WBD2

 

Yesterday, Les Hall, found another White Billed Diver or Loon or whatever in Blyth South Harbour. This is almost 30 years to the week since another great banana bill graced the estuary, that one was found by the late Tim Cleeves and the resulting phone call found me 20 minutes later standing on the Seven Stars Jetty still in my slippers, alone with the monster. 

This bird showed very well in the  calm water of the marina area, albeit still a bit of a distance out, but the scope views were fantastic. In the hour I was there it loafed around in typical lethargic manner, only getting active when it appeared to try and dislodge something from its throat? Counting back I think this is my 7th in Northumberland, with 3 of those coming in the last 13 months.

Part of a recent influx of birds into the north east UK, this is the 5th in a week in Northumberland with another dozen or so in the Firth of Forth . It appears there has never been a better time to add the rare arctic visitor to your self found list. ( two for me, one at Boulmer, one at Hauxley back when they were really rare).

Joking aside, these are magnificent birds to see and, lately, almost passing Black throated Diver in accessibility. So when the chance arises, go out an meet one, you never know when the next will come along though at the current pace, it might not be too long...

HMS White billed Diver

 On Saturday we went for a pub lunch at Warkworth. On the way back as we called in to the CO-OP a message came through saying Ben Steele had a White billed Diver on the sea close in at Seaton Point, about 2 miles away. What was there to do but to head straight there.

A quick yomp south from Boulmer on a rising tide and there it was, a battleship of a bird floating in a weed filled rock channel about 100 mtrs off the beach. The bird gave great views in the scope as it loafed around between dives but when it went under, creating a big bow wave, it was down for ages and would appear well away from where you first saw it.

White billed Divers are getting about as easy to see here as Black throated Divers these days. In fact Ive had two White billed since my last Black throated sighting! This bird was a second year, showing some white spots on the wing coverts.

Back home, a flock of 200 Geese headed low towards our house so I dashed in for the bins. Sure enough the first birds I got on to were 3 Russian White fronted Geese in with the Pink feet. They were too low and quick for details searching for others.

The moth trap was dusted off on Saturday night for its 2026 debut. It was a good success too with 34 moths of 9 sp, inc 3 Satellite, 13 Chestnut, 3 Dark Chestnut etc.

On a lovely fine sunny Sunday morning John and myself went back to Boulmer to see if the diver was around, but, as expected, the tide has been out and in again since Saturday taking with it the banana bill to who knows where. 4 Purple Sands, 21 Bar tailed Godwits and 37 Pink feet S were the best.

As it was sunny we headed a couple of miles to one of our off coast sites. We did a full eBird count with some good resluts. We had 2 Stock Dove, 2 Woodcock, 1 Willow Tit and a singing Dipper, 13 Crossbills inc a nice red male perched in hazel catkins and 12 Yellowhammers. Best though was a fluke while John was elsewhere. Awaiting his return I scanned the rise over the fields to increase the Buzzard count to three . A large rapter flying steadily south attracted attention. It looked to have a longer tail than a Buzzard, then a crow came up to head it off, After some panicking from both birds, the raptor flipped around and headed back north where I could see it was a nice adult Goshawk! White below, with long flappy wings, the hand narrower but the secondaries carried a large curved trailing edge. The tail had some darker banding. When flying a hint of display was noticed with deep butterfly wing beats. I could also see it was a size bigger than the crow too.

What a bird, this is my first Gos east of the A1 up here. Maybe the storm flattened forests since Arwen in 2021 have dispersed birds out into other bits of countryside?

 

A rewilded field that held a few birds of up to 42 species.

Getting lighter...

 Apart from a couple of fine days the weather remains pretty much dreadful across the board. At least the days are beginning to lengthen noticeably now, which is good.

For what is generally accepted to be one of the slowest months for birding, February is not turning out too bad considering.

The White Blackbird hung around into the 1st but despite looking daily I've not seen him thereafter. Pity, I hoped he would become a feature of the village.

What must be the highlight of the month came on the 7th when news emerged of an totally unprecedented flock of up to 40 Common Cranes in a field by the A1 at Denwick! At first we were all sceptical of such a number, but it turned out to be true, well, almost with up to 38 birds counted. I didn't arrive on site despite it only being 3 miles from home until nearing dusk at 4.30pm but sure enough 29 Cranes were in view striding in a line across a rushy field. All appeared to be adults and some observers even noted some tentative displaying between them. In my life I dont think the Cranes I've seen previously totaled 29 birds.

I did an Alnwick Wildlife Group guided walk before the Cranes news arrived also on the 7th around the local Arboretum and coast. 12 souls dared the weather and were gifted with a dry window for once. 46 typical mainly woodland species of birds were recorded plus some oddities such as Oak Moss Evernia prunastri , Harts Tongue Thyme Moss Plagiomnium undulatum , Frizzled Pincushion Plenogemma pyllantha Crystal Brain Fungus Exidia nucleata, Hairy Curtain Crust Stereum hirsutum, Velvet Shank Flammulina velutipes, Lumpy Bracket Trametes gibbosa and Turkey Tail trametes versicolor. 

Guided Walk

Frizzled Pincushion Plenogemma pyllantha

Lumpy Bracket Trametes gibbosa 

Unusually for us we had a trip down to the Druridge Bay Flesh Pot where we caught up with a couple of good birds but missed out on the White tailed Eagle that has been around for a few days. We did get 16 Pochard singing Cetti's Warbler at DBCP, a nice Red necked Grebe showing nicely at East Chevington with more Cettis' and 23+ Goldeneye and 2 Otters, a redhead Smew at Widdrington Moor lake with 5 Mediterranean Gulls and finally back at Alnmouth we were over flown closely by 12 Russian Whitefronted Geese.

 Red necked Grebe, East Chevington.

Yesterday I finally caught up with the Tundra Bean Goose influx with 4 nice birds showing at Gloster Hill Amble on my way to work. Pad these out with multiple Barn Owls, Ravens, Woodcock and a Little Gull its not been a bad couple of weeks.

A poor phonescoped shot with 4 Beans, 1 RWF and a Greylag.