Boulmer Mammal Fest

 It was pretty grim yesterday on the coast, with a strong ESE wind, 100%overcast and some occasional horizontal drizzle. Needless to say, we didn't go far.

I met John and Boulmer car park at 8am and the first hour was spent watching the sea from the car. The waves were rolling in on a white foamy sea. Our hopes of a white winged gull or something came to nothing. A couple of Kittiwakes were the best birds we could manage, plus a tiny Weasel carrying a mouse along the edge of the car park, under the toy box and under our cars out of sight, so we decided to venture out. 

A wander north along the beach to the village was the plan to see if there was anything loitering around the corner.

Sadly the first thing of note, was already deceased. A fresh Harbour Porpoise was washed up. Its body covered in small white lesions of some kind.

Deceased Harbour Porpoise, Boulmer

Only 200 mtrs beyond the beached cetacean I notice some fresh looking Stoat tracks on the sand by some tank blocks. John then called out, 'Whats that moving on the sand?' 'Its a Stoat with a Black Rabbit!'.

Sure enough, a moribund melanistic Rabbit was hanging on to life as the Stoat did its very best to serve the coup-de-grace by biting the nape of its neck, but the prey seemed a bit too big to get a good grip. We watched for half an hour until near hypothermia set in. In that time, the Stoat dashed to the long grass at the beach edge a couple of times before returning to its kill. It tried dragging the sad Rabbit up the beach but each time it would muster enough life force to kick back and slow progress. As we left, the Stoat had the Rabbit nearer to cover but the struggle looked set to continue for a while yet.

So. some great mammal experiences were had, it just shows there is always something if you just put a little effort in.

Boulmer Black Reds.

 The last few weeks have been mainly dry with cool sunny spells. Overall the winter here has been much better than last year when it seemed to rain every week.

Since the last post, a few migrants have arrived in Northumberland but not many into my neck of the woods, still it makes them all the more enjoyable when they do arrive.

A couple of weeks past, Sunday 16th we spent the morning going over Boulmer. Highlights were few but its always a pleasure seeing and counting the common birds too. On this particular day, Great black backed Gulls seemed to be on the move with birds dotted all over plus small parties going north along the rock edges. I tend to over look these giants but I wish I had counted them now.

Also at sea, reasonable numbers of Gannets and Kittiwakes on the move and in fishing parties offshore. Note to self, I need to look for our Kitti's on the home turf arriving any day.

Of the waders, 5 Grey Plover, 13 Bar tailed Godwits, 40 Sanderling were on the shore.

Incongrously, a nice tight party of 25 Siskins passed us as they headed North low along the beach.

A female Merlin gave a close fly past as it hunted the waders too, nicely lit by the morning sun.

While scanning the sea, a tiny bird too far off flutted across the waves, then all of a sudden it was gone? I thought Sand Martin, I could see some white on it? But surely that couldnt just vanish? Later in the afternoon when we were back at home, Ben and Mark had a Wheatear on Longhoughton Steel. I assume this was what I had seen making landfall out on the skeers? 

On 17th a walk from Howick to the Rumbling Kern had a small high tide roost of 33 Oystercatchers, 18 Turnstones, 7 Purple Sandpipers and 5 Redshank. 10 Kittiwakes were off shore, new for my local year list.

Over the rest of that week my notebook remained empty.

The weather changed for the better on the 21st with a light SE / E breeze for a day or two.

On the 23rd, John and myself walked the whole headland at Boulmer, sure to find a Wheatear or a Black Redstart maybe. After 4 miles, we were still looking...

Out on the rocks were good numbers of gulls in a mixed flock of around 300+ birds, but best of all hunkered down near two Black headeds was Northumberland's first 2025 Sandwich Tern. Lovely. It looked tired too...as the tide pushed in, it lifted a flock of 300 Curlews too.

A lone exposed hawthorn held a single migratory Goldcrest on its way back to the continent but we saw only one Robin on the whole headland, clearly there has been a big clear out here.

Back in the village it was time for a brew. Almost back at the cars we bumped into our friends Tom and Mu who were looking for the Sandwich Tern.   We chatted a while in the Lifeboat Hut car park when John stammered 'Look!. I turned to find a nice female Black Redstart on the deck only 20 feet away. Finally it flitted around a bit on the boats and tools before vanishing into local gardens. Excellent.

On Tues 25th this single Black Redstart had increased into 3 Black Redstarts reported by Ben. Now there was a nice adult male here too, found by John on Monday. I called in with the camera on my way to work seeing two birds but both were very flighty not allowing anywhere near a close enough approach. Also here 2 Chiffchaffs were in the 'thorny bushes' just N of the village.

 

 Saturday 29th, Kittiwakes were back on our cliffs with 150+ present. The now annual gathering of Razorbill at Cullernose Point held 33 birds at the bottom of the cliffs. They dont breed here, but are getting on the cliffs in increasing numbers each year.

Two parties of Whooper Swans flew N 22 and 9 birds followed by 50 Pink feet.

Yesterday we returned to Boulmer but it was blowing a disagreeable westerly all morning so little was seen. One female Black Redstart was still on the sea defences.

Edge of Winter

 November starts in autumn and ends in winter. Our old county winter atlas surveys began on 13th of the month, so I tend to think of that period as the beginning of winter, though autumn bird migration can continue into December. By mid month, the majority of our winter visitors will be in situ, and our summer birds long gone. 

This week is make or break for one iconic winter visitor in Northumberland. This will not relate to more southern counties but it is very accurate up here. Waxwings. If it is to be a Waxwing Winter, Northumberland will have a decent arrival before bonfire night.  In 2023, I had seen 5 Waxings on patch by now, and a flock of 45 was in residence by the 20th. Overall by 31st December exactly 100 Waxwings had presented before me. Come 1st January I didn't see another! So, 2024 / 25? not a report of a single bird yet here, so I'll go all out to say, no Waxing Winter this time...shame.

The first week of November has been quite good on the local patches of Howick and Boulmer. No real rarities but a good variety of species to keep up the interest.

To summarise - 

1st Nov - 

High pressure  with mild calm dull days has been the flavour this month, so far. What is it they say? In like a Lamb out like a Lion?

5 Whooper Swans flew west over the garden, while 66 Curlew, a Stonechat and 7 Grey Partridges enlivened a quite early morning dog walk around the village.

2nd - 

Unusually, Peggy was asking to be out at 0530 so off we tootled into the darkness for no more than 5 or 10 mins. We were met with bird calls all around. Redwings and Blackbirds at the rate of about 10 cals per minute. We also almost stood on a Woodcock beside our neighbours corner too.

A couple of hours later I was up at first light to see if any of these birds were grounded.

In an hour I had 32 Redwings, 94 Fieldfares, 35 Blackbirds, 1 Chiffchaff, 3 or 4 calling Brambling, 1 Sinipe in off, 1 Whooper Swan over, Golden Plover S, 12+ Chaffinch and 400+ Starlings.

A stand around on the drive for an hour mid afternoon added 1 Raven N, 23 and 7 Whooper Swans S, 1 Brambling beside the garden, 5 Long tailed Tits and 3 Mistle Thrushes.

3rd - 

Met John at Boulmer where we did an ebird full count of our walk. The route was only three miles around by Longhoughton Steel but the bird range was excellent with 69 sp recorded. Not on the list, below, was a huge falcon bearing a red breeders ring, on the rocks with prey. Unsure of its parentage but Id say Peregine x Lanner or Saker... the Xs below are birds present in good numbers but we didnt bother counting them.

Apologies for the poor digiscoped phone shots...

As we enter the dark days of a Trump administration across the pond, who will say what disasters will befall us at the hands of the orange manbaby...

The Sea Saves the Week...

 Lately we have been getting some canny birds around our local patches. Most years we expect this to increase with the onset of September into October, but often we are disappointed. Things rarely turn out as planned.

This last week has been, let me say, mixed. The wind has been from the East or North East for about 5 days and this is sure to produce the goods. Well, it did, and it didnt. 50 / 50.

When the wind is in the east we hope for drift migrants from the continent. Classic birds in these conditions are typically Wryneck, Red backed Shrike, Barred Warbler and Red breasted Flycatcher. 

We saw none of those here. In fact, for instance, yesterday was the quietest day we've seen on the coast for some time. There were none of these rarities but more concerning, there were no common migrants either. A full stomp around the headland of Seaton Point checking all bushes produced a heard only Chiffchaff and a locally bred juvvy Common Whitethroat. I get more in the garden.

Some places did get these good birds though, Holy Island, Low Newton and Newbiggin had them just not here. Spurn was positively sinking under the weight of good birds.

What is the upside of this you might be wondering? For us it was the sea. 

Last Sunday 1st Sept at Boulmer we had 18 Arctic Skua, 2 Long tailed Skua and 2 Bonxie, 43 Manx and 10 Sooty Shearwaters, 2 Red throated Divers, 22 Common Scoter, 1 Red breasted Merganser, 4 Goosander. Then as we were drinking tea at the car park nearly at close of play, we got a message that an adult summer plumaged Sabine's Gull had been seen at St Mary's, Newbiggin, Snab Point and Hauxley very close in, and it was heading our way.

There was no time to walk out to either North or South headlands so we just went to the flag pole seat beside the Lifeboat hut and waited.

The view here was a little bit more distant than the points but we could easily identify terns and kittiwakes in good light as they passed.

We formulated a strategy. In these situations you dont want one birder to see the bird and the other one not be able to get on it, so we focussed our scopes on the sea just south of the haven marker post. That way if one of us saw it, the other could get onto the post and the observer would say, at the post NOW! Ten minutes or so later and thats exactly what happened. I called up first when a small black hooded gull came into view. Luckily, John had seen it simultaneously. As it flew north it came a bit closer giving us great views as it passed, then as quick as it arrived it was gone to the north. Thats Seawatching for you...

During the working week a couple more short seawatch sessions were much quieter though on 4th Sept, I had nice views of 2 Minke Whales feeding offshore from our village for an hour. Its been a canny year for them up here.

On Thursday 5th, it was looking good for migrants so I took a day annual leave. What a waste. There were no small migrants and even worse the drizzle and fog so thick you could hardly see the sea! A couple of short watches had 13 Sooty Shearwaters, 1 likley Balearic Shearwater, 21 Manx Shearwaters, 1 Arctic Skua, 1 Little Gull and a Roseate Tern. Not too bad in the gloom but I just knew there were more birds out there hiding in the fog...

Next day, Friday I was back in the office. What a mistake that was as every one was now seeing masses of good seabirds now the gloom had lifted. So I managed to get finished and head off up to Seaton Point where me and John were sat in position by 4.30. Tide was up and birds were streaming by. Excellent.

In the next two hours we enjoyed - 

Manx Shearwaters 102 N

Sooty Shearwater 4 N

Bonxie 2 N

Arctic Skua 2 N

Long tailed Skua 1 N

Roseate Tern 1ad N

then as with the Sabine's Gull, we got wind that heading our way was a very close in Cory's Shearwater, a rare bird in the North East from the Med and more southern areas.

We had all but given up, as these birds can do anything on route such as land on the sea or go offshore etc. When, out of a trough behind a big rolling breaker it emerged and I called to John, Cory's Shearwater! Less than half way out   and showing well. This is where the fun began. As I touched on with the Sabine's, John could not get his eye on the bird as it slowly wavered its unusual flight north. I called a constant commentary, calling every bird, wave and flag that came into my view, but to no avail.

I could sense a quietness about John then he said, I'm going to miss this...

There is nothing worse than the walk back to the car when only one of us has seen something! Time to up the anti.

I could tell the slow moving bird was close and really he shouldnt miss it, he was looking too far out and to the north. I stood up and scanned with my bins rather than the scope. I soon got its bearings. A bouy and  a  long white topped breaker. I called John to look exactly there. Dropping back to my scope, there were 2 juv Kittiwakes going through. John had those. Then, close behind was the Cory's I'm not sure who was most relieved when he said 'Got it!'. Phew. It was still on view for a good spell after that so it was a result. The first Cory's we've had at Boulmer and a good view too...

I was almost hoarse from shouting directions the Shearwater will have heard me!

This week the weather is set to be a bit colder than recently with strong northerlies. 

You can guess what we will be doing later on...

 

    

Surf's up!

 We had only just arrived at Boulmer on Sunday morning when I noticed a message on my phone from half an hour earlier. Ben had found a Surf Scoter off Howick Haven! 

Surf Scoters are a rare American sea duck. Not too rare in a national context, but for my local patch it would be my first and the first I've seen for donkeys years, so we put a march on up to the north end of Longhoughton Steel to scan the bay. From our position, the light was nicely behind us and the sea was flat calm so things were looking good. As I set up my scope and roughly pointed it towards Howick Haven, I put my eye down the eyepiece and what should be bang centre? A nice drake Surf Scoter! Not a bad bit of luck...

The bird was quite distant but with good lighting and it was still early so no heat haze, the views were ok. It eventually swan a hundred yards closer with group of Eiders  giving a better show.

I forgot how bizarre these ducks look. Quite cartoon-like in appearance with that huge coloured puffin bill making the head seem top heavy. 

Eventually, the holiday kayaks and sail boards ensure our duck was pushed out of sight to the north offshore.

Surf Scoter, appeared to be an almost adult drake. Poor phone scoped effort here... 

The rest of the morning was spent loafing around the seat on the point seeing what would turn up.

We had 2 Yellow Wagtails, 1 Whimbrel, 250 Curlew,  7 Bar tailed Godwit, 15 Lapwing, 20 Ringed Plover, 35 Turnstone, 14 Sanderling, 28 Dunlin, 2 Knot, 3+ Swift over the fields, 1 dark Arctic Skua south, Greenshank heard but remained unseen. Highlight on the wader front was a lovely fresh juvenile Little Ringed Plover on the muddy shore north of the village. What a stunner, I think 've only ever had one here before which is probably to be expected considering the lack of freshwater pools that these birds prefer.

Juv Little Ringed Plover. look how slim its tail end is...

Little Ringed Plover with adult Ringed Plover. Here the photo is dire but the structural differences can be seen, the LRP is not as chunky and  and is much slimmer, a slighter bird . Those legs too were the brightest yellow...

Winter Birding

 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. 

Wader Time.

 Yesterdays post is a bit out of kilter date wise. I meant to post it on Saturday but forgot, so read that as Saturdays news.

This one is for Sunday.

The morning was warm and pleasantly sunny with a light SW breeze. I was along at Boulmer for 7am to meet John to have a look for the White rumped Sandpiper found on Saturday by Mark Eaton. 

On arrival the tide was high leaving little room for the birds but a scan along towards Seaton Point showed there to be masses of gulls and waders gathered . The bird has been favouring north of the village but that can wait until the tide starts to fall back opening feeding areas there. For the minute we wandered along the shore to check out the feeding frenzy.

There was no White rumped but that didnt detract from the scene as there was a nice Little Stint, 1 juv Curlew Sandpiper, 1 Ruff, 1 Common Sandpiper, 40+ Ringed Plover and 30+ Dunlin with good numbers of Redshanks, Sanderling and Turnstones . While we watched a Yellow Wagtail flew S along the coast.

It was quite sad to see a dead Porpoise on the tideline here. I often wonder if Dolphins are the suspects...

Deceased Harbour Porpoise.

 

Little Stint with other waders.

As the tide began to recede we walked back to the village where we soon picked out the White rumped Sandpiper from the masses of other feeding birds. It showed well and at times came quite close, but it was never still so the photos are poor and I couldnt get it steady enough for a video. It was a nice adult and a first for Boulmer taking the site wader list up to 39. What will 40 be? My money is on Spotted Sand...

Also here another 2 Little Stints, 1 Ruff, 4 Knot inc 2 in red summer plumage, 1 Bar tailed Godwit, 1 Whimbrel, 150+ Ringed Plover and 100+ Dunlin.

Adult White rumped Sandpiper.

White rumped Sandpiper, Boulmer

Boulmer was now filling up with visitors so it was time to bail out. Next stop the Aln Estuary. Apart from an Environment Agency Hovercraft racing up river and mud flats alike putting every creature for a kilometre square into the air there were a few waders to see.

3 Avocet, 47 Black tailed Godwit, 6 Knot, 2 Ruff, 1 Greenshank, 4 Dunlin and 7 Little Egrets.

Once the hovercraft with its engine like a Sea King helicopter had cleared the decks, we decided to call it a morning...

Stand aside bird life here comes a thunderbird at 30 mph into your feeding area.

Taking mud samples. There must be a less intrusive way than this surely.

King of the Bank Holiday...

 Did you watch the Coronation on Saturday? I did. Well most of it, anyway. I dont see my self as a Royalist but I do like the basic tradition of it all. I don't agree with all the hangers on and in particular these land grabbing Dukes and that ilk. Come the revolution they'd be first against the wall, but King Charles III and the bairn ( not Harry) are OK by me.

While the ceremonies played out on TV  a Holly Blue was in the garden, the first Orange Tips of the year were in the Village Wood and a Lesser Whitethroat sang by the Village Hall.

Sunday had us down to Boulmer for the first time in a while to look for migrants. The fog was thick and lasted all morning. We covered the whole area and didn't see the sea once. For our trouble we had 8+ Common and 3 Lesser Whitethroats, 2 Fieldfares emerged from the front bushes and immediately vanished into the gloom, 1 Whimbrel flew over, 1 Willow Warbler, a few Chiffchaffs and Sedge Warblers, 3+ Wheatears, 1 Common Sandpiper and a Spotted Flycatcher were the total, the latter looking incongruous catching sand flies in the fog on beach rocks. 

Quite a few waders were just about visible with 35+ Turnstone, 50+ Sanderling, 10+ Dunlin, 40+ Ringed Plover fed well up the beach.

Apologies for the Spotted Fly image, its about 5000 ISO!

Back home, in the evening we were just about to head out to the Village Hall coronation 'do' when Dan found a cracking adult male Red backed Shrike in the fog on Seaton Point ( in the Fieldfare bushes no less). It had just arrived. Usually they are day migrants so I pencilled in a morning appointment with the Butcher bird...

Bank Holiday Monday...

Solid lash all day. Brilliant. At least visibility was better but the whole thing was a right off really.

Still, I popped down to see the Shrike and got a soaking for it. When I arrived, a Togger was right up into the bush, forcing the shrike to sit out in an oilseed rape field. Luckily him and his two buddies soon left. They probably heard me bleating on about bloody toggers no wonder the bird was out in the field!

Even in the rain, the Red backed Shrike was still a stunner. An oft used misinterpretation, but in this case the combo of pale rose cream breast, lavender grey hood and fox red back and wings offset with highlights of black bandit mask and black and white tail was the definition of the word. Wow. Its years since I've seen a male RBS, most of our birds being autumn juveniles.

 While watching it, Dan called that he had the Garganey tracking up the coast from Whitley Bay. A site mega but I only had my bins so couldn't tell it from its three Common Scoter fellow travellers.

Male Red backed Shrike, Boulmer.

I took Tuesday as a holiday. An offer to go out drawing with excellent artist,   Paul Henery was not to be sniffed at. I could learn a lot from him. The sun was shining and warm when we met up at Boulmer to revisit the shrike in better light. What a treat, if it was a stunner yesterday, today it looked and performed even better. It came quite close to us along the fence line where it caught beetles and St Mark's Flies. When resting it would have a bit of a sing, a chattery Sedgie type of song that sounded quite pleasant.  

A few digi scoped phone shots, with haze, but what a bird... 

From Boulmer we went to East Chevington via a short lunch stop at Warkworth to check the Beal Bank flash. Its almost dry and the only thing of note was a lone Avocet sweeping through the mud.

Chev was typically full of interest and not all good! We were busy sketching a male Marsh Harrier that was sat in a hawthorn when a chap came around the corner. He was quite hurried and said....

no lie... 'Is the Skah-oop still showing?' Paul and myself paused for a second wondering what on earth he was on about when it dawned on me. I replied 'Sorry mate, I've no idea if there is a Scaup here, I've not really looked yet'. Skah-oop? or maybe Ska-oup but either way it was a double barrelled single syllable name that's for sure! Certainly a new one on me.

A quick scan revealed the said drake Scah-oop ( just to clarify if any none birders are reading, its pronounced 'Scorp'  not even Skowp let alone Ska-oop). If you are the person in question, apologies but come on...

From the south end viewing spot were a pair of Marsh Harrier, a drake Scaup with a drake Pochard and a few Tufted Ducks, 2 imm drake Goldeneye still, a singing Cetti's Warbler and plenty of Reed Warblers singing too.

All too soon it was 4pm and time for home. A grand day out.

Paul getting some lines down...

Top - Tuesdays sketch and bottom the bird on Monday in rain. 

A short clip of the King of the Bank Holiday....

Surely this is The End!

 Yesterday I met John at first light at Seaton Point to see if any migrants had been grounding in the overnight rain. The wind was a light SSE. It was dull first thing but it brightened into a nice day by mid morning.

Seaton Point from Foxton beach.

A few Thrushes were coming in with a scatter of Redwing and Fieldfare but there were more Blackbirds and Robins. In fact every bush and bracken clump or seaweed pile had Robins.

A Woodcock was flushed from the edge of the golfcourse. In this spot, 9 Redpolls and 30 Siskins flew W.

Along at the point the sea was dead today with very few signs of movement so we decided to check the shore for the two Snow Buntings I had seen on Friday. We soon located one bird feeding along the strand line but there was no sign of its colleague? As is the way with Snow Buntings, this loner fed unconcerned as dogs and their owners walked past yards away so we took the good opportunity to get some photos. While we were watching, the shore waders became anxious and began calling. This disturbed the bunting and it flew off southwards.

 

After some tea back at the car, the sun was shining so we checked the coast path south to Foxton Golf Club.

A couple of small settling ponds here looked good for a migrant or two but the best we could manage was a nice Kingfisher giving a close fly by before perching briefly on top of beach side brambles.

Then down to the Golf Club proper. It was here when we were checking a nice looking gully a loud call close overhead jolted us back into concentration - Waxwing! I thought it might be sat in the trees but it was just flying low overhead, and continued straight south. Waxwings are scarce but regular on our patch recorded in 8 years out of 14 but this was my first local bird since 2019. Hoping there are more to come!

A shot from a previous year but this is what it was like if I could have deployed the camera quicker! 

The End 2...

 On Friday morning  I was back out for a couple of hours seawatching but what a difference a day makes.

After yesterdays masses of birds, today was much quieter with, for example, instead of the thousands of Kittiwakes passing, they must have all gone through because I had no more than 10 in 2 hours. Same for Gannets. 

The visibility was awful with thick drizzle and a moderate Easterly wind.The tide was still a good way out so to see birds they would almost need to be over the rock edges, as indeed most were. 'Real' seabirds were few but wildfowl made for a decent variety - 

Common Scoter 137

Velvet Scoter 6

Scaup 1 female with a scoter flock

Long tailed Duck 2 females

Goldeneye 15N 4S

Red breasted Merganser 2 drakes

Goosander 3 fine drakes S unusual in this plumage here.

Teal 99

Wigeon 31

Little Auk 3

Grey Plover 15

Purple Sandpiper 3

Snow Bunting 2 came off the beach, flew N and seemed to land again.

All birds moving North unless stated.

In the village the now flooded mere had 4 Black tailed Godwits and 200+ Lapwings. Oh for this to be a more permanent feature, what it would pull in...

So not a bad jaunt out...    

     

The view from Seaton Point...

Bull Mere, Boulmer

 

Keeping it Real.

Popped down to Boulmer yesterday morning for a few hours, but before that I must have a comment. 

If any readers followed the threads on Twitter last week, about the furore surrounding the flushing of a Lanceolated Warbler and a Pechora Pipit on Shetland by birders, you may have seen some of the comments made by people with pitchforks and burning torches demanding the head of such heinous criminals. The resulting twitcher bashing was very much like the flushing of the rare birds themselves with everyone and their dog jumping in to have a go.

Compare these incidents with things that occur daily to our birds. For example, on Saturday I stepped outside with the dog for her walk to a barrage of shotgun blasts lifting 2000 Pinkfeet to the skies as the gunmen drove them from farmers crops. Every bird in our village, from Wagtails to Woodpigeons was spooked off to the horizon. Then, yesterday at Boulmer this spaniel below absolutely hammered every square inch of shore and rock edges actively chasing wading birds for fun while its owner strolled off along the track. Above the dog you can see waders in the air unable to feed.

Springer having a right good time flushing waders.Owner not interested.

  I think this puts things into context a bit. What is worse, a lone bird lifted across a road or from an iris bed a few times or this? You can argue that both are unacceptable, but those single passerines could have flown half a mile to similar habitat and would never have been relocated. These waders had nowhere to land and the geese, well, how many injuries resulted?

My own little theory is that some twitcher bashing is linked more to jealousy than bird protection. Its getting more common and I have been sucked in too, when there have been pictures of Mr and Mrs and a labrador ignoring reserve signs and throwing a ball for the dog into the protected area.

One observer went to the Lancy twitch and was so disgusted, forked out for the next flight home! What the hell did he expect? He went to Shetland looking for rare birds. He could have seen news of said Lancy and thought sod that, I'm going the opposite way to find my own, but no, he joined the throng. Then bubbled on about it! Did he think there would be 4 people sitting quietly waiting for a bird that behaves like a vole, to emerge from the grass? Kind of naive. If he did maybe he wasn't ready for Shetland?

One person asked if there was a warden to stop this behaviour. Shetland is a massive county. Does your county have a warden to stop 50 birders watching a bird on a verge? In Northumberland we cant stop people blasting a thousand migrating wildfowl or a dog quartering the feeding areas of hundreds of waders let alone this.

I do think its time people maybe vented their spleen on more serious offences, like the Badger cull for example...where a protected much loved British native mammal is trapped then shot for nothing. Thousands of them. Or Fox Hunting. Its been illegal for years but a load of people on horse back with a pack of hounds systematically quarter the countryside. How much disturbance does that cause to wildlife? Or Fireworks? I could probably go on...

Back on your low-carbon local patch, you wander around in the mist and a little bird flits into the small bush in the dunes. Do you say, ahh, I'll go the opposite way in case I flush it? No, you go for a better look in case its a rarity, and it flushes again but its just a Robin. Oh well. Does that differ from the Lancy twitch because there weren't 50 birders watching? Probably not, the result is exactly the same, its just people hate the thought of frivolous twitchers.

Back to Boulmer. Yesterday we walked the shore from the car park around to Seaton Point and back. We had 20+ Rock Pipits and a few Pied and Grey Wagtails but not much else. As we walked, we pushed them along the beach allowing a count... see what we did there. Maybe we should have just stayed at home? More seriously, I hope we can all demonstrate some moderation in our birding and consider the birds welfare for sure, but lets keep it real?

As the tide began to come in there were 20+ Bar tailed Godwits, 3 Grey Plover, 10+ Sanderling, 30+ Dunlin, 22+ Ringed Plover, 20+ Turnstone. A Sandwich tern flew S and 2 Red throated Divers moved N.

Along at the north end of the village about 3,000 Golden Plovers avoided the spaniel and a Swallow went S. A couple of Chiffchaffs and 7 Stonechats plus 30 Skylarks were about the only other things of note on a busy morning for visitors on the site. 

Migration.

 Before the post, apologies for no further mentions of the loss of the Queen. At 96 it shouldn't be such a shock, but it was to a lot of us. Still, I dont think my thoughts on it will add to this blog, so we will continue as normal.

Over the weekend we've had a good bit of rain, backed by light north easterlies since Friday, all looking good for some passerine action along the coast. 

As per usual over recent years, I am too long in the tooth to be suckered in to high mainland expectations these days, all of the action in Northumberland was focused on Holy Island, and then some.

Try this lot on Saturday...

Red necked Phalarope, Dotterel, 3 - 4 Rosefinch ( inc a photo of 3 together), 4 Wryneck, Red breasted Flycatcher, Red backed Shrike, Barred Warbler, Black Redstart, 2 Wood Warbler, Lapland Bunt, Hen Harrier, Osprey with good counts of common migrants too such as 65 Wheatear, 30 Spotted Fly, 35 Redstart, 16 Tree Pipit, 23 Garden Warbler, 28 Pied Fly, 24 Whinchat ...

Those stats match up with the likes of Spurn or Flamborough . 

So what was I to do on Sunday? I asked the oracle that is Twitter, for a laugh. Should I get up to the Island, a half an hour drive from me, or should I stick local and go to Boulmer as per. The results were eerily familiar as you might expect with a referendum. Out of 280 votes, 52% were for Holy Island and 48% for Boulmer . Interestingly, the battle scarred premiership bird finders, to a man, said stay with it at home.

So, just as with the last referendum that had an effect on me, I backed the 48%ers and drove 3 miles to Boulmer. Who needs a barrow load of scarce anyway...

Before I get on to what we found, I can mention my home village patch was quite pleasing this week with my first Black Tern here since 2011 feeding close in off Rumbling Kern and on Friday a male Redstart and a weak looking Pied Fly at Cullernose, again good records for here. Viz migging has been active each morning during Peggy's walk with lots of Hirundines , Meadow Pipits and a few Yellow Wagtails and Tree Sparrows.

Back to Sunday.  We arrived at 6.30am, first light and spent the whole morning covering to south side as far up as the village. We weren't wading through a magic carpet of birds but we had a few to keep us going in these impoverished times.

We began at Seaton Point golf course layby as Meadow Pipits streamed overhead. 4 Siskins put in an appearance arriving from the east as did a lone, very high Song Thrush. Roadside scrub held a nice Pied Flycatcher, a Whitethroat, 7 Chiffchaffs ( no willows I could see). A Yellow Wagtail moved south over head.

A new route along the replacement coast path across the golf course looked interesting. Here were had 4 Wheatears but little else.

Dropping down on to the beach, a Spotted Flycatcher looked damp as it perched on the sand and seaweed where there were flies aplenty.

Next, we headed along to Seaton Point. It was nice to see more Private signs erected. You cant get enough Private signs in Boulmer, the most unfriendly village.

Near one of them, a second Spotted Flycatcher preened from a fence. Another dozen Phylloscs here included at least two Willow Warblers, while another Whitethroat moved around the brambles. It was while standing here, the loud 'peeez' of a Tree Pipit called overhead. in a flock of 6 or 8 Meadow Pipits.

Spotted Flycatchers above.

Once we arrived at the eastern end, the sparse hedge that runs north had another Pied Flycatcher, flicking from bush to fence and to Hogweed stems and a female Redstart flushed and flew off into thick cover. A Wheatear was on the plough with more pipits.

Pied Flycatcher.

The return journey covered more of the same with a new Blackcap and a male Redstart as additions .

Poor shot but its a Redstart.

We weren't too disappointed that we couldn't unearth anything rarer as this scatter of drift migrants is a lot better than we usually get. Should we have gone to Holy Island? No chance. There had been a big clear out up there anyway so it was much better to find our own stuff down here.

The weather looks like it might give some tasty seawatching conditions from Thursday this week so watch this space...