Early December

Lots of Waxwings were still present early in the month though fewer were being reported by the middle of the month; a flock in Keswick until at least the 9/12/08 varied from 20-46, while in Penrith numbers reached 35+ on the 12/12/08 and 120 on the 3/12/08, several flocks were present in Carlisle with 95 on Currock road on the 5/12/08 and 29 on Boundary road the same morning.



Longtown also hosted a nice little group along the path to Arthuret ponds with 39 present on the morning of 8/12/08 and Dalston still had up to 30 birds on the 07/12/08 and had had 60 birds earlier in the week. Numerous other small flocks were reported in the North of the County including 16 at Tarraby, 15 near Rockliffe, c12 Cavendish Terrace, Carlisle, 50 over morton, Carlisle and 4 Houghton. I managed to photograph one of the longtown birds with a coloured ring on it which turned out to have been a female ringed in Aberdeen in early November. David Higson also photographed a different colour ringed bird in Dalston, this to turned out to have been ringed in Aberdeen in early november



Not many other birds were reported this fortnight apart from Waxwings, exceptions were a Long Tailed Duck at Grune Point on 3/12/08 and in Silloth Docks on the 14/12/08, presumably the same bird. A Little Gull was also reported from Silloth on the 13/12/08.

A stunning male Hen Harrier hunted fields opposite Newton Arlosh house on the 15/12/08 and a Little Egret was on the saltmarsh at Raby Coates nearby on the same day, while the day before 2 Short Eared Owls hunted over border Marsh. Another male Hen Harrier was seen at Campfield RSPB on the 9/12/08 and 56 Pintail was an excellent count on the pools at the top of North Plain Lonnen on the 14/12/08.

The rarest birds reported in the region this fortnight were Ring Necked Ducks with 2 females reported, the wintering Bassenthwaite Lake bird on the 9/12/08 and another female flying up the river Eden at Grinsdale during a web count on the 14/12/08.

A wintering Bittern was again seen at Siddick Pond at dusk on the 2/12/08, with 2 seen on the 27/11/08, and the Twite flock at Port Carlisle remained steady at c35 on the 3/12/08, with a Greenshank and Little Egret present on the same day.

Another unusual bird for the north of the county was Green Woodpecker with one seen near Lessonhall on the 14/12/08.

26 Twite were at Old Sandsfield on the 8/12/08 with 67 Goldeneye on the river Eden there and on Talkin Tarn on the 9/12/08 40 Goosander was a good count for recent years. A Kingfisher at Talkin Tarn on 12/12/08 was also very unusual for the site.