Red in the hedge

Checked the bridleway north of Big Waters yesterday for any rare Geese or even a Shrike but none to find although two Short eared Owls were sparring over rough ground near Brenkley. As I walked back a tit flock approached all alarm calling. I looked around expecting to find a Cat on the ground but there in the hedge was a Squirrel.
When it saw me it froze and I spent a couple of minutes trying to find an unobstructed camera angle without avail. It let me walk up right below him in the attempt though.

It was clear no spectacular pose was to be had so I let it be. Still the cutest animal about although where it was going to was unclear as the nearest plantations were a good hundred yards away.

Feather brain

A question. I've been interested in birds all my life although more particularly in the last eighteen years or so. As such I have amassed a knowledge to be quite helpful but on occasion absolutely lethal to boot. I have on this blog recently stated that an Owl has P2 missing when in fact it was P9. Nobody complained.........So here my knowledge falls short again. Red breasted Merganser in Amble harbour Saturday afternoon.
Wings extended primary outermost...........so what are the two v shaped projections? I am so dumb

Nice hair day anyway

Eider, I knew that one of you would show up. For those of an artistic bent.........try mixing the colours of the green neck or the pink breast flush. Quite a challenge!

On the Carr , play Mistle Thrush for me. All paired up and raring to go.

Crossbolake

Heading up to look at a building near Wallington yesterday I stopped off at Bolam Lake and having got out of the car was debating whether to pay the exhorbitant £1.40 parking fee when six of these beauties glip, glipped overhead. Well actually there were three males and three females but I only caught sight of the females briefly on the roadside before they flew back up into a lichen covered tree. Obviously pairs collecting nest material I grabbed six shots before they headed off. I've been wanting to get up to Harwood Forset these last two weeks to see this very bird but work has intervened so a work visit eventually saved me the trip.
I did also have a walk around the Lake which was pleasant if uneventful. I was hoping for a Smew like a couple of years back but the usual ducks were boosted by two female Goosander and a splash of Goldeneye. Plenty of Mute Swans, Canada Geese and large flocks of Tits with calling Nuthatch and drumming Great Spotted Woodpecker all made getting back to work a bit of a hassle.

Off to the states.....not

Oh I'm such a lucky chap. Two tickets from American Airlines in my junk e mail. One to Chicago and one to Indianapolis strangely both costong 117.12 US dollars and neither telling me where I'm flying from. Another scam amongst the offers of canadian meds, rolex watches and the services of ladies. If you get one don't touch it. The instructions are to print the ticket but if you examine the file it's a self extracting program, no doubt of the...............phishing kind.
AJJ advises that the Great Grey Shrike was north of Big Waters on Monday again before flying off east. Heading home perhaps as I couldn't find it yesterday but plenty of Owls still even if the weather is crap.

dn.. dn..dn.. d.d. dn dn...........Ice Ice baby

Saturday, and after my mornings trip down to the Carr I checked Birdguides who repeated Iceland Gull sightings at North Shields. I'd been down earlier in the week without success but....well its Saturday and I deserve it. Turned up and nowhere to park. Where are all these people coming from and more to the point where are they going? Headed up to the High Lights and parked overlooking the Fish Quay. Out with the bins and thar she blows...adult Iceland Gull doing circuits up the Quayside. MSH parked a car in front of me and pointed out a second first winter bird on the fish quay roof.
Telephone conversations with AC on the quayside ensued and the adult was re-classified as fourth winter sub adult .........not that I would know but it was showing well so down to the waterside where I joined Northumbrian Birding in a quest for images.
The sub adult was very obliging

but the juvenile less so

I'm sorry son, Ostrich tactics don't wash up here in the grim North. But then again it's the deep south to him! Met Killy birder along the way who advised of a Glaucous Gull seen earlier but we never found it.

A great half hour

Friday morning had been a bit of a rush so headed down to try and find the Shrike. It has been ranging quite widely in the last week and finding it never mind getting a view had been hard. My experience with this bird that has now been resident for ten weeks, is that if you don't get straight onto it you probably won't see it at all.

As you can see, half way along the road there it was, 30m away atop a large bush. I watched for three minutes or so and then it flew.
Strong low purposeful flight with a slight undulation then............

a ten second hover before deciding to carry on to the hedgeline near the road. It disappeared momentarily before re-appearing low down at the roadside. The beauty then allowed me to approach to about thirty feet which is where I got the header shot. Dull light, hand held, high iso, loads of noise but comments on one of my previous posts has made me relish the quality of the moment rather than the quality of the result. After all, I bet there's not many get so close

A more typical view.............dare I trip out the old favourite........ from an undisclosed location!

Better still after watching the bird from 12.45 to 1.10 when it was never more than 30m away he offered up another close up but this time through the hedge.

I bet its going to be a boring weekend as I've used up all my birding tokens.

Eggspress

Below the area into which the Collared Dove below was taking twigs I found the remains of the first breeding attempt this morning.
The dint on the base of the egg suggests the egg has fallen or been dropped out of the nest and the presence of yolk that it has been predated. Never fear though, this pair did exactly the same last year although the single egg they laid was left to go cold after which they produced three broods of two with at least three surviving to fledge.