Saturday afternoon and a couple of hours to spare so off I went to North Cave. Good weather and not many people so I was hoping for a pleasant visit.
Plan A was to park at the far end of Dryham Lane and walk to the new workings. I visited the South hide first.
Lots of mute swans. Little grebes were busy looking for food.
a female tufted duck
A hobby was flying over the lagoon hunting for dragonflies until it was mobbed by a flock of lapwings.
Not a lot of birds on the new workings so I went to the Crosllands hide. On the way to the hide I noticed lots of crab apple trees.
The fallen apples were popular with carrion crows who were eating their 5 a day.
Lots of lapwings in front of the next hide, but the sun was shining directly towards them so no pictures.
Despite the sunshine and warm temperature I was surprised not to see any dragonflies near the small ponds. The turret hide was my next stop. Curlews, black tailed godwits and green sandpipers.
From the east hide I could see lots of ducks and greylag geese. I was unable to find a mandarin duck which had been seen earlier in the week. As I walked back to the car I could hear buzzards and as I looked up there were 5 circling over the reserve.
A nice end to my visit.
Sunday I was on duty at Blacktoft and it was a busy day as birders came to see "Larry" the white tailed lapwing or the bluethroat.
Tuesday was a free day so I decided to go to Hartlepool.
I started at the headland in the hope of seeing a skua or a shearwater. It was very quiet with a few eiders on the sea and lots of guillemots . On the rocks were turnstones, redshanks and purple sandpiper. I walked along to the pilot jetty and added curlews, shag and cormorant to my list. House sparrows were flying about.
a herring gull had found some food.
The tide was out so no birds at Newburn Bridge just people having a paddle. The road to North Gare and Zinc road were also bird free zones. Greatham creek was my next stop. I joined 3 other birders who were looking at the various birds. Black and bar tailed godwits, redshanks and curlews,
The other birds left to try and locate a spoonbill and I went to Saltholme. From the Phil Stead hide I saw teal, little egrets, a green sandpiper and lots of moorhens.
In the visitor centre they now have "Albie" pin badges on sale.
I had a walk to the wildlife watchpoint where on moorhens were on view. No birds at Paddys Pool as volunteers were cutting down the vegetation on one of the islands. From the last hide lots of geese including barnacles.
A curlew sandpiper was also present busily feeding.. I went back to Phil Stead hide to have my lunch. Chris sent a text message so I joined him at the headland, Again not many birds apart from guillemots. Chris left to try to see a bonxie while I went to Ward Jackson Park. The park was always our first stop on our visits to the area, mainly to see the parakeets, but they have not been seen for a while. I parked on one road and walked across the park to the other road. I could hear jackdaws but thought that I could hear parakeets. I stopped and listened and managed to locate the tree that the sound was coming from. At first I could only hear their call and see movement in the tree, then one came into view. They were eating the fruit from the tree.
A nice end to a pleasant day. Year total is now 169.
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