Newbiggin for Desert !!

Friday morning saw my good lady and I food shopping at Killingworth in readiness for the family onslaught on New years day, this went quicker than expected so a trip up to Newbiggin to see the Desert Wheatear was on the cards.On arrival there was no sign of it at Church point so I scanned the bay to the left about two thirds of the way along I could see two tripods set up and made my way towards them,I met with birders/photographers on there way back who informed me the bird was still present but very skittish as I got nearer it looked like the bird was making its way towards me so i would lay in wait (as per Holywell Birder ! ).It soon became apparent that this new camouflage jacket does not work on sandunes as the bird turned and fled the other way (drat) anyway had good viewing thru the bins then managed a couple of hurried shots.

                      Happy New-year everyone.

Boom-Boom

 My first visit to this local reserve on Wednesday with my mate Bob proved quite productive,after enjoying a good hour at the feeding station we moved on to one of the hide's which had two people with v/large lenses poised at the ready for a bittern which had just been seen in the reeds to our right.We listened to them for a while saying how well the Bittern was camouflaged and the auto focus would only latch on to the reeds (rings a bell )before we move to another hide which we had all to  our-self, opening the shutters there was no birds evident other than a pair of cormorants way off in a large tree i then caught site of a brown bird flying across from my right Bittern i shouted just as it stated to go down in the reeds i managed a couple of shots not great but nice to get one in flight. 

Boxing day Bramblings

It was a windy overcast Boxing day morning as I made my way down to the pond, stopping off at the feeding station for a look, first of note were the tree sparrows with a count of five I looked harder and longer but couldn't make any more, next to catch my eye was this nice Brambling which kept itself hidden for most of the time calling occasionally before putting in  brief appearances .I moved on down to the hide which seems to have taken a big hit from the new feeding station as there were no birds at all around the hide.Here's a couple of high ISO shots of the Brambling.

Cauliflower ear / nice pair

Just about sums them up really! Both taken earlier this year in Holywell and up the coast at Beal.