Fowl Weather

The plan today was meant to be an outing to the Saltholme RSPB site.

We had to be in Darlington first thing anyway.  But the weather in the area made it a rather risky trip on the roads with snow already causing problems on the roads first thing, so we opted instead for our more local stop at Staveley and we were rewarded with two more ducks to add to our now growing list!

Goldeneye and Scaup were our new birds with lots of Teal, Wigeon and Tufted Ducks also present.  We also got a much better sighting of the Short-eared Owl thanks to our brand new binoculars.


Shawnna

Sunny Scarborough

Enjoyed a beautiful day out to the coast today with glorious sunshine all day.  Bird watching was a little less successful than anticipated but wasn't hard for us to add 6 new birds to our list. 

We made two stops at Burton Riggs but it was pretty quiet.  Canada and Greylag geese, Wigeon, Mallards, Tufted Ducks along with a few Black Headed gulls were about all that was there.  Possibly some sort of Plover but we didn't get a good look.  And on the 2nd stop we noticed a White-Fronted Goose in with the Greylags.

At Scarborough Meir we were treated to a Red-Crested Pochard, a Mandarin and a few Pintails.  There was a great collection of birds here today, all hanging about to get a free meal.

On the coast we saw mainly Herring and Black Headed gulls, but a few Redshanks, Dunlin, Curlew, Oystercatchers, Grey Heron, and a large number of Wigeon on the water.

 Shawnna