Gull was also in the roost.









My best Caspian Gull photos

Tuesday 18 February 2014

BBRC's Thrush Nightingale decision

Some nice news to wake up to this morning, the Thrush Nightingale I found at Holy Island back in September 2013 has been accepted by BBRC (this bird).


Sunday 16 February 2014

Med Gulls

Photographing at least 10 Mediterranean Gulls at Newbiggin was my highlight of this morning...
































Mediterranean Gulls

Common Stuff...

All from the hide at East Chevington this morning...





Lesser Redpolls


Siskin


Reed Bunting