October catch up

 Dear readers, if you are still out there, apologies for the neglect of this space.

Its not that I haven't been out, I have, its not that I've not seen anything, because it has been ok, but for blogging purposes, there has been a minor change. Lately I've not been camera motivated. Its a big lump to lug around, so I went back to basics with bins, scope and notebook, like those good old days we birders of a certain age tend to hark back to. And you know what? Its been great. Without the camera I think I might have even seen more birds due to the freedom to observe and concentrate more.

So, here is an update of the October highlights on my local patches . The few illustrations are phone related...

9th October, midweek, we had a bit of a storm. A strong N6 was whipping up a hoolie all day with some rain. I ventured out for half an hours seawatch. It was only half an hour as it was too blustery to sit and look through the scope. All I managed were 6 Sooty Shearwaters N and a Red throated Diver south before retreating back to cover.

10th October, the night of the Aurora. A truly unbelievable naked eye show of epic celestial proportions. If you missed it, I am gutted for you as this might be a once in a lifetime even for us Englanders.

The aurora above our house and top at the village lane end...

13th October, John  and myself put the morning in at Boulmer. There was plenty to go into the notebook...

Pinkfeet 1245 S, Barnacle Geese 28 S 2 N, Little Egret 1, Swallow 3, Merlin 1 chasing a pipit over the shore, Peregrine 2, 1ad, 1 juv together on Longhoughton Steel, Little Gull 80+ off Longhoughton Steel, a great count for here, Red throated Diver 6 S, Great Northern Diver 1 N, Long tailed Skua 2 juv N, Bonxie 1 N, Whooper Swan 1 S and a Siberian Lesser Whitethroat feeding in some garden weeds along the coast path. A smart bird.

14th October, Apart from the 13 Grey Partridges at home, sighting of the day was, again, astronomical. The Comet Tsuchinshan - Atlas A3 was showing well on its 80,000 year orbit of Earth.

16th October, thinking I had missed out on a striped sprite on patch this year as I was away during peak influx, I was over the moon to come across a non calling Yellow Browed Warbler along our village lane while out with Peggy at lunchtime. Good views as it flitted around a roadside sycamore with a Chiffchaff and a Goldcrest.

19th October, the calm before the Storm ( Ashley). Some viz mig had Wooper Swan 6 S, Swallow 1 S, Brambling 1 W, Pinkfeet 350 S, Golen Plover 100 S, Meadow Pipit 9 S, Redpoll 6 S, Siskin 12 S, Redwing 2 S. Elsewhere around the village had a single flock of 36 Mistle Thrushes! No doubt these would have been Fieldfares on a fleeting glimpse. 5 Gadwall were on the pond.

26th October another dog walk had a few birds on patch with 23 Whoopers S, 155 Pinkfeet S, 2 Twite S, always a good record here. Redwing 45 flew into the wood next to our garden. 

27th October, I spent a couple of hours doing an ebird list around Cullernose Point with surprising results for a rocky over grazed, freshwater barren, field! To record 57 species was way better than expected. See below - 

 

 

Snow Bunting, one of a pair at Cullernose Point.

29th October, I should have had a kick up the backside. Spend a fortune on new bins and didnt I take the dog out without them. You just know what comes next...

At the top of our village in a small isolated hawthorn, a small bird was flycatching. I circled the bush to get better light and approached  closer, then I kid you not, I put my reading glasses on to see if I could get a better look! The bird was a small short tailed phyllosc, active around the bush. There was no call and all of a sudden it flew off over the gardens into the wood beside the village never to be seen again. Now, this bird was almost certainly another Yellow browed, but I could not eliminate Pallas's either! An hour with the bins looking at the wood turned up nothing. Needless to say Ive not left the house binocular naked since!

30th October, 60 Whooper Swans S over the garden plus 29 Pinkfeet. The mild spell brough a few Red Admirals, Speckled Woods and  alone Comma into the garden.

 Halloween. A short trip out looking for fungi in Alnwick Cemetery. Here we had 2 Ballerina Waxcaps, Plums and Custard, Trooping Funnell, Wrinkled Club, Parasol and Red cracking Bolete. A second stop at Swarland wood had Yellow Stainer and new one for me, Wood Blewit, Liberty Cap, Amethyst Deciever and Grisette.

November has started quite well too but more of that later... 

Ballerina Waxcap and Alnwick Cemetery

Surely this is The End!

 Yesterday I met John at first light at Seaton Point to see if any migrants had been grounding in the overnight rain. The wind was a light SSE. It was dull first thing but it brightened into a nice day by mid morning.

Seaton Point from Foxton beach.

A few Thrushes were coming in with a scatter of Redwing and Fieldfare but there were more Blackbirds and Robins. In fact every bush and bracken clump or seaweed pile had Robins.

A Woodcock was flushed from the edge of the golfcourse. In this spot, 9 Redpolls and 30 Siskins flew W.

Along at the point the sea was dead today with very few signs of movement so we decided to check the shore for the two Snow Buntings I had seen on Friday. We soon located one bird feeding along the strand line but there was no sign of its colleague? As is the way with Snow Buntings, this loner fed unconcerned as dogs and their owners walked past yards away so we took the good opportunity to get some photos. While we were watching, the shore waders became anxious and began calling. This disturbed the bunting and it flew off southwards.

 

After some tea back at the car, the sun was shining so we checked the coast path south to Foxton Golf Club.

A couple of small settling ponds here looked good for a migrant or two but the best we could manage was a nice Kingfisher giving a close fly by before perching briefly on top of beach side brambles.

Then down to the Golf Club proper. It was here when we were checking a nice looking gully a loud call close overhead jolted us back into concentration - Waxwing! I thought it might be sat in the trees but it was just flying low overhead, and continued straight south. Waxwings are scarce but regular on our patch recorded in 8 years out of 14 but this was my first local bird since 2019. Hoping there are more to come!

A shot from a previous year but this is what it was like if I could have deployed the camera quicker! 

Some winter birds...

With the north wind still blowing the spume from a crashing sea, the bitter cold, salt laden spray stung my face as I headed out to the Beacon Point at Newbiggin Golf Course. First circuit drew a blank for my target species, but did find 20+ summer plumaged Purple Sandpipers, 10+ summer plumaged Sanderling and several Common Terns roosting out the high tide. Up to 10 Wheatears scattered in all directions along the route, but it was on my return back towards the car that I found the summer plumaged male Snow Bunting running around the short turf of the fairway.

My first breeding dress Snow Bunt in Northumberland, they are a rare bird this late in the spring. This one was quite flighty due to being buffetted by the gale...

Snow Bunting

Eventually it flew another 50 yards along the golf course so that was me away back to work...

Later on my way home from work I called in to Druridge Budge Fields to catch up with another showy winter visitor,  Jack Snipe. Also here were 1 Channel Wagtail with a Yellow Wag, 2 Ruff inc one summer plumaged The Jack was bobbing around like a sewing machine feeding on invertebrates out of the mud. 3 Swifts fed with 100+ hirundines across the fields.

Channel Wagtail

Jack Snipe.

Not a bad little tally on a work day...

First snows of winter...

Sick of sitting in the office this week, at lunchtime, I decided to pop down to Cambois to visit the wintering Snow Buntings. A flock of 12 were quite flighty in the stiff breeze, so I just sat in the car near where some kind person has placed seed out for them, and waited. After about 10 minutes they came twinkling back in, their calls like wind chimes in the breeze. Today must have seemed positively summery to these most northerly breeding passerines.

While waiting, 40 Pink feet flew north over the sea, and on the return to work a Stoat in half ermine ran over the track near the bus stop.

That was quite a productive lunchtime I think....  

Snow.

Despite the news saying that last night wasn't as bad as they thought it would be, we awoke this morning to be snowed in with a minimum 5" of snow on level ground.

 Our village was very picturesque, providing you didnt need to get anywhere. Luckily I was on a flexi day, but Jane was just plain stranded. We made an attempt to get to Alnwick, but after only 2 miles, traffic stuck on a bank forced us to turn back...

Above and below - With all of the schools closed, 'snowball imps' could be found hiding behind trees etc...

Our garden birds were out in force too eager for anything going. Highlights in the village today were 7 Waxwings over head, a new one for the OFFH list, 1 Brambling, 1 Snow Bunting N calling, 35 Golden Plover N and 70 Pink Footed Geese S.

Up at the main road things were even worse....

Regular 'blizzards' kept us entertained during the day.... 

And the sun shone at dusk for a short while, this view from our porch...

We relocated 6 of the 7 Waxwings in the pond field later on...

So when you see on the news that today was an improvement on yesterday etc. No it wasn't. They are talking about Newcastle.

More snow....

This lovely white male Snow Bunting showed well near the cattle feed at Low Steads, Longhoughton. You can see its ringed on its left leg...

The WeBs count area. 10am on a Sunday, the beaches are their usual crowded selves... The headland is Howick Haven and Rumbling Kern, with Seahouses Farm viewed from Sugar Sands.  

It was cold and frosty last night so I didnt bother with the moth trap and headed out early to do Julie's WeBs count from Howick Burn to the Fishing Boat Inn, Boulmer. I thought it was due this week but I'm actually a week late. ( Sorry Julie). The morning was nice and clear with only a light SW breeze.

Still, the birds showed little signs of spring other than 2 Chiffchaffs, one singing in Howick Dene, the other in the cliff buckthorns. Some nice birds were noted but none new for the OFFH list. -

Merlin 1 female sat out on a small hawthorn after I flushed it off a fence post. It looked well in the scope but too distant for a photo.

Shelduck 9

Goldeneye 3

Eider 32

Redshank 51

Oystercatcher 36

Grey Plover 3

Curlew 110

Turnstone 7

Purple Sandpiper 3

Knot 10

Dunlin 44

Bar tailed Godwit 6

Sanderling 9

Lots of Linnets were around including groups of 25 and 40, Meadow Pipits and Skylarks were song flighting from territories, 2 Buzzard were over the dene, 10 Yellowhammers and a Reed Bunting were near Seahouses Farm. The male Snow Bunting above, was with a few Linnets and Pied Wagtails in a cattle feed area at Longhoughton Low Steads, seen both on my way and on my return. 

I think that the April count will show a lot more changes...

This afternoon I planted out 10 Hazel saplings into my garden where my first Bumblebee of the year was on crocuses....