I see a Rainbow Rising....

 Whats going on? My local patch is getting some good birds. After last weeks post anyone would think I had peaked for the year but no, that was just an apperitif. Things were going to take an upward turn...

Saturday 31st May. 

Jane is off to Newcastle with friends, so me and Peggy are left at a loose end back at home. I could have gone birding, but no, I am out on Sunday so I thought I might use my free time productively for the good of the village.

Our Village Hall has a small wildlife pond less than 100 mtrs from our house and it needed a bit more of a tidy up after starting it last month. Then, with the help of a few Coast Care Volunteers, we removed some choking vegetation to create more open water for amphibians. This was done successfully and in no time we had Toads, Smooth and Palmate Newts back where they belong.

We stacked a large mound of chopped soft vegetation on the decking where it was up to me to mulch around shrubs with it at a later date. Today was the day.

Armed with a wheelbarrow of tools I pottered off down to the pond. While I am here, it looked like it could do with a top up so the hose was deployed and left to run into the shallows as I worked. After a few barrow loads of rotten rushes and iris leaves had been removed a movement over the water caught my attention. It was a female Broad bodied Chaser and she was egg laying. She delicately dipped up and down to the surface, touching the water with her abdomen each time. She is the first Broad bodied Chaser I have seen on the patch so I was very pleased.

An old shot of a female Broad bodied Chaser. I didnt have my camera with me for the sighting above.

At 4pm I had finished the donkey work and was now using the hose to wash off the decking to tidy the site.

As I did this, in a trance really, a quiet soft call made me pause. Now it couldnt be. Surely not? Could it?.

Not really expecting anything at all, I stopped hosing and glanced beyond the pond to the Old Rectory paddock opposite to see a BEE-EATER gliding around! ( In the top image the bird was half way out to that Shepherds hut.) The funny thing is I was quite relaxed about it. I stood and watched it flap and glide when it called again , then moved off behind some tall sycamore trees and off south.

It was time to put the word out incase it might be picked up by birders south of me, so I walked back home collected my Bins, Camera and the dog and headed back out, hoping the bird might be sitting on some wires for me to get a photograph.

We walked back through the village where there was no sight or sound  (de-ja-vu Rosefinch) and out along the lane. Three quarters of the way along I stopped to scan east with the bins. It was now 4.15 and I expected the bird to be away south by now when all of a sudden, there it was. It was distant as it arced up over the rise in the fields. It was feeding beside Seahouses Farm where cattle would attract some flies. This is two fields from my current position so off we strode with purpose.

Arriving at the spot there was no sign of the Bee-eater. only a few Swifts were hawking around. I gave it 10 minutes then left to knock up some notes while the sighting was fresh in my mind.

I see today that it was seen yesterday at Spurn and this morning along the Lincs coast.

What a bird for my village. I have hoped for one for years and each summer on a daily basis day dream as I scan the phone wires across the fields. Despite not seeing it perched up, my sighting was good enough for me, and it wont be beaten this year thats for sure...

  

 

The Ultimate in LOCAL ...

I've never done a garden birds year list.  Being so restrictive with limited scope its not something I've really considered before, until now. So, just for a change, 2024 will be my first attempt. I mean. how hard can it be, you just total up what you bump into when hanging out the washing or doing the moth trap or weeding or whatever.

My own rules are - I will count all seen or heard from within my home boundary. We have a good radius view South West around to North for about a kilometre, but North around to South is more obscured at maybe 10 to 50 mtrs or so ( of course on a clear night I can see across several million miles but you know what I mean). At night there is little noise pollution so calls along the coast can be heard if it is still.

My all time garden list stands at  143 with Common Sandpiper missing although I think I have heard one? and Hawfinch that I saw once from the back hedge across the field that had I been on our drive I could have seen it. But I wasn't.

Last year I had Quail, Siberian Stonechat and Firecrest as highlights but some years there aren't any.

Grey Partridges in the back field over our wall.

My 2024 list so far stands at 46 sp. - 

1. Grey Partridge 8 lekking in the back field on 08/02/24
2. Pheasant
3. Pink footed Goose regular parties going to and fro over the house.
4. Greylag a few back and forward as with Pinks.
5. Feral Pigeon Yes I am counting it. They're more wild here than the Pheasants.
6. Woodpigeon
7. Collared Dove
8. Golden Plover heard several nights calling as they head into field to feed.
9. Snipe 1 heard 'scraping' close behind our garden last night.
10. Woodcock 1 at dusk on 15/01/24 flew along just outside our drive.
11. Curlew flying over to coast and back on feeding missions.
12. Redshank 1 a rare bird for the garden flew in to the flooded corner of the back field early Jan I forgot to note it down.
13. Black headed Gull
14. Common Gull
15. Herring Gull
16. Great black backed Gull, gulls are daily flying from the sea inland. 
17. Buzzard 
18. Tawny Owl very active since new year calling in and just outside our garden.
19. Great spotted Woodpecker male and female regular on our feeders.
20. Kestrel one flushed our feeders during Big Garden Birdwatch in January.
21. Magpie
22. Rook
23. Jackdaw
24. Carrion Crow
25. Coal Tit
26. Blue Tit
27. Great Tit
28. Skylark small numbers over now starting to sing.
29. Long tailed Tit 6 regularly on our feeders.
30. Goldcrest 1 wintering around our feeders picking bits of dropped fatball scraps.
31. Wren Resident in the garden.
32. Starling daily, small roost in next doors conifers maybe 100 birds.
33. Blackbird resident.
34. Fieldfare a few seen, 1 in off overhead last week, one this morning with Starlings.
35. Song Thrush singing every morning now.
36. Redwing few seen as with Fieldfare
37. Mistle Thrush one in song behind garden.
38. Robin Resident
39. House Sparrow Resident
40. Tree Sparrow up to 30 winter in the garden. Several pairs breed.
41. Dunnock Resident has bred.
42. Grey Wagtail 1 has been on house rooves seen from the garden.
43. Pied Wagtail as above.
44. Chaffinch Resident
45. Goldfinch Resident has bred
46. Siskin a few over none at feeders yet.

This is the Back Field boundary. It is the view west from our house, you can see it is uninterrupted for some way.  

This is the view towards our house from the North facing SSE. You can see how close the sea is, but we can't see it from home!

The above few shots taken during lockdown 2020.

 

 

Waxwing Blogging

 A nice sunny lunchtime walk to the Pond Field today when, on route I noticed a car parked on the roadside opposite the pink rowan tree. As I passed I said to the occupants, 'Waxwings?' They replied that there were three birds still and as I watched the birds flew up into a birch across the road. I said there had been 40 odd last week but most had moved on. 

The couple of observers were on holiday from Yorkshire and asked if I wrote 'the blog'. 'Yes, I do'  I replied. They went on to say they had hoped to see some Waxwings on their visit and had googled them, then found my blog that gave them an idea where to look.  Isn't that nice!  Sometimes I wonder what the point of the blog is, but its these occasional little interactions that make it more worthwhile. 

I'm sure they enjoyed the birds, after all, its not often you find a tree with Waxwings that doesn't have a togger hiding below it.

On Monday in foul weather conditions, 9 Waxwings dropped into our village hall car park for 5 minutes before flying off back towards the rowan, so there may be other birds still hanging around somewhere.

We continued our walk down to the Pond Field. The pond sluice was open to reduce levels as the lane into our village was like a river on Monday. 2 Teal, 2 Mallard and a Little Grebe were the only things present but the Chiffchaff was still calling in cover in the wet wood.

Late Winter Seawatching

 When there is a cold, north wind in February we are often at a bit of a loose end. Its too early to look for spring migrants, too cold and windy to head inland so what can we do? There is only one thing for it really, stay on patch and look at my only decent 'wetland'  - the sea.

Seawatching at this time of year is a world away from the watching from July to December.  In spring there is usually little to see, but it is sure to throw up one or two new birds for the local patch year list, so that is how we spent Sunday morning, and for February, we were pleasantly surprised.

We sat in the vicinity of the Howick Bathing House, where you can hunker down behind a rock out of the cold wind, the spot is literally 419 metres from my house. Its just a pity I can't see it from my house, what a boost to the garden list that would be.

So, what was on offer.

As is the way, quite a few birds were too far off to do much with, though a steady northerly movement of Kittiwakes with a few Gannets were the start to my list additions. Soon, a few more things of interest appeared with both Great Northern and Red throated Divers, a nice drake Velvet Scoter, a few parties of Common Scoter and a very early Manx Shearwater.   

Great Northern Diver 2N 1 S

Red throated Diver 16N 7S

Common Scoter 23N 12S

Velvet Scoter 1N

Shelduck 3N

Razorbill only 8 identified out of 100s of auks. 

Manx Shearwater 1

Purple Sandpiper 1

Gannet 40+N

Kittiwakes 100+ per hour N

Guillemots Several hundred going all directions offshore.

Shag, a few.

Harbour Porpoise 1, a while since I've seen one. Since the Bottle nosed Dolphins became regular the poor Porpoises seem to have taken a beating.

Also in the vicinity were 18 Meadow Pipits N, 1 Rock Pipit in full display song flight, an adult male Sparrowhawk along the shore and a few 'argentatus' Herring Gulls. We had hoped there would be more Gulls to give us a chance of a white winger but there were very few around.

Common Scoters

Immature Red throated Diver

Shag

Shelducks above a Guillemot.

The same Shelducks now above a Red throated Diver.

Back in the village, this young Sparrowhawk is terrorising my Tree Sparrows by spending his days lounging below the bird feeders. It is quite obliging, behaving more like a predatory chicken that a dashing raptor. There is a cracking adult male too, probably the bird seen while seawatching, but he wont sit for a photo.

After adding a few of this lot, my 2023 Local Patch List is now standing at 96. Still plenty to look out for...there must be a Stock Dove out there somewhere.

 

Sparrowhawk watching for a meal. Pic through Kitchen window.

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...

Winter Blues.

 Its been a busy week what with Christmas preparations, visits, socialising and what not. So busy that I didn't really have time to get out on Sunday morning, but, when you live in  the middle of your patch even looking out of the window is birding.

It was one of these non-birding dog walks that caught me a bit unawares. 

On Sunday around 11am I took Peggy for her walk along the coast path just before we were due to leave home to visit relatives for lunch at Berwick. 

One day I will finally learn the lesson, never leave home unarmed! Remember the Pallid Swifts day when I was on a quick stop looking for fungi so I didn't even have my bins? Well this was a hurried stride out dog walk, so, again, no bins, camera or even phone. After all I was only going to be gone for 20 mins and its December.

As we dropped on to the coast path a few local Fulmars were celebrating being back on the cliffs by enjoying the updraft and racing past walkers at eye level. They are very inquisitive birds, I remember once being on the beach when a Fulmar made repeated very close, low, fly pasts of our dog, even turning its head to get a closer look. 

On the coast path, our birds regularly do this, hanging on an updraught making eye contact with passers by. This time there were around 8 birds back and forth, up and down, when one stopped me in my tracks. It stalled for a second then stooped and was gone. What was that? Too short a view to make anything then I saw a bird going away from me along the cliff, even with the naked eye it seemed odd but I couldn't place why so I waited on the view point, I knew it would be back, they can't help themselves.

Sure enough, I couldn't believe it when up popped the bird less than 30 feet from my face, a beautiful smokey grey 'Blue' Fulmar! I've only ever seen a few on seawatches at distance and never like this with local birds. A grey apparition from the high arctic looking even wilder than its white headed cousins.

I stood and watched for five minutes but was conscious of the time and I needed to go. I could have had frame filler photos.  I've been back today at 11am but there are only a couple of Fulmars flying with a dozen on ledges and no dusky guest with them. I might try again later...

Although 'just a colour form' I do like races and forms of birds so was over the moon to see it. Lets hope it comes back...it is more than just a tick...

Swifts

 While the southern half of the country is awash with rare subtropical migrant moths things are more sedate up in the far north east of England. Still, I have had a Scarce Bordered Straw and a Pearly Underwing so cant complain. I had hopes of a Crimson Speckled but now I see that not only are they very rare ( still) they are even rarer in a moth trap, with most sightings being out in the field. At Dungeness, moth-ers have taken to dragging a washing line between two of them, lightly over short vegetation in an attempt to lift one up. Ah well...

Back in the real world, on Saturday afternoon I had arranged to meet Sally, a mycologist ( fungi observer) on our estate where I hoped she could identify some of the tricky ones for me. As it turned out our wires became crossed and the meeting didn't happen, but while I was sauntering around the cricket pitch, eyes to the deck looking for fungi, I was aware of thrushes flushing ahead of me.

The bushes here are decked with berries and good numbers of Blackbirds, Redwings and Song Thrushes were stocking up. While I watched a good sized party of Redwings head skywards, my eye rested on some other birds low down just above shrub height . SWIFTS!

Swifts? three of them to be precise. Now I've not even seen a hirundine here since September and not a Swift since late August, so this was a bit of a shock. I was also aware that NW Europe was having a Pallid Swift invasion.

 As I watched these birds with the naked eye ( I had left my bins at home, you don't need them for mushrooms! What a muppet). The birds seemed to be feeding and not just passing through, so I put the word out on WhatsApp of 3 Swift sp present. 

Straight away Dan Langston replied, 'On my way'. Thank goodness, Dan only lives a mile or so away and is well up on these things having already found two Pallids earlier this year. Better still he would be bearing optical gear.

Within minutes Dan arrived and we had the next half an hour watching the birds drifting back and forward across the sky over the pitch.  At some angles they remained dark 'Swifts' as in sp, but when closer, in better light, it could be seen these were all Pallid Swifts. I've only ever seen two before, some years ago, so to have a multiple occurrence on patch was nothing short of amazing.

Dan rattled off some images, that showed enough to be sure, and at that, they slowly drifted north and out of sight.

Later Gary Woodburn had a single at Embleton Quarry that could have been one of ours and next morning three birds were over Amble and Warkworth for most of the day. With 4 up at St Abbs and dear knows how many in Yorkshire, its still worth keeping an eye on the sky.

 Just make sure to have bins and camera with you!

 

Mint.

 

For a change a post about a moth. And what a moth it is too. This is the Merveille du Jour Griposia aprilina, with two individuals posted above, the top one being slightly fresher and darker than the bottom. 

When flipping through the field guide, the bright sharp cool mint green and black patterning jumps off the page, making you filled with desire. I remember catching my first in 2009. I couldnt believe it. What a panic to pot it up as it flew around the light on an October night. Since then I have caught it on 34 occasions, mainly singletons but occasionally up to 4 at a time.

It is specifically an moth of cooler autumn nights and tends to associate around oak trees of which we have a young one in the garden.

This year I am very pleased to meet with Merv, as these are my first since the 11th Oct 19. Two blank years in succession is unprecentented here though 2016 was also a miss. The best year here was 11 caught in 2018.

I'm not sure if some autumn species are cyclical as I've also checked Frosted Orange and Flounced Chestnut for garden stats. In 2010 I had 93 and 39 respectively but in 2022 I have 2 and 0 !   Lets hope things improve next year...

Blue!

All through Sunday night into Monday we had heavy rain and a steady easterly wind on our stretch of coast. This weather pattern is not common during the third week of May and as a result, all down the East coast birders are fired up hoping that it may deliver some scarce and rare birds that have drifted off their normal migration routes, but one in particular epitomises this week above all others - the Bluethroat. 

Bluethroats in spring have a quite narrow window of migration to the sub arctic Scandinavian taiga, and if we are to see one, we need this type of weather to occur between around 10th to the 20th May. Outside of this period in spring a Bluethroat is very unlikely to be seen.

On Monday the rain was steady until around 3pm, then the wind dropped and the sun emerged from behind the clouds. What would it reveal? In the 80's and early 90's we would sometimes see big Bluethroat arrivals but this has not happened for many years now.

No sooner had I finished working at home around 4.15pm than a Facebook message arrived from my neighbour along the road, Mandy. The conversation went a bit like this.

M - 'OMG'

And nothing else? I was just about to reply with 'Eh?' when a second message arrived. It was a close up of a bright male Bluethroat but there was no location. 

Now, Mandy works as a tern warden up at the Long Nanny ( of American Black Tern fame in my previous post) so I assumed this is where the bird had been found. The Nanny has a bit of a good history for Bluethroats in past years. So I advised - 

'Ho ho, get the news out on Whats App' 'Nanny?'

then...

M - 'but its in my garden!'

This was a total game changer. Mandy lives about one field away from me. I picked my jaw up, and went into panic mode, a Bluethroat on our patch!! Grabbing my bins and camera I jumped into the car (speed if of the essence ) and drove the 400 mtrs along the road to the farm. I was there in about 3 minutes flat from getting the message.

The bird had unfortunately flown from Mandy's garden along towards the farm yard and disappeared.

The sight every East coast birder wants to see in mid May...

I quietly quartered the damp puddle edges with my bins and soon there he was, quite distantly in the centre of the paddock before flying off towards some silage bales and farm trailers.

Around the other side from the bridle path a better view could be had but there was no bird? Just then a smashing male Greenland Wheatear hopped up onto the wall not far from me. I took a couple of snaps, then all of a sudden in came the Bluethroat, full of bull, not wanting this Wheatear in 'his' farm yard at all. The Bluethroat landed on the public path sign finger board and belted out a lovely melodic loud song before coming towards me down the wire fence.

My blue car next to a blue van behind the Bluethroat. Incoming...

I rattled off some shots that were almost all blurred due to wrong settings on the camera and the Bluethroat chased off after the Wheatear, to the south behind a muck heap. I left the bird in peace until I popped back home and took the dog out. Returning later on, the bird had settled into a convenient routine back in the paddock area feeding in nice evening sunshine coming quite close to us. At one stage it had a bath in a puddle and sat preening on a clod of earth for a while where we could get better shots than before.

A small group of about five of us enjoyed the bird until the light faded when it seemed to look at an old trailer to roost under. 

Red spotted Bluethroat. 2nd calendar year Male. Male.

The only sour note to the whole thing came the following morning when the farmer had decided now was a good time to move tons of farm machinery to exactly the spot the Bluethroat was using. It was not seen again.

What a great bird for the patch list and many thanks to Mandy for her prompt action in getting the news out. It was much appreciated.

 

 

 

 

The Lane.

 This is going off on a tangent with no current news here but I have been contemplating, as you do at the back end of the year, about next years patch projects. So far, I haven't come up with anything, but I was out with the dog the other day along our lane and it got me thinking.

Lots of people I follow on blogs and social media watch a local patch in some way or other. Some diligently, others more casually, but within your patch do you have small micro patches that draws you in more often than other areas? I'd imagine we all do.

Here, on my doorstep the village entrance is via a straight lane that stretches for 279 mtrs, according to Google Maps.

The Lane.

   As you can see its not East Bank, Hoddy Cows, or the Narrow Neck. Just an absolutely random bit of road that can be found duplicated right around the country. In its favour it is located 3 fields away from the North Sea, but its not on a headland or anything.

Habitat wise, its a tarmac, one vehicle wide, road and path with a low yield corn crop, this means there are some weedy seedy remnants in the stubble after harvest, on the East side and on the West is Village Wood, part of the estate with scrub and weedy areas. The whole length of the East edge has a deep ditch along it and a wide overgrown field margin, enjoyed by Barn Owls and Yellowhammers alike.

On the West, the ditch starts half way along and runs to the south end where they go under the main road.    

Facing North from the main road at the South end in May.

Same view in different weather.

I walk and drive this stretch almost everyday at some point, often several times when out with Peggy on her walks. Times of day and weather conditions vary but its flat and dry underfoot and always worth a stroll . Summer evenings at 11pm or fine early mornings are great but dark winter days with rain are also covered without bias.

November. Facing the other direction.

Beast from the East

No birder would ever visit. Its not a destination spot but for a local walk it is a route to other sites further south. The thing is, I have gone over my patch list to see what I have seen on this road over the last decade and it is quite surprising. In no particular order - 

Water Rail almost annually in the ditches during winter. Easier to see in hard weather.

Woodcock annually.

Little Egret 1 amazing record of a bird sat in the ditch then on top of the dead roadside tree.

Kingfisher a few records fishing over the ditches in winter.

Brambling, several times in with other finches in stubble and drinking from the ditch.

Mealy Redpoll a small flock one January included one very white bird feeding in alders on the west side.

Yellow Browed Warbler, a few records located by calling birds.

Grasshopper Warbler, once in the ditch reeling and seen down to 10 feet.

Peregrine a few records hunting over head.

Cuckoo 2 together autumn 2020.

Raven a few records, in the harsh winter of 2010 a pair roosted in the wood on the west side.

Crossbill annual in varying numbers

Tree Sparrow. Daily all year round.

Willow Tit. Rare only a couple of records usually late summer breeding dispersal.

Marsh Tit. Used to be regular now a very rare visitor.

Spotted Flycatcher, rare, 2 birds in 2020.

Waxwing, rare one sighting of 3 eating rosehips on the west side.

Hooded Crow 1 last year, 'our hoodie'.

Short eared Owl 1 in off, once.

Barn Owl regular along both sides in winter.

Osprey 1 a couple of years ago flew low right down the length of the road at tree top height.

Grey Partridge. Occasional.

This is not an exhaustive list, because I don't have one, but it shows how interest can be found in the most mundane spots by carrying out regular observation.   Quite a reward for watching a short stretch of road, I wonder what could be next?.

 

You can just make out a Woodcock on the road, quite regular here.

Good Monday.

 

The route across Tommy's field to go seawatching, on foot from home. All 300 yards of it.

The good news is, our awful vaccination side effects have gone, 36 hours after the needle. That's not too bad, for getting protection against the killer virus. Still, I hope vax II the sequel is more about the effects than the side effects.

With some relief that we are feeling back to normal, we still didn't do much today as the weather had rewound back to January. A light snow covering greeted me when I looked out of the window backed by a strong NW6 that nithered to the bone. Its incredible to think that at the beginning of this weekend I was photographing bees and  saw the first Orange Tip of the year!

This afternoon I ventured down to the coast path for a short hour seawatch to see if I could add to my patch list.

Apart from a steady trickle of Gannets at about 400 per hour, a few Kittiwakes and Fulmars, interest was slow in coming. 2 Sandwich Terns were the best and my first of the season, while a female Wheatear pitched in beside my watching spot before moving on, hopefully to a better, more sheltered area  than the one it has come to. Single Common Scoter ,3 Eider and a family of 2 adult and 1 juv Bottle-nosed Dolphins were the only other things into the book. 

Hoodlums!

 The other night Jane was making tea when the dog took an unusual interest in the microwave. On investigation, the fattest House Mouse you could ever see popped out and ran back behind! We cleared the bench and with some deft keepering, using a coffee pot, the said bariatric rodent's freedom was no more...It was released several hundred yards away at the opposite side of our village.

I posted on here in July when I saw a House Mouse at our bird feeders, the first I had seen for many years, but now we may have the start of a colony. We will be keeping an eye on the situation...

Yesterday Paul Cassells found a Black Redstart on the coast just along the road from us. I was working and couldn't get away while it was light enough so we went to check it out today, at lunchtime. Unfortunately the coast path and layby were more like a scene from the Great North run with loads of people out enjoying lockdown so I didn't bother looking too far. It comes to something when we can't even walk around where we live because of people walking around where they don't! Some Lockdown.

The highlight of 20 minutes out was our semi resident Hoodlum, the Hooded Crow who lives in the vicinity of the local farm. It showed really well in nice light, even giving me some anti-social verbal abuse at one stage, befitting of his / her kind...what a star. Hoodlum was the 6th species of crow around our village today. It would be nice to get a Chough. 

Hooded Crow

 

Viz-mig.

Now that all of my work time is spent at home I can record some birds and wildlife on most days. Usually I would be away to the office during the hours of daylight so blog posts would be thin on the ground, not least because I see very little.

This week I have tried to have half an hour viz mig each morning, soon after sunrise, just along the road, maybe 100 mtrs, from our house.  This is not a hill top, an escarpment or an island in the landscape, its just a random bit of east coast that is 19 metres above sea level on a rise in the road. It gives a clear 360 view thanks to the decimated intensively farmed surrounding countryside.

The view below is facing north along the coast road. Migrating birds seem to follow the line of the road give or take a hundred metres so counting is pretty straight forward.

Not a usual viz mig spot.

My timings and counts are below - 

2nd November 0715 - 0745

Snow Bunting          1 S

Crossbill 6,4,6       16 S

Siskin 9,4              13 S

Goldfinch 15,9,6   30 S

Meadow Pipit         1 S  

Redpoll 3,1            4 S

3rd  1530 - 1600 

Whooper Swans 42,12,11     65 S

Didn't have time to count in the morning.

4th 0715 - 0745

Egret sp         1 S likley Great White Egret but no size comparison and bird backlit in morning sun. 3hrs later a Great White Egret flew south at East Chevington so it must have stopped on route?

Whooper Swan     10 S

Twite                     4  S

by 10.30am - 

Pink footed Geese 1800 S

Barnacle Geese         2 W

Skylark                     13 S

5th 0715 - 0745

Brambling         5 W

Meadow Pipit   6 S

Siskin                1 S

Grey Wagtail     1 S 

Song Thrush 4 new in.

Pink footed Goose all day total 2300+ S over our garden.

Crossbill           3 S

6th 0715 - 0830

Pink footed Geese 600+ S 6 N

Crossbill                    10 N

Pied Wagtail                 1 S

Whooper Swan 4, 9   13 S

Fieldfare                        1 W

Song Thrush                 2 W

Meadow Pipit                 6 S  1 W

Canada Geese                50 N

Great spotted Woodpecker  1 S high dropped in to the farm, may have been local?

Peregrine                     1 imm low S.

7th 0850 - 0920

Little moving.

Meadow Pipit    2 S

Rock Pipit         1 S

Redwing            1 W

Fieldfare             10 W

Not big totals but its great to see the change over of birds moving through our site. Soon it will be all over...

2020 Vintage.

 Since lockdown over the weekend from the 20th March this year, little did we know how the birding would pan out locally. As birders we all hope for big things at the start of the year, some on their local patches, some all over the UK for their British List. 2016 was a classic that we thought may not be beaten for some time, but maybe 2020 has pipped it to the post? It depends on where you go birding I suppose.

Northumberland has had a real cracker of a year, I think, rivalling those top hot spots like Spurn, Gibraltar Point, Flamborough etc for quality.

In my own area, Howick to Boulmer a distance that could easily be walked there and back, it has been the best year I can remember since calling them local patches back in 2005 and in all probability the best year they have ever had. Boulmer and Howick are now places that many birders have visited, some on multiple occasions, when previously it has been somewhere to drive past on the way up the coast. I don't think it will ever be an area that many birders will come to routinely, it is too out of the way and like many patches, 90% of the time has no birds worth the gamble, but they are sites worth remembering now.

Here are the noteworthy species seen since March...

White-billed Diver, Storm and Leach's Petrel, Great Shearwater, White-tailed Eagle, Hen Harrier, Quail, Spoonbills, American and Pacific Golden Plovers, Buff breasted Sandpiper, multiple Long-tailed and Pomarine Skuas, Sabine's Gull, Med Gull, Caspian and Yellow legged Gull, 8 species of Tern inc Sooty Tern and White Winged Black Tern, Black Guillemot, Little Auk, Water Pipit, Bluethroat, Black Redstart, Desert Wheatear, Blyth's Reed Warbler, Wood Warbler, Yellow-browed Warblers, Siberian Chiffchaff, Willow Tit, Golden Oriole, Great Grey Shrike, Hooded Crow, Raven, Mealy Redpoll, Lapland and Snow Buntings.

I can't believe that lot is all within a 3 miles radius of my back door! I may not have seen them all, but I am very pleased with my lot so far.

If you could be bothered to drive another 20 miles you can add Two-barred Greenish, Desert, Barred, Arctic, Pallas's and Dusky Warblers, multiple Red flanked Bluetails, Brown and Lesser Grey Shrikes, Little Buntings, Red breasted Flycatchers, Hoopoe, Short toed Lark etc.   

 As the nights close in and the trees and shrubs take on a skeletal winter appearance, are we done? November can be a decent month if the conditions are right, but if we get nothing else, 2020 will have been a birding year that others in future are measured by. 

Reading this back, I might have to re-post an updated version as a year ending piece... 

End of the Northerlies...

 Yesterday morning was spent in our usual positions eyes screwed into the scope, facing east.

From the left - Sam the dog, the nicest, most well behaved seawatching company you could have, Sam's dad, Mark Eaton and John Rutter. My scope is in the middle...In the background you can see the Sooty Tern cliffs...

 Cullernose is getting a bit of a reputation these days, at one point there were six observers looking at the sea. That is a record number of birders here when there has been nothing to twitch ( the Sooty Tern will never be beaten on that score).

The wind had dropped significantly to a NW4 from the last two days making watching much more comfortable. We watched from 7am - 12 noon with the following results.

Sooty Shearwaters again took pride of place with 407+ N you could never get an accurate number as they are passing all the time often at long range. 

Manx Shearwater 6 N

Storm Petrel 1 N close in, a great bird for here and my first since the 2011 influx.

Bonxie 6 N

Arctic Skua 1 N

Barnacle Geese 254 N inc a strikingly leucistic individual.

Barnacle Geese with the leucistic 'snow' goose with them...

Pale bellied Brent Geese 18 N

Wigeon 236 N

Teal 24 N

Common Scoter 70 N

Velvet Scoter 4 males N

Goldeneye 5 N 

Eider 6 N

Great Northern Diver 4 N

Red throated Diver 10 N 13 S

Purple Sandpiper 1

Bar tailed Godwit 4 

Knot 2

Puffin 3

Sandwich Tern 3 N

Mediterranean Gull 1 ad w 

By the time we left the sea was calming off and the sky was brightening up. 

Adult summer (top) and juv Great Northern Divers.

Back home and the sun was shining so I needed to cut the grass. It is quite warm after being stuck on the cliff all morning, very pleasant. I had just finished and was putting the mower in the shed when I heard a single call in the large sycamore at our gable - 'tisswsp'. A Yellow browed Warbler. I dashed for my bins and camera and waited. A Chiffchaff and 2 Goldcrests showed but no sibe. I still get excited about these little birds and see them as rare but younger birders must just see them as common migrants these days. In fact they are the most reliable of our autumn passage birds, being easier to catch up with than Garden Warbler or Tree Pipit these days.

After about 20 mins or so a small bird flitted from the sallow I had planted just for this occasion, into the taller sycamore I was watching. That was it. Although tricky to see in the browning wilted leaves it gave short views for about 5 mins before it vanished. I managed a few shots...

A tiny Yellow browed Warbler graces our garden. It really is autumn...

Now that October is rapidly approaching fingers crossed for some easterlies...