Long-Tailed Ducks

After an email from MH on Tuesday, I managed to squeeze in an hour at Seahouses Harbour at high tide on Wednesday. Five birds were present, including 2 stunning Drakes !

Down Holywell...

Heading down to Holywell today, yesterdays flock of 30 strong Golden Plover flew over the road at Earsdon. 3 Fieldfare and 2 Redwing were nice to see flying overhead on my way down to the Pond, the pond itself was relatively quiet, although there was a good number of Pochard (14 male and 4 females) along with 4 Coot, 12 Mallard, 13 Tufted (8 males, 5 females), 6 Moorhen, 2 Herring Gull, and the Mute Swan pair nest building in the northern reeds.

The feeding station at the pond held 5-6 Reed Bunting, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, a female Great Spotted Woodpecker and a single Brown Rat.

The top feeding station still has at least 8 Tree Sparrows knocking about. Down at the public hide a Redshank, and a Snipe fed on the shoreline with 12 Canada Geese around the Island.

The East Pool had the most activity, thawing from the recent freeze it held 4 pairs of Gadwall, 30 Greylag, 20+ Mallard, 2 Coot and 4 Moorhen. It was great to see and hear the Lapwings displaying over their breeding grounds.

Busy...

It's been a bit quiet here recently, hopefully this will change and I'll be back to normal postings in the not too distant future.

For the past few weeks I've been working on an Online Shop for my website, and yesterday it finally went live, featuring my RSPB Troup Head Collection.

I'm currently holding a 10% Offer over on my Facbook Page: https://www.facebook.com/CainScrimgeourWildlifePhotographyAndFilm

Swan Catch

Today I was extremely privileged to be invited to take part in the annual swan catch at WWT Caerlaverock. Roughly 180 Mute and Whooper Swans were caught, ringed, measured and released, with a number of birds having bloods and x-rays taken, in order to assess the amount of lead in each individual.

Its was a great experience handling and working with these birds, there's something truly wild in the nature of the Whooper Swans. Stunning animals.

Autumn

Autumn from Cain Scrimgeour on Vimeo.

White-Front

Its wasn't until late yesterday afternoon I managed to get down to the East Pool to see the reported Eurasian White-Fronted Goose, reported by SP and BD in amongst the Greylags.

In the fading light I grabbed this record shot.

I've been back to back with star stuff for the past couple of days, including a radio appearance with BBC Newcastle, you can listen to the clip HERE (from 50.12)

I had a Barn Owl over the car heading back from Hadrian's Wall this morning, and a Short-Eared Owl flying over Killingworth this afternoon.

The Stars

Last night I was blessed with a clear spell, and the forecast of stary skies, although the wind was strong. I headed up to the Simonside Hills to capture a time-lapse, as part of the Northumberland National Park by Night Project. 

I'd setup two cameras and went for a wander, passing through a Conifer plantation, heavily swaying in the wind, I reached a road. All of sudden a shooting star past low over head, very low, it trailed through the sky for at least 10 seconds, before breaking into two pieces and fading out. The best shooting star I've seen yet. I thought no more of it, until I picked up the cameras and found that I had caught it in a frame !

I was privileged to have this shot shown on this evenings BBC Look North.