more on foot

After a cold start, good conditions with another mild calm day with 5 species added.
Out 7 hours, but only covered 7 mile

Several skeins of noisy Pinks over north during the day

Red-legged pair, several overdue Leos with a dead bird also, single Skylark, a female Peregrine appeared right on cue - giving a close up fly-by, what a beaut.
Not so pretty at Biffa & an hour peering down into the pit without scope added LBBG to bring up #81.
Tried for Barnie at 2 spots but no joy,

No Brambling despite spending a good while viewing game crops but the only thing out of the ordinary was a leucistic Reed Bunt, with good numbers of sparrows & buntings

Everything self-found so far, but i have a Waxwing tip-off, with 50 birds 4mile away.... surely i'll get one without having to resort to twitching......?

expired Leo

Waders n All sorts

All sorts going on and a wide array seen over the last couple of days

Waders.
A stroll round Rainton yestday evening produced a circling Green Sandpiper closely followed by a Jack Snipe, both giving a couple of fly-bys, the Avocet remains and a few Little rings are mobile round the sites, with 200 black bellied Golden Plover circling before moving on north. A tiny number of Common Snipe are trickling through, Redshanks maintain a breeding population for now... Curlew and Oystercatcher are yet to settle, though several  Lapwings have been on eggs for over a week.
 A summer plumage Dunlin dropped in over-night, hopefully we'll have another good year and be due a good few more passage waders

Winter and Summer mix
Winter thrushes are hanging on, with a few Redwings yesterday including a singing single, Fieldfares will be here a week or two longer, though i heard some moving off north overhead tonight.

Swallows still seem in short supply, just the odd 1 or 2, Sand Martins too still in small numbers, although joined by a single House Martin today right on cue.

Tiff-taffs are everywhere and Blackcaps in good numbers - thesy seem to have leap-frogged Willow Warblers in the arrival stakes over the last couple of years.  Willow Warblers have been late this year, but yestdays 3, increased to 10 overnight.

A small number of Siskin, Redpoll and Short-eared remain, and we watched interaction between 2 Long-eareds after dusk which saw one gain height and  move off  miles to the north untill out of sight, but this one, sadly found today near last years nest, wasnt going anywhere :-