Wild Swans..

When I got home from work this afternoon (early again) a party of 11 Swans were circling the back field and landing out of sight.

I rounded up the trusty terrier and off we went to see if they might be Bewick's...

I was suprised to find the the two fields next to the coast were almost clear of snow now and immediatly the grassed flooded areas were utilised by waders - 110 Lapwing, 25 Curlew, 20 Redshank, 2 Snipe, 2 Dunlin and 4 Golden Plovers. Nice. No doubt they'll stay until it freezes in sub zero on Friday.

Up the track, the swans were settled on a rape field next to the road. Whoopers, 10 adult and 1 juv. Its not often we get grounded Whoopers here, they are more readily seen as they move north or south on migration... 

Only half a mile inland and the snow persists. It seems as though the heavy snow we had over the past week is moving to pastures new. It will still take a good long while before the current covering has gone though...

This morning the garden birds had been joined by a male Yellowhammer, the first one for a while.

Winter Birding...

More dry, drifting snow last night, left the roads earily quiet this morning. This morning was spent just wandering around the village seeing what was about.

One of the first birds of the day was a nice Woodcock that lifted silently from the nettles next to our drive, and off into more suitable wooded cover. A male Sparrowhawk was up early too harassing our feeders, where the local Chaffinches had been joined by a couple of Bramblings. 



 

 

In the Village wood, at least one Water Rail was squealing in the wet area under some dogwood. I waited for a while but couldn't see it (them, sounded like more than one bird calling). This is the same spot one turned up during hard weather in January.

After lunch we had a walk around by the coast path. The sea was rough without many birds other than 3 Dunlin and 5 Redshanks N, while further on a 1 male Brambling was on the manure heap, 9 Grey Partridges were in the field and a calling Lapland Bunting N over head but unseen.

Cullernose Point and Dunstanburgh Castle.

The path to the Bathing House was heavy going with drifted snow.

Lets have a quiet thought....

...for those poor souls mentioned on BBC Breakfast news this morning. Cardiff, god bless'em, had a hard frost last night. Truro had some snow, but the reporter had to drive around to find it. While she was on, cars were whizzing past at 40. I wonder why, when according to their own report, Scotland and Northumberland were hardest hit, they went to reporters in the South West?

Just watch, when the home counties get some it'll suddenly become the next ice age...

Back home, this morning another 5" had dropped on the coast, and Alnwick is now buried. We braved the elements and nutters in 4x4's, to get some bird seed in the town. We visited my brother who lives not far from Sainsbury's, where the quantity of snow had to be seen to be believed. His garden was an easy 15" thick. Thats inches, not centimetres. Cars were abandoned in drifts from Alnwick Garden right through the town.  

And we are forecast another good fall tonight. Lets hope they're wrong.

When I went out with Bunty this morning, a hard weather movement was beginning.

In half an hour 248 Skylarks flew south in parties up to 40 strong, accompanied by a few Meadow Pipits and Linnets. 20 or 30 Woodpigeons appeared to arrive from the sea, and a single Redshank flew off high west....

I'll have more time tomorrow moring to have a better look around.

Snow.

Despite the news saying that last night wasn't as bad as they thought it would be, we awoke this morning to be snowed in with a minimum 5" of snow on level ground.

 Our village was very picturesque, providing you didnt need to get anywhere. Luckily I was on a flexi day, but Jane was just plain stranded. We made an attempt to get to Alnwick, but after only 2 miles, traffic stuck on a bank forced us to turn back...

Above and below - With all of the schools closed, 'snowball imps' could be found hiding behind trees etc...

Our garden birds were out in force too eager for anything going. Highlights in the village today were 7 Waxwings over head, a new one for the OFFH list, 1 Brambling, 1 Snow Bunting N calling, 35 Golden Plover N and 70 Pink Footed Geese S.

Up at the main road things were even worse....

Regular 'blizzards' kept us entertained during the day.... 

And the sun shone at dusk for a short while, this view from our porch...

We relocated 6 of the 7 Waxwings in the pond field later on...

So when you see on the news that today was an improvement on yesterday etc. No it wasn't. They are talking about Newcastle.

An oldie....

Some for Nigel at Abbey Meadows....This female Northen Bullfinch was caught by Nigel, JWR and me at Felton Lane near Widdrington in Feb 1996. It was easily located by its tooting trumpet call. Back in 1996 I dont think this call had been fully recognised? See my notes at the top. Excuse the photo quality, they are scanned in...

I've had these on the blog before, but as Nige mentioned it in the previous comments...

The bird was coming to our feeding station...but, in the same year me and John found Arctic Redpolls at Alnmouth Dunes on 11th Feb and Druridge Bay Country Park on 17th March. Still the only ones I've seen...

He's big, bright and northern.....

No not me....I'm not that bright, but he is -

No one knows better than me, how tricky northern Bullfinches are to identify in the field, without call, but just try one, in the scope, 20yards away with a British Bullfinch in the same view for comparison. There is no comparison.

I have been lucky enough to have handled three pyrrhula Bullfinches as a ringer, and have seen and heard another couple. They are great birds, and make our own resident bullies seem dowdy. Even females are bright and bushy, a bit like waxwings, but I have struggled to nail them in the field without that distinctive call note. [Check out Richard Dunns blog on the right he has some samples]

Today myself and JWR encountered a few small parties in the Long Walk at Howick then found three birds on an ornamental rowan tree near the pond. There was a male and female pileata  next to the brightest male Northern you could find. Side by side he was maybe 10% bigger on bulk, but the plumage was most catching. The wing bar on the big lad was very broad and white with a hint of grey on the inner feathers while the other birds had dull off white dirty narrower curved bars. The pink on the northern was almost carmine, getting redder down towards the belly, the white offsetting this beautifully. Even the mantle was a clean silver looking tone, much brighter than his British mates.

He nipped off full rowan berries just like a waxwing, no problem.

All that was missing was the call. A few fine peeps but none of the nasal toots that identify these birds at range, so I cant see it getting accepted as such.

Never mind, its in my book and I'm well pleased with it.

Why no photos from either me or John? We didnt take the cameras as we were fully scoped doing the WeBS count from Boulmer to Howick with heavy showers it just didnt seem worthwhile...how often have I said that!

Baxter Basics...

Today was largely dark, dreary and drizzly with a breeze from the NE. An ideal day for seeing what is coming to the feeders in the garden, so this is what periodic glances from the living room revealed this morning...

Collared Dove 10
Woodpigeon 2
Jackdaw 6+
Rook 1
Starling 3
Pheasant 1 male and 1 female
Great spotted Woodpecker 1 male and 1 female
House Sparrow 40+
Tree Sparrow 2
Chaffinch 14+
Goldfinch 9
Greenfinch 1
Robin 3
Dunnock 4
Coal, Blue and Great Tits 3+ each.

All taken through the window...

Ian Fisher asked if I wanted to go to the Farnes for the Woodlark this morning. Tempting as it was, and a county tick for just about everyone, I had a few things to do so declined the offer. Apparently it showed very well down to 8 feet. I'll look forward to the photos....There'll be a mainland one, one of these days....

Its all just Toss...

This birding mullarky can get mighty political eh? Personally, and I'm not chewing at anyone at all (well, not this time) but it just gets right on my tits.

Never mind Bird Forum, have a click on this link ( or copy into the browser)-

Vasculum...

Then click on 1917 and 1951 etc and have a read. Thats what its all about. Mssrs Bolam, Dunn and Heslop-Harrison were never bogged down by the debate.

The more I hear about 'modern' birding, the more I crave the old naturalists years...

I think I can feel a New Years resolution coming on.......

This will be me soon...but without the butterflies...

Me now...well not as thin...and without a gun...

And if you dont know who this is....time to get reading some of our heritage...

[Its Harry Witherby of 'The Handbook' fame. To make it more local, he shot Northumberland's first Blyth's Reed Warbler on Holy Island in September 1912 ]

Twitching tales...

I hear that Lee Evans has been up in the grim north this week hoping to add a few to his year list...So, 300 miles up the A1 and...

Ross's Goose at Doddington - Gone.
Desert Wheatear at Seahouses - Gone.
Great White Egret at Alnwick - Gone.
Squacco Heron at Morpeth - Dead. Now in the boot of a car heading towards Bedfordshire.

An unlucky day then...

Is this the real cost of birding....

News today on the pager that the Morpeth Squacco Heron has died. What a shame. I thought it looked 'peaky' last week you know, hinted at on my post last Wednesday -

I dashed the 20 miles south and found the Squacco to be out in the open on the shingle of the river bank. In the hour I watched, it was in view most of the time, but not once did I see it eat anything. It picked up leaves, grass stalks and a thistle, and looked quite hungry. Maybe the prey isnt in the shallows at this time of year? I hope people dont push it too hard...


I still do hope that this was natural causes and not hunger related due to us birders...
 
Things like this do cause me to consider my actions. I wonder if those belting song recordings to the local Cetti's Warbler have a single thought for the birds welfare or is it just another mark on a list ?

Stick List!

You must check this out. Not a bad window box list! Click here.

Morning has broken...

Sometimes its not just about the birds...We called in to see if we could get our own photo's of the Alnwick Great White Egret first thing this morning. And what a morning. The sun through the mist, in the shadow of a medieval castle, what more could you want.

There, down below, as close as yesterday, was the egret, casually sitting in the dead reedmace stems. A vision in white...

After a short while here, we headed off the Branton to do Johns WeBs count.

As usual, plenty of interest here between Branton and Hedgely Pits. Loads of wildfowl - 127 Mallard, 90 Teal, 104 Wigeon, 7 Goldeneye, 23 Goosander, 85 Tufted Duck, 1 drake Pochard, 200 Greylag and 40 Canada Geese, 3 Little Grebe, 1 Green Sandpiper and 3 Kingfishers, including two fighting.

On the river, 3 Dippers were already in song and a few large Salmon sploshed in the pools.  2 Buzzard flew over and a male Sparrowhawk soared overhead.

This evening, a report on the pager said that 60 Waxwings were at Branton at 9.30am? We missed those...

One good bird...

Great White Egret, Alnwick. (pic thanks to Stef McElwee)

...deserves another, so this afternoon we popped down to see if the Great White Egret was still on river near Alnwick castle.

With not an optic or camera on me (no news this morning meant no bird, so this was just a shopping trip out...), we bumped into Stef McElwee who thought that the bird had been seen today. Luckily for us, the egret was about 100 yards west of the Lion Bridge, wandering about in the muddy river margins. We could get to within 30 or 40 yards of it with out any signs of disturbance. 

While Stef took these images above I borrowed his bins to view the bird. A nice graceful giant, I'm not sure  if it was even nicer than the Squacco...

Although I have had Squacco before in the county and several Great White Egrets, to get both of these rare herons within the week, made this definately one to remember. 

Not to be left aside, as we wandered back to the road, 16 Waxwings flew low overhead, calling...  

If I lived in Hexham....

....I would check the Tyne for a Little Bittern ;)

It seems as if the market towns of Northumberland are vying for supremacy in the vagrant heron stakes. The Morpeth Squacco just about 'out ranked' todays Great White Egret in Alnwick. What on earth is going on here, have these birds never heard of Druridge Bay...I hope the Duke of Northumberland doesn't see it, he'll charge it rent...

Although only a few miles from home, it might as well have been on the moon because I was stuck 26 miles away at work. I'll try in the morning, its a while since I had a Great White in the county...

Proregulus...

Out before breakfast this morning for a seawatch wasn't too successful. I only gave it 20 minutes because most of the little that was passing was very distant. Of note I did have -

Red throated Diver 1N, 3 on the sea.
Velvet Scoter 3N
Bonxie 1S.

The stormy weather has removed all of the deciduous leaves from the village copse, so what few birds there were, were in the garden and back hedge. 16 Blackbirds were new in and 3 Tree Sparrows were with 35+ House Sparrows at the feeders.

In the coast path field a few birds were feeding in the cow trodden wet grass - 25 Curlew, 8 Redshanks, 2 Golden Plover, 2 Oystercatcher and 2 Grey Partridge.

I had just buttered some toast back home when 'the birder formerly known as' Newton Stringer rang to say he had caught a Pallas's Warbler and a Mealy Redpoll and did I want to see them? Not wishing to appear rude, I downed toast and coffee and legged it.

Male Mealy Redpoll

Pallas's Warbler (top one is mine, bottom three courtesy of Gary Woodburn)

Also here were a second Pallas's, a Chiffchaff and 2 Blackcaps.

Figuring I was on a roll, news was coming through that the Squacco Heron was back on site at Morpeth and showing well.

The forecast for tomorrow isn't looking good so I dashed the 20 miles south and found the Squacco to be out in the open on the shingle of the river bank. In the hour I watched, it was in view most of the time, but not once did I see it eat anything. It picked up leaves, grass stalks and a thistle, and looked quite hungry. Maybe the prey isnt in the shallows at this time of year? I hope people dont push it too hard...

Squacco Heron with flotsam...

Before I go, I was looking up Squacco status in Northumberland today. This is the fourth record, but while looking I find that between 1874 - 1890 Howick Hall has hosted Squacco (shot in mistake for an owl), Little Bittern (shot) and Night Heron! Not bad...

1,001 Posts!

I've just noticed on the blogger that the previous post was my thousandth. Since July 2006 I've beavered away at the key board bringing tales ranging from elation to woe to anyone who cares to read. I'm not sure how many of the bloggers who read this were around before then?

Right then, back to the next thousand (no retirement in glory or otherwise from me I'm afraid)...

This morning I popped in to see the Morpeth Squacco on the river Wansbeck. This very spot was much frequented by me in my teens when fishing nudged ahead of the birding for a few years. Back then Water Voles were abundant, Eels were a pest on every cast robbing the bait and there was an Abbatoir as a back drop that is now a car park! I used to find the nests of Little Grebe and Grey Wagtail, while swarms of Minnows blackened the shallows...Those were the days...

This weather is interesting. More easterly gales and rain tomorrow from the continent might drop in a migrant or two. Northumberland is a good county for Hume's Warbler, but we could do with the icing on the cake...

Did I see the Squacco Heron? Nope not a sniff. Three Dippers in song and full territorial dispute ( the birds not the observers) were the best on offer. Am I bothered? No I'm not too fussed, hopefully it will be there tomorrow. Here are my notes from the last one in Northumberland -

More moorland meanderings....

Snow on Cheviot...

A crystal clear frosty morning greeted us in the hills west of Alnwick this morning. We were looking for our own Rough legged Buzzard, but it wasn't to be.

Highlight up here in this remote area were, yep, you guessed it, 14 Waxwings flying west from a lone rowan.

Raven was heard but unseen, and a couple of Roe Deer looked nice in the sunshine...

This afternoon a walk around the woods at home was quite nice with 3+ Bramblings, 6 Bullfinch, 8 Siskin, 1 Jay, 2 Buzzard and a Kingfisher flying over the pond...

At home I took what I think is my best photo to date -

Common Wasp

This looks like a posed shot, but its just a huge female sitting on the top of a wine bottle in front of our recycling bin! Taken just as found...(Click for a better look)

Cup and Rings...Saturday 6th November...

Cup and Ring marked stone 5000 years old, Lordenshaw, Simonside Hills (Click for more detail)

Today we went down to the Fifiefofum gallery near Hexham to have a look at some work from the Society of Wildlife Artists. Some great original works by John Busby, Darren Woodhead, Paul Henery, Carry Ackroyd, Dafila Scott et all were on show.

On the way back, we came by the scenic route and took in a picnic on the Simonsides near Rothbury. The Cup and Ring marked stones are always something to get you thinking about life here 5000 years ago. At this time, the Pyramids were new and Stonehenge may not have been built! In the evening glow, its easy to wonder about the pagan lives of those who carved this rock... 

Another day, another Waxwing...

Or 60...

On my way to work, the Ashington flock were preparing to eat their  Breakfast near Woodhorn Motors..

Meeting with these Scandinavian Scrumpers  is becoming a habit....

More Peachy Pilferers...

On my way to work this morning, I had only gotten as far as Longhoughton when I noticed some familiar dumpling like shapes in a tree in someones garden. Waxwings. 30 of them. Sitting, as usual, in a lethargic, puffed up position until the need for breakfast kicked in and off they went...

Although only a mile from home, I would like one on the OFFH list...