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| One of the supporting cast. |
Not so early on Sunday as i went down to Tynemouth to have a wander around and see a first for me in the form of a Dusky Warbler. I know the area well as i'm a regular visitor and having seen a good number of Blackbirds & Robins i then headed to where the Dusky had been reported. Some prolonged views but getting a decent image was another matter and very quickly i decided to just enjoy the bird and if i did come out into the open would then try to capture it. It could be seen without foliage blocking the views occasionally but always fleetingly and combined with the fairly poor conditions i didn't even tried to capture one image. Thoroughly enjoyed my first sighting and a dozen or so of the lads attending made for good craic. The heavens opened and off i sped. A few hours later, having visited my sister in Cullercoats and been fed n watered by her, i resurfaced just north of St Marys Island in Whitley Bay.
By this time the clouds had cleared and we had nice conditions in the main. A Barred Warbler had been spotted briefly a wee bit north from where a few birders and i were anticipating the sight of the Pallas's Leaf Warbler that had been present from the previous day. The Barred was never seen again as far as i am aware but the Pallas's gave brilliant, if slightly distant views for the next couple of hours. As before quite a few birders came and went, or remained, and the craic was more then enjoyable. To add to the enjoyment of my second newbie of the day dozens of Goldcrests were flitting around the mound like little jewels. One of the best birding afternoons that i have spent i reckon. I didn't manage any decent images despite everything in my favour to capture that superb "keeper" but i'm happy enough seeing the birds without taking a pic. Any images are a bonus in my book and not the be all and end all.
I have to say that the Pallas's Leaf Warbler was by far more stunning than i had expected...an absolute beauty of a bird ! ....and the Goldcrests set it off nicely. It verged on birding heaven yesterday.
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Cracking post John
ReplyDeleteCheers John. Came on here to look at your post from Sunday.
DeleteAye, there's nowt wrong with the occasional twitch, especially when the bird is a visual feast (which the Pallas's is and more) and not just a little brown tick on a list. your passion shines through John, nice post.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the lush comments Alan. I think it's quite difficult to actually define twitching. I kinda see it as going somewhere to see a bird at a place you would never normally go to. I used to go out regularly with Howdon Blogger on a Saturday and we would have a day out birding and occasionally we would end up somewhere, that had a nice bird, that we might not have visited normally but it was more of a biding day out than a twitch (in my opinion) but you could easily call it twitching. But for me it was as much visiting a new site and enjoying that as much as the bird itself. The bird was almost an excuse to go somewhere new. I'm not talking about birding MEGAs here either usually something a wee bit rarer than the norm. I would possibly nip out to "twitch" the next local..ish Pallas's having seen one. It was quite simply stunning in my book Alan.
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