Teesmouth Bird Club

Sent you a PM.

From the Hartlepool Mail tonight, a lady claims to have taken a picture of a Penguin!
I have added the link for the story below:

http://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/news/I-thought-I39d-pppicked-up.4475611.jp

Copy and paste the above link into the address bar of your browser.

I was contacted by The Hartlepool mail, and explained that it must be a Guillemot. having seen the picture, it is indeed a Guillemot, in either winter plumage, or Juvenile.
imagine the number of Twitcher's a Penguin would attract!!

This morning, I saw a Great Spotted Woodpecker fly over my garden and land on a tree 3 doors away. This is the first time I have seen one from my back garden!

I think Sunderland Bridge has had numbers of Hawfinch in the past. Sunderland Bridge is about 3 miles south of Durham City, and is a good place for Lesser Spotted Woodpecker and Little Owl, so if you don't see your Hawfinch, there are other good birds there.
Hope this helps.

I was watching a Swift annoying Herring Gulls over my house a couple of days ago. The Swift was flying towards the gulls (4 of them), having a swipe at them then flying away from them. It would fly slowly (by it's standards), until the gulls almost caught up, then it would drop and speed off, then repeat this process lots of times, making the gulls madder and madder!!

I only get the common garden birds in my garden, I have had Goldfinch feeding on the Nyjer seed feeders, they were nice to see, but the best bird in my garden was probably a female Sparrowhawk which was having a Starling for breakfast back in 2003. My Son was fascinated by this and it sparked an interest in birds which carries on to this day.
We still love watching Birds Of Prey, we have the female Sparrowhawk to thank for that

QuoteCommon Redstart has always been a firm favourite for me and comes out top. A regular summer visitor in the area I hale from but sadly pretty scarce in the area I now live.

That's a bogey bird for me, I have seen Black Redstart a few times, but have been unable to see Common Redstart.

Any birds of Prey are probably my favourites, I could watch them all day soaring in the sky!

As for Garden Birds, I have a soft spot for Goldfinch and 'My' robin which takes mealworms from my hand quite regularly