Beginning afresh at Newbiggin

One consistent star performer on the stage of my garden bird table is the coal tit.  He/she, since there appears to be no difference, loves to harvest the numerous black sunflower seeds, always exiting backstage into the trees to consume them.

Recently, one bird made at least a dozen successive visits and you can only wonder if it isn't rather energy-sapping to perform in this energetic fashion.  Here's a brief sample:

Coal Tit feeding

Last week I at last achieved an objective when I visited Newbiggin and managed to catch up with some twites towards Beacon Point.

Twite

In fact there was a massive flock of about 50 to 100 birds visiting the seaside as they often do at this time of year.  Apparently there were a few shore larks around too but a jackdaw came down and flushed them shortly before I arrived.  There have been records of snow buntings at Newbiggin, but I think that was a little further down the coast.

Also in evidence on the day were a couple of meadow pipis and, as so often on the coast in Northumberland, stonechats:

Meadow Pipit

Stonechat

Down on the beach, there were a large number of birds dozing by the rock pools near the shoreline.  I took them to be golden plover.  However I was a bit stiff and and didn't fancy going down from the path and took photos at considerable distance.  On comparing them with images in my bird book I thought they looked more like dunlin or knot.  But it seems that golden plover they are.

Golden Plover

Facebook does have some uses!

Missing Out

As the weather has become harsher, my attempts to find interesting sightings have largely misfired.

The one new sighting was completely by chance.  As a result of a navigational error on my last long bike ride, I ended up at the village of Broomley, where a good number of redwing were feeding on berries.

There was talk of a mandarin duck on the Derwent in Gateshead, so I took a good scout around but found nothing but a couple of goosander.  Then one was reported at Saltwell Park but it had gone by the time I visited, though I was rather surprised to see a kingfisher flash by.  Not the place I'd have chosen to look for one.

The only thing I did see much of apart from mallards and tufted ducks was a couple of cormorants. By the time a I captured one airing itself, the light had pretty much gone.

Cormorant

Incidentally, folk at the Tennis Club have confirmed seeing salmon going up the weir during November.  I saw one about a month ago but thought it was a freak one-off.  It seems there must be a very late run of salmon on the Derwent.

After a dog walk at Plessey Woods produced nothing but some long-tailed tits and a pigeon last week, Malcolm and I headed for Felton at the weekend as a large number of waxwings had visited a few days before, but once again there was no sign of them, even though we got good tips where to look from local walkers.

I had been hoping to get a video of long-tailed tits mobbing the suet balls I've been putting out in the garden lately, but the best I got was one long-tailed tit and a blue tit:

Long-tailed and blue tit

I might do better after Christmas if I place the feeder nearer the back fence.

Since the sub-zero temperatures and snow arrived  it has got a bit more interesting.  You might not consider a female chaffinch and a juvenile starling rarities but they don't show themselves here regularly at all.

Lastly there was a very dark looking corbid looking around, which I thought was a crow.  It was only when I fiddled with the contrast on the (again very dark) photo I got as it made its exit that some jackdaw features appeared, notably the eye, and I now wonder if it could have been a hybrid.

Jackdaw or Crow?

However I could only find one mention of jackdaw/carrion crow hybridisation on the internet...