Pished Off...

 How badly does missing out on seeing a rare bird affect you? Some 'casual' ( ehherm) birders recently on social media have lamented that they don't know how they will cope if they miss the next big thing, having missed out on some mega rare birds recently on various islands around our coastline. Really?

For goodness sake get a grip, if it is troubling you that much maybe you need to get some mental health advice. Most of us, I think, are in the 'bugger' camp where we would like to catch up with something that we then dip out on leaving a little fed up for a spell then we move on. That's life or as some local old timers would phrase it 'That's birding son'.

This weekend, I've had a little taste of this. On Saturday late afternoon around 5.20pm, a message came through from our local insatiable bird finder, Dan, that he had found a Red -eyed Vireo at Boulmer! To be precise, the bird was in a few scattered hawthorns on Seaton Point. 

Seaton Point, pic taken Oct 2020...

The timing couldn't have been worse for me as I had to be at Alnmouth Station at 6pm to pick Jane up from a trip to Newcastle. By then it would be dark anyway so it was a non starter. Wandering around the station 35 mins later, thick clouds gathered, not only in my head, but real ones and the rain started. Darkness brought relief in that my dilemma was now over, it would wait until tomorrow.

Overnight and the wind got up to a near gale from the south west. Seaton Point isn't a good bird holder in decent conditions being so exposed but in this weather I was not hopeful that our East coast yank would still be there.

I met John there at 7am, before first light. John had been quick enough out of the blocks that he saw the bird while Dan was still with it last night so he had the most up to date idea where it was at dusk.

We covered the area until lunchtime along with another good few birders but, as expected, the Vireo was no more. Missing a bird of this magnitude on our local patch does smart a little, but at least I saw the Holy Island bird last autumn so its not too bad. 

What did we see? The answer is, not a lot really. A Peregrine soared over the point in a blustery dawn, 22 Barnacle Geese flew W, about 20 Redwings were in the point bushes and bracken and a couple of Siskins and Grey Wagtail flew S. 

Here's to the next time...

 

If only....things might have been much different...

Busy...

 12th October and no blog posts. Anyone would think it has been a busy bird filled autumn but no, the first part is correct 'busy' but bird filled, no. I just haven't had much time to blog so here is a potted catch up.

Rather than birds keeping the Adrenalin flowing in October it has been invertebrates that have provided several lifers over the last few days.

To start with, an arachnid came as a surprise. When the Wild Guides 'Britains Spiders' book came out I was intrigued by a small spider that was almost only found on the smooth grey trunks of old Beech trees. We have a few good candidates in the arboretum beside us so thought I would look sometime. That project slipped my mind until 29th Sept when walking Peggy after work. We came down a steep woodland bank ending up face to trunk with a massive tree. As I looked at the bulk of the timber, a small creature ran across. A spider! Could it be the one from the book? By now I had forgotten its name and didnt have my camera so tried to see any marks on the long legged money spider. It had an obvious white band on the abdomen and thin striped legs. As described there were strands of web across the trunk too.

Sure enough back home a browse of the internet and check of the book showed the spider to be Invisible Spider Drapetisca socialis. Since then I have checked and found another couple on different trees, so it must be quite widespread.

Invisible Spider.

Several visits to Boulmer have been slow for birds but a colour ringed Bar tailed Godwit in a flock of 29 was a male bird of the year ringed in Norway.

On 5th October a Northerly storm rattled some torrential rain along the coast. I walked the north end at Boulmer hoping to find grounded migrants but returned to the car with rain running down my armpits under my clothes and a single Wheatear in the notebook. The following day the morning had a good passage of wildfowl with 2,139 Wigeon, 5 Pintail, 2 Shoveler all heading North.

On 7th a warm plume of air from the Azores bathed us in an unseasonal 20 degrees, and also dropped some migrant moths in our village. A Gem was only the second here after one in 2010 plus Dark Sword-grass, Rush Veneer, Silver Y and Diamond back. Our neighbour along at the farm did even better and caught a  , only the 15th for Northumberland.

The Delicate

The Gem

  

Rhigognostis incarnatella 

Another new species for me was a Diamond back look-a-like Rhigognostis incarnatella. The moth fest wasn't over just yet however. There was a bigger surprise waiting. Overnight on 10th it was cooler and there didnt seem much activity around the lamp. The next morning it only took a few minutes to identify and count the 20 moths of 16 species in the egg trays. That is until I noticed a single moth lying in the bottom of the trap. A long looking, Setaceous Hebrew Character shaped 'flame shoulder'?

Straight away I sort of knew what was instore here. The moth was soon processed, photographed and discussed with Tom Tams. We agreed it was Northumberlands first and most unlikely Radford's Flame Shoulder, a rare migrant of the south coast and around 400 miles north of its main known range!

Tom had it confirmed by Steve Nash and I was commented on by Dave Grundy and Les Evans-Hill.

What an amazing record! 

Radford's Flame Shoulder, centre, with a Flame Shoulder from the summer on the right to compare. 

Check out the distribution. We are at the top line, 5 squares above the Isle of Wight.

 Now, all was not lost on the bird front either. On Friday 8th a visitor to Holy Island found Northumberland's 3rd and only twitchable Red eyed Vireo along the Straight Lonnen. The previous two were only seen by the finders so all county birders were interested in this one. I can remember being in awe of the first in 1988 and again racing to the scene in 2014 to no avail. However this latest blood shot yank was much more polite and is still present on day 5.

I went up on Saturday morning and managed a lot of short glimpses in thick cover then two longer more open views. We went back on Sunday for another look but the breeze made it impossible so we left empty handed. Not to worry I was please to update Bubo with my 357th county bird.

Above - Red eyed Vireo, Holy Island.