Snowing today. The first of the winter. Last night there was a lot of
sleet and hail leaving about 1 cm of wet snow over our cars this morning but
now, there is some proper large flakes falling. It doesn't seem cold enough
for it to lie properly just yet.
Peggy's lunchtime walk today was a slushy wet affair brightened up by the
presence of 3 Waxwings in the usual pink rowan tree along the roadside.
When silent these birds can be surprisingly hard to detect and these three
were hunkered down out of the snow in the tree. I was just taking a few photos
when a female Sparrowhawk came out of nowhere, flushing the birds out of
sight. Luckily for them, none were taken. Its good to get some Waxwings
without a togger in sight! Apart from me that is...
Yesterday, as I walked down the pond field track, a very late ( for
Northumberland) Buff tailed Bumble bee flew past and dropped into the pond
edge reeds. It seemed ok, but I hope it manages to find a spot to hibernate
in.
Its not been a bad week for the naturalist around here, really.
The weather has been variable, though quite moderate.
Mid week a dog walk through the Village Wood had that soft cool, earthy, early
winter smell to it. In the diluted sunshine, a pile of oak logs left
after Storm Arwen attracted attention. It was covered in a colourful array of
small fungi, including one new to me, Purple Jellydisc as well as Hairy
Curtain Crust, Sulphur Tuft and one that remains to be identified. It may need
further scrutiny this week.
In that evening a couple of late Pipistrelles (?), well, bats, were still
hawking under the street lights.
Log Pile
Hairy Curtain Crust
Purple Jellydisc
I think the fungi at the top may be Sulphur Tuft?
Keeping to a fungi theme, I was surprised when Debra Burley found some
Pink Ballerina Waxcaps in Alnwick Cemetary. Ive looked in many good
waxcap grasslands in North Northumberland without success so I gave it a twitch
on my way to work.
After some directional confusion, there were 10 small stout pink Waxcaps
around an area of gravestones...Excellent.
Pink Ballerina Waxcaps
By Friday, the wind had swung to the North and then some, On Google
Earth the northerly could be followed right up to the North Pole. The
'socials' were filed with commentary about masses of Little Auks, it could be
the best showing for years, White Winged Gulls, Brunnichs etc. I jested that
we might even get a Spectacled Eider off it, such was its reach, but, I sort
of knew that we had been here before. Many times.
On my blog in
Nov 2021, before Storm Arwen, I posted a very similar weather map and pondered just
the same. Whilst the record breaking gales blew an unprecedented number of
Brunnichs Guillemots southward, the rest was pretty much standard. This time,
I was more tempered and considered that most Little Auks would be further west
by now so although a good northerly will always give us a few birds, the
chances of a classic were slim.
Early Saturday morning found me traipsing along to my nearest seawatching spot
for a couple of hours. Yes, there wasn't a great deal moving, but there was
just enough to fill the time. From 8am - 10am I had
Great Northern Diver 5 N
Diver sp 1 N
Red throated Diver 7
Goldeneye 2m 1f N and 1f S
Teal 2 S
Common Scoter 16
Purple Sandpiper 2
Eider 7 S
Great crested Grebe 1 S the rarest bird of the day.
Fulmar 6 N
Gannet 7 N
Litttle Auk 1 N at last, and new for the year. Dan and Mark watching
from 300 mtrs south of me managed 74 Little Auks. They must have been too
distant for my eyes is I'll I can suggest.
Brent Geese 2 N
Pink footed Geese 500 S
This brings us to Sunday morning.
JWR came to pick me up to do a recce for next weeks Alnwick Wildlife Group
guided walk from Embleton to Low Newton along the coast. Before we left, I had
a quick task to collect some greenery for Jane's Christmas wreath making
session. While getting some bits of Ivy at the Lane End, the distinctive
trembling calls of Waxwings filled the air. Soon we located 26 of them
perched on top of a tall Ash tree opposite a large ornamental pink Rowan tree.
This tee is still laden with pinkish white berries that are always last to go,
usually eaten by Bullfinches and Mistle Thrushes. As we watched down they came
periodically, like locusts, to systematically clear the tree. The resident
Mistler was having none of it and did his best to keep the viking raid at bay
but he was fighting a losing battle.
All of a sudden a Sparrowhawk dashed through panicking everything and the
Waxwings headed off south to safety.
The start of our walk, Dunstan Steads / Embleton Golf Course with
Dunstanburgh Castle in the distance.
Long tailed Duck. I wont even try to age or sex it.
We moved on to Embleton where the car was left at Dunstan Steads. This is only
about 5 miles from home so still pretty local.
Our walk was quite pleasant witha few bits and pieces to make it
worthwhile.
7 Purple Sandpipers, on the shore and 19 Greenfinches looked
fabulous feeding along the strand line,. At Newton Scrapes,
13 Whooper Swans, plenty of usual wildfowl and a nice
Long tailed Duck showed well as Water Rails screamed in the background.
We got back home at 12, so I took Peggy for a walk to see if the
Waxwings had returned. I was pleased now to find the numbers had gone
up to 40+. I couldn't get an accurate number as they flew off during my best
count but I know there were somewhere between 43 - 45 birds.
So, another grand early winters day out. I wonder when our roll will end?
Waxwings. The shot above has 31 of the 40 odd birds in it.
Its about the time of year to start having a think about plans for the coming one, 2024.
So far I have no fixed ideas, as is usual, so I read as much as possible from books, blogs, social media etc to try and get some juices flowing. It can be difficult in early winter, in the aftermath of our busiest season to get fired up.
Yesterday Andy Mould, a good Northumberland birder and stalwart of Holy Island birding, posted a short tweet ( I am as likely to change that to X as I am to change the name of a Ross's Gull) about his year of garden birds. This had me thinking, whilst a lot of time is spent birding from my garden, I never really summarise it or keep a real eye on what has occurred over the year. With the garden being my Local Patch epicentre, thats one thought for next year.
Another strand I've pondered, is how to change from as many written notes to more sketches and illustrations that I enjoy doing. This always leads me to a dead end as its just not possible to cover a days birding, fully, in sketch form. without missing loads of stuff.
More to think about in coming weeks.
The last 10 days have been spent locally as usual.
Last Friday a nice bit of birding fortune came my way. Late morning, standing at the office printer, in a daze, I glanced out of the first floor windows, to see a lovely sunny early winters day. Just the type of day, you could imagine a flock of Waxwings catching the sun on top of some trees maybe. So, I sauntered the 20 or so feet from the printer to the window and gazed across the car par towards the main A189 dual carriageway. Surely not? There was a single bird sat right at the top of a roadside Ash, It is too far for details it looked like a medium sized dumpy blob. Then more appeared as if from nowhere, 9 in total all on top of highest twigs nicely spaced. Too neat for Starlings. Then the clincher. Two began flycatching like oversized Spotted Flycatchers climbing high to snatch an unseen insect and gliding back, bee-eater fashion to their perch. A flock of Waxwings! Well predicted by me!
To be fair, I have seen them in this exact spot some years ago so it is favoured, but there were a genuine surprise. I decided to check them with my scope that was in the boot of the car, but as I glanced back from my desk they had all gone and did not return. I'm not having much luck nailing these fluffy buggers down...
This brings me to Sunday. We tend to expect very quiet days in winter but if you are lucky a nice little list of birds can be found.
JWR and I met up at Boulmer main car park at 7.45am. From here we decided to wander north around Longhoughton Steel and back and maybe have a sit and wait at the north end, which we did.
Out to sea 3 duck Goldeneye flew S , 6 Red throated Divers loafed and fished, as did 25 or so Gannets, En route to the Steel we had 4 Purple Sandpipers on the rocks. 3 Shelduck flew S and 1 ad and 1 fw Little Gull flew N.
A nice start.
We loitered around the Longhoughton Steel bench for a while. Here, a nice Woodcock arrived in-off, landed briefly then continued west. On the sea towards Howick were 5 Goldeneye inc 2 males, and a nice drake Long tailed Duck with last weeks female. Common Scoter females had increased by one to 8 birds. Over head a light movement of Pinkfeet with 80 and 62 birds south.
Ive not had a Wigeon on my patch list this year so 40 on the shore here can just about be scoped from the south end of the homestead. One to bear in mind.
4 Black tailed Godwits N here was a nice record for our wetland impoverished bit of rocky coast.
The wander back to the car park was uneventful but another sit and watch tea from the car boot gave us some more to look at. 73+ Dunlin, 18+ Ringed Plover, 16+ Bar tailed Godwits, 50+ Lapwings, 4+ Grey Plover and 19 Sanderlings were all regulars but still nice nonetheless.
As we were about to head home, John picked out a little Merlin sitting on the rocks offshore. It sat a while before doing a drag start across the haven towards our waders. Here, it was unlucky when it missed a Dunlin when the bird dropped, in defence, into the shallow water to hide. The Merlin gave up on that and headed, low, back over the bay to the rocks. As it arrived, it flushed the Lapwings and a few more Dunlin high and away, but one Dunlin was a bit slower and remained seated. The Merlin by now was just about a metre over its head and on its way past when it caught sight of the dozing calidrid.
In one move, the Merlin stalled, back pedalled and stuck out a leg, grabbing the wader from its slumber and into the air. They came to rest a short distance away on the weed covered rocks where the falcon administered the last rites before eating every morsel in front of us. Gruesome. but still amazing!
Above - Merlin and top, same bird eating a Dunlin.
November. The trees are almost leafless now, the nights are dark and the area has a quiet wintry feel to it. Still, the past two weeks locally have been quite good really. There have been no rarities but a few birds have been moving through that should cheer up the most brow beaten of local patch watchers
The month opened with a dozen Bramblings under Beech trees along our lane and there were still two Pipistrelles out feeding at dusk.
On the 4th the incongruous sighting of 3 Coal Tits leaving village gardens at dawn and flying off high into the sky and out of sight was a thought provoker while a flock of 6 deep calling Redpolls flying south over head were likely Mealies. 21 Whooper Swans flew low S over our village in the afternoon, adding to the melancholy feel with their soft trumpeting calls.
We had a short visit of 3 miles along to Boulmer on Guy Fawkes where we had some nice viz migging and seawatching with 2 Snow Buntings S, 1 Twite S, 800 Pinkfeet S, 12 Puple Sandpipers, 27+ Bar tailed Godwits, 60+ Knot, 8 Red throated Divers N and 3 S, 1 Great Northern Diver N, 1 ad Little Gull N and a drake Pintail dropped in to the shore Wigeon flock.
The next morning at home viz mig had picked up with 44 Siskin, 11 Redpoll, 1 Twite, 2 Crossbill and 10 Whooper Swans all S. These were just the appetiser as an hour later 2ad and a juv Russian White fronted Goose flew low over our garden nicely lit by the morning sunshine. Only my 2nd record here after a few in the good year for them of 2010. In addition were 750 Pinkfeet S over head too.
Another 2 Mealy Redpoll called loudly overhead on the 7th.
A few local patch walks from home this weekend in quite nice weather, Pre Storm Debi, had 9 Crossbills, 4 Blackcaps, 1 Chiffchaff, 21 Whooper Swans, 300 Pink feet, 1 drake Goosander S, 1 f Long tailed Duck with 4 Goldeneye and 7 Common Scoter at the burn mouth and, saving best til last, 3 Waxwings, 1 with 20 Redwings behind the Cricket Hut then 2 in the Village Hall car park all too briefly before flying off SW. These are my 5th of autumn but all have been in a hurry to move on. Do they know something we dont?
