A third attempt came up trumps as the W. Hartford Great grey Shrike showed well searching for prey from it’s tree perches,frequently dropping to the ground. I watched from a few hundred metres away as a “non-birding ” long -lens chap approached\u00a0 at close range. The Shrike flew off out of sight towards the trees bordering the river . A feeding flock of Meadow Pipits alighted from the rough grass- 18 in total, quite unusual in winter. During the recent hard winters, barely a single one remained in the county. One or two Kestrels hovered nearby. This declining\u00a0species seems\u00a0to have done well this year,with good numbers seen on each day out.<\/p>\n
On up to Q.E. 2 lake,where the Black necked Grebe was allowing close approach for some photographers.<\/p>\n
At Widdrington Moor , several birders were looking for the reported Hen Harrier,but all to be seen were 2\u00a0Buzzards and 3 Kestrels. At the roadside, a solitary Redwing\u00a0 joined a feeding Mistle Thrush. I headed a little north to Maidens Hall Lake,where 2 more Buzzards and Kestrels hunted,then bingo, the Harrier , a ringtail was quartering the rough grass among newly planted trees. Good ‘scope views were had for 20 mins,before it drifted south towards West Chevington.<\/p>\n
Now down to Druridge where a huge flock of Pink footed geese were on the wing between here and Chevington. I estimated 3,ooo.<\/p>\n
At Cresswell a male Stonechat was noted and 20+ Tree Sparrows at the feeders. The pond held many Wigeon and 300 Lapwings in nearby fields. A few Snipe sat\u00a0 near the hide. The 9 Whoopers remained at Warkworth Lane.<\/p>\n
At Swallow Pond a mixed flock of Siskins and Redpolls were good to see.<\/p>\n
A,S,Jack<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A third attempt came up trumps as the W. Hartford Great grey Shrike showed well searching for prey from it’s tree perches,frequently dropping to the ground. I watched from a few hundred metres away as a “non-birding ” long -lens chap approached\u00a0 at close range. The Shrike flew off out of sight towards the trees […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4968","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4968"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4968\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4973,"href":"https:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4968\/revisions\/4973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}