Sunday, December 24, 2006

Merry Christmas!

While most of the country has been clothed in a shroud of fog, up here in north Northumberland the weather has been glorious. The past couple of days have been clear and sunny, sometimes frosty, and the sea has been mirror calm. Until today. I intended to catch up with some survey work but the fog has finally arrived leaving visibility too poor to see anything. Oh well.

This week some short Boulmer visits have produced some reasonable wader numbers - 94 Oystercatchers, 70+ Dunlin, 50+ Sanderling, 5 Purple Sandpipers, 14 Bar tailed Godwits, 17 Knot, 56+ Redshank, 77+ Turnstone and 20+ Grey Plover. Duck numbers are up too with 5 Shelduck, 41 Mallard, 41 Wigeon, 9 Red breasted Mergansers and 15 Goldeneye. 5 Pale bellied Brent Geese flew north and an adult Mediterranean Gull flew inland.

The Little Egret has been around on and off all week and someone reported two Black throated Divers yesterday. I could do with those, I haven't seen one here since I moved up here 18 months ago. They are by far the rarest of the divers in the area and would definately be twitched!

Of the passerines ( what there were, anyway ), 4 + Rock Pipits were on the beach.

Just out of patch area, a Barn Owl was at Ratcheugh, hunting the roadside near the Alnwick road.

So, a Merry Christmas to everyone, cheers!

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