28th February 2010 – Teesmouth (mostly)

Chris arrived at mine at 0830hrs and we were soon on our way east! Our first non-caffeine related stop was Cowpen Bewley Woodland Park. The superb drake Ring-necked Duck was performing very well. Next we had a look through some gulls in a flooded field near Cowpen Bewley Tip;  1st winter Yellow-legged Gull was the pick of the bunch! Arriving in the Saltholme area we checked the Petro Plus and Calor Gas pools then onto the Allotment Pool. There was a...

21st February 2010 – American Wigeon Re-visited….

Chris arrived at mine at 0830hrs and we made our way towards Caerlaverock. On the approach road towards the reserve we scanned through a couple of flocks of Barnacle Geese a good number of Pinkfooted Geese there were no other birds of note amongst the flocks. Once on the reserve we made our way to the hide overlooking the Whooper Pond. It was not long before we were enjoying excellent views of the superb drake American Wigeon. The drake Pochard and...

19th February 2010 – Another day, another duck!

As Bryan had not been to Saltholme since it had become an RSPB reserve, this was todays plan. We made our way east via Langdon Beck in the hope of deeing Black Grouse. However we failed to find any grouse. A Grey Partridge was some compensation. We stopped off at Cowpen Bewley Woodland Park where we got fantastic views of a drake Ring-necked Duck. At Saltholme Pools we enjoyed views of Wigeon, Pintail and Gadwall among the throng of wildfowl...

18th February 2010 – American Wigeon at Caerlaverock

Bryan Wainwright had come to stay for a few days; so we decided to go to Caerlaverock to hopefully see the American Wigeon that had been present the previous few days. As we arrived along the approach road to the reserve; we could see thousands of Barnacle Geese feeding in nearby fields. I gave them a brief scan before chatting to Marco McGinty who was checking through the geese more thoroughly. Next we made our way to the Whooper Pond where Brian...

13th-14th February 2010 – Ireland part II…..

News of a Thayer’s Gull and the continuing presence of the Dresser’s Eider in Ireland was excuse enough to meet up with Derek again. So Chris H and Craig arrived at mine at 2300hrs and we made our way towards Stranraer. After stopping off to pick Chris H up; we made our way to the ferry terminal. We boarded the ferry at c0300hrs and were soon on our way to Belfast. After disembarking at around 0630hrs we soon met up with Derek and were on our...