Tynemouth revisited

 A second visit to Tynemouth for the Black Redstart led to a rather surprising discovery in the shape a Woodcock nestled into the concrete structure at the base of the pier I thought the bird was dead,this was later confirmed by a second birder on his arrival. A very showy Redstart had our attention for the next hour or so a really smart looking bird this.

We had both taken many photographs of the Redstart and the other birder left, whilst I was packing up two Crows made there way over to the Woodcock and to my surprise and the Crows as he was just about to have a peck the bird jumped up and flew off here's a photo of the bird taken on arrival and it never moved from that position in the whole two hours I was there .

Thanks for looking

STAY SAFE

Joe.

Crossbills

 Having been to the Rising Sun a couple of days ago in search of the much photographed Crossbills I came away a little disappointed having only seen one singing male at distance and very briefly at that so a second visit was on the cards this morning.Things started off very slowly with only a few fly-byes, birder numbers started to increase to about eight just in time for the action to start here's a few pics.

It all added up to a very nice second visit,well worth it in the end.

Thanks for looking

STAY SAFE

Joe

Tynemouth.

 Having failed to see the black Redstart on Wed afternoon I decided for another try on Thursday morning this time I had more success and it was a much better day weather wise, things got off to a slow start with the bird being very unsettled and at a fair distance it did settle a little but stayed quite distant as can be seen in the following pics.

                                              All the photos are quite heavily cropped.

Its just looking to see if I had gone yet !

They never seem to fail year in year out always turning up.

Thanks for looking

STAY SAFE

Joe.

Redstart !

I had a couple of hours spare yesterday so a quick trip to Tynemouth to see the Black Redstart was on the cards (or so I thought).

On arrival two other people were there with the same intention as me, I was greeted with been here two hours and not seen it yet little did I know that was going to be the theme for the rest of the afternoon,the two people left and I was joined almost immediately by Simon a bit of a catch up followed then we got our eyes on this stunning Purple Sandpiper which stood out a mile from a second bird close bye, if only there had been a bit of sun on it (it was indeed almost purple).

 

These Rock Pipits kept us busy darting and chasing each other around" hoping one was the Redstart."

And likewise this Grey Wagtail

Alas no Redstart but still worth the trip for that Purple Sand.

Thanks for looking

and STAY SAFE.

Joe.