A light in dark times...

 I hope everyone had a good Christmas? Things were pretty much as usual at chez Boulmer Birder, which is something to be grateful for. In today's trouble ridden times it is a big thing to have our health, food and a roof over our heads when a lot of people in a world run and bled dry by a litany of greed fueled oligarchs, billionaires and liars have none of these things. 

Now that Omicron is set for global domination I can't help feel that its shadow is creeping up on us all. Not being a very social animal these days, hopefully it can be avoided for a while longer.

Today the weather was pretty miserable, maybe that's the inspiration for this post, being heavily overcast with rain for most of the daylight hours making it uncomfortable to be out in the open. This is what drove the decision for what to do on today's final birding session of 2021.

I met up with John in near darkness at 8am in tipping down rain. On any other day it would likely have been written off as hopeless, but as it was going to be the birding finale of '21 we headed for a very quiet Seaton Point, where an unused holiday chalet veranda gave us a dry place to watch the sea over the early high tide. Its a bit like the tale of Goldilocks and the three bears where we half expect an irked owner to arrive and turn us out on our ear - 'Who's been seawatching from MYYYY shed?' Luckily for us we came and went like church mice with no one any the wiser of our presence, that is providing they don't read this!  

The sit and watch paid off. From 08.30am - 10.30am we had a reasonable 2 hours for this time of year.

Red throated Diver 74N 3S

Red necked Grebe 1N

Great crested Grebe 2 N

Gannet 1N

Wigeon 40

Common Scoter 5N

Velvet Scoter 1 drake and 1 duck N very close in.

Red breasted Merganser 1 drake N.

Bonxie 1 N an unusual winter record here.

Kittiwake 1N

Grey Plover 15N

Bar tailed Godwit 8N

Knot 4 N

Purple Sandpiper 16

The view from our watch point.

Yesterday there was a nice garden birding surprise. There is an area of water forming just over our back wall in the field that was recently ploughed for oilseed rape. Since the flower rich grassland was obliterated, there is significant rain run off into the low corner, forming this flash. 

Recently it has been favoured by two or three Redshanks but today one flew and with it a smaller bird? Dunlin was suspected, an idea that was soon confirmed by a scan with the bins. This is the very first sighting I have had of a Dunlin from my garden, although I have had a couple of nocturnal birds calling overhead. Dunlins while common down the road at Boulmer are not so easy on the home rocky coast line where to get one for a year tick they are usually flying past on a seawatch. There was no sign of it today, but it was almost like finding a rare bird to see it from our drive. Maybe the flash will attract other new garden birds if it lasts? Water Pipit, Wood Sand or Little Ringed Plover would be mega here!

Garden mega!

 

Early migration.

On Thursday quite a few people were on the coast looking for the Sooty Tern that unfortunately for those from as far away as Swansea and Barnsley, failed to show. The Barnsley birder came here and back twice! I had a look down on a dog walk and caught up with a few friends for a while before heading back to work. On my way home I was pleased to find the Boulmer Hooded Crow in the field beside our village. It flew off NW and I hoped I could scope it for my garden list but I couldn't find it in the 200+ strong flock of crows on the hill.  Visitors were pleased to see some very close in Bottle nosed Dolphin action as three of them came in hunting, slashing at the water at great speed before continuing north.

Facing north from Seaton Point to Boulmer village.

 

Sunday morning  was spent along at Boulmer. We started early to avoid the tourists. While I waited for John, a Tree Pipit flew low south over Foxton Golf Course, followed by a Yellow Wagtail. Around Seaton Point were reasonable numbers of common warblers. These are local breeders starting to disperse and move south on their long journey. There were 15+ Whitethroats, 8+ Willow Warblers, 1 Chiffchaff, 2 Sedge Warblers with another family still feeding young fledglings. 2 juv Whinchats were with Stonechats in an oilseed rape field. On the beach there were loads of Pied Wagtails, at least 33 with another 10 in the paddock behind the point . As the tide was well out there were no waders on show but 18 Arctic Terns circled around and 8 Goosanders were in the haven.

Loads of juv Pied Wagtails on the beach

Whinchat

Whinchat and Whitethroat

Whitethroat

Willow Warbler

   

After a tea break we headed up to the north end of the village towards Longhoughton Steel. 45+ Dunlin and 7+ Ringed Plover were close in behind the pub. Further along in the flattened corn field, 8+ Yellow Wagtails included the male Blue headed / Channel Wagtail just too far off for a photo. It looked more Blue headed than Channel to me with a darker blue head with white supercillium and a yellow throat rather than white but it is the nature of these hybrids to be very variable.

It was soon lunchtime and the place was filling up with visitors. Time to seek cover...

Different juvenile Dunlins.

One of a Wren family along the wall.

 

Foxton Beach south of Seaton Point

Crowded Beaches...

The hungry hoards.

A day off work is all the better when the weather is good, and today was just the job. Calm and sunny, very spring-like.

After a visit to Alnwick, I grabbed the gear and headed up to Low Newton, to see if there were any waders on the shore. And were there! The image above is just a fraction of the hoards as the tide washed rotting seaweed around freeing up juicy invertebrates that all the birds seemed to like. Further up the beach those awful black sandflies were swarming in clouds, so I kept nearer the water where possible.

Sitting on the sand as the tide pushed the wader flock closer is great fun, they run past only feet away and are constantly active...maybe they see me as a seal? Er, not a word from you lot...

Dunlin

Purple Sandpiper actually showing some purple...

Sanderling

There were 140+ Sanderling, 20+ Purple Sandpipers and a few Dunlin, Redshank, Turnstone and Oystercatchers as well as gulls, eiders and half a dozen Goldeneye.

This plane came over low, putting the birds on edge so I left them to feed...

Along at the scrapes and pool, were masses of wildfowl - 130+ Teal, 80+ Wigeon, lesser numbers of Mallard, Shelduck, Gadwall and Goldeneye. In with 50+ Greylags were 3 White-fronted Geese. This one was really going for it, calling constantly, a sound I cant recall hearing before, it was like a diver, doing that warbling and wailing thing quite unlike the sounds we're familiar with? 

White-fronted Goose having a 'gander'.

 The scrapes look excellent for the spring passage. It wont belong before the Yellow Wagtails and Wheatears are skipping around over it...