BF Bash, 15 December 2007
I spent some time yesterday with a few other hardy chararcters from Bird Forum on the annual North East Red Kite Bash.
I’ll start with the end of the day – it was amazing to watch the local red kites flying in to roost from a bus stop on the Sherburn Towers Estate in Rowlands Gill, Gateshead, but there was no light for photographs.
The day started at Shibdon Pond NR but it was completely frozen over, and apart from the resident ducks and geese, including a surprise Barnacle goose and a funny one that I tried to make into a Ross’s goose hybrid, there was very little about.
We moved on to Thornley Wood feeding station – loads of squirrels (all greys unfortunately) and no light for bird photography (the great tit shots here are from there – low shutter speeds!)
The final venue for the day was Low Barns NR in Co. Durham.
Yep, it was frozen solid too, and only the feeding station really had any activity (the chaffinch and dunnock pictures are from there).
We did get distant views of a kingfisher on the far side of the lake, but aside from that, Usual Suspects only (though I did see a buzzard on the drive back).
And that was it. Quiet, cold, and great fun, even without much in the way of birds to photograph.
