1st January 2013
The Big Parade!
This was a day when I planned to accumulate as many sightings as possible to get the year off to a promising start. For a full account of what happened please visit http://barryjohnbishop.blogspot.co.uk. Anyway, I wasn't really hoping for lots of photos - I didn't even try to photograph the black-throated diver again.
However, here are some pictures - rather distant - of 2 red-throated divers. They are, puzzlingly, quite different from each other.
Red-throated diver
Red-throated diver
Red-throated diver
Here's a list of yesterday's birds sightings. Barry will tell me if I've got any of the locations wrong. otherwise it is, I think, pretty accurate.
|
National |
Yorks |
Date |
Location |
Birds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
6 |
6 |
01.01.13 |
Journey to Hartlepool A19 |
Magpie; pheasant; carrion crow; rook; kestrel; wood pigeon |
|
8 |
0 |
01.01.13 |
Hartlepool Marina |
Red-breasted merganser; black-throated diver |
|
15 |
0 |
01.01.13 |
Newburn Bridge, Hartlepool |
Oystercatcher; black-headed gull; great black-backed gull; herring gull; turnstone; cormorant; great-crested grebe |
|
27 |
0 |
01.01.13 |
Hartlepool Headland |
Red-throated diver; sanderling; purple sandpiper; guillemot; eider; common scoter; redshank; knot; kittiwake; pied wagtail; house sparrow; ringed plover |
|
36 |
0 |
01.01.13 |
North Gare |
Lapwing; moorhen; coot; golden plover; greylag geese; curlew; starling; wigeon; grey heron |
|
48 |
0 |
01.01.13 |
Ward Jackson Park, Hartlepool |
Canada goose; goosander; goldcrest; nuthatch; blue tit; long-tailed tit; tree-creeper ring-necked parakeet; mallard; mute swan; dunnock; jackdaw |
|
58 |
0 |
01.01.13 |
Cowpen Bewley CP |
Bullfinch; yellowhammer; coal tit; blackbird; robin; great tit; tree sparrow; greenfinch; reed bunting; chaffinch |
|
71 |
0 |
01.01.13 |
Saltholme RSPB |
Shelduck; little egret; gadwall; teal; pintail; pochard; shoveler; tufted duck; goldeneye; stock dove; collared dove; goldfinch; fieldfare |
|
75 |
0 |
01.01.13 |
South Gare |
Bar-tailed godwit; shag; dunlin; common gull |
The other place I took some pictures was in Ward Jackson Park where some goosanders had been reported.
Goosander
Goosander
Goosander
Goosander
Goosander
A cormorant was catching some of the light from a shady spot.
Cormorant
As we left the park Barry spotted a jackdaw.
Where shall I go next? South?
Jackdaw
So, 75 birds was pretty good. If I decided to count the feral pigeons we also saw, then it would have been not just The Big Parade but Trombone Time! As in the song from 'The Music Man':-
Seventy-six trombones led the big parade
With a hundred and ten cornets close at hand.
They were followed by rows and rows of the finest virtuo-
Sos, the cream of ev'ry famous band.