Cranes in the Mist

The first real 'goodies' of the spring for Cleveland were these Cranes, present for most of the morning on RSPB Saltholme.

Didn't think it was worth trying to photograph them myself, as it was too foggy but having seen this pic by Toby, wish I had..... very evocative!

Let's hope this is the start of a spring packed with rarities!

Stejneger's Scoter

Finally got ourselves over to Kerry for the White-winged Scoter.... and a few surprises.

Firstly, the Irish roads have improved beyond all recognition nowadays, with good quality motorway all the way from Dublin to Limerick - probably halving the drive time and secondly, and more importantly, the duck was a real surprise - much better bird than I'd expected!

This image (Chris Batty's) is the best of the bird so far and shows just how distinctive it is compared to Velvet. The 'Rhino horn' stands out a mile, even at distance and the bill pattern (also ruling out deglandi) was also very obvious in the field. A very instructive and worthwhile twitch.

That's 770 (Netfugl) for the WP - something like 786 IOC. With the news that the 'Eastern-type' Yellow Wag in Devon has proven to be just that by dna, and proposed splits like American Great Egret and Siberian Chiffchaff in the pipeline, 800 looks not too far off now :-)

Spring time at Saltholme

What, with Sand Martins and Wheatear at Saltholme, spring must finally have arrived :-)

Spent some time there today, trying to photograph displaying Great-Crests but they'd obviously worn themselves out before I arrived!

At least I managed a decent shot of Wren - well the best I've managed to date - though a bit distant really (so over enlarged).

Off to Ireland overnight to see (well, hopefully see) the wintering White-winged Scoter......

Now I hope it still thinks it's winter and not spring yet!!

Scaling Dam.......

... or should that be damn!

seems, no matter how nice the weather is down in the real world, a trip up onto the moors at Scaling will guarantee a freezing cold wind. I (in general at least) hate the place!

The purpose of my visit was to try and photograph Willow Tit, as part of my latest craze, to capture as many as Cleveland's bird species as possible, http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=664017434&aid=290025 a project still very much in its infancy. No Willow Tits wanted to play this morning but the light around the feeding station was gorgeous, as shown by this Greenfinch, looking superb as it comes into breeding 'smartness'.

The Slavonian remains too though the angle of the light here made pics very difficult. It's well into attaining summer plumage now, so given a couple of weeks and some kinder light, i can see me making another trip up there. Twice in a month???

One in the bank?

Late 2003 brought the first twitchable Rufous Turtle Dove in my birding lifetime when one of the form meena was discovered at Stromness, Orkney.

So, just over 7 years to wait for its cousin, of the form orientalis, to turn up.

This bird's been wintering in an Oxfordshire garden, so kind thanks to the home-owners for putting up with the hoards.

They've raised well over £2000 for charity so far - the positive side of twitching.

Now, we just need those taxonomists to get their 'splitting' heads on......

Stonechats

The best weather so far this year got me out

and about with the camera this morning.

Nothing special to report but it was nice to see

a pair of Stonechats chasing each other around in

early courtship mode.

Stonechats suffer badly in cold spells, so to see

this pair after the real nasty snap around Christmas was nice.

A couple of White-fronts remain on Saltholme and an Arctic Redpoll has been apparently confirmed at Bowesfield today, after being seen briefly a few times over the past few days....

Guess that's tomorrow pencilled in then.