Druridge and East Chevington

Little Owl at Widdrington village

Osier (salix viminalis) Widdrington tip

I like this fat stuffed cone at Bolam lake

Two of the five Smew on the South pool at East Chevington

Five Smew in the same shot at Chevvy

An inland trip this morning had to be aborted at Longwitton where the fog became so thick I couldn't see more than a few feet in front of me. I turned around and headed for the coast. I stopped at Widdrington tip first but just a short walk here as SITA were in the woods doing some work. Still managed to see 5 Snipe and 12 Lesser Redpolls. The Little Owl was halfway between Widdrington village and Chibburn farm and never moved while I was there and it was still in the same place when I passed a couple of hours later on my way home. I walked along the beach to East Chevington. I had the place to myself. Good variety of wildfowl here but the stars were the Smew...5 this time. They were too far away to photograph properly but if you enlarge the pic you can just make out the five of them together.

Last week I spent a bit of time inland but the lakes were all frozen and very little in the way of birdlife to see. On Thursday I went to Widdrington tip but this too was frozen but there were still 4 Snipe and 2 Woodcock here. I looked through the thousand or so Geese at Bell's pond but decided not to get out of the car as the whole flock would have been frightened up into the air. Last stop was Ashington for the Waxwings, good views of about 36 birds but they wouldn't settle while I was there and spent most of the time flying around. Lovely birds though. Back in Morpeth a Tawny owl was flying around Falcon hill on Tuesday morning at 6am.