If you go to the Ski resort of Solden, in the Austrian Alps, head to the restaurant at Tiefenboch. At the entrance to the chair lift at the bottom of red run 35, the staff put out seed for the Snow Finches. At 2796 metres (9171 ft) is this the higest feeding station in Europe?
The following vid, rather dodgy due to being taken on my phone, also shows Alpine Chough (Pyrrhocorax graculus).
The real highlight of the week was a young Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) spotted from my hotel balcony - a lifer for me.
Finally, the week came to a predictable end at Innsbruck airport, when our incoming plane was diverted to Munich due to bad weather. A four hour delay gave me a chance to join the group gathered on the airport viewing terrace..
747s showing well but no sign of the Thomas Cook bird.
Off to the Austrian Alps tomorrow for a weeks snowboarding, bins in pocket, ready for a few new birds. On previous trips I've had Nutcracker, Snow Finch and plenty of Alpine Chough. Hoping to get some raptors this year, maybe a Lammergeier - hope it's not feeding on my bones :o
Large number of Common Gull on the sea off Whitley Bay and a large movement of Black-headed Gull going south. At the north end of the beach there were another four Rays Bream washed up (see last post). At St Marys, waders included Curlew, Oystercatcher, Turnstone, Sanderling, Dunlin and two Bar-Tailed Godwit.
Found the remains of this fish on Whitley Bay beach last Tuesday. Anyone know what it is?
Thanks to Davy T it's now been identified as a Rays Bream (Brama Brama).It is a common bream in southern European waters, less common in northern seas. An open sea fish which migrates northward according to water temperature (really?).
My first twitch of the year saw me heading off yesterday morning for Newholm, near Whitby, to see the Black-throated Thrush. I got there at around 11 30am and was hardly surprised when I found that it had not been seen for 2 hours - not since a cat had literally come within a whisker of getting its claws into a Siberian breakfast.
No sooner had I started to get that sinking feeling, the thrush landed in the garden right in front of me. Jostled amongst the birding paparazzi I managed to grab some video.
There was a good selection of other birds in the garden including blue, great, coal, marsh and long-tailed tit.
For the keen bunch of Geordie birders who had arrived at dawn, their reward was a Barn Owl that obligingly landed on a post next to where they were parked. A local resident said that it's a regular at dawn and dusk. While having a crack with the Geordies, one of them asked if I had seen the Little Auk. Answering "No, where is it?", they pointed to the hedge behind me. Sure enough, there in the hedge was a Little Auk!
Sadly, it was a deceased individual that had been oiled and presumably crash landed in the village. I look forward to seeing one with a pulse.
The fun wasn't over yet, and a number of the group headed off to the South Gare near Redcar to see the Black Redstart and Snow Bunting. I drove right to the end of the Gare and immediately a large flock of 50+ Snow Bunting lifted from the beach. With several scopes now set-up in various directions 3 Red-throated Divers were quickly picked up including a couple just off the point.
A wander to the estuary side of the Gare found the Black Redstart feeding along the rocky shore. Job done :)
The 2 Bewick Swans were still near Newsham this afternoon, grazing within a group of Mute Swans. The Bewick is the smallest of the swans that occur here with a shorter-necked and more rounded head shape. While bill pattern varies, it always shows more black than yellow (opposite in Whooper Swan).
I was passing Tynemouth boating lake just before dusk and pulled over to work through the gulls. There were plenty of ducks including a couple of Pochard and Wigeon, and the usual contingent of Tuffties. The gulls all checked out as expected with mostly Black-headed Gulls and a couple of Common Gulls.
But then, on a second scan "What the.................is that!"- I came across a Melanistic Black-headed Gull. It had me going for a very long second. Still, I've not seen one before - a 'mutant' tick.
A run up to St Marys gave me 13 Pale-bellied Brent Geese on the rocks north side of the causeway. As you can see and hear, it was rough out there. See if you can spot the immature Eider passing behind. If you can ID the waders that zoom past then you're cooking on gas!
