Friday 27th September 2007

Sorry for the delay... I popped in at Boulmer at 8am for half an hour, thinking that after the recent excitement at sea, the falling winds would have quietened things off a bit. How wrong could I be. I parked the car and glanced east to find the sea alive with birds all moving north. This time there were hoards of Kittiwakes and a few Fulmars to accompany the ever present Gannets, these birds have been notable by their absence in recent days. As there had been good numbers of Sabine's Gulls further south, the increase in Kitti's gave me hope that it was now or never! After 15 minutes of studying various juvvy and fw Kitti's a small band of 3 or 4 flew north and in their midst a cracking juvenile Sabine's Gull! A full patch tick nonetheless. This bird hugged the line of breakers with the larger Kittiwakes as it progressed steadily northwards. Its distinctive tri-tone upperparts were so much different to the Kitti's, being more brown in tone and the mantle could even be seen to have a scalloped patterning. Absolutely fantastic. As if that wasn't enough,at 8.30am, a second Sabine's moved through a few yards further out but almost as good as if to confirm my first bird. What a relief not to have completely missed out on the best birds... Also rans... Manx Shearwater 3 Sooty Shearwater 19 Velvet Scoter 1 Common Scoter 50 Wigeon 50 Arctic Tern 1 Long tailed Skua 1 juv Puffin 5 Teal 5 Scaup 1 Arctic Skua 1 Pale bellied Brent 6. At Longhoughton, my first Redwing of the autumn flew from the trees surrounding the Spar shop. Once again, whilst I was very pleased with the mornings events at Boulmer, Newbiggin had 7 Sabine's Gulls, 6 Grey Phalaropes, 3 Divers, 4 Skuas etc... I popped in at lunchtime and managed 4 Little Gulls, 2 Bonxies, 1 Arctic Skua, 5 Velvet Scoter, 4 Red throated Diver, 20 Common Scoter and 40 Wigeon. My Boulmer Year List 138. Sabine's Gull. Boulmer Total 207. My Boulmer List 185. Sabines is only the second proper patch tick this year after Green Woodpecker. What's next?