Autumn almost over.

 October is now over with only a single post on the blog.

This might be because this may be one of the poorest autumns birding I can recall. Since August we have had a constant southerly or south westerly airflow. For us on the NE Coast that is about as bad as it can get.

Looking at some stats, Manx Shearwater for example. Not one in September. There was just no suitable seawatching conditions. Same goes for drift migrants. On my patch there have been no Redstarts, Whinchats or Pied Flys.

It shows, people think we have it made watching a patch on the east coast, but that is only if the weather is in our favour. Back in August I wondered if the steady S winds would ever change, and they didn't apart from a couple of very narrow sub standard windows of opportunity.

On 25th September a seawatch was largely quiet other than a few Dolphins a Wheatear and an in-off Short Eared Owl.

Above- Bottle nosed Dolphins and a Short eared Owl at Cullernose.

A brief twitch to Holy Island on 27th September while we were up that way had a nice Red breasted Flycatcher. The following day a Cetti's Warbler giving short snatches of song at Foxton Golf Course pond was a first for the Boulmer patch. The same morning a good count of 71 Redpolls flew S. It at least has been a good year for Redpolls with bird moving S on most days.

On 5th October a nice group of 7 Curlew Sandpipers dropped on to the Aln Estuary. 

On 20th around our village were 6 Little Gulls N, a Woodcock, 18 Crossbills and 9 Whooper Swans S while the glitch in the machine dropped a few Yellow browed Warblers on site with 3 at Craster with a late Willow Warbler and two Willow Tits.

Willow Tit

Willow Warbler 

Half a Yellow browed Warbler

And thats about it .

So, its no good wondering what could have been.

Winter is coming...

 

 

Catch up...

 A quick catch up of April so far .

Since the last general post a few more migrants have appeared locally. On 6th a very early Willow Warbler sang in our garden at first light but was gone by 7am. There arent many here yet but we did have 5 singing at Brizlee at the weekend.

A pair of Greenfinches at our feeders were the first to do this, this year and Hairy footed Flower Bees were out in good numbers when the sun was shining.

One good (?) bird was seen briefly on the coast path on the 8th. An Egyptian Goose flew north past the Bathing House followed by 11 Whooper Swans. The Goose is only the second record here after one last year. They'll be breeding on the pond soon no doubt. Our first Swallow was over our house on the 8th but they are still not here in any numbers.

On 9th, John and me walked up the Hulne Parks south wall to Brizlee. It was cool and damp with little to show other than 2 Red Grouse, a few Curlew, a singing Willow Tit and best of all a close, but unseen, Green Woodpecker yaffling loudly. 

Willow Tit singing at me.

  Near by 2 Adders were our first of the season.

Adder

Over Easter weekend an in house spider hunt revealed not only the Uloborus plumipes already posted, but Pisaura miribalis, Pardosa sp, Woodlouse Spider, Zygiella x-notata and an Oonops in the bathroom.

The local Blackcaps were late to the party on the 14th with 3 singing in our village wood.

When driving back from Alnwick on 15th we were over flown by a Red Kite at Denwick heading south. One day I'll get one on the patch but this was about 4 miles too far west.

Edit - Not sure how I missd this out? But anyway, Sunday 16th saw me and John up at Brizlee again. It was bright and sunny but cold. 5 male Wheatears in 2 places showed well, even in a rain shower, several displaying Redpolls chased and buzzed around the car and a Bilberry Bumblebee was on a sallow beside the road.

Displaying Curlew

Wheatear in the rain.

 

On the 18th another poor patch year tick materialised on the coast path when we flushed a pair of Red legged Partridges. I didnt see one here last year so they were sort of welcome.

Holly Blue has shown well in the garden this week with 1 on the 15th and 3 on the 20th. Seems like a good start to the year for them...

One worn and one fresh Holly Blue in the garden...

As usual the wind is swinging North for the weekend so it will be baltic while the rest of the country is basking in 18 degrees. 

Dark edged Bee Fly.

Winterlude.

That's the first week of March over and last night was the coldest of the year so far. Our thermometer showed -3.9 degrees at 06.25am this morning. That was 10 minutes after our electric cut out and with it, the heating and hot water too. Great. This was followed by a despondent 3 hrs until the power pinged back into life and normal life could be resumed.

The quiet period had me thinking about how we go about our birding, as I often do. Now, we are swamped with bang up to the minute ( literally) information on what is around . I wonder how we would get on if WhatsApp  and Social Media all stopped. If we were back in a time like the 80s when we used an ineffective telephone grapevine. A part of me might quite like that, but I haven't got the bottle to stop it all voluntarily in case I missed anything. The state of things...I have blogged a few times about Olden Days and Old Ways ( see index) so wont repeat myself now, but you never know, one day I might just go off grid.

Back to whats been happening. As usual we have kept it local over the last week. 

On my main Local Patch ( we watch a few, in our vice county as you have seen) things remain a bit samey though signs of change are coming. Our Village Water Rail has started to be seen a bit more often in its usual burn, and even staying a few minutes before running off. Nice. Some thrushes are returning back north with a few Redwings and Blackbirds in the paddock and gardens, while down at the pond, the female Kingfisher is still about with 6 Tufted Ducks though the Gadwall seem to have gone now. The other evening, a lovely group of 5 Whooper Swans trumpeted their way NW low over the village, What a sight and sound they made. I stood, with the dog, and just soaked it all in as they slowly moved out of earshot.

Same place on different days, the Water Rail.

On Sunday we had the morning down the road at Alnmouth. Surprise of the week occurred with two Chiffchaffs including my earliest ever singer at the waterworks. Down on the river, Little Egret, Barnacle Goose, a pair of Grey Wagtails and a scatter of wildfowl gave plenty to look at.

Looking from the line down to the River Aln valley.

JWR on the disused railway line

The haunt of Willow Tits.

As the village became busy we moved a short way to the disused railway line at Greenrigg. A pleasant wander here had 2 Willow Tit, 2 Grey Partridge, a Woodcock, 2 Kestrels, 2 Buzzards plus a few more regular farmland birds.

Flyover Sparrowhawk.

One of the pair of Willow Tits.

As I write this it is gently snowing though sunny and cold. Hopefully it wont be long before the wind swings back to a more southerly direction so we can expect some more bird movement and insect activity.

  

 

A cornucopia...

 Out and about yesterday seemed pretty much standard fare with one or two bits of interest thrown in.

Lets begin with the moth trapping.

For the first time this year I put the small bucket trap out in the Village Wood on Saturday night. The evening was calm, overcast and quite mild at 8 degrees so despite the early date I was hopeful that a few moths would show.

On collection yesterday there were a reasonable 32 moths of 6 species - Agonopterix heracliana/ciliella 1, Acleris cristana 1, a nice form I have not seen before, Tortricodes alternella 1, Dotted Border 3, Pale brindled Beauty 8 and 18 Chestnut. As usual in early spring, this outshone the more powerful garden Robinson trap that could only muster 1 Hebrew Character and 1 Dark Chestnut.

I always feel a bit guilty entering the wood at first light as I feel I am disturbing the locals - Roe Deer. The tactic is to make a small amount of noise as I walk so as not to overly surprise them when I round a corner. On this occasion, one stood only about 10 mtrs away watching me walk past, so I kept eye contact to the ground and quickly went on my way.

     

Acleris cristana

 Catch counted and released by 7.45 I met John and we headed down to Birling Carrs to have a look at the sea. This is the southern boundary of John's patch and there has been a Red necked Grebe in recent weeks so it was worth a look. On route, a short pause at Lesbury for singing Dipper resulted in a blank.

At Birling the track is now closed to all traffic like a lot of places here since covid, but in some ways at least there is less disturbance on the walk. First off, 100+ Linnets looked promising on a seeded rape field but there was nothing with them, not so much as a Tree Sparrow or Reed Bunting. Only 2 Grey Partridges added variety. A few yards further on, a distinctive call stopped us. A Willow Tit was buzzing away in low brambles and flat bracken close beside the track. It soon popped out giving good views but briefly as it flew off to thicker cover to the south.

We finally took position in the caravans to scan the sea in good flat grey viewing conditions. To be honest we were a bit disappointed. Over a vast area all we had were 17 Great crested Grebes ( 15 in one flock), 4 Common Scoter and about 20+ Red throated Divers way out 'on the edge of science'.

Back at the car, a good count of 62 Whooper Swans were in the field west of the road.

From here, a short half mile journey south to twitch a plant! At least the Mistletoe was still present and showing well. A rare plant in the county and only my second sighting up here and it looked like it was doing well.

  

Mistletoe, maybe the first time on this blog?

Back north now, to Alnmouth where we had our tea and sausage rolls while scanning the estuary. There were a lot of birds on a falling tide - 1 Black tailed Godwit,  200+ Lapwings, 18 Ringed Plover and  a pair of  Red breasted Merganser and an adult Mediterranean Gull the highlights. The Med was colour ringed but just too far to read.

Mediterranean Gull, Aln Estuary

We took a walk along to the Golf Course Pond to check for wintering Chiffchaff maybe. As often happens, that plan failed, but a nice Water Rail showed itself at our feet before vanishing again leaving me wondering if it had been there at all! A female Bullfinch and 2 Goldcrest the only passerines of note.

Alnmouth GC Pond, just the spot for Northumberland's first Penduline Tit!

This weekend has been like a taste of spring, but I'll not be putting my big coat away just yet, there could be snow before the Swallows return...

Not a bad week on the patch.

 Seawatching gets me a bit fired up. So much so that I forget to take any photos for the blog so here is another naked post...

Before the seawatching there have been a few interesting patch sightings this week, mostly while out on dog walks before work.

On Monday, a year first Spotted Flycatcher flew into our village from the coast path. It was picked up flying over open fields where it looked decidedly unusual, until it perched up in a village tree briefly before vanishing not to be seen again.

On Tuesday there was a proper garden event of the mega kind. 

I had noticed a bird soaring over fields behind us so dived indoors for my binoculars to get a better look. With the naked eye, at range, Marsh Harrier was considered but through the glass only a juv Lesser black back could be found. As I scanned a bit further, a small flock of birds high to the West in direct flight caught my attention as they flew North. The formation was a straight line of 4 with a single higher up. Usually these type of sightings here are of Golden Plover or maybe Oystercatchers so I wasn't really concentrating. 

That is, until it dawned on me what I was watching. All 5 birds had long bills and legs and best of all, white wing bars translucently back lit! They were Black tailed Godwits! What a superb garden tick. Black tails are a rare bird on my patch, we have no marshes or muddy areas so all sightings are of birds passing by. When I say 'all sightings' I mean the one in 2012 and in 2020 that both involved small parties in spring on seawatches.

Those 5 beauties take my from the garden list seen or heard to 141 species. I wonder what we miss when we are not so lucky?

Also on Tuesday a Raven flew over the garden calling quietly as it went.

Wednesday followed in a similar vein when, at Peggy's lunchtime walk a Willow Tit was calling loudly along the lane. Almost annual in a wider patch context they are not so regular in our village with most local sightings coming from Craster or Boulmer. 

Now to Thursday. A large high pressure over the north Atlantic was providing a flow of air from south of Newfoundland, past southern Iceland and over the top of Scotland giving a brisk northerly down the Norwegian coast into the North Sea. Conditions that would surely give us a few seabirds passing. This merited a two seawatch day.

Seawatch 1. Cullernose Point 6am - 7.30am

Slower than expected.

Sooty Shearwater 8N

Manx Shearwater 1N

Bonxie 5N

Arctic Skua 1N 1 S 

Common Scoter 4N

Teal 6N

Red breasted Merganser 2S

Roseate Tern 4

Arctic Tern 1

Sandwich Tern 3

Then it was time to get to work wondering if things would pick up later. I'm pleased to say it did but not by much.

Seawatch 2. 3.45pm - 6.15pm Rounding the wave watching to a nice 4 hours.

Sooty Shearwater 33N

Manx Shearwater 19N

Bonxie 15N

Skua sp ( down as Arctic but it was a Long tailed on hindsight. Dropped a bollock there) A dark juv was very small directly alongside a Manx it was around the same size. It then almost collided with a huge Bonxie lifting off the sea making it look like a tern it was so slim. At one stage a Sooty flushed by the Bonxie that was being agitated by the Long tail all in one scope view as a Manx went past.

Teal 82N

Wigeon 2N first of autumn.

Bar tailed Godwit 1 sum plum N

Whimbrel 1 N

Grey Plover 2 sum plum N

Purple Sandpiper 1N

Roseate Tern 1ad 1 juv

Sandwich, Common and Arctic Terns lingering.

Red throated Diver 1S

Puffin 1N  

A small group of 3 Bottle nosed Dolphins lingered off the point.

Not too bad, but no cigar. maybe over the Bank Holiday weekend? Still, mustn't grumble, its been a reasonable week around the home tetrad. 

 

Sunday...

We are getting a lot of 'seawatching weather' recently. Some years we hardly get a day with a northerly. However, not all northerlies produce the goods and its a learning curve of experience to pick out good from bad.

I knew today would be a bad one. The wind was NE and gusty, and to the uninitiated seemed good, but, if you drill down a bit, it was coming off a low in the North Sea, not one that had tracked across the top of Scotland hence there was no pre-north westerly ( are you with me) to blow birds into the upper North Sea and then down further south so they can re-track North.

I know that sounds a bit garbled but I hope you get the gist.

We were on Cullernose from 07.30 until 0855.

It was slow.

Still, we managed 8 Little Auks, all nice and close, some landing in front of us, 1 Common Scoter, 2 Long tailed Duck, 1 Velvet Scoter, 2 Red throated Diver, 2 Goldeneye, 5 Fulmar inc a likely Blue phase going S but only see from its arse end as it disappeared, and 5 Eiders.  Gannets and Auks go without saying.

From here we headed along to Craster for some shelter and maybe some passerine action. We had the shelter.

There had been a reasonable fall of thrushes with 30+ Blackbirds, 8+ Redwing, 4+ Song Thrush, 3+ Fieldfare but no small stuff, not even a Chiff or Blackcap to be had.

Best of the walk were 3 Snow Buntings N, just about 300 mtrs out of patch boundary ( they flew from the patch but I was neither in it or saw them in it so they don't count. 6 Willow Tits are good by anyones standards these days and 7 Grey Partridge, 1 Treecreeper and 4+ Goldcrest added interest.

Time for home I stopped at Johns car back at Cullernose. A short scan of the flooded newly sown field had an adult and a 2nd winter Mediterranean Gull, then just before leaving the mega arrived! A Little Egret [160]no less flew low over the fields and off north! Thats patching for you, only my 4th sighting here in 10 years and one I didnt have any hope of adding to the 2019 year list...

Off work on Tuesday and the weather forecast looks dog rough.... wave watching likley...

Cold Weather List.

At this time there is nothing like a short sharp spell of cold weather to give the Local Patch list and the patch lister a good shake up.

This weekend has been cold, often below freezing and snowy, more so inland. This has the effect of moving some birds around the countryside as they look for some frost and snow free grass nearer the coast.

On Saturday I was hoping to add the two winter thrushes to the list. On the north east coast they have moved off to the south and west by now so without an arctic blast can be tricky.
In the morning there was no sign but mid afternoon saw the expected arrival of 40 Redwing and 15 Fieldfares into the village. As a bonus, a Water Rail gave its demented mammalian squeal from the ditch running alongside our lane. I stood a while but viewing is difficult. A nice count of 41+ Tree Sparrows were at the garden feeders.

This morning the weather was clear and fine but very cold. The remaining snow was frozen onto dry surfaces. Thesed are the nicest of winter days.

We began at Craster with the intention of relocating the Firecrest but we didnt have any luck. I will keep at it because I think it is a wintering bird so hopefully wont have gone too far. As we looked a Peregrine flew steadily North along the heughs and the village was ringing with Willow Tit calls. At least 5 birds were calling, one of these also went into song for a while.

Tree Sparrows at the garden feeders.

Barn Owl

Kestrel new out of roost with the bully boys waiting.

Song Thrush. A few around today.

A few Goldcrests but no Firecrest.

Great to find so many Willow Tits here including this one singing.

A Barn Owl hunted the paddock and field edges in bright sunshine flushing maybe 15 Meadow Pipits.  The second patch Ringed Plover of the year was in the harbour. This is a good show for this less than annual species here. 8+ Crossbills flew high west, their calls echoing around the rocky cliff faces. Finally 2 Collared Doves were singing from telephone poles in the estate.

We then moved back along to Howick to check some stubble fields for buntings. There were plenty of birds but no scarcer species. There were 20+ Meadow Pipits, 27+ Skylarks, 15+ Linnets, 2 Stock Dove, 200 Golden Plover, 166+ Curlew and 44+ Redwing. 5 Yellowhammers and a Reed Bunting were in the farm yard.

Back at home the view from our kitchen and bathroom windows into the back field gave 4 Fieldfares, a Redwing, 2 Golden Plover, 1 Lapwing, 1 Curlew and 6 Black headed Gulls in a place usually devoid of bird life.

So thats another 7 species added to the list. With common wintering species now drying up, maybe the next few weekends will give something with a bit of zest?



 

Training.

This weekend's update is only a Sunday show. On Saturday I went to Newcastle, to theGreat North Museum Hancock for the ERIC ( Environmental Records Information Centre) North East Wildlife Recording Conference. I took an early train from Alnmouth that got me into town at 08.30am. As the conference didnt start until 09.30am I just had a slow wander up, taking in Waterstones and Fenwicks Window on route. The talks at the conference varied from Elvers in the Tees to Durham Botany Group via Pan Listing and Pine Martens in Northumberland.

The gig was full with maybe 80 guests, and I only knew a couple of them. Makes me wonder where all the people do their wildlife watching?

As John wasn't out on Sunday, I was up and out shortly after first light and continued training for the 2019 Banstead / Howick Patch Challenge. I started off with a very slow seawatch at Cullernose, where I had time to ponder things to do on patch to keep the interest going. I think I might do a BBS style transect count each month next year? Maybe?

The seawatch was only half an hour from 7.30am on a nice cool, calm morning. The only birds of note were 1 ad Peregrine coming in from its breakfast hunt off shore carrying small prey, possibly a wader, 3 Red throated Divers flew N and 1 S, 23 Eiders N and 1 Purple Sandpiper was on the rocks.

A measly 9 Golden Plovers sat out the tide before flying south.

 From here I had a short walk north along the rocky foreshore hoping for a Desert Wheatear, but saw....nothing.

Next stop was Craster where the wooded and scrubby Heughs were worth a last ditch try for migrants. There were only 43 Blackbirds, 3 Redwing, 4 Goldcrest and 1 Redpoll S. Amongst the locals were 3 Willow Tits, 1 Treecreeper and a male Bullfinch.

Tchay chay chay....

Back in our village a Fieldfare was on the edge of our garden, while earlier a Brambling called over head in the dark with 4 Blackbirds.

A walk with Peggy around the back field and down to the pond had 71 Pink footed Geese S, 5 Fieldfare, 2 Redwing, an amazing count for here of 200 Jackdaws with 150 Rooks, 5+ Yellowhammer, 1 Brambling, 1 Stock Dove, 1 Treecreeper, 2+ Bullfinch, 25+ Goldfinch, 17+ Siskin, 1 Grey Wagtail and 1 Heron. The wildfowl on the pond didnt put up much competition for Fenham Flats with only 8 Teal, 3 Mallard, 2 female Tufted Duck, 1 Little Grebe, 6 Moorhen and 2 Mute Swan. Still, its a change of habitat and my only bit of standing freshwater for any ducks so I'll be happy to monitor them.

Overall the patch had a quiet wintry feel to the day. Some leaves still on the trees with wonderful vivid colours and the pond looking mirror calm and oily black. The usually wet wood remains dry an expected product of this year ... 

Early spring.

As John was busy this morning, I spent the time combing both north and south ends of the patch for a possible migrant or two. I was hoping for maybe a Black Redstart or even a Firecrest on a light easterly breeze, but they remained 'pie in the sky'. Still, the day wasnt written off just yet.

An early start at Craster was enjoyable, mainly because it was so quiet being pre-tourist time. The picture above is a little known view of Craster that is not shown on the holiday cottage websites but I like its, er, rustic charm. It looks like somewhere a serial killer would hang out!

A seawatch for half an hour was slow but some dillegent checking of distant strings of Guillemots and Razorbills produced the expected result - a Puffin. Only one was picked out as most birds were distant, but it was a first for the year. A couple of Red throated Divers and Red breasted Mergansers the only other things of note. A check of the harbour walls and gardens was bird free, even the Purple Sandpipers seem to have gone leaving only this smart Great black backed Gull watching over things.

I then wandered the wooded and scrubby areas where the highlight was 4 Willow Tits, including 2 singing males, doing their tree pipit like cadence from tall trees on the roadside. 4 or 5 Goldcrests would be return emigrants.

After breakfast, I started at the southern end of the patch- the Howick burn mouth. En route a scruffy set a side off Tommy's track had a large flock of Linnets with over 200 birds present. I decided to scan with the scope for something more unusual and was amazed when only the third bird in turned out to be a Twite. A rare visitor here and not annual. More scanning showed this to be a loner in with the Linnets, but there were 9 Skylarks and 10+ Yellowhammers for good measure.

Down at the footbridge, 2 Chiffchaffs sang and flitted around the canopy and in dense rhododendron cover evading photography attempts while the walk back up the coast and Rumbling Kern had 3+ Stonechats, a Red throated Diver and 2 Rock Pipits.

Quite a profitable morning I would say....

96. Puffin
97. Twite
98. Chiffchaff 

Dendroica.

What a great surprise when Gary called me yesterday to tell me that there was a Myrtle Warbler in Co Durham and he had just seen it!

The other week it was seen at an undisclosed location during the RSPB Garden Birdwatch, by one of their volunteers. Quite reasonably, she was very reluctant to have her estate swamped by birders and did not wish the location to be disclosed. Luckily, Gary knew her from when he worked for the RSPB and entered into some negotiation. I was sworn to secrecy, in fact I was not told of the birds location until we were almost there this morning. 

The plan was to check that all was safe on the estate, then to release the news. As it happened, one of the 'trusted' people who were told about the record, clearly could not be trusted and blabbed away to the info services. A lesson learned here I think.

Anyway, as it turned out, everyone behaved well and there was no conflict. Gary paid for and placed his own feeding stuff in a hedge so that observers would not need to stare into gardens. A collection bucket rattled at visitors raised over £200 and the finder will be given the choice of charity it goes to. ( Yes I paid a fiver, did you?)

A bit of a twitch...

For the first two hours the bird showed regularly all over the place then a cold rain shower moved in and all went quiet until after lunch. As the rain clouds dispersed, it was relocated on Gary's feeders in the hedge where good views were had by everyone.

The Myrtle was a bit rangy for my camera...

Willow Tit

A nearby wood held a pair of Willow Tits and a Sparrowhawk flew over. Around the gardens a large flock of Goldfinches at niger feeders held Brambling and a lone Redpoll. I missed the three Waxwings that called in briefly.

Myrtle Warbler from my scribbled notes and pics later.

All in all and excellent day. Thanks to Gary who persevered in arranging the access this, only the 3rd mainland record, was my 403rd species. Superb!

[Update - I am giving my sketch above to the lady who found the bird...I hope she likes it!]