Christmas List

Ages ago, over the Christmas period, Andrew Dawes of Wessex Reiver blog challenged everyone to a Christmas doldrums bird race. I haven't done anything similar since, apart from the local patch thingy and a laid back, head to head with Mr Gale of Surrey.  I was interested the other week, when Andrew threw down the gauntlet again for another week of petty competitiveness where by we all get out between Christmas Day and New Years Day and count how many bird species we see.

As this festive holiday is often quite busy and taken up with visiting family and friends, the challenge can be taken in a very tongue in cheek manner, the whole point being to have fun during the final week of the year.

My week got off to a damp fizzle seeing next to nothing on Christmas Day ( 9 species) and Boxing Day ( not many more). Today was my first proper morning's birding this month so every sighting was to be savoured and made all the more delicious by the sharp, bright, calm weather we crave at this traditionally dull and wet time of year.

I met with John at Amble, first thing, and we covered the whole south side of the Coquet Estuary from the sea upstream to Warkworth. Not wishing to let the cat out of the bag, all I'll say is that a few nice birds were seen such as Little Egret, Peregrine, several Knot, 3 Purple Sandpipers, 40+ Black-tailed Godwits, Mediterranean Gull etc.

Hopefully the weather will hold this week, and I'll build a reasonable total without racing around twitching everyone else's finds. I'll save that one for 2017...

Amble Pier

Adult Med Gull

Eiders in full display, while not eating Warburtons.

Some of the Black tailed Godwits on the estuary.

The calls during disputes were just like a dog's squeaky toy.

Turned out nice again...

A bit of a photo montage of this mornings visit to Amble with JWR...

Snow squalls coming in on a noreaster this morning...

We got caught in it....JWR sheltering his camera....

It soon cleared revealing a lovely day...

A party of Turnstones found a batch of edible crabs dumped on the shore and showed well in the morning sunshine...

  

Redpoll...week 4.

You will all be getting sick of me chuntering on about the Coues's Arctic Redpoll at Birling / Warkworth by now, but today we managed some great views and this time I even had the camera instead of the scope.

I've jumped the gun a bit though so first things first. I met John at Warkworth at 7.30 this morning just as it was getting light. It was nice and calm for a change, overcast and cold. To start things we walked down towards the beach and along to view the salt marsh, to check the local Twite flock for the first time this year. As expected, about 15 Twite showed well, in less than good light, but with them were 2 Redpolls, one a sure fire Mealy, the other more ambiguous. I dont recall ever seeing redpolls in this habitat before...

While here, a Barn Owl hunted the car park banks and a host of waders roosted along the edge, where Bar-tailed Godwit and Little Egret were both new for the year.  

Twite in the gloaming at first light.

From here we walked back up and followed the field north along the golf course to view the redpolls. Today numbers were up to 34 birds and the Arctic was easily picked out as they came in and sat, obligingly, along the fence line.

Coues's Arctic Redpoll showing well, sticking out like a sore thumb. This shot shows its bull-head and necked appearance well.

We stood back from the fence a few yards and the birds came in every so often. Here the Arctic is showing its typical puffed up pose, complete with huge, unstreaked white rump.

In this shot, the Arctic has not had time to fluff up, giving an altogether different appearance. It appears to be a first winter male as there are odd reddish feathers in the upper chest / cheek area. 

 This is my fourth audience with exilipes and he never fails to impress. What a little cracker!
As we watched, John and I met with John Richardson and Sasha Elliott who also got some nice photo's. Pleased to meet you Sasha....

From here, we returned to the car for a refill of tea, pasty and cake ( no....) then off down to the harbour and estuary. Highlights here were a nice male Goosander, 3 Purple Sandpipers and the adult Mediterranean Gull has finally returned, albeit a little bit late....

So, a nice winter morning out with some excellent birds. If only all weekends were like this....

Mediterranean Gull with Black headed Gulls, Little Shore, Amble.

 

Car Troubles....

Out with John around the Coquet estuary this morning turned up literally nothing of note. Well, a male Blackcap in yews in Warkworth, 2 drake Red breasted Mergansers in the estuary, 2 female Goosanders upstream and thats about the lot really. The only other excitement came when the car indicated that my brakes were going dodgy, maybe a reduction in brake fluid, that will result in a visit to the garage in the morning...

Some Herring Gull photos in nice sunshine....

Another poor day...

Top - a real winter squall over Amble Harbour and a few minutes later the sun came out...

Not much doing this morning or during the weekend on the bird front.

Highlight for me was a nice finch flock along our lane end that contained about 150+ birds, mainly Linnets and Chaffinches but also had 6 Brambling, 2 Lesser Redpoll and a Bullfinch. 30 Siskins fed in alders nearby.

This morning was spent helping Jane get to the Xmas Fair at Howick Hall before popping down to Warkworth for a chat with John. It was mixed weather there with some quite serious stormy spells curtailing any attempts a bird finding ( Above)

Jane's stall at the Fair...

And my only attempt a bird photograph this weekend...

Took a flexi day off today and it just happened to coincide with one of the most glorious summer mornings we have had this year.

 Met up with JWR at Amble first thing to cover the Coquet Estuary patch. Although the primary goal was to look for waders, this turned out to be a bit slow, so attention was diverted elsewhere. As we scanned the couple of hundred Dunlin out on the mud, a Peregrine flew right over our heads, putting everything to flight.While around the car park lots of young tits and warblers etc had grouped up to feed in the warm sheltered hedges.

Peregrine

juvenile Chiffchaff

A call into Amble to check the harbour found no sign of the Caspian Gull, but a moulting adult Mediterranean Gull was in its usual spot along the Little Shore and a Kingfisher made a brief appearance right in the harbour car park!. Up to 12 Goosanders were in the area. After a very short call into the CO-OP, John was just commenting on the blooms on a privet in the car park when we noticed a Comma feeding there. This was very short lived as it dived over the embankment never to be seen again.

A walk from the Warkworth beach car park down the north side was very pleasant but quiet bird wise. Best were 3 Little Egrets, a Sanderling, sev Turnstones and a few Common Sandpipers.

Field Grasshopper Chorthippus brunneus 

Casper the friendly Gull....

Even I am starting to get a bit bored with gull posts on here, but with out doubt yesterdays highlight was the returning Caspian Gull, now an adult, to Amble Harbour. That alone shows how things are at the minute.

In the bottom photo, the structural differences between the two gulls are quite apparent. The Caspian shows long sloping back, Long , pale lemon bill with dark beady eye. The legs are longer too and not as pink.

I arrived at Warkworth Gut at 6.30am in lovely calm sunshine, but by 7am it was spotting with rain. This soon became heavy and by the time I was viewing from Amble Braid, I was under an umbrella.

Of note around the estuary were 1 Greenshank, 1 Common Sandpiper, 40+ Dunlin, 1 Turnstone, 7 Little Egrets ( inc 6 together in a dead tree) and a party of 4 Shoveler, a scarce bird on this patch, circling around the Old Water reed bed before moving off towards Alnmouth.

I headed back home at 10am, rained off.

The sun came out later as I did last nights moth trap, so here are a couple to be going on with...

Buff Arches.

Pinion streaked Snout, restrained or it would have flown off.

 

Grass Emerald, a raggy worn individual.

 

Amble Harbour.

Today's weather turned out a lot better than expected. The forecast on Thursday said it would be raining all day and blowing a gale. It was windy, but the sun shone brightly most of the time.

I met up with John and we covered the Coquet Estuary area from Warkworth road bridge down to the harbour. Bird-wise it was all a bit same-old same-old so we just pottered around getting some nice photographs in bright sunshine.

This Turnstone on one of the trawlers in the harbour came out well. It is almost a full image, with only a very slight crop to balance it out.

Its not often I wish I hadn't left my small lens in the car, but this young Great black backed Gull was way too close for my 300! It spent the whole time pulling bits of flattie from the net, followed by an entourage of Turnstones cleaning up after it.

Wigeon are usually the most wary of wildfowl but here, half a dozen birds were pushed up by the rising tide to a point they were used to people wandering around the prom. The drakes are stunning in the sunshine, one to be appreciated when the opportunity presents itself.

They were accompanied by a nice adult Med Gull loafing just offshore...

The Coquet Estuary....

Amble Harbour

Eider displaying.

The day dawned calmish and quite bright but soon became dull, making these photos very grainy and drab. We covered the Coquet estuary from Amble Harbour up to Birling Carrs, adding a couple of new species to JWR's patch list.

On arrival a huge number of Rooks and Jackdaws were leaving their roost, numbering several thousand birds. The sky was full of them, the air ringing with their calls.

The estuary was full of birds with up to 700 Golden Plover, 300 Lapwing, Dunlins and Redshank. A lone Grey Plover and a few Knot added interest. Up at the harbour, an adult Mediterranean Gull loafed, but it wasn't the usual bird carrying a red darvic. This one only had a metal ring on one leg.

8+ Red breasted Merganser were spread right up the river, one or two pairs were in full display mode and a female Goosander was up near the road bridge.

2 Purple Sandpipers were on the pier, 2 Grey Partridges were along the braid with another 5 at Birling. 5 Roe Deer showed well near the river.

Small stuff around the Braid car park included a female Bullfinch, several Long tailed Tits and a host of Goldfinches.

Mediterranean Gull at the Little Shore.  

Starling singing from lobster pots.

Female Bullfinch.

Long tailed Tit

Back home, a short look along the shore added othing to the Howick list, but 5 Grey Plovers were extra noteworthy, not being annual here, 2 Harbour Porpoises off shore near 2 Red throated Divers.

A cold spell forecast for mid week might shuffle the pack a bit...