A Grand Day Out

A good day out today, first stop was Newbiggin-by-the-Sea, a short walk along the beach provided some cracking views of Sanderling. But it wasn't long until I spotted the Desert Wheatear on the bank, I had heard this bird was really obliging and wasn't bothered about people. The below photo will testify that! Was a lot more obliging that my first last month at Loftus in North Yorkshire. I think these are stunning little birds and I enjoyed watching and photographing this fantastic little bird. I thought to be honest this bird would be really struggling so exercised some caution, however it was catching loads of flys the 15 or so minutes whilst I was there. It did catch a few insects at my feet whilst I was there and remained active, here's hoping the little gem survives the winter months as it looks in good health. A check of the beach at Newbiggin revealed 2 Mediterranean Gulls.

Next stop was Cresswell Pond NWT which was fairly quite however a flyover Peregrine was nice, a couple hundred distant Pink-footed Geese, and a male Red-breasted Merganser were nice to see.

(Desert Wheatear - © Andrew Kinghorn)

After lunch a check of BirdGuides revealed an Iceland Gull had been found at Amble harbour so I went up to see if it was still there. It showed really well whilst I was there, as did the other local gulls. But it was fantastic to get some cracking views of this stunning species.

 (Iceland Gull - © Andrew Kinghorn)

 (Iceland Gull - © Andrew Kinghorn)

 (Iceland Gull - © Andrew Kinghorn)

(Iceland Gull © Andrew Kinghorn)

Until next time, Foghorn out!