Time Out...

When doing a local patch list its easy to get fixated with it to the exclusion of all else. When time is limited by work or other commitments I think its best to take regular breaks off site just to keep things in perspective. This morning we did just that.

I met up with John at Alnwick and we had a local-ish tour to gather some of the good birds that have been present this week.

First stop, an 8 mile drive north to Newham Hall, to look for the four Taiga Bean Geese. These birds have been around all week but with 1000+ Pinkfeet here too, it didnt look an easy prospect. At first the geese gave us a right run around the narrow lanes peering through gaps in hedges but never quite getting a good view. They all then flew a mile north and mainly out of sight. We followed back to our original stop off point and decided to walk a bye way over the hill for a scan. As we got our gear from the car I noticed something in the field right next to us. Through the bins, they were clearly geese and 4 of them too but surely we couldnt be that lucky?

As it happens we were, and the Taiga Beans were in the bag ( or should that be 'can'). Also in the field were 3 Grey Partridges but no Pink feet at all.

Taiga Bean Geese

     
These are the first Taiga's I have seen for about 30 years! Every other Bean Goose locally has been of the Tundra race 'rossicus'. A good start...

Next stop, a drive back on ourself to the south where the redhead Smew was found quite easily at Widdrington Moor lake, though remaining quite distant. After a cuppa and a good scrutiny of the lake it was off north again to our final stop, Alnmouth south dunes or Buston Links for the wintering Shorelarks. These too were straight forward once we had negotiated the bumpy road that resembled the dark side of the moon, but today John had the four wheel drive out so it wasnt too bad.

The four Shorelarks showed reasonably well, feeding along the saltmarsh, though never getting too close ( close enough).

We gave them half an hour and that was the morning sorted and what with work looming on Monday the next blog post might not be for a little while...

Shorelarks.

Shorelark heaven...

On Sunday Ben Steel found these four Shorelarks at Boulmer. They are probably the least twitched Shorelarks in Northumberland birding history after the Magnificent 7 that have wintered at East Chevington have provided such fantastic opportunities for birders and photographers.

So, why did I bother after seeing the Chevvy birds? Well, +tonight at Boulmer, I was alone, with no tape lures, no Brian Blessed rehearsals, no Timpani solo from the steel hides and the only 'togger there was me. The wind was blowing and the sound of Oystercatchers provided a suitably wild backdrop to the evening. Just me and the Shorelarks. Bliss....

A struggle to get all four in shot...

Mostly three was the best...

While the fourth played hard to get...

Beautiful...

...is the only way to describe the weather this weekend. I even managed to see my first butterflies of the year too. On Saturday, a Peacock narrowly escaped the foot of a sniffing terrier in the garden, but a Comma, looking tired after hibernation was more approachable. A Small Tortoiseshell on Sunday was the last of a very welcome trio.

Two Dark edged Bee-Flies added to the insect interest, including only my second in the garden.

Dark edged Bee Fly

Comma

On the bird front, a drake Ring necked Duck caused some excitement for the young or newer birders in the county, being the first here since 2010. We used to see them quite regularly in the 80's / 90's with long staying birds touring a lot of sites. This bird is favouring Hauxley Nature Reserve ( closed until special weekend opening times) with an odd excursion down to East Chevington.

As the Ring necked Duck was distant in my photo, I did this small drawing back at home.

We dipped it at the latter site, where the wintering Shorelarks and Twite, 16+ Scaup and 60+ Goldeneye were the main attraction, luckily we caught up with the dapper yank later on at Hauxley NWT.

Above - Shorelark

Above - Twite

Reed Bunting

Chevington Burn mouth, the haunt of shorelark, twite and snow bunting....

Sketching.

Mid January we saw the 7 wintering Shorelarks at East Chevington, where they fed on an exposed bit of beach near the burn mouth. At the time I did a pencil sketch of one bird and its been left to smudge ever since, so tonight I have coloured it up. Handy as I didn't get any photo's due to me being full of cold and not bothered to carry the camera...Anyway, here it is...

Third time lucky...

This morning, the weather forecast was quite uninspiring with rain predicted for most of the day, however, as with most things weather related, the day didn't turn out as reported. It started off dark and overcast but ended up quite bright and fair, and we scarcely saw a drop all morning.

I met with John and headed off to East Chevington again for the third time since Christmas, hoping, again, to catch up with the wintering Shorelark flock, present here since November. Today was to be third time lucky as the birds, all 7 of them, were feeding on a tiny ribbon of strand tidemak as soon as we peered onto the beach. A few dog toting dudes did their very best to chase the birds off, but they were keen to get back and we finally got some great views. One bird in particular was a stunner, a full, horny male, with jet black face and breast markings on a primrose yellow background, while one was a drab female. The other 5 were more intermediate in colour and condition , but all were very nice, charismatic birds.

While John took a few photos, a nice flock of 42 Twite dropped in to feed near the larks.

From here we had a brief stop at Amble Harbour where the local Mediterranean Gull was sat on its rock on the little shore, then we headed off up to Boulmer. The tide was miles out here, but there were a lot of birds, distantly to scan through. There were 35 Bar tailed Godwits, 3 Grey Plover and the juv Glaucous Gull down on the waters edge. Off we set, resulting in John getting some decent shots ( check his blog out here).

As it started out dull, I didnt bring my camera but managed a few shaky seconds of video with my phone hand held on to my scope. Not bad?

Good birds....

Although I was at work today I managed to see a couple of nice birds. At lunchtime, I took an extended spell off and popped down to Blyth Harbour to see the Shorelark that has been around for a day or two. I saw Jack Bucknall's pics and fancied I might stand a chance. As is the way with these things, the bird spent 99% of its time walking and facing away with its head down to the ground, but a lot of pics taken must ensure a good chance of a fluke or two so here they are...

What a great little bird, quite confiding and even doing a little bit of sub-song in the warm sunshine.

Its not often in these pages that a bird as good as a Yellow-browed Warbler plays second fiddle but so it is today. After seeing four on the patch last week, including one in the garden, I thought that might be it over til next year, but no, I was wrong. I returned home from work tonight at 6pm in the gloaming to be immediately met with the excited calls of a Yellow-browed Warbler. As I watched the tall sycamore at the end of the garden, two birds flew out and over my head. They both looked alike but surely not? After some sneaking along the drive I soon found 2 Yellow-brows in the rowan near where we park the cars. What a sight, a brace of sibes in full territorial squabble mode only about 10 feet from our back door! After about 10 minutes they both flew to our 'pied flycatcher' oak then back up into the sycamores. What a garden record....

I managed one very poor pic, but at ISO 6400 its the best I could do...