Stumpy lugs and Barnie....

An afternoon at Warkworth watching three Short-eared Owls on the dunes. Always flighty, they were still nice to see having become ever more scarce in recent years. 

  

On the way back to the car park at dusk a poor Barn Owl was being kleptoparasitised ( I think?)  by a Carrion Crow, determined to take its vole...

Some Tree Sparrows...

A few from the garden today....

Its Black....

Black Scoter quick notes, you get the idea....

A flexi day off work today saw us heading off to Holy Island to do a recce for the Alnwick Wildlife Group field trip on Saturday. The day was overcast and windy at first making the birding difficult. As with Sunday's Iceland Gull, today's first bird was one of the highlights, heard as we got out of the car at the Chare Ends - a Raven! The first I've seen on Holy Island, it continued south along the shore mobbed by two Carrion Crows. When we came back to the car there were two Ravens flying up and down, feeding in the same field.

From here we checked the heugh for grebes and divers with out success, then tried the rocket fields. 6 Black tailed Godwits, hundreds of Pale bellied Brent Geese ( 1 Dark bellied), a pair of Shoveler and a good scattering of Teal were noted.

As it was quiet we decided to leave the island and pay a visit to Cheswick only a few miles north, to see if the drake Black Scoter was still around. After half an hour of scanning, up he popped, the closest duck to us, with 100+ Common Scoter, 20+ Red breasted Merganser, 3+ Long tailed Duck, 1 Slavonian and 1 Great crested Grebe scattered in broken groups across the sea.

It was interesting to note that he behaved the same as the Bamburgh bird in charging around, bill open, calling ( unheard) whilst the Commons, seemed quite non plussed...

This site proved to be the best of the day, the afternoon being spent 'gulling' around the very quiet Coquet Estuary. Best here were 35 Grey Plover at Birling Carrs, 50+ Knot and a young Roe buck.

Back to work to end a short week tomorrow...

Raven, centre, with two Carrion Crows.  

Grey Wagtail, Beal Bank, Warkworth.

Not a bad weekend for weather, with yesterday being the better of the two days. Today is dull and overcast with some mist all day.

On Saturday I had a short seawatch at Craster with little to show for it other than a few Shelduck N and 3 Red throated Divers on the sea with a dozen Gannets distantly. From here a short wander around produced the hoped for Willow Tits in the area with two birds calling and one seen well.

Today I've been down to see John at the Coquet Estuary.

Remarkably my very first bird of the day seen in the half light of dawn was from the moving car when a fw Iceland Gull was a shining beacon of white on the river above the weir at Warkworth. Much rarer than Glaucous Gull here, it was a surprise indeed. After hastily swinging the car into the layby and calling John who was waiting for me at the marina, we watched the gull bathe for 10 minutes or so before flying off down river where we couldn't relocate it.

The rest of the morning was spent covering the Warkworth Gut and North pier areas, but there was not much else of note. There were plenty of gulls, waders and wildfowl though, so we enjoyed checking through them....

 
Above - poor quality images of Iceland Gull, due to the low light levels...

  93.Willow Tit

Purple Sandpipers.

After some success photographing the Purple Sandpipers in Craster Harbour yesterday I thought I would give them half an hour this morning in some nice sunshine. 5 birds showed well with a few Turnstones. I am really pleased with the way these have turned out. Purps are a regular feature on our piece of coastline in winter, with Craster being a favoured site from August through to May.

Its nice to fluke some interesting features not normally noticed in the field. In pic 3 the bill tip opens up like a spoon to help catch on to slippery invertebrates, very strange.

Still no Dunlin though....

Please do not use the images without permission. Thanks.
  

A day of two halves...

...to use a football analogy.

This morning was another sharp, crystal clear day for a wander down the coastal section of my patch.

We started at the Howick burn mouth where things were pretty much the same as usual. A Kingfisher called and flew upstream, unseen, while  the first of 2 Shelducks flew north. A perusal of the gulls revealed nothing but the locals, but offshore there was a steady passage of Herring Gulls all going north along the breakers at a rate of about 100+ per hour.

The view north from the Rumbling Kern, a geological feature on the shoreline.

Herring Gulls moving north.

 Back up at the farm, 130+ Golden Plover, 2 Grey Partridges, a few Skylarks were in the coast fields, while a Rock Pipit was a bit unusual forsaking its usual pelagic habitations in favour of a roadside muck heap.

Golden Plover in sheep pasture.

A muck heap loving Rock Pipit.

Next stop was to the far northern end of the patch where we drank tea and ate biscuits without a great deal of ornithological disturbance. I did get embarrassingly carried away with a glimpse of a Collared Dove dropping into a garden and out of sight.

The sunshine was lovely in the harbour so a few minutes were spent checking out what was lurking in there.

Craster Harbour

Turnstone

Purple Sandpiper

Another Purple Sandpiper

Redshank with a third Purple Sandpiper.

So, with a few Purps in the bag it was time to call it a day as I had be get home to be ready for another 'first' for me...

St James's Park, Newcastle.

 This first is not surprising really. We had a chance to of two season tickets to see Newcastle play Stoke ( thanks to Lady Howick) at home. Anyone who knows me, will now be shocked, as there is not a less sporty person on the planet, but its always good to try a new experience. I really enjoyed the afternoon out and from here we tried out a new restaurant in the city centre before getting the train back away from 'civilisation'...

Oh, the score was one each....I hope on the match of the day highlights they show the Grey Wagtail running around outside the dug outs. It put on a better performance than the Toon thats for sure!

92. Collared Dove

Sunny Saturday.

What a lovely day its been. The sun has shone all day with a bit of frost first thing and very little wind it was a pleasure to be out. There was even a hint of warmth in the sun, a taste of things to come I hope.

A few wanders around the patch from home added only one new species to the Patch List - Stock Dove. A single bird was in stubble down near the teepee track this morning. Apart from that the other main highlight was a flock of 20 Bullfinches feeding on a lawn in the rear of Howick Hall this afternoon. I cant recall seeing as many all in one view before. I couldn't get a picture due to visitors wandering by flushing the birds as soon as the landed. Maybe next time.  

At the beach along the burn mouth there was no sign of the reported Dunlin and Sanderling there earlier in the week. You know the rules, if you dont see it yourself it has to be stringy!

Other things of note - 30 Curlew, 10+ Skylark including one in full song, 100+ Linnets, Grey Wagtail, Sparrowhawk, 4 Teal, 3 Goldeneye, Goldcrest.

I hope the weather is the same tomorrow, I'm only out for a couple of hours first thing, so its on foot around the patch again. I'm really enjoying the patch work thing at the minute...

Starling

Tree Sparrow

House Sparrow

Blue Tit

91. Stock Dove

New month, new birds....

Only 2 hours in the field today due to other more pressing things, but the time was very productive. Out of those two hours, 1 hour 15 mins was spent sitting in the car gazing at the sea at Craster, and the rest was a short walk along our lane with Bunty...

Over the last 24 hours or so there has been a strong NNW wind blowing to almost a gale along the coast here. It was bitterly cold too, so I thought it might shuffle some sea birds up a bit.

11.35am - 1pm Viewing from Craster had -

Little Auk  31 N
Razorbill 3+ many other auks too far off to id.
Guillemot 3+ as above.
Kittiwake 7 N 
Gannet 7 N 
Goldeneye 9 N 
Velvet Scoter 1 drake N 
Shelduck 3N
Long tailed Duck 1 duck N
Red throated Diver 1 N 

Back home, a short walk along the lane was at least sheltered from the cold wind and made even better when a nice pinky male Lesser Redpoll appeared above the burn after having a drink. Pity the camera was at home...

Out of that lot, 8 species were added to the patch year list. The seabirds are a bit premature, especially the Little Auks, Velvet and Long tailed Duck, all species I expect in the final quarter of the year, not the first.

83. Little Auk
84. Razorbill
85. Guillemot
86. Kittiwake
87. Velvet Scoter
88. Shelduck
89. Long-tailed Duck
90. Lesser Redpoll




  
 

Month end Patchwork Challenge.

Not a bad month especially as I have been quite casual about it. Yesterday a very brief dog walk added two waterfowl species, Tufted Duck and Little Grebe and a similar wind blasted sortie today added Gannet. Total - 82 species for 88 points.

The percentage thing is a bit more skewed - my PWC baseline is 134 species from last years score. This gives me 61.19%. But, for my friendly challenge with Steve Gale in Surrey I have given a bigger start to allow for his total landlocked, no nature reserve status with 140 species base line. For this one I am on 58.57%.

Months highlights are - Raven, Kingfisher, Grey Plover, Stonechat and Brambling. Nothing earth shattering there, but a good start all the same.

80. Tufted Duck
81. Little Grebe
82. Gannet

Brambling.

First winter male Brambling.

 

The ground was covered with an inch or so of snow when we got up and everything was frozen. However, by lunchtime the sun was glorious and it had mostly melted leaving only the shadows white.

A wander around the village turned up a nice surprise when I heard a call overhead 'pruk pruk' and looked to find a Raven in full display tumbling mode, wings closed and upside down. It came low over the field scattering a large flock of Woodpigeons as it went.

Later as I left to go to Alnwick, the Brambling from the other day had returned to the feeders, favouring the niger. As the light was so nice it would be rude not to try a photo, so I popped back inside to get the camera and rattled a few off. The orange looks lovely and warm in the sunshine, dont you think?

Also around about, a pair of Stonechats looked great too on the coast path, 7 Redwings were in the Rectory paddock and 3 Kestrels were together in the village wood.

79. Raven

The Mighty Quin...

Yesterday morning found me boarding the starship Tilmouth in Homebase carpark  at 5am for a 220 mile raid over the border into Scotland.

Our target, a first winter drake Harlequin Duck, has frequented the River Don on the north side of Aberdeen since the turn of the year.

We made good time, as usual on the relatively traffic free Scottish roads arriving at Seaton Park in Aberdeen shortly after 9am. The immediate news wasn't good. The duck had been present first thing, but had flown off up river. Recent intel suggested that is favoured a set of rapids about half a mile up the river so off we set. The walk was pleasant enough, made more so by a chorus of Dippers in full song, and we eventually made our way through a building development to view the only section of river not cordoned off by tall metal meshed fence panels.

Relief, as we got on the the Harlequin feeding on a smooth stretch stretch of water with some 8 Goldeneye and a Goosander. On seeing us, he made his way over to the far bank for a preening session. Once spruced up after 10 minutes or so we were a bit disappointed when he just up and off, flying strongly out of sight around the next bend. Now this is where those bloody fence panels proved awkward, because, try as we might, there was no real way to access the area the bird had gone into. We wandered well upstream to a footbridge, seeing more Dippers, Goldeneye and Goosanders but no histrionicus.

After an hour or so, Alan suggested we try Meikle Loch about 12 miles to the north, for an American Wigeon present on the 25th. This was doomed to failure as every duck on the loch was about a mile away, backs towards us, facing into a now blustery, icy wind off the Cairngorms.

I suggested our time would be better spent waiting for the Harlequin to drift back into viewing position so off we went back to Seaton Park. Again we walked along about a mile of river without joy. By now it was 1.45pm and we had kind of given up, thanking our lucky stars for the short audience we had earlier. Then I noticed a lovely drake Goosander hauled out onto a distant rock over the stream. In the glowing afternoon sunshine, he looked magnificent and I commented this to Alan who scrutinised it with his bins. He then turned to me and said 'The Harly is on the same rock!'

Sure enough, there he was, sat out, catching some rays before the cold evening set in. We moved along the bank as far as possible where we enjoyed nice views, but could never have hoped for what happened next.

I said to Alan that it would be great if it swam a bit closer for some photos. The words hardly left my mouth when another Goosander seemed to irritate young Harly and he jumped into the fast flowing stream.This directed him into the current heading straight for me. Sitting down, back into the bushes for cover, I waited, disbelievingly as the bird ended up not 20 feet from my toe end! I looked back at Alan a few yards further along to see him mouthing something like 'clucking bell', I couldn't make it out over the river noise.

Here we just filled out boots with the star of the show feeding, and sitting out right beside us for over half an hour. Best of all there was only us two there, a great experience.

Harlequin Duck Histrionicus histrionicus, is species 405 on my British list. Although I have seen good numbers in Iceland, this was a great one to pull back after missing the two birds in Ayrshire many years ago. So, all in all, a fantastic trip with good weather, good company and a great bird. Cheers to Alan Tilmouth and to Aberdeen!