Back to normal...

After the birding excitement of recent weeks, today saw things slow up a little, back into the usual pace for winter birding in Northumberland.

I met John at Warkworth and as the weather was pleasant we just pottered around the area taking a few snaps and drinking tea. No change there then.

A short drop in at Druridge Bay Country Park was all but pointless, highlights being about 70 Tufted Duck and half a dozen Gadwall.

Back up the the Coquet Estuary area it remained pleasant but very slow on the bird front, until we stopped to check a herd of 24 Whooper Swans ( with 6 juvs) and were very surprised to find a flock of 64 Black tailed Godwits in the stubble alongside them! Whilst not a rare bird in the county, flocks of 10 in early autumn or spring are more usual so this large gathering was the highlight of our morning. Further over the road another 13+ Whoopers were feeding in a rape field.

Elsewhere, 1 Little Egret, 250 Golden Plovers, 11 Yellowhammers, a Brambling and a few Wigeon were all we could muster. A nice morning out though, all the same.

Little Grebe and BHG on the country park...

Coquet Estuary.

Old Water Pools, Warkworth Dunes

Black tailed Godwits at Birling

Whooper Swans in wet stubble at Birling.

A Woodcock Winter...

My morning began in -5 degrees out with Bunty. We only walked from home up to the coast path.  Woodcock seemed to spring from every sheltered patch and 5 were seen within 15 minutes, with another 3 later. Then I noticed this poor creature that had hit a sheep fence. It flopped along the verge trying to take off without success.

I kept it in a box in the house until this afternoon. Although I could see there was no fixing this one ( the right wing was shattered) I didnt have the bottle to 'do the right thing', so I realeased it onto a wet sheltered patch nearby to let nature take its course. It was quite a perky character. What a shame...

At lunchtime I saw that a flock of geese had settled in the coast path field, so wandered up with the scope to check them out. There were exactly 200 Pink footed Geese, but more interestingly there was a good movement of birds south along the coast so I did a bit of 'viz migging' from the road end.

No sooner had I counted the geese, when I saw a thrush on the far fence. Peering through the scope, it was one of a party of 4 Mistle Thrushes, but as I looked a movement behind caught my attention...HEN HARRIER! And not just a hen harrier, a stonking adult male looking all silvery and uplit, tipped with black. Still watching I scrabbled for the camera but not only was it distant, it was too quick for me and was out of sight, south, within a minute or so...

Right then, back to the counts, I thought, when I heard the calls of more Pinkfeet heading my way. Looking up, they came right over head and one was white! The Newton Pool Ross's Goose, no less, accompanied by 5 Barnacle Geese and 40 Pinkfeet. They whiffled in to the flock in the field for a feed and a preen, and ten minutes later they were off again heading south... 

Ross's Goose with Barnacles and Pinkfeet...

The original flock...

An hour later (watched 12 - 1pm) with numb feet I had counted -

Whooper Swan 8 S ( 7 ad and 1 juv)
Pink footed Goose 525 S
Barnacle Goose 5 S
Ross's Goose 1 S
Hen Harrier 1 S
Golden Plover 11 S
Snipe 8 S and N around the fields
Curlew 5 N
Dunlin 53 N and S around fields some were attached to Skylark flocks.
Lapwing 16 S
Woodpigeon 76 S
Skylark 355 S a constant stream of birds low over the fields.
Mistle Thrush 9 S
Fieldfare 4 N
Brambling 2 S
Linnet 67 S
Twite 1 S
Goldfinch 1 S
Reed Bunting 3 S with Skylarks
Lapland Bunting 2 S with Skylarks.

To warm my feet I had a walk north along the coast path to Cullernose Point and back. The 11 Whooper Swans were still in the field near the lay bye, 32 Grey Partridges were easily seen against the snow in small coveys (8, 2, 9, 7, 6), 1 female Sparrowhawk looked like a male Gos in flight, briefly, until seen perched, a pitfall for the unwary, 2 Buzzard, 16 Oystercatcher, 1 Purple Sandpiper and 3 Woodcock.

Fake Gos...

At dusk I watched 5 Woodcock flighting out of the hedges and woods to the coast to feed, joined by a lone Snipe...This brings the days Woodcock tally to 16.

OFFH List - 160. ( Ross's Goose included, but not on my 'real' list...)