Pottering round Hartlepool

For a full account of our day see Barry Bishop's blog at barryjohnbishop.blogspot.co.uk

Near the pilot pier I photographed some knot - plus a few purple sandpipers. Knot Knot Knot

Further out near the gun battery Barry spotted a drake common scoter.

Surf Scoter

Inside the harbour we saw a red-throated diver and some eider.

Red-throated Diver Red-throated Diver Eider

I spotted quite close to us [but almost not noticed] a nice group of curlew who seemed unaware of us up on the town wall.

Curlew

Finally Barry spotted a couple of distant guillemots further into the harbour. Here's one of them. Guillemot See Barry's blog for what else we saw: 58 species including some crackers! A good day.

East coast specials!

November 21st took me to Scarborough to see the black-necked grebes in the harbour. Sheila said don't go east so we did!

Lots of great black-backed gulls that would be a threat to anything exhausted by the weather and seeking shelter. Brute of a bird!

Great Black-backed Gull The black-necked grebes performed beautifully!

Black-necked Grebe Black-necked Grebe Black-necked Grebe Black-necked Grebe Nice water effects. Favourite shot...

Black-necked Grebe

A cormorant preened in the late afternoon sunshine.

Cormorant

Sunday took me up to Hartlepool in search of little auks - I hoped! Met up with Nigel Stewart near the fish dock where a great northern diver was seen before it swam away into the harbour out of view. Nigel pointed out a woodcock coming IOTS! I think I saw that one on Alan Whitehead's blog: In Off The Sea! Pretty sure I spotted one little auk among the guillemots passing by but not certain enough to count.

There were waders about. Ringed plover here plus a few rock pipits.

Ringed Plover Rock Pipit Rock Pipit After a decent seawatch with scoters, med gulls, a red-throated diver close in things went quiet so I moved to Newburn Bridge to say hello to Medusa the resident Mediterranean gull. Mediterranean Gull Mediterranean Gull

I called at Seaton Common as I knew the owls could be around very early. They were. Short-eared owl Short-eared owl Short-eared owl Short-eared owl

I had only been there about ten minutes when I spotted that a little auk was now in the harbour at Scarborough. Decided to try for it...

First view: alongside a pale blue hull among the yachts - safer here than out in the open water at the mercy of the big gulls. Little Auk

They are funny little things: they aren't so much in the water as bobbing about on the surface like a little yellow duck in the children's bath! [Red lighting from the red hull of a yacht] Little Auk Little Auk

Those little feet paddle away furiously like little outboard propellers! Little Auk

Best view. Little Auk

Charlston's Pond and Seaton Snook

Wednesday 25th November

Targets were the female scaup, snow buntings and a few more shorties. The scaup was soon located but I had quite a walk to get near the bird as it kept going as far from me as possible! Here it is.

Scaup Scaup

A blackbird was feeding on berries. Blackbird I moved on to Seaton Snook in search of snow buntings. Twite were soon encountered - there's about 77 in this photo if you include the 2 tails down the left-hand side!

Twite I found the snow buntings near the roped-off area. Kestrels

Snow Bunting Snow Bunting Snow Bunting Snow Bunting Snow Bunting Snow Bunting Snow Bunting

I planned to see if the owls would show in a decent light but unfortunately the light worsened as the owls began to appear. Not bad views however...

Short-eared owl Short-eared owl I watched a stonechat from the car.

Stonechat

The owls came in my direction over the mound.

Short-eared owl

Short-eared owl Short-eared owl Short-eared owl Short-eared owl

Short-eared owl A couple of kestrels were fighting over a small bird one had caught. Struggling now with the light and poor shutter speeds, these aren't great photographs but they capture the mood of the event, I think. Supported by a carrion crow. Here they come...

Kestrels Kestrels

Kestrels Kestrels Kestrels Kestrels Kestrels Kestrels Kestrels Kestrels Kestrel

Thursday 26th November

I drove down to Wall Heath, Staffordshire to see a late, lingering hoopoe. At the bottom of a landscaped former quarry the bird was quite distant but provided good scope views. Here's the former quarry. The bird was down the bottom. Hoopoe twitch The twitchers - a select little bunch - were at the top.

Hoopoe twitch

As the bird was much too far away for my camera, here's a hoopic from 2014 instead.

Hoopoe

Surfing at the Headland - 5th December

All quiet so a trip to see if I could grab a photo of the immature drake surf scoter off the gun battery at Hartlepool.  It was a bit further out than I might have hoped but it was there - so that was good. Surf Scoter

Oyks were flying past and dunlin were huddled on the beach near the Pilot Pier. Oystercatchers Dunlin

A red-throated diver was on the choppy waters of the marina at Jackson's Landing. Red-throated Diver Red-throated Diver

A red-breasted merganser came close.

Red-breasted Merganser Red-breasted Merganser

07.12.15 279 UK 2015

Review of 2015

I set myself some targets for 2015. Here's how it all turned out!

1: Photograph 15 more species of British Birds to get to 300 -and improve some of the ones I have photographed.                 Achieved: in fact currently on 312 - so 27 new species photographed in 2015.

2: See 300 birds again.

              Failed! 279 seen - it was always going to be a difficult target as to hit 300 involves a lot of miles.

3: 10 lifers in UK. 

              A glorious failure - 9 lifers plus 9 lifer butterflies. The target was very ambitious.

4: Website hits to reach 20,000.  

              Achieved - currently just over 21,700.

5: BirdGuides photo votes to reach 6,000.

              Pretty close: 5,934 and counting!

Seaton Snook, Cresswell Pond [!],Newburn Bridge & Seaton Common

Oh well... I did have a plan and basically it worked just fine. The idea was to go on the walk to Seaton Snook to look for twite and snow bunting to photograph. If the long-billed dowitcher came up on the pager I would go north to Cresswell. And so it came to pass. I went to the snook and saw the twite.

Twite Twite

At least 35 of them in the above photo.

23 on the fence. Twite My favorite shots... Twite Twite

I spoke to Ian Forrest who said there were no snow buntings further on on the snook but he had seen some earlier over towards the North Gare pier. Thinking of heading that way when the dowitcher showed on the pager. Off I went through the tunnel to Cresswell.

Saw the dowitcher - long distance views in the scope but tick 277 nonetheless. Back south to Newburn Bridge [and Tescos for fuel]. Two med gulls present, Medusa the long-staying adult plus an immature  or sub-adult bird. Medusa first with BHG behind. Mediterranean Gull Mediterranean Gull Plan still going strong: end the day at North Gare watching the shorties. Cruised around a bit. A little egret was by the access road, unflustered by me photographing it at very close range from the car.

Little Egret Little Egret

Little Egret

The owls appeared and it became an ISO battle with the light! The darkness won in the end but judge for yourself the fun I had!

Short-eared Owl Short-eared Owl I hadn't been watching for long when this noisy transport plane lumbered over us. Transport plane

Owl undeterred. Short-eared Owl Short-eared Owl Short-eared Owl Short-eared Owl Short-eared Owl Short-eared Owl Short-eared Owl

Short-eared owl Short-eared owl Short-eared owl Short-eared owl

By now it was getting pretty dark. All the owl shots were taken at 1000 ISO to get something like a decent shutter speed. Before photoshopping the shots looked like this: very dark but sharp enough although rather grainy. Short-eared owl Short-eared owl Short-eared owl Short-eared owl Short-eared owl Short-eared owl Short-eared owl Short-eared owl Short-eared owl Short-eared owl Short-eared owl Short-eared owl