The only funny thing in Sundays Papers

A sharp eye

Well this girl certainly has although not sharp enough for my liking.

She visited the garden yesterday but failed to get lunch and unfortunately the wind, shadow and sun made a mess of a good photo opportunity.
On another note I have been less than observant with one of my recent postings. On closer inspection the landing Shorty appears to be ringed.

Many people have asked me where the birds came from and I'm fairly convinced that at least some are from the British breeding population. They arrived early (26th August first solo sighting and 8th September first multiple) which is about a week or two before the coastal influx took hold. Additionally they initially behaved like a family party and one of the birds appeared to be a juvenile.

I've reached the limit of magnification for that image but perhaps one of you ringing chaps could comment whether it looks right for a BTO style ring.

Short tempered

Possibly birds from different families or just petty squabbles over food but tussles between Short eared Owls are a common sight most afternoons as their flight paths cross. Unfortunately capturing the action is not so easy. Good light means a better chance to stop the action but one minute they're up in the air and you're over exposed.
The next they're down near the ground and backlit causing under exposure. Of course I'm using my bigger manual lens but switching to the more modern autofocus doesn't seem to help much as the actions so quick I generally miss the action.
There is one bird in particular that seems to fly a lot in the daytime and is noticable in that P2 on the right wing is missing. ( see All in a Day ) Possibly a result of these scraps?

A landing post

Watch this sonny

Wey hey

Easy as pie. No 110 on the PC list. Bean Goose Yah ho0!

Sorry, the pics for BG were just not of interest

Fronting up

Amazing. More Whitefronted Geese in one frame than I have everv seen in Northumberland in total! Better still they were Eurasian rather than the Greenland species we normally get at Grindon loch. ADMc counted 195 on north pool at East Chevington on Sunday. They flew in from the adjacent fields with hundreds of Pinkfeet and Greylag to join the pair of Bewicks Swans and assorted Ducks, Gulls, Waders already on the pool. The mixed flock including a single Bean Goose swam around until they had sorted themselves into rafts of like species and then they were off again. A lovely sight.

Crappy shot making it all the more difficult to spot the single Bean Goose.

Yellowshank revisited

Up at six for my webs count. Fruit for breakfast, filled the feeders and headed off down the A1. On exiting at Scotswood it was clear that any count was not to be had. The Tyne Valley was filled with fog. Abandoned any hope and headed up the coast. Hauxley at eight and Erics hide was heaving with birders as the Yellowlegs strutted its stuff below. I, in the Ponteland hide was a bit stinky but had good views as the bird disappeared up to toward the Wader hide. Spent the next hour watching a Kingfisher doing what the name suggests.

Changed my lens at good light and returned to the hide following an abortive attempt at photographing the Knot on the beach. There was the Yellowlegs. It flew in close to the hide and would you you believe it.........the Kingfisher perched at the same moment. Not wanting to be outdone by its American visitor

Shots were taken in the thirty seconds before it headed North, and the Yellowlegs, headed off South. East Chev and Cresswell were to be graced.

I followed the Yellowlegs and was rewarded with a Goose bonanza

All in a day

Kestrels keeping a wary eye out
Owls that fly in the sun

Passing beauties in non typical habitat

and the damn Shrike that I got to within fifty feet of without knowing and flushed it!!! Frustrated or what.