Curlew Sandpiper

This has been a good autumn so far for Curlew Sandpipers in Northumberland. Down on the shore at Boulmer there are still 4 juvs with 300 Dunlin, 36 Ringed Plover and a few Turnstone feeding on a mound of rotting seaweed. The birds change over on a daily basis so it is worth keeping an eye on such a concentration because they may just carry something even rarer. Close scrutiny today, however, didn't reveal anything else.

Juv Curlew Sandpipers can be tricky to find in a large flock of Dunlin.

But here we can see the taller, paler bird. 

Here is a good comparison.

Feeding on seaweed maggots.

Wadering..

As I drove home from work I passed Warkworth and saw that the increasing tide was already a shade too high for birding, so I popped home then headed down the road to Boulmer. Its a while since 'Boulmer Birder' has actually been on site due to some nasty environmental changes there, but it is still a good site for waders so I gave it an hour this evening.

Down behind the Fishing Boat Inn were 100+ Dunlin, 20+ Ringed Plover, 2 Common Sandpipers, 2 nice Little Stints and 3 Curlew Sandpipers ( 2 juvs and 1 adult).

Three Yellow Wagtails flew from the rotting seaweed pile. I then had a walk along to Seaton Point where more Dunlin, Redshank and Oystercatcher were up the tide line with 35 Turnstones and a Whimbrel. By now the light was going so it was time to head home for tea...

Two out of three Curlew Sandpipers with Dunlin.

A duo of Little Stints.

A good morning...

The road to Warkworth Beach...

This morning started bathed in lovely sunshine, a great improvement to yesterday's deluge, so we met up at Warkworth top car park at 6.30 hoping for a few migrants. Well we certainly got a few migrants but not of the kind we expected!

The rain and easterly yesterday looked as if there might be a Pied Flycatcher or even a Barred Warbler to be found but the clear night put paid to that idea. But as we searched, a very respectable list built up slowly and surely, with the help of our friends of course.

'Bush bashing' around the car park, a metaphorical term to describe searching thick scrub for birds, turned up 1 Wheatear, 3 Yellow Wagtails, 2 Chiffchaff, 4+ Willow Warbler, 7+ Whitethroat, 2 Blackcap, 1 Sedge Warbler and 2+ Reed Warblers. On one of the circuits a female Marsh Harrier appeared briefly over head as did 2 Little Egrets and a couple of Swifts as they headed south.

A walk down to the estuary initially seemed a dead loss until we poached some luck from Barbara and her husband, a nice couple of Warkworth residents, who stopped for a chat. At this point we found 4 juv Curlew Sandpipers and a very low flying juvenile Osprey heading up the Old Water. This is my first Osprey at this site despite many hours of coverage over the years, so it is a definite highlight of the year so far.

From the north side, I was checking the distant Dunlin and noticed an different looking bird with them, facing away and remarked to John. 'Its only half an hours walk around, we can check from the south side' was the reply. A good idea. But, the best laid plans and all that, the Osprey, Curlew Sands and a nice group of 9 Black tailed Godwits shook the thought from my mind...

  

From top left clockwise - Reed Warbler, Marsh Harrier, Caspian Gull and Osprey.

A young Roe Buck just starting to bud his little antlers.

A juvenile Sedge Warbler

 Back at the car, info came through about the annually visiting Caspian Gull in Amble Harbour had been joined by an juv Yellow legged Gull ( found by Birdwatch mag editor Dominic Mitchell no less) so we decided to check them out.

The Caspian Gull posed well on arrival but we were too late for the YLG so had to make do with two 99's with monkeys blood instead. Well, when mingling with tourists we could hardly refuse...

Three juv Curlew Sandpipers continue migration.

 A short stop in an estuary lay-bye along the road to see if the gull was roosting upriver proved fruitless, but as I scanned with Johns scope I checked the Dunlin...again at a little distance, was a strange looking bird, this time head on. Ah, its just a juvvy Dunlin, I casually thought and lunch was now calling, so we decided to call it a day.

No sooner had I lifted my gear into our house 20 minutes later than a message came over the phone from the eagle-eyed ( and clued up) young Mr Farrooqi Jnr to say that he had found a White rumped Sandpiper on the Coquet estuary... ( groan....), so it was all about-turn and off I went again...

The one on the right is a White rumped Sandpiper, honest.

 A small crowd had gathered at Amble Marina by the time I arrived and the White rumped Sand was showing very well just across the rising tidal river with a few Dunlin, and now an adult Curlew Sandpiper and 5 Knot inc 3 sum plum adults. It was a nice moulting adult too and overdue for the site. Thanks to Jonathan for getting the news out so quickly, a great record for the Coquet...

At last, a bird!

Last night a brief stop on my way home from work to scan the Coquet Estuary from Amble marina didnt look promising. The tide was high and a kid was messing around in a rubber dinghy on the water. I'll give it a few minutes, I thought. Then I noticed that the tide was just beginning to drop and the bespectacled teen in the boat was grounded on the prime wader feeding area.  His outboard had packed in, so he used his oars to punt himself into deeper water before rowing off into the SE breeze.

Over on the far bank waders began to gather including 50+ Dunlin a summer plumaged Knot, 2 Sanderling and a nice juvenile Curlew Sandpiper when all of a sudden, Harry Potter had magically restarted his outboard and was heading back around flushing the lot. Oh well, time for tea...

New Moth

I was over the moon to find this lovely Dusky Sallow Eremobia ochroleuca as the very first moth out of the trap this morning. It is the first for VC68 and only the 4th for Northumberland. County Recorder Tom Tams thought it might even be the most northerly UK record to date!

Its not often I get a new macro moth for the garden these days, but there may have been two new species in this mornings trap but the jury is still out an a particular Pug that I fancied may be Slender? [Consensus seems to agree with me, Slender Pug it is, a two new macro day can't be bad!]

Dusky Sallow

Slender Pug, another new species for me and the garden....

Home Alone....

Its quiet here this weekend. Jane is away down to Northants to see her sister and toddler. This leaves me and Bunty to lol around, make a mess and eat junk food. Nothing new there then.

Today has been lovely sunny and warm but that is due to change, big style. Tomorrow we could get 40 mph winds from the west. Pity it hadnt been from any other direction but west is good for nothing on the North East coast. After getting some jobs done we have been catching some sun and taking some photos in the garden and around the village. Its a pity there was very little wildlife to pose.

I cut my small meadow patch down this morning, and will leave the cuttings for a few days. It hasnt been as good this year as previous years, I think because I didnt cut it hard enough early on and stopped cutting too soon. This left grass to choke out a lot of the flowers. I'll try harder next spring.

On the wildlife front, 3 or 4 Meadow Pipits moved south, the first passage ones of autumn, a few butterflies visited but didnt linger - 2 Small Tortoiseshell, 1 Red Admiral, Meadow Brown, 3 Large White,  1 Small White, 2 Green veined White and thats about it really...

Our village from the west.

The view from our kitchen.

The way in.

Behind Long Row ( which isnt so long)

Our hardcore drive is now a lawn thanks to my lack of weedkiller use.

The garden today in the sun, a rare commodity this year.

Sweet Peas

A raggy Meadow Brown.

Bunty maintains border control at all times. There have been 3 rabbits living in the garden recently...

A Wasp steals the table, bit by bit...

My strimmed meadow patch.

Summer passes...

Another busy weekend with scarcely a lift of the binoculars. It was our village show on Saturday so all day was spent with that leaving today to have a bit of a rest before work tomorrow.

Still, the moth trap and garden always provides interest.

The whole weekend threatened storms but we only had an odd heavy shower.

Above is a Scalloped Oak I was positioning on buddleia for a photo when a tiny flower bug came out to feast on the moths damaged wing! Very odd behaviour...

Rosy Minor, a late summer marker and my first of the year. 

This boring looking one, is actually the moth of the weekend, being a Depressaria badiella. Its the 10th for Northumberland and the first since 2013. Its my garden second though...

Our Village Hall, venue for the coveted village show.

Victoria Sponge category...

The best photo this weekend was this tiny saucer of fruit in some light through the window, looking lovely...

 So now with August upon us, its getting time to throw off the summer shades and get back out birding!

Creatures of the night.

It seems like ages since I've done any proper birding, but I make no apologies. There will be plenty of time for that after mid-August when things start to pick up. Then it'll be all eyes to the weather forecast and keeping fingers crossed. In the mean time, I like to spend mid Summer with the insects, in particular, lepidoptera. 

We have had a pretty poor summer this year so far but this week has seen an increase in temperature and a rise in moth activity to match. Without much time to trap during the week these days, I used two traps in my garden on both Friday and Saturday nights with excellent results. I used my own Robinson trap and a Skinner on loan from Roger Forster for the first time this year. Both burn 125w MV bulbs, so the place was well lit.

On Friday I had 415 moths of 91 species, of which 137 were in the Skinner, and this trap also accounted for 13 species not in the Robinson. Whether they would have found their way in had only the usual trap have been used, remains to be seen. Saturday was the same set up with even better results. This time I had 518 moths of 104 species, my first treble figure count of species this year.

So without further ado, here are a few from this weekend...

Double Lobed

Lime speck Pug

Gold Spangle 

Lempke's Gold Spot

Only my second ever Small Yellow Wave.

A Floral Interlude.

First of all a Starling roost update. We have a mystery. On Thursday night at about 11.30pm I was taking the dog out, when a Barn Owl came from one of the conifers where the starlings roost. It flopped onto another tree across the track, flushing one or two birds, but there were thousands in there. Later, I was woken by the dog at 3.45am, wanting me to take her out. As we walked around the corner near the trees, it was silent. Not a bird in there. And that was about it. They've not been back. I am amazed that a visit by a Barn Owl can move on 4000 Starlings so easily. Its probably for the best, but we are quite sad to see them go, their chattering calls through the night was quite reassuring.

This morning began wet breezy and cool, more like October than July.

I met John at Homebase and noted that all three plans for today were scuppered by the weather. Plan 1 was to go over the south Cumbria looking for butterflies, the weather there was too poor. Plan 2 was to go looking for Large Heath butterfly in Northumberland, but again, weather too cool. Plan 3 was to go up to Holy Island looking for Orchids with the off chance of a butterfly. Not worth it.

In the end we just pottered around our usual haunts at Warkworth. Before that, we did a quick check of the pond next to the A1 at Charlton Mires where a Green Sandpiper was the highlight.

Then down to the Coquet Estuary. Here waders are on the increase, but its just a shame that so far it is nearly all one species -Redshank. We did dig out 35 Dunlin, 5 Common Sandpipers, 1 sum plum Knot and 2 flyover sum plum Grey Plovers.

As it was getting brighter and warmer we popped along to the dunes to check out the flora. This can be lovely at this time, and today was no exception. There were various species of hawkbits, harebells, maiden pinks, ladies bedstraw, birds foot trefoil, wild thyme, meadow vetchling, restharrow and vipers bugloss all over. Attracted to the floral scene were a good range of butterflies with 4 Dark Green Fritillary ( our first at this site), 25+ Small Skippers, 3 Small Heath, 2 Common Blue, 10+ each of Ringlet and Meadow Brown. Added to a few Narrow bordered 5 spot Burnet Moths, Latticed Heath and Yellow Shell moths, the day was salvaged quite admirably I think...

Narrow bordered 5 spot Burnet Moth

Dark Green Fritillary

Latticed Heath moth

Maiden Pinks

Small Skipper on Thyme.

Wild Thyme

Floral dunes at Warkworth

Warkworth Dunes.

A Decade of BB...

Just in the nick of time I remembered that my blog is 10 years old today!

A decade of wildlife in Northumberland and beyond.

Social media has diluted the blog somewhat but it has an unbroken record so I am keeping it up, who knows where it will go ( not far I expect) but you never know. When I started this, the whole social media / blogging thing was in its infancy. I was inspired by Graeme Catleys. 'Pewit' Blog ( and still am), but best of all its having contact and conversaions with total strangers who become 'friends'. Some people knock this friends theory but I genuinely do enjoy the contact with people I would never have met as they live in far flung corners of the UK.

So, if you are thinking of commenting or asking me something, don't hesitate, I really do like the contact!

Thanks all for all the kind comments and advice over the years, here's to the next 10...

Kingfishers at Boulmer taken in November 2006.

A Corn Bunting at Boulmer in 2006, my very first blog post. How many new birders need that for the County?