Merry Christmas - who escaped for a while today then? (1 Viewer)

I did. I slipped off to Moor Green this afternoon and spent some time photographing common garden birds at the car park feeders, then had a wander down towards the hide and finally had a quick look at the other end of the complex.

It was pretty quiet in human terms but the birds were quite active and a bunch of Roe Deer were taking advantage of the absence of dog walkers.

At Horseshoe Lake (thats the far end bit) I found a bird that on a quick look looked like a Ferruginous Duck, including the supporting character that it was skulking under lakeside alders.

However a bit of scrutiny revealed that its eye was yellowish, its bill pattern and shape dubious and the only thing going for it really was its bright chestnut breast and head, along with a high rear crown.

Before long it actually swam out and revealed itself to be almost certainly the hybrid present several winters ago during a big freeze: from any angle other than straight ahead it looks nothing like a fudgecake. Once I've processed them I'll put a couple of record shots up.

John

I spent about 30 minutes looking around this morning. Since I'm on vacation in Chico, California, I don't want to miss any time to be out and about looking at birds. I only had common birds though.

No chance for me to get out this PM 50/60mph winds and sheeting it down all day.Earned a few brownie points stayed at home and cooked the xmas dinner....Eddy

Two pics of the Aythya hybrid - and one from 2010, which I reckon is the same bird.

John

I'm lucky in that Christmas Day in our house is generally breakfast with hubby Neil when he gets in from nightshift then he heads off to bed for a few hours whilst I head out birding :t:

Today was a gorgeous sunny day with barely a cloud in the sky so I originally thought I'd head over to Boulmer to do a beach walk and see if I could see any ducks, divers or grebes. But then 'something' made me think ''No, I'll go to Stag Rocks instead and see if I can find those elusive Velvet Scoters that have been seen for a few weeks amongst the raft of Commons''.

Pulled up in the first car park overlooking the beach and first thing I saw was this tiny pale bid on the water amongst the black-headed gulls. Heart missed a beat as I thought ''Phalarope!!!'' :eek!: Checked through the scope....definitely a phalarope!!! Drove 100yds to next car park and legged it down to the beach and as close to the shore as I possibly could without actually being in the sea and spent 30 minutes in absolute raptures watching this corker of a bird :t: Three walkers came by and asked if I'd found anything interesting so I showed them the bird through my scope. No sign of any other birders so I then checked out the bay behind the lighthouse and saw quite a few red-throated divers, red-breasted mergansers, eider, common scoter, various waders etc but no velvets.
As I headed back to the car I met another birder from Yorkshire (who HAD been wtching some velvets!!!) so showed him the phalarope (and he gave me some cracking views through his Swarovski scope....much brighter and clearer than my cheapo one) and he then found a red-necked grebe so a good day all round :t:

Grey Phalarope has always been a bit of a 'mystical' bird to me and I've missed a couple over the years so to actual FIND one has been just the best Christmas present eve o Lifer Number 224 which I'm VERY pleased about!
Heading out again tomorrow to look for those Velvet Scoters (two in Beadnell Harbour apparently as well as off Stag Rocks so I've got the video camera packed in my bag! Only had my digital camera today which couldn't quite zoom in enough on the phalarope to give decent views :smoke: Fingers crossed it'll still be there tomorrow :king:

Similar to Gill. Family breakfast when my wife came in from night shift, once f childrens pressies opened off for a walk on the beach so she could sleep. Not much around beyond the normal suspects but still very pleasant.

My one day off from birding in the year. I gave up trying to sneek off ages ago and admitted defeat. I do try and go birding in the other 364 days of the year. Only work commitment or lack of daylight hours usually prevent me. Back out tomorrow morning

Only chance today was from the lounge window to watch a Robin feeding happily in the garden.

CB

Gill Osborne said:

Grey Phalarope has always been a bit of a 'mystical' bird to me and I've missed a couple over the years so to actual FIND one has been just the best Christmas present eve o Lifer Number 224 which I'm VERY pleased about!

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Nice one!

Grey Phalarope for me too today - patch tick!!! (Found one on Christmas now to go with one I found on my birthday once back in Somerset one November)

Might have something to do with the weather we've been having but a great bird. I told the girlfriend I wasn't awake enough to open presents this morning so I'd go out birding instead - paid off as one of the first birds I saw (about 9.30) was a distant Bonxie. Followed not long after by the phal, grebes etc later so a good day bird wise.

Managed to be back for 11-ish, not in too much trouble.


Later on had a fudge too (a proper one), covered in chocolate it was.

The 1 and only day i have bob hope of going birding, the wife would have my guts for garters, and i got a new scope for xmas, had to do with trying it out from the attic window.

I was able to do about 30-40min in the bitter cold this morning at a local
pond. Saw some nice Ring-necked Ducks and the usual residents.

I managed an hour testing out my new gps thingy, but only saw the usual suspects. I'm having a lazy day today as the weather is terrible.

Our Christmas is in January
In any case, judging from the dynamics of posts appearing on our local FB and googlegroups lists, we all spent Monday and Tuesday out and then spent Wednesday (which had quite nice weather as well, while today we have very strong wind) typing and clicking at our and others' lists and albums.
We saw an impressive number of species Sat-Tue as a incoherent group - everyone would go anywhere they wanted in our local area and met other birders in the field randomly without any pre-planning.

(You can see I persuaded several other persons to open an eBird account)
eBird list for December 2013