Boney's and the rest....

The original forecast for today was for drizzle throughout, so it was pleasing to find the morning had dawned dull and quiet but fair.

I met with John at the usual Homebase rendezvous in Alnwick to drive up to Bamburgh in the hope that the Bonaparte's Gull found earlier in the week would still be around. At this quiet, dark time of year it seemed the best option, and little did we know how good it would be.

A few miles up the A1 John ordered a sharp right turn for a very brief detour to a concrete culvert ( a road really) under the main road to look for hibernating moths. It proved a good call with a single Herald roosting high on the roof right in the middle of the tunnel at its darkes spot.

Back on to the trunk road North and we were soon at the very scenic tourist village of Bamburgh. At all times, Bamburgh is still besieged by hordes more modern than the original vikings, so it was good to get there early doors before most were out.

At first there were very few gulls to be seen on the shore but as the tide began to rise a few started to drop in. Eventually when we had added 120+ Purple Sandpipers and 130+ Shag to the notebook, our American target arrived with about 20 black headed gulls. Its a while since Ive seen a Bonaparte's Gull so it was good to get this lovely, dove grey and white adult in winter plumage. These are the Nearctic version of our common Black headed gull but seem so much daintier despite looking very similar.

Stag Rocks and lighthouse.

Bonaparte's Gull with Black headed Gulls

After giving it a good look at, we moved a few hundred yards up to the golf club entrance for a cuppa. While drinking tea we could view the flat calm water for seafowl in relative comfort.
Things didnt look promising with only a few Common Scoter and Eiders dotted around, then a winter plumaged Puffin was a bit unusual at this time, diving at mid range.

It was about now that John glimpsed a diver in front of the lighthouse and said 'Get a look at this'. As I looked in his scope I saw a split second before it submerged. It wasn't a red throated thats all I could see.

After a long time, when it seemed to have succumbed to the depths, it emerged several hundred yards further offshore, for a minute then down again. This time I commented that it was a large diver and the head posture was up tilted like a White billed, but it had gone.

Another five minutes passed when it resurfaced, again too far out to tell. We grilled it and it stood up, flapped then dived. The bill seemed a bit scruffy and the nape looked very dark so we left it as a Great Northern. Then the phone rang.

Jonathan Farooqi and his dad were at the lighthouse, maybe 2 or 300 yards closer to the bird. They were sure it was White billed Diver but it remained distant even for them. We hastily downed the tea dregs and walked down the slope to join them.

No sooner had we arrived, Jonathan offered me a look in his scope. There, a lot closer and heading our way was a big hefty White billed Diver! Get in!

Not a bad day, twitching a Bonaparte's Gull then dipping in on a big banana bill, cant be bad.

White billed Diver, adult winter.

As the diver swam much closer we could see all of the required features well, the long ivory coloured bill tilted up from horizontal and even the white spotting on the mantle and coverts. To put the icing on the cake, after half an hour it was joined by a Great Northern Diver in the same scope view for an ideal comparison. The WBD surfaced with some sizeable flatfish to eat then resumed its diving. I'm sure these have evolved from fish, spending as much time below the surface as on it....

A long tale...

In a solid overcast drizzling dawn, John and myself headed up to Goswick to call in on the juvenile Long-tailed Skua that has frequented the golf course there for the last few days.

At first it wouldn't play ball, or should I say golf, and remained elusive hidden away at the northern most extremity of the fairways. After a little stalking and a lot of a soaking we managed decent views of this usually pelagic pirate.

Clearly we weren't going to do as well as our peers on the photographic front, so we headed back to the car to dry and have refreshments.

Next stop, Budle Bay. From the laybye, viewing here is always a chore with loads of birds around but most of them a long way off. Still we manged a few Grey Plover, 4 Little Egret and a load of Pink footed Geese before we cut or losses and headed around to Stag Rocks for better views of last weeks nemesis the White winged Black Tern.

At Stag, all was quiet so we walked out to Budle Point. Things were much better here with a nice juv Black Tern, a juv Roseate Tern, maybe 20 Arctic, Common and Sandwich Terns, an Arctic Skua,  a Kingfisher, 60+ Pale and Dark bellied Brent Geese, 300+ Pink footed Geese and a Red breasted Merganser. Unfortunately despite spending over an hour looking there was no sign of the aforementioned WWBT so we called it a day and headed back to the car.

In the laybye here we bumped into bird artist extraordinaire, Darren Woodhead and his young son scanning the sea.After exchanging pleasantries we were about to leave when the lad shouted and waved. The kid had just found the White winged Black Tern off the lighthouse! Thats what 10 year old eyes can do for you...

After som initially confusing directions we all managed to see the bird well before it danced its way south towards Bamburgh Beach. An educational bird.

Our final stop was to be a quick scan at Monk's House Pool ( of Ennion fame). Here a juv Little Stint and 4 Black tailed Godwits were the highlight.

Not a bad few hours out with 6 species of tern, you could forget it is October already!

The Stag and the Pennymen....

A cold frosty morning turned out to be a beautiful crystal clear day. As John was tied up elsewhere, I thought I would pop up to Seahouses to try and get some photos of the Black Redstart that has taken up temporary residence among the boats there. Unfortunately, things didn't go to plan, as the said bird had 'done one'. I spent about an hour and a half over two visits there today seeing only a few Eiders and 20 each of Turnstones and Purple Sandpipers ( during a recent conversation with Iain Robson I find that these little waders were once known as 'Pennymen' by local fishermen, while Sanderling were called 'Sea Mice').

So, it was time for another couple of miles drive up the coast to Bamburgh to see what lurks off the coast there. It was fantastic first thing, with very few people and miles of clean sea, sand and rock. With the cold northerly numbing fingers and air that tasted like a drink of iced water, birds became just a secondary feature, the 'icing on the cake'so to speak.  I could see the snow speckled Cheviot over to the west and Lindisfarne Castle, Bamburgh Castle and the Farne Islands only by turning around. Can there bee a finer place than North Northumberland on a day like this?

Even so, the local sea fowl weren't too bad either, with several hundred Brent Geese, 5 Slavonian Grebes, 4 Long tailed Ducks, another 50 'Pennymen', 6 Red breasted Merganser and an exhaltation of Skylarks to back it all up.

Harkness Rocks and Lighthouse, known locally as Stag Rocks. I cant think why?

Hundreds of Pale bellied Brent Geese flighting into Budle Bay to feed as the tide drops. There were a couple of dark bellied in my photos too.

Him'n'her Long tailed Ducks

Slavonian Grebes lit up by the sun with the raft of Common Scoter. 

I caught all 5 Slavonian Grebes in this one shot.

Displaying Red breasted Mergansers in a channel across the sand.

A Field Day...

Rainbow over the sand flats north of the causeway.

A day off work midweek is never an opportunity to be missed so when JWR said he had to use up some annual leave before the end of the month and we should have a trip out, my flexi day was booked in pronto.

Just like the old days, we decided to have the full day out birding up the coast, rather than just grabbing at a Sunday morning, and headed off to Holy Island early doors. The morning was fine and cool with a light NW breeze, but an ominous looking front could be seen further north in to the Scottish Borders, and it was heading our way.

The island was mainly tourist free, as the crossing would be closed mid morning, so we enjoyed an uninterrupted wander around the village for a couple of hours. Chiffchaff and Blackcap with a few Redwing, Fieldfare and Blackbirds were the only migrants, probably lingering from last week. Masses of Pale bellied Brent Geese and assorted waders fed and flew around the flats either side of the causeway.   As the rain arrived we decided it was time to out run it by heading south.

A few Pale bellied Brent Geese.

Chiffchaff

Redwing

Blackcap

The Bamburgh and Seahouses area was our next stop, taking in several sites in the area. At Budle Bay the tide was almost up and had pushed thousands of birds up together. Highlights here were a powerful immature Peregrine that narrowly missed catching a Redshank before continuing south to let the birds relax until the next 'sortie'.  At Stag Rocks, there was little on the sea other than a Slavonian Grebe but a late Sandwich Tern sat on the rocks with waders was a surprise find at this time of year.

A quick check of the castle wood for migrants was quiet apart from a Woodcock flushed from the leaf litter.

A small feeding station just outside Bamburgh village held the usual woodland species including Marsh Tit, Nuthatch and Great spotted Woodpecker. 

Stag Rocks, Bamburgh

Imm Peregrine.

Marsh Tit

 A final stop at Beadnell and Low Newton where the rain was now becoming irritating turned up a single Long tailed Duck, 3 Red throated Divers, another Chiffchaff and a scattering of Goldcrests.

A quick tally showed that we had recorded 81 species of bird, not a bad total with out really trying too hard. We might start and make this a habit....

The Last Post...

of 2010.

So, this morning I headed 'off patch' and up the coast (yes, for a change...).

At Seahouses, 70+ Pale bellied Brent Geese flew south over the harbour, but there were very few gulls let alone a white winger. Nowadays most boats from here are pot fishing so there is little to discard to attract the gulls. The days of Ivory Gull here are behind us I think.

Onwards then to Stag Rocks, Bamburgh.

I arrived here at about 9.30am. The weather was very dull and overcast but calm and the sea was flat with a high tide, just right to look for the seafowl that winter off here. I was so engrossed that I stayed for 2 hours, and did very well. Some species only coming into view after an hour and a half showing what I would have missed on a hit and run visit.

Lindisfarne Castle from Stag Rocks

In the 2 hours viewing from the car while drinking tea ( and eating mince pies) I had -

Eider 50+
Common Scoter 56+
Velvet Scoter 5 males together.
Long tailed Duck 4 inc 2 males.
Goldeneye 2
Shag 160+
Red throated Diver 9+
Great Northern Diver 1
Slavonian Grebe 8+
Black necked Grebe 1 rare here in winter these days but nice to compare with the other grebes nearby.
Red necked Grebe 1
Purple Sandpiper 99 roosting on shore with
Knot 71.

The grebes especially were a highlight with some quite close in allowing good views.

2 Porpoises and a bull Grey Seal added to the variety too.

Grebe notes done on the spot without reference. They are not to scale. The Black necked was much smaller and dumpier than the Slav and Red neck...The Black necked seemed too light to get any depth under water. It was like sinking a bottle cork, whereas the other two had no such problems.  

From here I popped down to Budle Bay where there were thousands of birds but the high tide was making them very distant. A Greenshank close in was nice and as a wildfowl sample I counted the Mallard at identifiable range - 220+. There were even more wigeon and shelduck and waders including Grey Plover, Bar tailed Godwits and Dunlins but too far out. Still, a nice morning, just the job to round off a great 12 months...