Magnificent Mediterraneans In Newbiggin

Last Friday after my usual half past noon finish from work I headed northward up the coast to the seaside town of Newbiggin-By-The-Sea. I met up with Stewart Sexton, whom I had previously only had twitter correspondence with and he had promised me Mediterranean Gulls / Larus melanocephalus!
Now I had seen these gulls before but my views were always pretty rubbish and brief at best and I wanted an opportunity to get decent views of these birds, hopefully in summer plumage!
I'll be the first one to say that I'm not exactly a gull fanatic but Med Gulls are pretty darn special and why they congregate in Newbiggin is a mystery to me.
As soon as I arrived Stew had me locked onto two adults in breeding plumage! Beautiful birds, to me they resemble a much more appealing Black-Headed Gull, and unlike the black heads the Med Gull actually has a black head when in breeding plumage.
Unfortunately the weather was grim at best, not fantastic when photographing a bird that is predominantly grey and white.
In total we had five birds, the two breeding plumaged adults, two first winter birds and a second winter individual.
Great birds, great conversation and nice to put a name to yet another Twitter face.
Check out Stews blog and follow him on Twitter @Stewchat

First Winter Med's

Second Winter Med Gull

Breeding Plumage Adult Med's

David
Nature North East / The Northern Owl Project

The Pale Gull Trio

"Seagulls, bloody seagulls!" 

Yes, seagulls! Now I totally understand how dull that sounds as the topic of a blog post, gulls however are a bit of a challenging bird to ID, particularly during the winter months.
For example, they take several years to mature and in doing so yield a variety of different plumages. Awkward!
Originally they were a type of bird I was totally unphased by, that was until Saturday morning.
Maybe it was the infectious hype from fellow birders on the fish quay or perhaps it was the fact that this was probably the only time I've really given gulls the time of day.......and now they FASCINATE me!!
Whilst on the fish quay I spotted 3 lifer birds, 2 species and a hybrid, and they were;

• Iceland Gull
• Glaucous Gull
• Viking Gull (Herring x Glaucous hybrid)

The Pale Gulls!

Can you spot the pale rarity?

These three Gulls are all far north birds, hailing from their homes in Iceland and beyond to the Arctic Circle, not massively common around North East shores but they do seem to enjoy visiting North Shields Fish Quay during the winter months on occasion.

Glaucous Gull

Glaucous Gull
The Glaucous Gull is a large, bulky and thick billed Gull species. One key feature to notice with this birds winter plumage is the lack of dark feathers on the primary & tail feathers, giving it an overall very pale appearance. Lookout as well for the white ring it sports around its eye. 
As I say though, this is a large bodied bird, almost equivalent to a Greater Black Backed Gull! The size combined with the distinct pale colouration makes this gull stand out strongly amongst its more common peers.

Iceland Gull

Iceland Gull
Our Icelandic friend is a medium sized Gull, yet again its winter plumage is overall pale and the most distinguishing feature whether flying or perched is the length of the bird's primary feathers, they're long! You can clearly see the length of these on the above photograph.
The Iceland Gull also has a kinder appearance than the Glaucous Gull, this is more than likely due to its more slender beak. Giving it more dove appearance facially.

Viking Gull

Viking Gull
The mighty Viking Gull, also known as the Nelsons Gull, is a mighty bird. A blend of the Herring and Glaucous Gull, it's a hybrid species.  Unlike the Glaucous Gull it has a broad black horizontal bar on its tail feathers and slightly darkened primary feathers. Making is easier to distinguish at a distance.......allegedly! ;)

Viking Gull, showing both the broad barred tail and darkened primary feathers.

Glaucous & Viking Gull in the same shot, Viking Gull is at the bottom with the Glaucous Gull in the centre of the picture. Note the darker primary feathers on the Viking Gull in comparison to the very pale Glaucous.

Iceland Gull, showing pale elongated wing tips.

...The Turn Of The Tide

St Mary's Lighthouse, the beacon of North Tyneside

Another Friday had come around and after an early finish at work, and a quick cup of coffee at home,  I headed up to St Mary's Lighthouse & Wetland Nature Reserve to test out my new camera equipment and get my nature fix.

I couldn't wait to get snapping with my new Nikon, its worlds away from using my iPhone and telescope to digiscope. It just makes life a lot easier for a wildlife watcher like myself. Never say never mind, there may come a time when I need to digiscope a species that is just too far for the camera. Lets hope not though.. ;)

Whilst the wetland seemed to be quiet with only few Gull species, Mallard, Coot and a lone Mute Swan making up the bird life on the pond, the shoreline was abundant with shore birds; Oystercatcher, Turnestone, Curlew, Redshank and Ringed Plover.
Shore birds can be a royal pain in the rear to ID at times, depending on the species, they are however great entertainment value. They're either sleeping, flying like its going out of fashion or obsessively feeding like birds possessed! It was brilliant being able to get so close to them, that is until a random dog would come charging towards me and drive all the shore into the air. Funny thing is most of the birds would come back to the exact same 30 seconds later.
After a quick scramble up the cliff and through the gut I headed for the north end of the wetland, this when I seen a large female Sparrowhawk swooping down and into the small trees. Unfortunately I wasn't quick enough to photograph it as it first swooped down and after much searching I failed to locate it again. Bit of a bummer! At least I seen though.
As I headed back along the path to the car I bumped into another birder, canny bloke, and he was telling me about a Short Eared Owl that had been seen hunting around the fields between the Wetland and the caravan park a few days ago. I was loving this new information, anyone who knows me will know how passionate I am about Owls. I hung around for a bit keeping an eye across the fields and on a small flock of Goldcrest on the other side of the path. Goldcrest are great little birds, cheeping whilst moving from branch to branch in search of food.
All in all a great couple of hours on a nice chilled night, time to get to know the camera and observe the wildlife of St Mary's ......and as for the Sparrowhawk and Short Eared Owl ......I'll be back! ;)

Redshank at dusk

A 'ringed' Turnstone