Saturday, January 22, 2011

A couple of walks out today, firstly down to the pond this morning then along the coast to Craster and back this afternoon. Its still very quiet here, even though it was quite a pleasant mild day. There was nothing to call home about down at the pond, probably due to a shoot taking place in Village Wood. This afternoon's stroll to Craster wasn't a great deal better but I added three common species to the OFFH list - Greylag, Pied Wagtail and Sparrowhawk.

In the field at our road ends a large curlew flock was noteworthy here with 152 birds striding about with one Greylag and 2 Stock Doves for company. 30+ Fulmars are on the cliffs here now too, but despite a mile walk along farmland and coastal grassland I'm still waiting for my first Skylark and Meadow Pipit of 2011. The large hard weather movements before Christmas must have totally cleared the local birds out of here and I imagine it will be early spring before they return.

I should give the list a bit of a boost tomorrow when I do the count from Boulmer to Howick...

4 comments:

Birding about Northumberland said...

Any Sign of Kittiwakes, apparently a few have been spotted near here. not by me though

Stewart said...

Hi Michelle, no Kittiwakes on the cliffs yet, but there are 30 odd Fulmars on the ledges now. Last year the Kitti's arrived in the first week of March with 100+ birds present.

I have seen one or two Kittiwakes this month but they were very distant offshore during rough weather...

Cheers Stewart.

Birding about Northumberland said...

Let me know when they arrive as Mike and I are planning a trip your way and they are my favourite Gulls
Cheers
Michelle

Stewart said...

If I were you, I would wait until the daffodils are well in flower then pick a nice sunny April day and Bob's your uncle, Kittiwakes calling Kitty-wake from every ledge available....