MOUNTAIN BIRDER: CRIMDON DENE PART TWO

This is the second part of my holiday up at Crimdon.
Went for a six mile walk with the wife's cousin Mr. George Birks he knows absolutely everything about the history of the area and is also a good fisherman and loves his wildlife. He showed me a small Fulmar colony and we saw some good birds whilst out walking, a lot was to far off for decent pictures which was a shame but still I had a great time seeing Gannet, Guillemot, Common Tern, Sandwich Tern, Oystercatcher, Curlew, Common Scoter, Cormorant, Rock Dove, Sparrowhawk and Kestrel we also spotted a Great Crested Grebe on the sea.

the coastline

sandwich tern

herring gull

curlew

oystercatcher

a distant gannet taking a dive

cormorant

this little black blob is a common scoter

black headed gull

George also showed me this colony of sand martins they were still going in and out of the nest holes.

sand martin colony

The six mile trek nearly killed me but it was a cracking experience so cheers George.

Couple of days later after my legs had recovered I went along the beach for a stroll and came across these little beauties

ringed plover

charadrius hiaticula

There were also Dunlin and Sanderling along the tide line.

ringed plover, sanderling and dunlin

sanderlings

here's the 3 different species again in flight

sanderling

Also while walking along the beach this seal was swimming just a couple of yards from the waters edge, I think by the size of the snout it's a grey seal but I could be wrong.

grey seal???

These Oystercatchers drifted by.

oystercatchers

This is the many ships you see on the horizon a lot of them are bringing coal in from Russia for the local steel industry. Ironic really that the Tories shut all the pits and now they have to bring coal in from Russia. There were also lots of fishing boats the north sea is one of the UK's richest fishing waters. (information courtesy of George Birks "cheers man").

one of the big ships from Russia carrying coal

At the end of the week I walked up through Crimdon Dene itself a lovely little nature reserve that was buzzing with life. Lots of wild flowers, butterflies and birds. There were Whitethroats everywhere as well as linnets, goldfinches, thrushes, wrens, tit's, woodpigeons, swallows and wagtails. The leaves were so thick on the trees and the scrubby plants I bet I missed quite a few.