Durham Birding (1 Viewer)

[Skelly]

Pair of Grey Wagtails at Finchale Abbey.

B

 

[StevieEvans]

40 or so Pinkies calling south over Ch-le-Street today
SE.

50+ south over Joes / Rainton yestday too.

 

[Mark Newsome]

Quite a movement of Pink-feet on the coast yesterday (Saturday) too. Very limited seawatching resulted at least 475 passing Whitburn, mainly in the late morning/early afternoon. (but St Mary's Island were noted 700+ yesterday - wish we had a few more active birders in Sth Tyneside!).
(ps Steve - remember today is the deadline for the new DBC bulletin - hope you're not spending too much time birding and not enough time typing! )

 

[StevieEvans]

Muton, Blast & Hive.

Murton
Checked huge area of permanent set-a-side at Murton (approx 1km square)
10 Corn Bunting, 250 Goldfinch, 450 Linet, 60 Mipit, 30 Skylark. Will surely hold something this winter.
2 Spar, 4+Kes, 22 Grey Partridge, 1 Grey Wagtail, 17s Golden Plover.

18 R.T.Divers ots between Seaham & Hawthorn Hive, majority summer plumage ad's

Hawthorn Hive
Pintail ots ! (bizarrely in same place as May's Coot)
drake Eider, pr GCGrebe, 20+ Guillemot, 2 Cormorant, 9 Oystercatcher, 120 Goldfinch.
Grey Seal, 4 Red Admiral, 1small Copper, 1 Common Blue.
single Lesser Redpoll & several Blackbirds & Song Thrush (migrants)
Hawthorn Dene
quiet, but total of 13 Speckled Wood butterfly
Nuthatch, Marsh Tit, Treecreeper, Bullfinch, Tree Sparrow(x1), Chiffchaff, male Blackcap. (1000 Linnet here yesterday), 200 Goldfinch, 40 Yellowhammer, 24 Skylark. pr Curlew
Tawny Owl adult calling several times midday.
Dawdon Blast
cock Stonechat, 200 Goldfinch, 2female Sparhawk, 4-5Kestrel, 20 Mipit.

Last night a DBC owl surveyor recorded 2 Barn Owls, 4 Tawny Owls, 11(eleven)Little Owls & an Asio ssp around his local area on foot.

ps Steve - remember today is the deadline for the new DBC bulletin - hope you're not spending too much time birding and not enough time typing!

got everything done i think Mark, now starting on an Leo end paper for 2004 annual report. I think the new bulletin should be a very good read.
SE

DBC - Studying and Conserving The Birds of County Durham.

 

[Skelly]

Barmston Pond

Dunlin
Ruff
Snipe
Blackcap
Great Tit
Lapwings
Black Headed Gulls
Teal
Grey Heron
Moorhen
Coot
Lesser B.B. Gull
Herring Gull

Saltholme, Back Saltholme, Dormans and Seal Sands

2 Pintail
Wigeon
Pochard
Teal
Shoveler
3 Little Egret
Grey Heron
Cormorant
Redshank
Ruff
Golden Plover
Common Gull
Dunlin
Curlew
Goldeneye
Great Crested Grebe
Ruddy Duck
Little Grebe
Kestrel
Sparrowhawk
Lapwing
Oystercatcher
Meadow Pipit
Tufted Duck
Greylag Goose
Canada Goose
Mute Swan
Bar Tailed Godwit
Black Tailed Godwit
Gadwall
Mallard
Herring Gull
Black Headed Gull
Lesser B.B. Gull
Coot
Moorhen

Waldridge Fell and surrounding area

2 Pairs of Stonechat
Merlin
Short Eared Owl
Sparrowhawk

B

 

[StevieEvans]

Thanks for the text ian.
Had prolonged views of the Seo hunting in the late afternoon sunshine over the reclaimed opencast land. Now apparently called Daisy Hill NR. Also watched pair of adult Stonechat on gorse.
An excellent example of how opencast mining operations on low grade farmland, can result in the site being put back as superb habitat.
Daisy Hill also holds both Snipe in winter along with masses of breeding Skylark & a cream crown Marsh Harrier has even hunted it.

480+ Lapwing & 22 Golden Plover just off A167 (south of Chester Moor) on freshly tilled fields.
SE

 

[Skelly]

Thanks for the text ian.
Had prolonged views of the Seo hunting in the late afternoon sunshine over the reclaimed opencast land. Now apparently called Daisy Hill NR. Also watched pair of adult Stonechat on gorse.
An excellent example of how opencast mining operations on low grade farmland, can result in the site being put back as superb habitat.
Daisy Hill also holds both Snipe in winter along with masses of breeding Skylark & a cream crown Marsh Harrier has even hunted it.
SE

No problem Stevie, it's not often that you get a Seo on your local patch.

It was actually my first Seo of the year!!!!

:clap:

 

[StevieEvans]

2 Late Sand Martins at Brasside (think it matches my latest date here) with 200 House Martin & 35 Swallow
5-6 Chiffchaff & 3 different Sparhawks.
64 Pied wagtails on field whilst being rotivated, may have had a continental bird with them (windy)
Unusually a pair of Mute Swans on the river at Cocken
nothing on water other than pr Pochard, 19 Cormorant, 12 Dabchick & a GCGrebe family of 4.
SE

 

[Skelly]

Bizarre sighting of a Spotted Redshank on the river at Finchale Abbey this evening.

Also several Mallard and a single Grey Heron.

:smoke:

 

[rayl]

Bizarre sighting of a Spotted Redshank on the river at Finchale Abbey this evening.



:smoke:

We had one on the R.Tern bash Skelly, must check the seo out on our new 'N.R.'

Ray

 

[StevieEvans]

We had one on the R.Tern bash Skelly, must check the seo out on our new 'N.R.'

Ray

Hi Rayl, Ians record is outstanding (bizarre) as the R.Wear at Finchale is fast flowing, rocky rapids with no mud & in a deep steep sided wooded valley.
"new NR" & immediate area has all 5 owls, only a matter of time now before Skel finds us maybe a GGShrike, Woodlark or Dartford Warbler..... ;-)
SE

 

[rayl]

..... only a matter of time now before Skel finds us maybe a GGShrike, Woodlark or Dartford Warbler..... ;-)
SE

These young guns aye

Ray

 

[StevieEvans]

Lambton Bridge
An uneasy stand-off between a young Dipper and a waterside Weasel. They both appeared very unsure of one another, the weasel doing its best to get the bird to come closer spinning around & rushing backwards & forwards in the shallows. Eventually it gave up & the bird resumed feeding, then, after flying 50m downstream, it was mobbed before it could land by a second Dipper which sang strongly.
also 3 Grey Wagtail, drake Tufted on river, 13 Curlew & 1 Heron.
2 Goldcrest & an adult Sparrowhawk.
SE

single Red Admiral & Peacock.

 

[Skelly]

Good views of the Seo hunting last night. Also saw it being mobbed by a group of crows, it was flying very high at the time, the highest I've ever seen an owl flying.

Also had a single Snipe on the fell.

 

[StevieEvans]

Nuthatch, GSW & Treecreeper in modest sized suburban gardens at Merryoaks, D'ham City

2 House martins south at home this morning.

SE

 

[StevieEvans]

Volunteers needed for Tawny Survey in the following area:-

Ouston, Urpeth, Team Valley, Waldridge Village.
East Stanley, Craghead West, Tanfield Railway.
Blackfell, Washington Services, Lambton Estate.
Ravensworth Castle, Beamish, Craghead East.
Birtley, Eighton Banks, nr Lambton Worm pub.

Easy 10 min visits to record what you hear.
send me an EMail or Pm if interested.
SE.

 

[StevieEvans]

Hetton (yestday)

female Garganey & Green Woodpecker (scarce) at Lyons Park.
female Redstart at The Bogs, also Ruff on Seaton Pond.

SE

Single Sand Martin remaining at Castle Lake Bishop Middleham on Sunday.

Kingfisher , possibly first record here? & Greenshank at Cassop Vale pond earlier last week.

 

[StevieEvans]

In the next week or so, the 250 members of Durham Bird Club (covering Tyne to Tees areas) will be recieving a new quarterly, 48page, A5 size Magazine with colour photos.

Content includes:-
Articles on BNGrebe, Night Heron, Large Shearwaters, Leo survey results etc.
Club news.
Letters & notes.
Consevation updates, Taking part & volunteering
Projects & Surveys updates, with details of the dozen target species for next years studies, plus details of BTo, National & other DBC surveys.
Look Ahead & species reviews.
16,000 word reports from last 3 months wildbird sightings.
This is free (bargain) to all DBC members.

 

[russkie]

brasside ponds

hi
first of i hope a weekly report from brasside.


tufted - numerous
dabchick -numerous
mallard - numerous
pochard - 1 male seen
coot - numerous
moorhen - pair
chiffchaff - 2
grey heron - singleton
pied wagtails - dozen in ploughed field
blue tits- numeous
great tits - numerous
house martins - 30+
mute swans - pair
great cested grebe - pair
kestrel - singleton
black headed gulls -20+
jackdaw - numerous in field
rook - numerous in field

No sightings of thrush parties as yet

this was more of a recce visit to see access etc - looks great mixed habitat
so hopefully ill be able to spend more time there.
good path all around the ponds - nice wooded areas. arable fields surrounding - except where the prison wall is.
cheers
nigel

 

[Skelly]

Kingfisher reported at Brasside on Wednesday.