Not quite the Seven Wonders of the World - but nearly!

We go north-east for an ornithological harvest festival

I picked Barry up at 7.15am. The plan was clear: start with a seawatch at Hartlepool Headland [1]. We had no particular target in mind, just some good birding. The seawatch was very quiet. A few gannets, eider, gulls and terns. A ruff, knot and redshank on the rocks. House martins. Plenty of normal stuff. We didn't see any skuas if others did. Time to move on.

Leaving the Headland we dropped in on the cemetery and nature reserve called Spion Kop[2], on the north side of the Headland. Wheatear and whinchat were seen here - and sparrowhawk too. I photographed the whinchat on a wall but unfortunately it was always looking the wrong way! Still a blog is for the bits you wouldn't otherwise see, so here's a nice sharp image of a whinchat. Looking out to sea.

Whinchat Next stop: Newburn Bridge [3]. Just to see if there were any birds. Well, it turned into a feast of waders: knot, purple sandpiper, ringed plover, sanderling, oystercatcher and, best of all, a little stint! Here are some of the results.

Little Stint Little Stint Little Stint Little Stint Little Stint and Sanderlings This sanderling looks very smart.

Sanderling The oystercatchers took off but came back.

Oystercatcher Oystercatcher This knot didn't like being disturbed.

Knot Knot

North Gare [4] was quiet and we didn't linger and headed for Saltholme [5] where we picked up a good number of species including red-crested pochard and little gull. The Phil Stead hide gave us greenshanks x3, water rail and garganey. There were also many snipe and some dunlin.

Greenshank Greenshank

The greenshank took off. I'm getting good at these rear view greenshank shots!! Take off!

Greenshank Cruise.

Greenshank Landing!

Greenshank Coatham Marsh [6] was quiet too. Coots. So we headed for South Gare [7]. Bar-tailed godwit on Bran Sands as we approached, along with lots of other waders. Again plenty of usual stuff down on the rocks.  A couple of birders were watching something in the brambles. We wandered over. Barred warbler, we were told! This hadn't been on the pager so we were very pleasantly surprised. Just before it flew off we had a good view, much better than the one we saw at Kilnsea four days earlier.

Barred Warbler Barred Warbler 'It'll have gone back to the bomb hole,' one of the birders said. I knew it well as I had photographed Hume's leaf warbler there the previous autumn. I went back to Tiggy for the camera. It was only a short walk then to the bomb hole. A weasel popped up. So, obviously I aimed, hoped and ran off some shots, knowing focus wuld be tricky with so much vegetation in the way.

Weasel Weasel In the bomb hole the barred warbler performed well beyond the call of duty. I have rarely been so thrilled with a set of images. I know there's often vegetation in the way but not just great poses but who has ever photographed a barred warbler choking on honeysuckle berries? Here comes my barred warbler portfolio!

Barred Warbler Barred Warbler Barred Warbler Barred Warbler

Barred Warbler Barred Warbler Barred Warbler You can just see the honeysuckle berry disappearing!

Barred Warbler

Barred Warbler

Time had gone well and I gauged we could still go home via Scalng Dam and see what there was to see... As it turned out no fabulous sightings but it was nice to have spotted the common sandpiper outside the hide. And rabbits! Oops! That makes 8 birding wonders. Oh well.

Common Sandpiper Common Sandpiper Rabbit Rabbit

It was just another Grand Day Out. Cracking stuff, Grommit Barry!

73 species of birds in a day. No ticks - but who cares?