I had a drive…

 …to South Shields the other day primarily to see the Snow Buntings that have been there for a while now. They did show a few times but were very flightily flying off if anyone on the pier got too close. A bird that wasn’t bothered at all about people was a very obliging Turnstone that was on the pier wall and posed for pictures. A pair of Eider Duck was also nice to see, as was a Pipit in the dunes. The sea was quite wild with massive white horses breaking near the shore and looked great through the long lens I had on the camera. 

Snow Bunting

Turnstone

Male Eider Duck

Diving Male Eider Duck

Female Eider Duck

Pipit

The sea was a bit choppy

Gull fighting the wind and waves

Disappointed to miss…

…the Little Gull, Glaucous Gull and Kittiwake at South Shields last Tuesday. However, the Snow Buntings more than made up for it. Moreover, it is always fantastic to watch the Fulmars performing from the cliffs. A Sparrowhawk at Lamesley was the pick of the bunch (for me at least) of some canny birds including Shelduck, Shoveler, Gadwall, Teal, Wigeon and Curlew. A couple of Bank Vole and a Rat (unfortunately) have moved in outside the hide picking up the seed dropped from the birdfeeders.

Sparrowhawk

Curlew

Rat

A cracking male Snow Bunting

Female Snow Bunting

Fulmar

Kestrel

Common Gull

One of the many Pigeons on the cliffs at South Shields

 

South Shields

A trip to South Shields for the Glaucous Gull yesterday, I managed to see it but unfortunately did not get any pictures. I also managed to get a brief glimpse of a Snow Bunting, of which I did get some (rubbish) pictures. The Fulmars on the cliffs were great to watch and I could have easily spent all day taking photos of them. The Little Owl was in its usual spot, which was nice, even the sun put in an appearance in the afternoon so overall a canny day out was had. Here are just a few of the images I got.

Fulmar

Little Owl

Snow Bunting

Turnstone

Eider with what to me looks like a crab

Sanderling. I love the way they run along the beach

Sanderling. It’s probably thinking to its self “I knew those ballet lessons would pay off”

Oystercatcher

Pied Wagtail. This one seems to have a lot of yellow on its head.