Warkworth...

This morning dawned nice and clear with a thick white frost over the car. I collected JWR from home and we headed down to Warkworth to check out the Coquet Estuary for a change.

The tide was full on arrival so we took our time strolling down the north side, checking the newly created pools near the caravan park. The floods had good numbers of Teal, Wigeon and Redshank plus a few Meadow Pipits and Reed Buntings.

The light was excellent so I took this panorama shot on my phone to show the scene -

This is the area we used to catch a few Snipe for ringing a some years back. The marsh and phragmites area look excellent now, and , being set back a hundred metres from the east coast, must surely pay dividends to anyone who regularly checks the area during passage periods. During our time of regular visits we managed Red backed and Great Grey Shrikes, Yellow browed Warbler, Black Redstart, American Wigeon, Long billed Dowitcher etc.

Now, I think it scarcely gets a glance.

Back to today, we covered the whole length down to the pier. There was a single Snow Bunting on the beach at the pier base, 6 Black tailed and 1 Bar tailed Godwit, many other waders including Knot, Dunlin, Redshank, Turnstone, Grey Plover, Lapwing and Ringed Plover. Two Buzzards squabbled overhead while a Sparrowhawk took a Redshank from right in front of us.

We then moved over the road side of the estuary where more wildfowl had gathered including 15 newly arrived Whooper Swans. Several skeins of Pink footed Geese flew south.

 As we left, the sky began to cloud over and the temperature began to drop...

Winter is knocking...