Edge of Winter

 November starts in autumn and ends in winter. Our old county winter atlas surveys began on 13th of the month, so I tend to think of that period as the beginning of winter, though autumn bird migration can continue into December. By mid month, the majority of our winter visitors will be in situ, and our summer birds long gone. 

This week is make or break for one iconic winter visitor in Northumberland. This will not relate to more southern counties but it is very accurate up here. Waxwings. If it is to be a Waxwing Winter, Northumberland will have a decent arrival before bonfire night.  In 2023, I had seen 5 Waxings on patch by now, and a flock of 45 was in residence by the 20th. Overall by 31st December exactly 100 Waxwings had presented before me. Come 1st January I didn't see another! So, 2024 / 25? not a report of a single bird yet here, so I'll go all out to say, no Waxing Winter this time...shame.

The first week of November has been quite good on the local patches of Howick and Boulmer. No real rarities but a good variety of species to keep up the interest.

To summarise - 

1st Nov - 

High pressure  with mild calm dull days has been the flavour this month, so far. What is it they say? In like a Lamb out like a Lion?

5 Whooper Swans flew west over the garden, while 66 Curlew, a Stonechat and 7 Grey Partridges enlivened a quite early morning dog walk around the village.

2nd - 

Unusually, Peggy was asking to be out at 0530 so off we tootled into the darkness for no more than 5 or 10 mins. We were met with bird calls all around. Redwings and Blackbirds at the rate of about 10 cals per minute. We also almost stood on a Woodcock beside our neighbours corner too.

A couple of hours later I was up at first light to see if any of these birds were grounded.

In an hour I had 32 Redwings, 94 Fieldfares, 35 Blackbirds, 1 Chiffchaff, 3 or 4 calling Brambling, 1 Sinipe in off, 1 Whooper Swan over, Golden Plover S, 12+ Chaffinch and 400+ Starlings.

A stand around on the drive for an hour mid afternoon added 1 Raven N, 23 and 7 Whooper Swans S, 1 Brambling beside the garden, 5 Long tailed Tits and 3 Mistle Thrushes.

3rd - 

Met John at Boulmer where we did an ebird full count of our walk. The route was only three miles around by Longhoughton Steel but the bird range was excellent with 69 sp recorded. Not on the list, below, was a huge falcon bearing a red breeders ring, on the rocks with prey. Unsure of its parentage but Id say Peregine x Lanner or Saker... the Xs below are birds present in good numbers but we didnt bother counting them.

Apologies for the poor digiscoped phone shots...

As we enter the dark days of a Trump administration across the pond, who will say what disasters will befall us at the hands of the orange manbaby...

October catch up

 Dear readers, if you are still out there, apologies for the neglect of this space.

Its not that I haven't been out, I have, its not that I've not seen anything, because it has been ok, but for blogging purposes, there has been a minor change. Lately I've not been camera motivated. Its a big lump to lug around, so I went back to basics with bins, scope and notebook, like those good old days we birders of a certain age tend to hark back to. And you know what? Its been great. Without the camera I think I might have even seen more birds due to the freedom to observe and concentrate more.

So, here is an update of the October highlights on my local patches . The few illustrations are phone related...

9th October, midweek, we had a bit of a storm. A strong N6 was whipping up a hoolie all day with some rain. I ventured out for half an hours seawatch. It was only half an hour as it was too blustery to sit and look through the scope. All I managed were 6 Sooty Shearwaters N and a Red throated Diver south before retreating back to cover.

10th October, the night of the Aurora. A truly unbelievable naked eye show of epic celestial proportions. If you missed it, I am gutted for you as this might be a once in a lifetime even for us Englanders.

The aurora above our house and top at the village lane end...

13th October, John  and myself put the morning in at Boulmer. There was plenty to go into the notebook...

Pinkfeet 1245 S, Barnacle Geese 28 S 2 N, Little Egret 1, Swallow 3, Merlin 1 chasing a pipit over the shore, Peregrine 2, 1ad, 1 juv together on Longhoughton Steel, Little Gull 80+ off Longhoughton Steel, a great count for here, Red throated Diver 6 S, Great Northern Diver 1 N, Long tailed Skua 2 juv N, Bonxie 1 N, Whooper Swan 1 S and a Siberian Lesser Whitethroat feeding in some garden weeds along the coast path. A smart bird.

14th October, Apart from the 13 Grey Partridges at home, sighting of the day was, again, astronomical. The Comet Tsuchinshan - Atlas A3 was showing well on its 80,000 year orbit of Earth.

16th October, thinking I had missed out on a striped sprite on patch this year as I was away during peak influx, I was over the moon to come across a non calling Yellow Browed Warbler along our village lane while out with Peggy at lunchtime. Good views as it flitted around a roadside sycamore with a Chiffchaff and a Goldcrest.

19th October, the calm before the Storm ( Ashley). Some viz mig had Wooper Swan 6 S, Swallow 1 S, Brambling 1 W, Pinkfeet 350 S, Golen Plover 100 S, Meadow Pipit 9 S, Redpoll 6 S, Siskin 12 S, Redwing 2 S. Elsewhere around the village had a single flock of 36 Mistle Thrushes! No doubt these would have been Fieldfares on a fleeting glimpse. 5 Gadwall were on the pond.

26th October another dog walk had a few birds on patch with 23 Whoopers S, 155 Pinkfeet S, 2 Twite S, always a good record here. Redwing 45 flew into the wood next to our garden. 

27th October, I spent a couple of hours doing an ebird list around Cullernose Point with surprising results for a rocky over grazed, freshwater barren, field! To record 57 species was way better than expected. See below - 

 

 

Snow Bunting, one of a pair at Cullernose Point.

29th October, I should have had a kick up the backside. Spend a fortune on new bins and didnt I take the dog out without them. You just know what comes next...

At the top of our village in a small isolated hawthorn, a small bird was flycatching. I circled the bush to get better light and approached  closer, then I kid you not, I put my reading glasses on to see if I could get a better look! The bird was a small short tailed phyllosc, active around the bush. There was no call and all of a sudden it flew off over the gardens into the wood beside the village never to be seen again. Now, this bird was almost certainly another Yellow browed, but I could not eliminate Pallas's either! An hour with the bins looking at the wood turned up nothing. Needless to say Ive not left the house binocular naked since!

30th October, 60 Whooper Swans S over the garden plus 29 Pinkfeet. The mild spell brough a few Red Admirals, Speckled Woods and  alone Comma into the garden.

 Halloween. A short trip out looking for fungi in Alnwick Cemetery. Here we had 2 Ballerina Waxcaps, Plums and Custard, Trooping Funnell, Wrinkled Club, Parasol and Red cracking Bolete. A second stop at Swarland wood had Yellow Stainer and new one for me, Wood Blewit, Liberty Cap, Amethyst Deciever and Grisette.

November has started quite well too but more of that later... 

Ballerina Waxcap and Alnwick Cemetery

East Anglia Hols part 2.

 Walberswick, Suffolk.

We packed up at Salthouse and drove the 63 miles south through broadland to our Suffolk destination. Walberswick is always a favourite when we are here, but we've not stayed in the village before. Our house for the week was just about opposite the Anchor Pub, very handy.

Above - Thats us to the left of the large blue grey house .

Walberswick

A wander around the village and harbour in the afternoon had 2 High flying Bearded Tits over the allotments, a late Common Sandpiper and a Kingfisher sitting in the roosting Herring Gulls on the edge of the harbour piles.

Sunday 29th September - 

We had a few hours at the Aldeburgh Food Festival at Snape Maltings today. Very nice...

Not much of note seen other than yesterdays Kingfisher still with the gulls, 1 Little Egret and a lot of Dunnocks ...

See those Gulls, theres a Kingfisher with them!

Monday 30th September

A storm today, SSE 6 blustery with rain fair with some sun after 3pm. Despite the weather looking like it might ground some migrants there was absolutely nothing, not even a chiffchaff. 

Tuesday 1st October

Peggy's birthday today, she is 11.

Weather still shocking. Wet, drizzle, SW4, dark. Rain did not stop for a minute during daylight hours. We've never seen this in sunny Suffolk!

A Snipe in-off plus a female Pintail over the marshes summed it up.

Wednesday 2nd October

A bit better today though not much. NE3 Cloudy, some drier spells but odd heavy showers.

We walked down to the beach and back to the village to the bridle path to Southwold.

A few Siskins flew S, 35+ Dark bellied Brent Geese, 3 Turnstone, 2 Great White Egret, Bearded Tits heard, Cetti's likewise, 100+ Barnacle Geese, feral birds, 2 Swallows.

In better weather we had a look around Southwold. Hopefully  it will improve tomorrow.

Thursday 3rd October.

Wind has dropped to a light NE2, Getting brighter as the day went on.

7am walked Peggy to the beach. A Muntjac was in the allotments, 400+ Barnacle Geese flew N low overhead.

Todays visit was down to Aldeburgh. Rain had stopped and the sun shone. A bit of a shop and some chips on the beach followed by a walk on the beach just south of Thorpeness. We then went on to Sizewell where the new power station works have begun.

Sizewell, at the N end of the dunes, a lovely fresh shiny female Adder was basking right out in the open.

At the outfall were 2 ad Little Gulls, and a fw Mediterranean Gull plus Common Tern.

In the car park, Hairy Shieldbug, Common Darters and a few Southern Hawkers were seen.

Hairy Shieldbug 

Friday 4th October

A fine sunny day finally. While up north is getting lots of rare and scarce birds there is still nothing at Walberswick. Before lunch we walked down to the beach and around the marshes.

24+ Bearded Tits were seen nicely, 4 Swallows flew S and a nice Slow Worm was found crossing a path in the reeds.

Slow Worm in the hand...

We were heading to Southwold this afternoon but a tip off from a local lady directed us to Southwold Church Yard where a Pallas's Warbler had been found. There was no sign when we arrived so we went shopping for an hour returning later.  Soon after we got back someone located the bird and about 8 of us had good views as it fed in and out of thick trees and shrubs. It was chased at one point by a Yellow browed Warbler and a Pied Fly was also showing well. Others had seen a Firecrest but we could only find half a dozen Goldcrests. Still, my earliest ever Pallas's Warbler is a great way to end our holiday.

Norfolk and Suffolk, its been a blast! Back soon...

East Anglia Holidays

Salthouse, Norfolk.... 

On 21st Sept we headed off to Norfolk for the first leg of our two week holiday to the not so far east.

It is 12 years since we stayed on the North Norfolk coast so it was good to be back. The house for our week was in Salthouse, a nice little village handy for the coast and surrounding countryside.

To stop this post getting too big I'll do it by date...

Saturday 21st Sept. 

We arrived at our destination around 4.30pm after enduring some typically slow A1 roadworks on route.

As we entered the house for a look around, I opened the back patio doors to be greeted by a calling Yellow browed Warbler! Not a bad start. It seemed to be in next doors garden for 10 minutes but it remained hidden then all went quiet. It had clearly moved off.

Sunday 22nd

A mild, warmish misty day with a light Easterly breeze.

An early walk down to the Salthouse Marshes and on to the beach.

An imm Spoonbill dropped in, a Kingfisher flushed from a footbridge and flew off over the fields, 1 Black tailed Godwit flew E. Little Egrets were in all corners and ditches. On the shore an Arctic Skua flew East close in along the beach, 2 Wheatears hopped around the shingle. 3 Cetti's Warblers remained hidden while singing and a female Blackcap was in our garden. 

Above - Salthouse Marshes and Gramborough hill

Kelling Quag 3.45pm

A nice male Siberian Stonechat proved quite tricky to get to grips with in a mobile flock of 10 Stonechats and a Whinchat. It eventually gave some decent views on weeds and brambles by the track.

Monday 23rd.

A new plant for me was on the road edge, Common Calamint.

Common Calamint

After lunch, a trip along to Cley Spy at Glandford proved costly where I needed to sell an kidney and part exchange the car for a new pair of binoculars! Swarovski NL Pure 10 x 42.  I hadnt even planned getting them but my old Leicas are 18 now, so I felt it was now or never. These new ones will out last me.

While testing the 8s and the 10s alongside my Leicas, a Hobby over a plantation made me reach for the most suitable under the circumstances. The 10x. Hence my choice of purchase. Nice timing from the Hobby! A Red Kite overhead was also useful.  

On the way back in to Salthouse, the same or, more likely, another Yellow browed Warbler was seen and calling in a garden up Church Lane. 

An hour before dusk we headed along to the East Bank at Cley for a stroll. Love it here, you can feel the birding history!

On Arnold's Marsh we had 1 Spoonbill, 1 Avocet, 30+ Black tailed Godwits, 5 Ruff, 1 Pintail. 1 Bearded Tit, 4 Marsh Harriers, 3 Water Rails squealing unseen, 3 or 4 Cetti's Warblers likewise. 4 Egyptian Geese flew East, then the star act. The North Foreland Plantation holds an egret roost so we counted them in - 

24 Little Egret, 18 Cattle Egret and 4 Great White Egrets all arrived. They werent here like this when we last visited! I also met up with Mark Golley who showed us a Silver spotted Veneer he had caught last night.

A lifer - Silver spotted Veneer Euchromius ocellea part of a large influx into the UK. Photo - Mark Golley

East Bank, Cley 

Tuesday 24th.

Out and about around Morston, Blakeney and Holt.

At Morston, 7 Spoonbills roosted on the saltmarsh, 10+ Little Egrets, 70+ Golden Plover.

Spoonbills, Morston

Wednesday 25th.

An early walk down to Gramborough Hill.

4 Great White Egrets, 1 Blackcap, 2-3 Cetti's Warblers, Water Rail, Marsh Harrier, Chiffchaff, 14+ House Martins, 400 Pinkfeet. 

The day was spent visiting Cromer, Holt, Cley etc. At Wiveton  a Muntjac was running around the village green like a terrier!

Another evening on the East Bank was much the same as before.

Jane and Peggy on Cley Beach at the end of the East Bank

Thursday 26th.

A walk down the Beach Road had a light E movement of Swallows with 50+ seen.

This afternoon I arranged to visit Mark Golley at his home in Cley. The main purpose of this was to see his collection of Richard A Richards artworks. This might need a short post of its own...

Cley Church

We visited Richard Richardson's grave in the churchyard at Cley,

A 1959 original Spotted Sandpiper by the great man himself...

Friday 27th our last day. A N gale battered the shingle at Cley so I went for a seawatch. It was amazing to see that the coastguards had washed away some years ago and the beach shelter was half buried in the shingle. The car park is in a different place now.

An hour and a half with a few others in the shelter had 4 Bonxie, 1 juv Pomarine Skua, 7+ Arctic Skua, 8+ Manx Shearwaters, 15+ Little Gulls, 100+ Common Scoter, 1 Pintail and 2 Red throated Divers.

To be continued.....

Cley Beach before the storm

The Woods for a change.

 Sunday's forecast looks calm and dry so with little prospect of any coastal migration we headed a few miles inland for a walk. The target was for a few late inverts and maybe some fungi and birds too. 

It was in a pleasantly quiet September light when we headed into the woodland track. As our route was going to be a circular I thought it might be a good time to have a go with the eBird App to record what we saw. It nearly went well too if there had been a full signal all the way around to map our walk. Instead it said we had done 0.08 miles. Actually we did about 3 or 4 miles. recording 35 species on route. The highlights being 19 Chiffchaffs, 3 Ravens,  2 Nuthatch, 8 Crossbill and 29 Siskins.

Of the few invertebrates encountered a nice Four spotted Orb Weaver located by John, was the day's best. This spider is quite common I believe further south but up here it is an upland species only...

Four spotted Orb Weaver

After tea back at the van we took another route out onto some old grassland to look for fungi. I wished we had more time as it was quite good and the sun came out. A short stroll had Blackening, Parrot, Meadow, Golden, Heath and Fibrous Waxcaps, St Georges Mushroom, Puffball, Fly Agaric and Woolly Milkcap.

Parrot Waxcap

Fibrous Waxcap

Meadow Waxcap

Possible Butter Waxcap will be more prepared next time.

Golden Waxcap

Likely Splendid Waxcap

Fly Agaric

Woolly Milkcap

Tawny Grisette

On  fine autumn day I do like a fungi foray. Next time I'll have a fieldguide and take more detailed photos to assist with ID. The Woolly Milkcap and Fibrous Waxcap were both new to me...

The Sea Saves the Week...

 Lately we have been getting some canny birds around our local patches. Most years we expect this to increase with the onset of September into October, but often we are disappointed. Things rarely turn out as planned.

This last week has been, let me say, mixed. The wind has been from the East or North East for about 5 days and this is sure to produce the goods. Well, it did, and it didnt. 50 / 50.

When the wind is in the east we hope for drift migrants from the continent. Classic birds in these conditions are typically Wryneck, Red backed Shrike, Barred Warbler and Red breasted Flycatcher. 

We saw none of those here. In fact, for instance, yesterday was the quietest day we've seen on the coast for some time. There were none of these rarities but more concerning, there were no common migrants either. A full stomp around the headland of Seaton Point checking all bushes produced a heard only Chiffchaff and a locally bred juvvy Common Whitethroat. I get more in the garden.

Some places did get these good birds though, Holy Island, Low Newton and Newbiggin had them just not here. Spurn was positively sinking under the weight of good birds.

What is the upside of this you might be wondering? For us it was the sea. 

Last Sunday 1st Sept at Boulmer we had 18 Arctic Skua, 2 Long tailed Skua and 2 Bonxie, 43 Manx and 10 Sooty Shearwaters, 2 Red throated Divers, 22 Common Scoter, 1 Red breasted Merganser, 4 Goosander. Then as we were drinking tea at the car park nearly at close of play, we got a message that an adult summer plumaged Sabine's Gull had been seen at St Mary's, Newbiggin, Snab Point and Hauxley very close in, and it was heading our way.

There was no time to walk out to either North or South headlands so we just went to the flag pole seat beside the Lifeboat hut and waited.

The view here was a little bit more distant than the points but we could easily identify terns and kittiwakes in good light as they passed.

We formulated a strategy. In these situations you dont want one birder to see the bird and the other one not be able to get on it, so we focussed our scopes on the sea just south of the haven marker post. That way if one of us saw it, the other could get onto the post and the observer would say, at the post NOW! Ten minutes or so later and thats exactly what happened. I called up first when a small black hooded gull came into view. Luckily, John had seen it simultaneously. As it flew north it came a bit closer giving us great views as it passed, then as quick as it arrived it was gone to the north. Thats Seawatching for you...

During the working week a couple more short seawatch sessions were much quieter though on 4th Sept, I had nice views of 2 Minke Whales feeding offshore from our village for an hour. Its been a canny year for them up here.

On Thursday 5th, it was looking good for migrants so I took a day annual leave. What a waste. There were no small migrants and even worse the drizzle and fog so thick you could hardly see the sea! A couple of short watches had 13 Sooty Shearwaters, 1 likley Balearic Shearwater, 21 Manx Shearwaters, 1 Arctic Skua, 1 Little Gull and a Roseate Tern. Not too bad in the gloom but I just knew there were more birds out there hiding in the fog...

Next day, Friday I was back in the office. What a mistake that was as every one was now seeing masses of good seabirds now the gloom had lifted. So I managed to get finished and head off up to Seaton Point where me and John were sat in position by 4.30. Tide was up and birds were streaming by. Excellent.

In the next two hours we enjoyed - 

Manx Shearwaters 102 N

Sooty Shearwater 4 N

Bonxie 2 N

Arctic Skua 2 N

Long tailed Skua 1 N

Roseate Tern 1ad N

then as with the Sabine's Gull, we got wind that heading our way was a very close in Cory's Shearwater, a rare bird in the North East from the Med and more southern areas.

We had all but given up, as these birds can do anything on route such as land on the sea or go offshore etc. When, out of a trough behind a big rolling breaker it emerged and I called to John, Cory's Shearwater! Less than half way out   and showing well. This is where the fun began. As I touched on with the Sabine's, John could not get his eye on the bird as it slowly wavered its unusual flight north. I called a constant commentary, calling every bird, wave and flag that came into my view, but to no avail.

I could sense a quietness about John then he said, I'm going to miss this...

There is nothing worse than the walk back to the car when only one of us has seen something! Time to up the anti.

I could tell the slow moving bird was close and really he shouldnt miss it, he was looking too far out and to the north. I stood up and scanned with my bins rather than the scope. I soon got its bearings. A bouy and  a  long white topped breaker. I called John to look exactly there. Dropping back to my scope, there were 2 juv Kittiwakes going through. John had those. Then, close behind was the Cory's I'm not sure who was most relieved when he said 'Got it!'. Phew. It was still on view for a good spell after that so it was a result. The first Cory's we've had at Boulmer and a good view too...

I was almost hoarse from shouting directions the Shearwater will have heard me!

This week the weather is set to be a bit colder than recently with strong northerlies. 

You can guess what we will be doing later on...

 

    

Another Yank...

 Before getting on to the headline act, there have been a few migrants around the locale this past week. To start,  a nice male Redstart was flitting along the edge of the cricket field on Monday morning, while yesterday an exciting flurry on Peggy's lunchtime dog walk had a cracker of a Hobby close to, out of the village wood, closely followed by a loudly calling Tree Pipit in the Pond Field five minutes later.  Not bad around the village.

But, getting back to Bank Holiday Monday, Daniel found an American Golden Plover on Longhoughton Steel giving him both 'lessers' at this site this year! That is both Pacific and American Goldies bot rare birds that used to be known as one species, Lesser Golden Plover.

Being a busy day, I played it cool and left it until mid afternoon before popping along for a look. As expected the beach holiday makers were beginning to leave and the Steel its self was quiet.

On arrival only two birders were still there and the bird  was loosely associating with about 60 European Golden Plovers, but keeping out of the main group.

At first, the AGP was asleep on the edge of a rockpool where it stood out like a sore thumb, and was easily seperable from its old world cousins. Eventually it woke up and had a wander around, picking at the seaweed. I was just getting comfortable and was taking some notes  when all of a sudden the whole flock was up and off towards the south horizon. The bird wasn't seen again after that. Later it was noted that a Peregrine had been hanging around, but I hadn't seen it. Still, 15 minutes of viewing was good enough. This was a new patch bird for me and only my third in the county .

So with Bridled Tern, Greater Sand Plover, Surf Scoter and now American Golden Plover, this blog is having a run on rarity posts. Dont worry dear reader, I'm sure that wont continue...

Above, two dire phone scoped shots of the Amercan Golden Plover. Top Some Notes on the bird.