Craigs UK Bird Photos

25th 26th St bees and Silloth.

Got to St bees at about 8-30, had a walk to the lighthouse, on the way were 2 Common Whitethroat and a few Wheatear. Once at the cliff i found 2 male Whinchats in the grass.

Once at Fleswick bay the Hooded crow put in another appearance, 4 more Whitethroats were singing, a female Blackcap put in an appearance along with 2 Grey Partridge and 80+ Northern Wheatears.

On returning to the farm a Grasshopper Warbler was reeling from the brambles.  A Painted Lady butterfly was a nice finish to the day.

From Silloth 2 Singing Lesser Whitethroat, 3 Sandwich Tern, 2 Common Sand on beach, 6 Whimbrel past and 16 Gannets.

Stopping at a friend's house in Ravenstonedale Ive been awoke every day by a Common Redstart, and at work High force, Ive had Redstart and Pied Fly.

24th Whimbrel

After work on Friday id had reports of Whimbrel being present at Soddy, including a few a couple of days before. So when i arrived at Soddy on the Friday night i was surprised to find 0 Whimbrel. But it wasn't long before a group of 24 were flying around the ponds, in the distant another 7 joined them. Also present were 4 Common Sandpiper 2 Grasshopper Warblers reeling and the first Sedge Warbler of the year.

Ive put together a short list of first arrival of Migrant records for Soddy. Here

w/e 19th Local Stuff

Hoping for Whimbrel at Soddy, should be here any time soon. No Whimbrel but did get 2 Common Sandpiper, a nice Black-tailed godwit, 6 Shelduck all paired up and some Tree Sparrows. The Feral Snow goose made and appearance too, a nice surprise were a Mealy Redpoll with a Lesser redpoll. At low Meadows the first Garden Warbler was singing.

Tried a new area today, Derwent Forest the Broughton moor Ammunition Dump, What a brilliant area this could be if only i could get in but its all fenced off. So from the boundary i had a few Lesser Redpoll, Greater Spotted Woodpecker and 2 Grasshopper Warblers reeling, my first of the year, loads of Willow Warbler and 3 Buzzard being mobbed by a Raven.

13th St Bees.

Took a trip to St Bees, hoping for more migrants, but i was to be disappointed. Just before the lighthouse the long staying Twite (8) were still present including the colour ringed bird. After flushing a load of Meadow Pipits from the grass i noticed the call of a Tree Pipit, my first of the year. Plenty of Puffins were in evidence as well as plenty of other Auks. Ravens were showing well. I then found a Proper Hooded Crow. I had a hybrid here a few weeks ago. All in all it was a very quiet morning.

12th Cumbria

Rach and i picked Tristan and his son Lachlan up and we were on our way to see the Great Grey Shrike on Alston Moor. We couldn't find any Black Grouse on the way. We did get a Woodcock fly in front of the car. When we got to the Golf Course on the edge of Alston Tristan found the Shrike albeit distant, Whilst waiting for the shrike to work its way closer we got views of Swallow, Willow Warbler and i had a Common Redstart my first of the year. The Shrike eventually gave it self up and showed reasonably well. the strong light made it difficult to photograph.

After a quick stop back at Tristans we made our way to Campfield Marsh where we had hazy views of 2 White Wagtail on the way to the hide and 3 Garganey (2 Drakes and a female) from the hide. I'm rather pleased with my excellent photos ;).

9th-11th Scotland.

Rach and i took a trip to Scotland and the Loch Garten area. We had never seen a Cappercaille and so this was my target bird. We planned to do the Capper watch from Loch Garten the next morning. We arrived at our campsite at about 11am, we then found NO tent pegs, Duh. So we went to Aviemore for some lunch and pegs. We put the tent up then spent the afternoon at Loch Garten. By late afternoon we had seen our first Cappercaille, 2 Crested Tit's, Slavonian Grebe and Osprey. Birdings easy ain't it....

The following day we did the Capper watch and boy were we lucky the day before as there were NO cappers showing! We had plenty of time to observe the Ospreys and plenty of Crossbill, which species was anyone's guess.

Red Squirrels showed very well on the feeders, much to close for digiscoping.

After dipping Capper, we headed for the Venicular Railway on the Cairngorms. When we got to the top we could see 2 Ptarmigan from the Cafe window although they were very distant. We then went outside where 2 Snow Buntings were showing very well. All Target Species DONE!

We then saw many more Osprey's in various locations, as well as 2 Common Sandpiper and Swallows, also many Sandmartins.  We then made our way back home. What a brilliant time we had.7th Grouse

Nights are getting lighter so i took the opportunity to go and have a look at some Black Grouse on Alston moor. It was nice to see 2 Males and 4 Females showing well. I watched these birds for a good hour. Its not often i get to see females.

4th Iceland Gull.

Well i got  a bit of a shock today, as i was getting in the car i saw a very pale Gull flying up the fields behind my house, i thought to myself that's a white winger. Eventually after rach found the car keys i got my optics on the bird as it had landed in the top field, i realised it was a juv Iceland Gull, my rarest garden tick woohoo. This i can only presume is the Maryport bird i found WEEKS ago, although everyone thought it had moved to Carlilse but that was still present. The Gull then moved to Harker Marsh, and when i returned home had vanished.

Rach and i had a walk along the beach at Maryport, 3 Wheatear and a Blackcap were the only things of note. Chiffchaff were in the village now.

1st 

I had my first Swallow in Cumbria for the year at Bass lake as well as the Male and Female Osprey.