Red breasted Goose etc.

 So, September ended with a big dip. Oh well, its one of those things. How would October fare...

Sunday 1st October was a lovely fine autumn day here. Dawning quite cool but warming up later on.

John and myself took a trip up to Elwick on the Lindisfarne Reserve to look for the Red breasted Goose that has been hanging around with the large geese flocks for a few days.

We wandered up the track knowing from experience that the geese here are usually quite mobile and as we arrived at the end, this was certainly the case. Flock after flock of Barnacle Geese were leaving a distant field to our right and flying across our vision to land, unseen in a field, two to our left. Each flock was scrutinised in nice morning light as they passed, without luck. 

The view we had as geese flocks flew left at the end of this field. Holy Island lies beyond the flats.

We decided to try to get a view of the geese over to the left so we stalked close to the hedge, into a dip, to peer into the next field. The ground was wallpapered in Black and White. A 'magic-eye' illusion of Barnacle Geese greeted us with birds still arriving. The problem was, we were too close. We stopped, scarcely daring to breathe and quietly scanned through. No joy. We waited. In the distance from Holy Island causeway I saw another few hundred geese strung out in the air heading our way. As they whiffled down to the ground we had another scan. There, only about 100 mrs away, right on the front in full sunshine a stunning adult Red breasted Goose, probably the first with good credentials since the 1800s in Northumberland. It had arrived with a small flock of Brents from high to the east originally before moving in with the Barnacle Geese to feed. What a belter, and I had left my camera in the car thinking the geese would be too far off.

As it happened, that was irrelevant. No sooner had we seen the target, a farmer on a quad drove straight into the field putting 3000+ geese to flight right over our heads. The sound was incredible. I've seen lots of goose flocks into many many thousands across the UK but have never experienced such noise from wings and voice only 50 feet above me. It was truly awesome.

As we watched the mass head back to the fields they originally came from, we scanned and scanned but couldn't pick up the Red breast. It was here a twist occurred. As we looked, I noticed an Egret coming off the flats towards us mobbed by crows. I couldn't say I'd seen that before, so I just put the scope on them. The Egret had a bright crocus yellow carrot pushed into its mush - it was a Cattle Egret! This was only my 2nd in the county and my first self found. These may be tame fare on the Avalon Marshes but up here they're still hens teeth.  We watched as the Cattle Egret lowered its undercarriage and glided over a hedge appearing to land unseen. We went to investigate.

From our new vantage point, we never did see the Egret again but we could see the geese. It took about half a dozen scans before the Red breasted Goose was picked out. Now at comfortable distance we could scope it feeding with Barnacles and showing how such a colourful harlequin could be camouflaged in the monochrome sea of wildfowl.

Two great county birds UTB by breakfast, excellent.

A stop at Budle Bay for our tea and snacks had a lot of birds but just the usuals. Highlight was probably 35 Shovelers.

On to Monk's House Pool of Ennion fame where there had been an American Golden Plover. Unfortunately most of the flock had departed leaving only 115 Eurasian Goldies to scan through.

Still not a bad day, RBG is no 363 on my county list and only my 2nd ever. 

Cattle Egret field notes.

Red breasted Goose field Notes

A worked up version of the Red breasted Goose back home.

Another type of Christmas Red breast....

On Sunday, a,near adult or adult Red breasted Goose turned up with the Pinkfeet in Druridge Bay, near Hemscott Hill Farm.

I assumed it to be the bird that has frequented Big Waters, near Newcastle, since the autumn, but, now that it 'looked wild' I thought I would have a look, for insurance purposes you understand.

The bird at Big Waters was originally with some Greylags, and looked nothing like being wild, so I didnt bother with it. As Sunday progressed, word came out that this might be a different individual. Also fanning the flame, apparently there was a dark bellied Brent and a Barnacle Goose with it, so it could end up being accepted by BBRC. Mmmm...

Monday morning before work was lovely and sunny with a light ground frost as I pulled into the Drift Cafe car park, at Cresswell. The Red breasted Goose was feeding only a hundred yards away behind the cafe, with some vigilant Pinkfeet and, sure enough, a Dark bellied Brent and a Barnacle Goose were near by.

I set up my scope to grill the bird. What a real stunner it was, a harlequin, bedecked in black, white and chestnut, shorter than the Pinkfeet with a smaller bill too. Possibly one of the smartest of the whole wildfowl crew.

Then the bomb dropped. As it wandered around, I noticed it was wearing the trappings of captivity in the form of a blue/grey closed ring on its left leg. It was just a fine band, and on a black leg it would be impossible to see at range, but here, at scope filling range, there was no doubt, our bird was a fence -hopper!

Oh well, never mind, one day we might get a real one...

Black and white ( with a bit of red )...

Yesterday the weather was diabolical with gale force easterly winds and sleet. The sea at Boulmer was pretty impressive, I hope when it quietens down there may be something good to find. Today, although the wind had dropped, the rain was heavy and forecast to be here for the day, so what better a time to leave the local patch and go twitching. May as well spend a few hours in the car as being soaked seeing nothing at home. We packed the car with Bunty and headed off north. First stop was to Dunbar harbour where only a brief look failed to find the Caspian Gull, but we decided to press on as there were better targets to be sought. As we approached the Forth road bridge the pager alerted us to the presence of our quarry on the south side of the estuary at South Queensferry. The female or immature Killer Whale was showing right under the road bridge. Present now for a couple of weeks, the pod of up to 9 animals had dwindled to this lone individual. It showed quite well but at a distance, as it surfaced regularly for air. It pushed forward creating a large bow wave with its forehead and floppy, curved dorsal fin above the surface, showing its white facial pattern. On deeper dives the back was more arched. At one stage, while the Orca was submerged, we noticed a Grey Seal asleep, bottling, not too far away. When the whale resurfaced you've never seen a seal vanish as quickly! On to our second stop at Alloa, near Sterling to look for a Red-breasted Goose. We couldn't find it or the accompanying 600 Pink footed Geese at Fallin so we luckily checked out an area north of the river. Two birders already had the goose staked out with the pinks, feeding in a tussocky grass field. I was relieved to put this one to bed as I have missed out on previous occasions. A very small goose, it was difficult to see in the grass and was dwarfed by the other grey geese. On the odd occasion it lifted its head, its intricately marked face pattern could be seen and was strangely remeniscient of the Harlequin Ducks I've seen in Iceland. This was a very smart bird and well worth the trip. A lifer for me bringing my total up to 384 in Britain ( yes I know its not bad for a year list etc etc but I dont get out that often!)