Saturday, April 21, 2007



Above - BH Wagtail notes.

Mild with a light SW breeze. Overcast and dull.

Plenty of summer migrants around now. Yesterday morning 4 Sandwich and 3 Common Terns were off Longhoughton Steel, where 5 Common Scoter, 2 Red throated Divers and 1 Goldeneye all flew N. A single male Wheatear was on the beach.

Today 2 Willow Warblers were singing in the golfcourse roadside scrub. I heard a Lesser Whitethroat sub-singing in here too but just couldn't clinch it. 5 male and 1 female Wheatears were on the runways, at least two of the males being Greenland birds.
Up at the village, a belting male Blue headed Wagtail was my first 'yellow' wag of the year, feeding on the tideline. Its call was subtely different from our own Yellow Wagtails in that it was more buzzy, wader like. 4 House Martins, 2 Sand Martins and several Swallows were around the cottages, 3 Red throated Divers were on the sea and a group of waders consisted of 40 Ringed Plover, 35+ Redshank and 22+ Dunlin, many of which were in black bellied summer plumage.

Later on a quick check of Alnmouth wetland and river had 1 male Goosander, 3 Willow Warblers, 3 Blackcaps, 2 Chiffchaff, a pair of Bullfinches and a few Mallard, Teal and Coot.

I didn't get around to taking any photos today,but I might have a go for the Blue headed Wagtail early on tomorrow if it is still there.

99. Sandwich Tern
100. Common Tern
101. Willow Warbler
102. Yellow Wagtail ( Blue headed race)
103. House Martin

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Stewart, really enjoying your blog. Drawings tip top as usual. All the best cuddy.

Stewart said...

Cheers B...