Over the Border...

 Yesterday for a change Jane, Peggy and myself took a trip northwards across the border to visit some of the small harbours that abound up there. 

The route took in Eyemouth, St Abbs and Cove before returning home via the A1. At the furthest point from home we were only 50 miles away, so I don't know why we don't visit more often, I mean even Newcastle is 40 miles south of us, so its not too far really.

The day was sunny, cool and breezy. At Eyemouth, we parked on the high car park south of the harbour and walked down some steep steps on to the south quayside. Although, not a birding trip, the bins were around my neck and I just wish I'd brought my camera too. Almost the very first bird seen as we were half way down the steps was a lovely, bright white adult Glaucous Gull hanging in the wind with about 20 Herring Gulls before it glided right over our heads and down into the harbour.

Near the bridge were a couple of fish boxes that attracted the gulls as well as a fast flowing stream where some were bathing and resting on the bank. The Glauc however was standing on the harbour wall as people walked past not 10 feet away. I took a few phone shots ( not through bins or anything, just the phone) as a record - 

Eyemouth Harbour, the steps we walked down are in the distance on that grass bank.

Adults Glaucous Gull, a beauty, the first adult I've seen for ages.

As we walked along the other side of the harbour to the entrance, a couple of families were gazing over into the water. Here two massive bull Grey Seals were splashing around and slapping each other. While these attracted the attention of the public, I glanced down at the wall below my feet to see a dog Otter right below me! He was fishing along the wall but soon vanished only to reappear 5 mins later across the other side. At one point he tried to attack a swimming Cormorant from below but the immature bird flapped away into flight leaving the Otter to go back to the fishing.

We managed to get a few people to see it, with one kid borrowing my bins, quite precariously as he teetered on the fenceless harbour edge. I know the lad was a worry but I could do without losing my glasses thanks very much! Still, I'd like to think this sighting might push him towards a deeper interest in wildlife as he gets older. You never know this could be a budding Chris Packham....

Another phone shot, apologies for the quality...

After buying some chips at Mackay's we headed back to the car for lunch and then off to St Abbs. 

Over the years I've seen a few good birds here, Marmora's, Sardinian and Barred Warblers, Bluetail and a King Eider but its a long time since my last visit. Although we didn't see any wildlife of note, the scenery was fabulous. We must come back...

St Abbs Harbour and Head.

By the time we had a look around, the weather began to change, becoming more overcast and the wind was strengthening.

The final stop was Cove where a woman with a pack of dogs she didnt look like she could control, meant we didn't bother walking down the track to the harbour, but we already had a pleasant visit so it was time to head for home...  

The view from Cove car park.

Noddy...

As mentioned last Sunday, this week we would give my local patch a once over on Sunday morning to add a few species to the list.

The morning was darkly overcast and cold with a brief icy shower around 9am. 

I met up with JWR at our Village Hall  and headed down the road to Seahouses Farm. Th eplan was to get in position over looking the sea and rocks at Rumbling Kern shortly after first light. The plans were curtailed a bit as John had forgotten his bins, resulting in a cross country dash to his house to pick them up. As it happens, there was nothing lost because it was scarcely light by the time we returned.

Down on the Rumbling Kern we were soon joined by Daniel who obviously had a similar plan to us.

The sea was quiet but the few birds we did meet were mostly new for 2023 - Red throated Diver 4 on the sea, 1 south followed by a close in Great Northern Diver S giving a nice view as it passed. One notable thing about this sighting was that the GND was nodding its head all the way past. This is an oft mooted White billed Diver feature so beware, it does little to split the two.

 Also, 2 Razorbills close in and a light passage of Herring Gulls, though they may be just leaving a roost on the sea.

Down at the Howick Burn mouth statistically the  best patch bird of the day here was on the beach, a Ringed Plover! Just about annual but never easy on this rocky coast line, so a grounded one this early was very welcome. Surprisingly the same or another was seen along at Craster later on too.

A pile of rotting weed at the burn attracted a few passerines with 4 Rock Pipit, 2 Meadow Pipit, 5 Robins, 2 Pied Wagtail and a Blackbird, while 2 Grey Plovers and 4 Lapwings were down the shore. 

We walked back by the Teepee track seeing very little so we drove along to Craster for tea and cheese rolls.

Around Craster were 8 Purple Sandpipers, 1 Goldcrest, 3 Bullfinch, 2 Treecreeper and 2 Greenfinches.

That was the morning about done with 6 patch year ticks added - RTD, GND, Razorbill, Purple Sandpiper, Greenfinch and Ringed Plover. Total 86 sp.

For the first time, I even charged the camera but t was a bt dull for photography really. Still, here's a Great spot from the window in the afternoon...

Chilly.

We've had another cold spell this week. We woke on Monday to find that there was a good couple of inches of snow covering everything and it was freezing. Monday and Tuesday temperatures ranged from -3.5 to 0 degrees making the midday sun melted snow as slippery as glass by night time.  Wednesday was a bit milder, up to 2 degrees but today feels baltic with the ground still solid.

Various dog walks around the village and coast path have been free from bird excitement though the year list slowly rises.

On Monday I was pleased to see that the snow had brought the pre New Year Water Rail back to its favoured spot in the burn while a few duck came back onto the pond, 5 Gadwall, 2 drake Tufted Ducks and 11 Teal. 

Tuesday was the coldest day pushing a good few Fieldfare into the village with 2 coming to apples in our garden vying for territory with a belligerent Mistle Thrush. 4 Roe Deer wandered the back field looking at the piles of brash where their shelter wood had once been and a Tawny was hooting at night.

Today I walked Peggy at lunchtime down the Teepee track and back, returning by our lane. It seemed quiet but the notebook tells it differently.

190+ Curlew, 14 Golden Plover, 1 Stonechat, 80 - 100 Yellowhammer in the village stubble, just a small field too and as we got back into the village a juv Peregrine was circling very low over our gardens and roof tops a couple of times before slowly flying south.

Patchin'

 

Last week we agreed that today we would have a morning on John's patch at Alnmouth, to give the 2023 list a kick up the backside. 

The morning dawned very pleasantly especially after last nights gales. We expected things to be quite disagreeable today but as you can see, we had a cool fine morning with a light SW3 breeze.

We began with a short seawatch from the beach shelter as it was high tide. 

4 Red throated Divers flew S and one N, 8 Great crested Grebes were in the bay and 2 drakes and one duck Red breasted Merganser chased back and forward close in. A few Rock Pipits all seemed to be grey streaky littoralis birds, a pair of Stonechats and a Pied Wagtail were all we could find on a beach stroll.

We headed a short way around the corner for a brew while scanning the Aln estuary. Small groups of Wigeon and Teal were dotted around with roosting gatherings of Curlew, Oystercatcher and Redshank. A lone Whooper Swan glided in to land near us for a while before taking off again and heading south to locate its wintering group.

While scanning with the bins I noticed a bird on the far side saltmarsh behaving oddly. It looked like a thrush with a snail but also a wader? A quick scopeful saw that it was only a Redshank wiping some prey on the grass maybe to clean it before consumption. At the same time I noticed this bird, another round creature was sitting in a dead hedge behind it. I never thought much about it really until John said 'that's a Little Owl!' Well I never, sure enough a spotty greyish ball catching the first sunshine was indeed a nice Little Owl. Neither of us have seen one in VC68 fr a few years now. They used to crop up occasionally most years but not recently, so this bird was all the more enjoyable.

It fluttered and hopped around and through the twiggy mass until we eventually left it to its roost. A nice unexpected year addition for John.

Next stop was a brief scan of the geese at Foxton. Apart from 2 dead bird flu candidates the main interest out of the local Canadas and Greylags were 2 Barnacle Geese. A drake Goldeneye and a Little Grebe were on the river too.

Goldcrest was the only yearlist addition in Lesbury with the river being too high for Dipper, Goosander and Grey Wagtail so it was off further upstream to Greenrigg for a look along the banks.

It was passerines here that were worth a look. A close Willow Tit showed well, then a mixed flock in some weedy stubble held Reed Buntings, Yellowhammer, Linnets, Chaffinches and one female Brambling.

So not a bad morning, John secured 16 new additions. I hope I can do half as well next Sunday when my patch will get the once over. You never know, I might even take the camera....

  

  

The Winter Cemetary

 Yesterday we decided to start off our local inland visits in a bit of an eclectic way as you will see.

The morning began by meeting John at Homebase as usual before first light. From here we headed off up onto the moors without many expectations really. It was dull, damp and cool with a breeze just strong enough to be irritating. Still, a breeze is often good for getting raptors in the air.

As we parked up, loose group of 3 Crossbills flew over. These should be nesting by now or at the least pairing up. Through the dark pines, it was sheltered from the wind but the damp air hung still and cold. Only Coal Tits and an odd Bullfinch could be heard but both remained unseen. After about half a mile we came to the clear fell at the end of the wood to scan over more open ground. Another two Crossbills were seen including a female perched up, 2 Buzzards and 2 Kestrels were out for their first hunt of the day.  

Unfortunately that was about it with little else of note, so we decided to head back into Alnwick to check the recycling plant for the Caspian Gull seen by IDR before Christmas. It seemed a big contrast from te bleak open moors and dark woods to be birding at what is essentially a dump! There were a couple of hundred Gulls around but most were Herring with an occasional Common and Black headed. We had no sign of the Caspian.

The morning was wearing on and the wildlife had not delivered much so what next?

How about going from the sublime to the ridiculous. From Raptors to Gulls now onwards to...hibernating Ladybirds.

Having read about some good insect observations in large cemetaries around the country we tried Alnwick. Its quite big for here next to Sainsbury's. It felt a bit like scraping the barrel or one last act of desperation before we headed off home, but this gothic deviation proved to be the best part of the morning.  John seemed to have his eye in and found the majority of the insects we saw.

In an hour we had 52 Orange Ladybirds, 15 Harlequins, 3 7 spot, 3 2 spot and 1 14 spot Ladybirds along with single Juniper and Hawthorn Shieldbugs. Not bad for a first attempt. We will try other graveyards in future no doubt.

The photos could be better as these are all with my phone, must take the macro gear next time...

My first Snowdrops of the season.

 

Juniper Shieldbug

Hawthorn Shieldbug

A commune of Orange and Harlequin Ladybirds

14-spot Ladybird

2-spot Ladybird

The Notebook Challenge.

 Happy New Year all. I have been watching with interest that a lot of birders are entering the Patchwork Challenge for 2023 after its revival. Back in November I was going to give it a go too but after more thought I decided against it. I'm not really a competitive person so it seemed a bit too much hassle to keep adding up various points for particular species, self finds, scarce, rare etc, so once again I will be keeping my own 3km local patch list going in a casual manner, just like last year. 

This is my 15th year on this patch, so I have a good idea of what, where and when to expect things now. Lets hope there are some surprises yet to meet me on my travels.

Instead of being wholly list focussed, the good people on Twitter have given me an idea on something I can try to improve on over the year. My Notebooks.

As a keen Notebook user, this is no biggie, but we can all have some self improvement.

Between Christmas and New Year I was tagged in to a tweet from Amy Schwartz that set me thinking. She was going to begin using a Notebook in 2023 after a couple of false starts. In echo to this I tweeted- 

The response to this was excellent. There were over 71k 'impressions', what ever that means and over 700 people 'liked' the post. That in itself isn't important, but I'd like to assume its not the post they like but the sentiment behind it, ie, keeping a Notebook. This started off a thread of comments and posts from others about the topic of Note taking. Some top birders took the time to reply, posting pictures of shelves full of their own written word. 

It is from these I am taking some ideas on how to improve.

Here are a few - 

Look at those fab shelves! I must get mine into some order like this.

Phil is a well known brilliant bird artist. What a resource here.

Paul says his books arent really sketchbooks. Could have fooled me! These are fantastic too.

Great point made by Andy here. No one has a memory so good that they can remember details from a life of Notetaking.

Another very valid point, you cant always get a photo of every bird ( though some do very well). Its worth getting it into the notebook straight away.

James is another author and artist . His Tweet says it in a nutshell.

Well known artist Richard gives great tips here.

Craig is a great birder who is now back on track with his Notes

I'd love to get stuck into these and the others books! Mick has a great method here. 

 

Amy's tweet that started it off...

But I think it is Jonnie who has given a different outlook on Amy's tweet.

Jonnie's books are full of not just lists of birds but humour, interest, tales and the stuff that makes our birding and wildlife trips so enjoyable. These are done now, in the present, for himself in the future. Is there anything better than that!

Some birders have either given up notetaking or have never started. The alternative seems to be Birdtrack, eBird, Spreadsheets, Databases, Phone notes and Photography. 

My take on it is that we Naturalists are entering a world of different species to ourselves. There is so much beauty and bizarre interest here that one lifetime can't take it all in. In writing and sketching we are reinforcing what we have just seen or done. It is a great learning tool as well as memory storage.

To end, I want to thank all of the inspiring people above whose tweets I've stolen without permission ( I will edit and remove any if I've over stepped the mark!). 

Hopefully you might be as inspired as I am to either improve or to get started in 2023. 

Good Luck! There might be a future post on here with some thoughts and tips for beginners to note taking.

Cheers Stewart