The Little B.......

Despite the seemingly adverse weather conditions for migrants, I have done alright this week and seen a few interesting birds.

On Wednesday, I was amazed to see that a Bee-eater had turned up at Druridge. Likely one of our pair seen on Sunday, so at lunchtime I popped along to get a better view. Unfortunately it had gone north and did not return before I had to get back. Old school Northumberland birders have waited for ever to see Bee-eater in the county, so after 35 years, I thought I finally had a 'blocker' on my list. That lasted three days.... Still, it is good when everyone can catch up with such a precious find.

While scanning for the Bee-eater, a Water Pipit just in front of the Budge Screen made the trip a worthwhile one.

On Thursday there was a short deviation in the long term westerlies we have been suffering with a short SE breeze. Immediately large numbers of thrushes were arriving. At home, Redwings, Blackbirds, Brambling and a nice sat-out Woodcock started proceedings before work. At lunchtime I had a walk along the disused railway lines at Cambois. The highlight here was a male Ring Ouzel, a belated year tick, with 150+ Redwings, 20+ Blckbirds, 50+ Song Thrushes and 6 Bullfinch.

I called in to Druridge again on Friday before work. The Bee-eater was still in residence, this time watched briefly say on a barbed wire fence preening before making off towards Chevington again. A distant Swallow will probably be my last, a Little Egret flew south. I returned at lunchtime but missed the Bee-eater again ( its giving me the run around this bird) where the best on offer was a nice Little Owl perched on a chimney at the farm.

No frame filling insect snapping shots for me, but I'll take it.

     Later on Friday, Gary Woodburn found a Little Bunting on his patch at Low Newton. He sent some tempting photos of this tiny emberiza so Saturday morning found me loitering along the path to Newton Point hoping to catch up with only my second Little Bunt after one on Holy Island in the mid 90s. I have dipped a few since.

At first things didnt look promising with a seemingly birdless tree and too much cover to hide a small brown streaky bird but Gary soon refound it and called us over. What performer too. This lethargic bunting slowly clambered around its chosen sycamore gleaning aphids from the leaves. It often sat motionless for several minutes making it tricky to find but in all, half an hours viewing in good sunshine was enough and the bird just evaporated into cover.

Two close Yellow-browed Warblers together padded things out abit, plus Brambling, Chiffchaff, Blackcap and Mealy Redpoll added to the variety.

Saturday Little Bunting views.

 Sunday dawned in a different fashion with Storm Brian having just passed over through the night leaving us with a gusty NW wind that was quite chilling. Not great prospects for John seeing the Little Bunting. I thought it might still be there, but did not expect to find it in this wind.

Luckily John had other ideas and the first bird he looked at was the bunting. In the early morning light it skulked amongst the same sycamore branched for a few minutes then we lost it. A further two and a half hours passed before it appeared in the open from nowhere. This time it showed even better than yesterday picking tiny aphids off the leaves, and for one great moment it shared a binocular view witha lovely Yellow-browed Warbler! I am tempted to say 'stunning'.

While scanning for the bunting I had a heart stopper when for all of a millisecond, bright grass green apparition with white wing bars appeared in my bins that could only have been a firecrest but its head was obscured by leaves and I did not see it again.  Frustrating.

We ended the morning with a glance at the sea off Football hole where the only birds of note were 3 Red throated Divers and John had a Woodcock in-off.

Not too shabby a week on the westerlies....

Above - Little Bunting. What a great bird.

Two Barred.

Not Crossbill or Greenish Warbler, no, a tale of two Barred Warblers that's all. Calm down.

On Friday I finally made it along to have a look for the Barred Warbler found by Alan Priest on the Newbiggin Ash Lagoon banks. Earlier, Hector Galley had it right out in the open sunning itself, but by the time I arrived it had gone to ground. I stood for an hour seeing Dunnocks, Robins and Wrens by no lumbering sylvia. I decided to call it a rap, and go back to work when an overly excited Blackbird flushed another bird up into a small whitebeam bush - it was the Barred.

It showed well, albeit quite distantly for a passerine but I did get decent scope views for a few minutes before it dropped back to cover. I'll come back on Sunday with John, I mused....

Today we began with a dawn seawatch from the Church Point at Newbiggin. It was generally quiet but there was a good movement of Barnacle Geese in smallish skeins that ended up with 700 birds into the notebook. A Bonxie, 3 Arctic Skuas and 10 Red throated Divers padded it out a bit, but it was slow so we headed across to check out the Barred again.

It was an ideal flat calm, overcast, quiet morning. Bramblings were arriving overhead and we had some decent viz-migging with 33 Tree Sparrows, 10+ Skylarks, a good number of alba wagtails and several Meadow Pipits but try as we might there was no Barred Warbler. I managed a hopeless glimpse of a birds arse end dropping off a low whitebeam that was likely it, but it didn't resurface.

So it was time for a cuppa and where else was there to go other than to look for another Barred Warbler, this time found by Iain Robson at Druridge.

A sizeable crowd had gathered around a large elder bush and waited. Staying cool, we had tea and biscuits.

Soon the call went up, the bird had been seen. Flasks were stowed and dregs tipped. As we made our way along, the crowd was looking at one side of the bush so we waited at the other end. As soon as we stopped, a lovely ,dove grey, Barred Warbler popped out to snatch some elderberries. Then promptly vanished to be replaced by a Garden Warbler!

Anyway, with a little patience, everyone finally managed good views of the Barred, as it fed on sloes and elderberries with 2+ Garden Warblers. It made those, look like little chiffchaffs such was its bulk.

We waited to get some pictures but the results speak for themselves, and it was all too soon time for home...

Another goodie...

And no I'm not on about Tim Brooke-Taylor, I am on about today's Red-rumped Swallow at Druridge Pools. Luckily its presence coincided with lunch time so I dashed along for a 20 minute sample then back to work, not bad! This is my 3rd for Northumberland, the last being on Holy Island back in 2000 so it was long overdue a revisit.

Cracking birds, Red rumps, they seem so much more exotic than our own Swallows. Dashing around in the lee of the baffle bank at Druridge with 50+ mixed hirundines, sometimes coming right up to the hide then vanishing for a minute or two before resuming its circuit. As I arrived back at work, ADMc found a second bird with this one, 2 Red rumps together is a red letter day!

What a good year we are having in the county...I think Northumberland is up there with the best. Imagine what would be found if we had as many birders as Norfolk?

Too wet for the camera, and I had forgotten my notebook so some rough lines were drawn on scrap paper as a reminder then these done back at home... 

WHERE ARE MY EAR PLUGS?

A Spoonbill, wondering what the hell an Evening Chronicle seller is doing at Druridge...

Its an education these days, visiting our birding hotspots in Northumberland.

At lunchtime I managed to pop out of the office and up to Druridge Pools for half an hour to see the Spoonbill that had arrived this morning. Unfortunately I missed a Common Crane, a Red rumped Swallow and a Red Kite that had all gone through, but, one Spoonbill in work time is better than nothing.

As I arrived  and left the car, I could hear a bellowing, a bit like a Red Deer during the rut, as I wandered the road down to the Budge Screen. When I got there, there was no rutting stag, just a chap with a polite Tyneside accent who sounded like Brian Blessed rehearsing for Flash Gordon II . Loud? I cant imaging it could have gotten any louder, exacerbated by the acoustics of the sheet steel and iron framework of the hide. The Alnwick Town Cryer was put to shame here by a person birding, not at a football match!

Don't get me wrong  as most will attest, I am not a shy, retiring, wall flower and have been guilty of having a laugh in the bay hides with mates, but this was on a different level. It would have easily drowned out an ipod gropper at full volume.

I was about to leave to get some headache pills when Jimmy Steel and Colin Bradshaw arrived. I stayed a little longer for a catch up, but could barely hear them so headed back to work...I'm not used to this, you'd never find it happening at Boulmer or Howick...

Still, out on the fields were the nice adult Spoonbill, a Little Egret, 3 or 4 Herons, 56+ Shoveler, many Teal, Wigeon and Snipe plus a few displaying Lapwing, all with heads up ready to flee in alarm at the racket going on in the tin box.

Lapwing

Far from the Madding Crowd...

Druridge Pools Track

This mornings itinerary was made simply to avoid the Great North Bike Race. Each August Bank Holiday thousands of cyclists fill our roads between Seahouses and Tynemouth. Churlish as it may seem, as it is for charity and all that, the whole bloody thing gets on my wick. Drivers are told to have 'respect' for the masses, but this doesn't seem to be reciprocated. They fling their complimentary water bottles onto the roadside, they urinate in rural driveways and I have even faced verbal abuse from them for no reason what so ever! So, every recent August Bank Hol since then, I ensure that I avoid the route at all costs and we can all be happy.

Ahead of the flow, I started off well south this morning at Druridge Pools for an hour. Waders were in short supply with little of note other than a Ruff on the Budge Fields, but local migrant passerines were everywhere, feeding up before the big push. In the patch of brambles above and along the track were 6+  Common Whitethroat, 4+ Blackcap, 10+ Willow /Chiffs and a single Reed Warbler. A Swift flew overhead with three species of hirundines.

Whitethroat

On the pool, Mallard were the wildfowl min largest numbers but there were a few Gadwall and Tufted Duck too. 8 Little Grebes were next to the Oddie Hide. Best of all, was anice family party of at least 4 Yellow Wagtails feeding on the pool edge. The juvs had a funny 'bluethroat' look about them...

Not a Bluethroat  

As time was getting on and I didn't want the hordes of hades heading me off, I drifted west, slightly, and checked out an old stomping ground near Stobswood Tip. The walk down the track was quiet, calm  and warm in the early autumn sun. The only sound to break the silence was the 'seeping' of Meadow Pipits over head and warbler contact calls in the scrub. Blackberries and rosehips were ripening and everything felt 'golden'. Warblers flitted ahead of me as earlier, the best being a Lesser Whitethroat, that was very tricky to get views of.

Lesser Whitethroat

Wild Carrot

Wild Carrot

Next was a short stop at the new Stobswood scrapes. A Greenshank and 100+ Teal were added to the notes.

The final avoidance tactic was to get back north on the A1. This called for a detour via Corby Crags for dragonflies.

Heather in all its glory.

 10+ Black Darters were on the wing but keeping low in cover as it was quite cool up here. A couple of Red Admirals were on the heather and some russula and Brown Roll Rim fungi emerging under the pines.

Thanks to the glorious weather, an excellent morning was had - without the Tour de France!