Twitching: The Never Ending Story!

We arrived at Langdon Beck at 7:15am in hopes of seeing Black Grouse. We drove up a road that our mentor, Rob, told us about and scanned for any moving black blobs. We then continued down the road and over a stream, when we saw a darker bird with two female Pheasants. I thought it could be a female Black Grouse, but when I looked away to examine the photos, I saw a male Black Grouse in a field just further ahead. We drove up and stopped the car with our windows down. We used the car like a hide. I took a record of it, but there were only two (a male and a female) so we continued along the road, to see if there were any more. We then stumbled upon a field with 4, so I took a record shot of  three of them in a row. There were also many Mallards & Greylag Geese in the fields.

We then came to the end of the road where the Black Grouse were at. We had been told by Rob that Red Grouse can sometimes be seen along the B6277. We made our way towards this road, anticipating the well camouflaged Red Grouse within the long grass. We saw two grouse-like shapes on the side of the road. They were Red Grouse! A pair were feeding right next to the car. The male had prominent red "ears". I took a record shot of this beautiful bird and left elated. 

Image from @RobsBirding, not same bird.

We arrived along the boundary of  Newfield Sewage Works at 9:50am in hopes of seeing the recently reported Pallas's Warbler. On site, we saw an obliging Marsh Tit as well as a Ring-necked Parakeet and a flock of Redwing and Fieldfares. There were plenty of Blue Tits, Long-tailed Tits and Bullfinches, as well as a few Treecreepers. A birder then spotted it along the fence, but it was only for a fraction of a second and I couldn't get eyes on it. After a long hour and a bit of waiting, a man called Mike (who we had met previously at Spurn) signalled that the Pallas's Warbler was showing well, behind the sewage works. We all ran to where Mike signalled and looked for the bird. I then saw a small bird with a central crown stripe, sat on a branch, preening. It was the Pallas's Warbler! I enjoyed watching this pretty bird, but couldn't take a photo as it was embedded within the branches of the bush. It then flitted off. We then chatted with someone called Dan, who we had previously seen at a Woodchat Shrike twitch in North Yorkshire. He was fortunate to simply arrive and see the bird without any waiting! We were on a high and had five and a half hours of daylight left to bird.

We arrived at a Morrison's car park in Sunderland in hopes of seeing a wintering adult Iceland Gull. We threw some bread down to see if the Iceland Gull would come to feed. It was a bit awkward wearing binoculars and a camera in the middle of shopping centre. We waited uncomfortably, but to no avail. 

Still optimistic, we then went to a second site for this species. We arrived at Big Waters NR and scanned a flock of Common Gulls on the lake, but couldn't see any with white wingtips. We then went to the watchtower to see if we could get a better vantage point.  After much effort we couldn't connect with the Iceland Gull, but did see a nice Roe Deer along the path. 

We then went to Druridge to see a Firecrest, but when we arrived at 3:50pm, we saw that the Iceland Gull had been reported at Big Waters NR, and because I was desperate to to see one, we decided to double back and try our luck again, even for just the twenty minutes of light left. We did the thirty minute drive to Big Waters NR and when we arrived, we frantically looked on the lake multiple times but couldn't even see any Common Gulls. It was turning dark, so after a further trip to the watchtower to see if anything could be seen from there, we headed home.

Overall, a great day with three lifers (Red Grouse, Black Grouse & a much wanted Pallas's Warbler).