Hooded Crow and Common Sand

First of all I have made a royal mix up, I seem to be unable to correctly assign people their correct names; on the Thayer’s Gull twitch I apparently twitched it with Richard Taylor and Chris Bell. This was not true; I twitched it with Richard Stephenson and Chris Bell. So that’s that corrected….

Anyway I’ve had quite a good weekend and yesterday I ventured down to Teesside to see the Hooded Crow that had been found on Friday, as has been typical the past few years it has been elusive. Anyway I sat in the lay-by scanning the tip bored and was about to give up when it appeared over the tip with the local Carrion Crows. Thankfully everyone got onto it and news was put out of its presence. It disappeared again and showed up about 20 minutes later and this time performed really well and landed on the deck where it showed well. Far better view of this bird than I did of the one last year where I had literally a 1 minute view before it vanished into thin air.

(Hooded Crow - © Ian Forrest)

(Hooded Crow - © Ian Forrest)

(Hooded Crow - © Ian Forrest)

With this under belt I headed back home and checked Rainton Meadows DWT, 2 Swallow were nearly a surprise but the single Sand Martin not so. A Common Sandpiper graced the far bank and this was a bit of a surprise, 2 Green Sandpipers there the day previous but no sign of those. On the Gull front nothing much was happening apart from a rather stunning Lesser black-backed Gull in perfect nick. Houghton Gate didn’t produce anything out of the ordinary but was pretty busy for the site itself; 85c Herring Gull, 2 Lesser Black-backed Gull, 2 Little Ringed Plover, 2 Redshank, 2 Oystercatcher, 65+ Golden Plover, and 6-8 Lapwing. I fancy a Red-rumped Swallow there this year; I can dream! A flyover Hobby would be more than welcome.

Got some nice shots of Goshawk to share, buts that’s another topic for another post.

Until next time, Foghorn out!