14th January - More Little Gulls!

A trip to Parton was not as good as I had hoped, the Grey Phalarope present the previous evening had dissapeared! Still there were plenty of gulls and waders to search through......! Next stop was Low Harrington, to let my kids play on there bikes for a while. It was a bit of a brisk wind, so we did not stay long. Not much bird wise here apart from a Raven!

From here we headed to Workington Harbour for a bit of a seawatch. It was a bit quiet for a while, but soon picked up when I saw an adult Little Gull fly south. This was followed by another seven (5 adults & 2 1st winter) plus 1 Great Northern Diver and 1 Red-throated Diver (the latter being county year tick number 114)! Also several Lesser-Black-backed Gulls!

After a quick stop off at Tesco's for some lunch we decided to go to Siddick Ponds. The kids whizzed up and down on their bikes whilst I had a look on the ponds. There were at least 10 Goosanders showing nicely on the ponds, along with small numbers of Teal and Goldeneye. Three Raven flew over the ponds. As the afternoon went on a Barn Owl was hunting in the opposite giving some really nice views and amazingly two otters put in an appearnce for a short-time. To finish of a pretty decent day a Bittern gave excellent views as it flew over the reedbed!

12th January - Ruff etc

Today I managed to get out for a few hours with Derek. Whilst looking for the Greylags and Whoopers at Oulton we found a small group of Pink-footed Geese in a roadside field. Some of the Greylags were in a flooded field further along the road!

Anthorn was fairly quiet due the crappy weather, though a small flock of Golden Plover did put in a brief appearance.

There were loads of Wigeon and Teal from the first screen at North Plains RSPB Reserve, also there was lots of Lapwing and a few Curlew, Redshank and Golden Plover. There were also at least two Ruff (wahoo another county year tick!).
Highlight of the day was from the hide at the end of the lonnen, over 1500 Barnacle Geese feeding on the grassland. Always great to see! Judging from the the immature-adult ratios in the flock it has been a really productive breeding season in Spitzbergen during 2006!

10th January - Ring-necked Duck etc

Happy New Year to one and all!

I had originally planned to start this Blog from the beginning of the year, but time has not allowed!

So far this year my birding activities have been pretty slow besides reccying (is that even a word?) for the Cumbria Bird Race.

However I did manage to spend a couple of days at Lowmill near Dalston looking at a couple of abientinus-type Chiffchaffs (short article about these coming onto my website soon). Lowmill is an excellent site with up to four Chiffchaff present along with Siskins, Lesser Redpolls, Goldecrests, Long-tailed Tits and a couple of Kingfishers amongst the commoner species!

The bird race was a success with our team ' The Northern Orioles' drawing 1st place with 'The Walney Wanderers', reaching a total of 107 species. Our highlights were Med' Gull, Little Gull and Great Northern Diver!

Since the bird race I have not managed to get out much, due to work commitments However due to and early start today I was able to scarper out to Grasmere Lake for an hour this afternoon to see the returning drake Ring-necked Duck. This was my 112th county year tick for 2007..............not that I am year listing this year...........well probably not anyway! I even managed a record shot of this bird, despite the poor light and strong winds!

Anyway I hope to have some more exciting updates to my Blog coming in the near future!