Goshawks, Owls and Shrike

Had a ride up the dales today and saw 2 goshawks, sadly not displaying, but they looked really good in the early morning sun (undisclosed site). However there was a lot of shooting going on (rough shooting for pheasant). I decided to move on, somehow I overshot my house and ended up watching the Great Grey Shrike at Coatham Stob and there were at least 2 Short Eared Owls quartering the area. Met some friendly bird watchers from Yorkshire whilst there. All in all a good day and it was pleasant to be out in the frost and snow up the dales.

Black Redstart - Hartlepool

As it was sunny I decided to pay another visit to see if the Black Redstart was still showing near Newburn Bridge in Hartlepool. I only had an hour to play with so I was glad to see some other birders were already on to it.

For digiscopers this is quite a difficult bird to photograph as it doesn't sit still for long and by the time I find it in the scope and focus, its up and off before I can get a photo, however I managed a few even though the sunlight disappeared.

Water Rail - Saltholme

I went to South Gare initially in the hope of Snow Buntings or Merlin, but there was no sign of either, there weren't even any Divers on the sea, although it was low tide.

So I retreated back to RSPB Saltholme and was reward by the Water Rail showing off nicely in the sun. This is normally quite a reclusive bird so its good to get the opportunity get nice shots of it when it does show. I again had a few people enquiring and being impressed by the digiscope set up. (They don't see the shots that get binned lol).

Kingfisher and Bullfinch

Spent a few hours at Clara Vale to try and get some Kingfisher pictures, (thanks for the reminder Susan - its about time I had some more pics of Kingfishers). I got there pretty much at first light, then spent 3 hours waiting for a Kingfisher to show, but it did show, for about 10 minutes and it caught 5 fish.

There was plenty of activity around the bird hide too with Great Spotted Woodpeckers, Treecreepers, a few Wrens, loads of Bullfinches, Siskins and all the usual tits. A Sparrowhawk whizzed passed the feeding station but didnt get anything. The light was not good and I made the error of upping my ISO setting on the camera (an old camera which doesnt handle higher ISO settings well), so pictures are a little grainy.

Divers, Goosanders and Mergansers

Spent this morning photographing fishing ducks and divers at Hartlepool. There were 3 fem and 1 male Goosanders at Rossmere Park this morning and one of the females kept displaying to the male, who was more interested in doing his feathers than her.

Then I moved to the Pilot Pier to try and get closer to the Divers again, and there were loads of Red Throated and a single Black Throated Diver, and 1 Great Northern diver.

It was interesting to note that when a flock of 30 or so cormarants were group fishing towards the sea, that all of the divers decided to move further out to sea for awhile.

The Red Breasted Mergansers were near the Lifeboat Station, but were soon scared off by a boat going close past them.

A cold but enjoyable morning.

Hartlepool and Saltholme Dec 29th

I tried for better photos of the divers at Hartlepool and managed slightly better. There is still a strong wind blowing - although not good for keeping the telescope still, I believe it is making the divers come closer into the harbour. There were also good numbers of Red Breasted Mergansers around.

I then went down to Saltholme and saw mainly Teal, Black Tailed Godwit and a nice drake Pintail Duck.

Black Redstart

A couple more photos of the Black Redstart which is at Newburn Bridge area.

This is exactly the same place that 2 Black Redstarts turned up last winter, and a couple of people thought there was two there today although I only saw 1.