Bonaparte's Gull

A successful short twitch to Heysham as we were straight onto the adult Bonaparte's Gull. Also seen were a splendid summer plumage Mediterranean Gull plus the usual common gulls

Best Images of 2011 Pre Blog

just a few images of some of the birds seen in 2011 before I started this blog. Stunning pictures of Dotterel taken by Dave Evans

Roseate Tern

Me and Dave had a great day out in the sunshine on the east coast. We initially went to Wykeham to look for Honey Buzzards and failed. Again.
We then  went to Amble and got the boat over to Coquet Island. We had great views of sea birds including Puffin, Guillemots, Razorbill, Shag, Common tern, Arctic tern and Sandwich tern. There were Eider in the harbour and plenty of Cormorants. The star attraction was Roseate tern and we had a rather unsatisfactory view of one sat on the rocks. It was hard birding due to the movement of the boat, the distance fomr the island and my lack of experience at looking at terns. Still, we saw it so it goes on the list!.
After Northumbria we went looking for Quail in a field near at Kirklevington in Cleveland and were rewarded by at least 2 singing males. We also saw a pair of stunning Yellow wagtails.
  We finished back at Wykeham in the evening hoping for Nightjar and failed but were rewarded by some excellent roding Woodcock. All in it was a great day's birding.

                                                                Common tern

                                                                      Arctic tern