Curlews 'n' that .

 As John was under lock and key with Covid, I was out, at a loose end, on Sunday morning. 

Without any plans, I just decided to stay around home trying to fill in some of the blanks in my New Year local patch list. Last week I had jotted down some of the common species I would expect or have had in January in previous years that were playing hard to get. 

There were two strands to look for. Those birds that could be had along the shore and those from the woodland areas a short way inland. From the former, I was missing most of the common wintering waders, some wildfowl or seabirds and from the latter the likes of  Treecreeper, Redpoll, Brambling and Tawny owl could all be added. I expected to get maybe 4 or 5 to add, more if lucky.

The day was dry and fine but cool with a light westerly breeze. At dawn, I was standing on the Rumbling Kern, a good high rock feature overlooking the sea and a small area of rocky shore, scanning with the scope. The sea was dormant, with very few birds. 3 Red throated Divers were about it with not even a Razorbill to add. Scanning into the bay at the south 3 Goldeneye, a few Wigeon and 50 Lapwing were all new so it seemed there might be more if I headed that way. Sure enough a nice pair of Stonechats were added but that was it. I couldn't even get a Meadow Pipit.

A change of plans had me heading along to Craster with nailed on Purple Sandpiper and a good chance of Willow Tit or Greenfinch(!). An hours walk around coastal scrub and the village turned up exactly zero. Four Bullfinches looking smart in the bright sunshine were the highlight.

Every night since the New Year I take Peggy for her last late stroll around 11pm hoping for Tawny Owl calling. This is a common bird here, but I only heard my first last night, 17 days in, despite excellent weather conditions. Barn Owl is even worse. Last year they were on show at any time of day, every day, right until the summer. This year zilch. I do now think that those storms have had some serious knock on effect. Only time will tell, to see if there are any breeding successes locally later on.   

A bird free Rumbling Kern with the Bathing House and Dunstanburgh Castle in the distance.

  

Sunny Patching

What a difference a week can make.

Since last Sunday's post, I have twisted my back dragging a dumpy bag of logs and have been in pain all week, I have had a bit of a thing on one of our local What'sApp bird groups, that has resulted in me bowing out ( it was just getting a bit too fussy for me, so no hard feelings to anyone reading this) and I have had a right old debate on Twitter about a certain gull north of the border and whether it is right to add it to a life list. (No, of course it isnt!).

Social Media and me definately have a love/hate relationship. Sometimes I cant stand it and think 'thats it, I'm packing it all in' then, there are good days with some interesting snippets of info that could not be found elsewhere. Its these things that are educational, funny and interesting that keep me on it.

With that put behind me it was a relief to get out on the patch again. Saturday was very windy and just a bit uncomfortable, but today has been a glorious sunny, cold, calm one.

Nothing of note was seen on Saturday really though I did take a photo of a House Spider, Tegenaria sp, in our boiler shed. I am faffing around with flash, trying to get it to help me take some sharp record shots when there is not enough ambient light. Its all in the 'diffusion' of light so as the image doesnt come out too harsh with dark shadows. My home made diffuser, constructed out of a plastic chinese takeaway carton, some tin foil and a piece of kitchen roll fitted on the front of a 30 yr old flash gun seems to be working. Here is the image below -

Today, John couldnt get out until later on, so it was back onto the patch first thing.

On a morning like today's I feel so lucky to live in a spot like this. No inland urban reservoir for me. The views are lovely.

I began down at the Rumbling Kern. Here is a good stand and watch spot, in a way, its my own East Bank / Patch / Narrow Neck . Its a good open vista looking at the sea, the rocky shore and is backed by some degraded scrub. In the past, it has held Red backed Shrike and Olive backed Pipit in season and it could always produce again. Today I was hoping for lesser fry such as Bar tailed Godwit or Lesser black backed Gull but there was little moving. On the calm water was a single Red throated Diver, 10 Goldeneye, 1 Shag, 1 Cormorant, 10+ Eider and a Porpoise was hunting below.  The rocks held 6+ Turnstone and a Purple Sandpiper with 108+ Curlew in the field behind. On my way back up, the old muck heap by the layby had one each of Grey Wagtail, Pied Wagtail and Meadow Pipit.

The Rumbling Kern view point. No freshwater here, but it still hold some variety.

The track to the right of the first shot viewing south. Some scrub that holds a few migrants in season.

The view north over the bathing house towards Dunstanburgh Castle.

Behind the watchpoint is Seahouses farm. It has an old barn dump and some straggly gorse and dog rose. Stright in off the north sea, whats not to like.

John turned out to join me at about 9.30am so we had a walk through the Howick Estate just a few hundred metres inland from the coast.

Crossbills were very active with at least 7+ birds calling and flying around, but there could be double this. I hope they are nesting nearby? A singing male Siskin was my only new list addition of the weekend. In February and March up here patch listing is a case of diminshing returns, with this little songster lifting me to 97 sp. Also in here were 6+ Bullfinch, 3+ Jay, 4+ Nuthatch, 12 Tufted Duck, 3 Teal, 3 Mallard, 1+ Buzzard and a fly over Brambling.

3 Roe Deer added to the interest as did the first Hoverfly of 2019, an Eristalis tenax female.

Above - The Muck Heap Grey Wagtail.

Song Thrush.

Eristalis tenax, a female, according to Hoverflies UK.

At dusk, a trip to the bottle bank at Craster found two seperate Barn Owls, 1 near the Arnold Reserve and 1 near the Cottage Inn. Still a lot of sparrows were at our feeders with 38 Tree and 30 House Sparrows making good inroads into the feed left for them.

I am off work on Wednesday, dog sitting so, weather permitting I'll get out again to break up the working week...

A 300mm shot of Dunstanburgh Castle and Cullernose Point taken from Rumbling Kern... 

Summer returns.

The view south from Rumbling Kern.

And north from the same spot, the Bathing House and Seahouses Farm.

With John away for the weekend, I got up early and just went for a wander around the home patch. The seawatching seems to have come to an end for this weather system anyway. This morning the bright sun dazzled the seawatch off, so another short session this afternoon confirmed that birds were few and far between. That's not strictly true, there were still thousands of Gannets and Kittiwakes, but the more interesting species were in short supply. In 30 mins I had 4 Manx Shearwaters, 1 Sooty Shearwater and, suprisingly over a nice blue sea, a close in female Velvet Scoter.

Viz Mig showed there to be some light land movement going on with Meadow Pipits, Goldfinches and a Grey Wagtail all going south.

Around the garden, the local insect population was doing its very best to get us inside, as millions of black fly ( aphids), flying ants and wasps were a proper nuisance. A good tip to stop wasps being a hazard at this time of year is to  lay out a slice of jam and bread not too far from where you are sitting. This attracts the stripey critters away from your own food and keeps them occupied for the whole day.

Common Wasps. The lad in the bottom shot looks a bit fiesty...

Down at the village hall pond a few Common Darters were on territory with a pair in cop and egg laying. A good sign.

Common Darter male. Pointing abdomen skywards to keep cool.

Just to diversify a little more, we rescued a young female Hedgehog yesterday. After a night with us on a hot water bottle, to help it get over hypothermia, she was delivered in a bit better condition to the Hedgehog Rescue Centre at Longframlington this morning.

'Pumpkin' the Hedgehog.

   What with the wind swinging around east again this coming week, there might even be some birding to be had....