Beginning on Thursday morning, I picked DC up from York Station and we were soon on site at Dunnington for the Pine Bunting. Unfortunately, the bird wasn't playing ball, and whilst DC managed a 2 second view of it in a hedge, I did not; the Yellowhammer flock then took up and splintered, and we couldn't track the bird down again. Whilst it was nice to see farmland birds in numbers, with plenty of Tree Sparrows and a party of Corn Buntings on show, some of the birding skills on display were less impressive. A shout of Pine Bunting proved to be a female Yellowhammer ('But it's not got any yellow on it?'), and an announcement of 'Oh, there's a Tree Sparrow in the hedge. And another. Oh, and another!' made us wonder what the observer in question had been doing since his arrival an hour earlier - clearly not looking at any of the birds. So after more than 4 hours, we decided to cut our losses. Fortunately the ticker and dipper were the right way around, as I had seen a male Pine Bunt previously (Wadborough in Worcs in 2005) so wasn't too despondent.
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| No Pine Bunting here |
Onwards, we gently defrosted on our drive over the North York Moors to Skinningrove. We soon had the Eastern Black Redstart in our sights on the far side of the jetty, where it showed well on the rocks with the local Robins. Very murky conditions made photography difficult, but it was a little gem of a bird, and it co-operated by landing in front of me on the beach at one point.
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| The path to the Eastern Black Redstart |
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| Eastern Black Redstart |
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| Eastern Black Redstart |
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| Eastern Black Redstart |
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| Eastern Black Redstart |
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| Eastern Black Redstart |
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| DC digiscoping the EBR |
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| The EBR's hang-out |
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| The EBR landing on the beach in front of me |
By now it was mid-afternoon, and our birding options were limited. We pressed on north, taking a brief detour on the way through Newcastle to the fish quay in North Shields. Despite only having about 20 minutes of light, we picked out 3 juv Glaucs and 2 1st W Iceland Gulls (one dark, one pale). We also noted a small, dark Lesser Black-backed Gull but failed to look at it properly (my excuse is it was virtually dark by then) - see here for an image of this weird looking bird.
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| The darker 1st W Iceland Gull |
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| The paler 1st W Iceland Gull |
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| Two of the three Glaucs |
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| The fish quay at North Shields |
Friday morning, and having spent the night in Warkworth, we were on site at East Chevington early doors, soon locating the Pacific Diver from the hide half way up the eastern side of the 'north pool'. The bird showed well, swimming through the narrow channel between the island and the shore, before becoming more distant. A good selection of other bits were also present, including 5 Scaup and a Slavonian Grebe, displaying Red-breasted Merganser, and a flock of Twite on the beach (although the Shorelark were unfortunately absent).
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| Pacific Diver |
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| Pacific Diver |
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| The view from the hide |
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| DC in action |
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| Slavonian Grebe |
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| Two drake Scaup |
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| DC celebrating his second tick on two days |
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| Twite |
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| Wintry conditions at East Chevington |
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| DC posing with a dead seal, for some reason. No Ivory Gull today! |
Having had our fill of the diver, we continued north through increasingly wintry conditions, arriving at Goswick Sands - despite Google maps best efforts to mislead us. We soon picked up some scoter on the sea to the south, but they were distant and the sea itself had a big swell, making viewing very tricky. Having picked our way through the Long-tailed Ducks, Great Northern and Red-throated Divers and a few auks, we were about to give up when we noted a larger scoter flock the north, which hadn't been present a short while earlier. Yomping through the dunes, we got ourselves in position, only for the weather to close in, with snow making visibility very poor. About to give up again, the weather suddenly cleared, the flock came closer into shore, and there was the Black Scoter. Sea conditions made photographing it impossible, but we enjoyed half decent views, including in flight.
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| Goswick Sands |
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| Tracking down the scoter flock in the snow |
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| Black Scoter - it was out there! |
Continuing north through more snow, we had a brief detour off the A1 for a Great Grey Shrike, which we saw well (despite my protestations that it was going to be a waste of time), sat in a tree on a narrow strip of land between the A1 and the east coast railway line. We were assisted by a chap who had spotted the bird from the A1, and had come round to view it from the parallel road we were on.
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| Great Grey Shrike |
With time against us, we bypassed Surf Scoter and American Wigeon, arriving at Strathclyde Country Park in Motherwell late afternoon. Carpark 4 was duly found, and the search for a Ring-billed Gull began. Unfortunately there were thousands of gulls all along the loch (which they presumably use for roosting), and no sign of the RBG, so we cut our losses.
Having over-nighted just south of Lochwinnoch, we began Saturday on the shores of Loch Barr, in search on the long-staying Hooded Merganser. After a couple of hours without seeing it, I became convinced it must be tucked under the far shore, where there were a lot of duck. When they all flushed, and maybe 100 birds (mainly Teal) flew out onto the loch, I knew this was going to be our moment. So we scanned... and scanned... and scanned some more. But no sign of the Hoodie. And so, after a total of eight and a half hours of scanning, with checks of Kilbirnie Loch and a brief break for lunch, we couldn't find hide nor hair (nor indeed feather) it. It had been seen the previous evening, which spurred on thoughts about whether we shouldn't have bothered with the RBG... And even more frustratingly, it was then seen the following day! Sometimes I hate birding. Still, we had lovely views of Goosander.
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| Lochwinnoch - lovely! |
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| I think I've had enough of Lochwinnoch |
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| What an awful place |
All of this made the 3 hour journey down to Lancaster drag even more than it might of done, but it did mean that we were out an about looking for geese on the Lancashire mosses nice an early. They were streaming in from the west, and we duly noted where most of them were landing, finding a huge flock of Pink-footed Geese (thousands and thousands) at Braides. Part of the flock was obscured, but amongst the birds that we could see, we eventually picked out the Todd's Canada Goose, slightly larger than the Pinks but it would be dwarfed by our normal Canadas. Also present were up to 7 Eurasian White-fronts, and a single Barnacle Goose. The former was one of our main targets, but the Red-breasted Goose, our other main target, couldn't be found, despite scrutinising more geese around Skronkey - of course, it was seen later in the morning after we'd departed.
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| Pinkies |
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| Todd's Canada Goose |
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| Two Euro WFG |
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| Pinks in flight |
Our final stop of the trip was a rather unprepossessing place on the south side of Southport, where a very average looking grass field held 6 Cattle Egrets, and similar numbers of Littles. I then dropped DC off with his family, and headed for home.
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| Two of the 6 Cattle Egrets |
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| Cattle and Little Egrets |
All in all, it was a good trip, with highlights being Pine Bunting (DC only), Eastern Black Redstart, Glaucous and Iceland Gulls, Pacific Diver, Great Grey Shrike, Todd's Canada Goose and Cattle Egret - although our luck (or lack thereof) with the Hooded Merg is particularly galling (and Ring-billed Gull and Red-breasted Goose can also be counted as dips). Perhaps we were looking down the wrong end of our scopes for the Hoodie, or perhaps it had gone on a day trip somewhere else. But I suppose you can't win 'em all.
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