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...