End of year favourites - Non-garden birds

This is my final posting of favourites from 2015.  It was a good year for watching owls.  I saw both barn owl and short-eared owls flying in daylight but my only tawny owl shot isn't worth sharing.  Long-eared and little owls are on my wish list for 2016.

I saw more yellowhammers than ever before.  This one was at Branton in Northumberland.

Then a couple of LBJs (little brown jobs) - reed warbler and reed bunting.

And a little white job, a leucistic chaffinch.

Next a few fish-eaters from Gosforth Park.

This is the most endangered bird in Newcastle - a kittiwake.  There is a proposal to put up netting to stop the birds nesting on the Tyne Bridge, which would be a tragedy.  You can lodge an objection through a link here.

And finally a few favourites from the Farne Islands.

So, not a bad year.  I'm looking forward to better photos and new species in 2016.

The last to leave

A reed warbler in Gosforth Park on Friday showing the correct way to eat a crane fly.

From what I read the dark grey eye tells us this is a first year bird.  It should be gone any day now - these photos were taken two days ago so the bird is late in departing.  It may have stayed on because of the bumper late insect harvest in the recent fine weather.  The graph below of current BirdTrack data for reed warbler shows that nearly all the others have already left for Africa.