Lapland Christmas.

 

Our Village Hall looking festive...

As usual at this time of year, pre Christmas visits and shopping etc put the kybosh on the birding. This year is even worse than most as we had a two week non starter after Arwen, so we are tail chasing to catch up.

We both had our boosters last week. As usual mine left me hammered. The following day was like the mother of all hangovers and I am still not 100% yet. That's three out of three that have been no walk in the park but it is better than the alternative, so I expect it to be come a twice annual feature in years to come.

This week has shown that some birds are still on the move. In our village, Blackbirds on fallen apples have increased to 23+ from maybe a dozen, a lone Fieldfare was dotting around and 7 Redwings flew west.

One day last week I was pleased to have a Lapland Bunting fly low south along the coast path. It seemed to come from the field opposite the village and it headed towards Seahouses Farm but I couldn't relocate it. Laps are rare on my patch and I've still not seen one on the ground here. This was the first since 2019 and before that was 2013. An adult Mediterranean Gull was in the same fields with a few Black headeds.

An old drawing of a Lapland Bunting....

Northumberland Birding....

 What a great county Northumberland is for birding. Although spring is a none starter here, once we get to August, right through to December we can usually count on going out and seeing interesting birds. My local area is not as heavily watched as the south east of the county or maybe Holy Island, but that only adds to the appeal. It is a bit awkward to get to from Newcastle, being an 80 miles round trip, there are no reserves at this part so it doesn't often seem worth the travel when there might not be much to see.

Yesterday I took the 10 minute or 3 miles trip to Boulmer to check out the waders and maybe see some migrants too. Boulmer is a big flat headland with no real focus, but it turns up the goods for those with patience.

The tide was high on arrival first thing this morn, a whopping 5.6 mtrs job leaving only a narrow line of beach. On this line were thousands of birds. Waders were prominent with 300+ Dunlin, 50+ Turnstones, 6 Ringed Plover, 8 Knot, 10+ Bar tailed Godwit, 1 Purple Sandpiper, 1 Little Stint and 1 Curlew Sandpiper. There was no sign of the Buff breasted Sandpiper. As we scanned the waders off shore a flock of 17 Red throated Divers flew South and a few Manx Shearwaters loafed around, a few Wigeon and Teal moved North and a female Pintail sat on the sea with the gulls was unusual. A nice female Merlin strafed the beach narrowly missing the Curlew Sandpiper! 

Back at the car for tea and an adult Mediterranean Gull slowly flew past along the shore.

Next stop was north of the village overlooking Longhoughton Steel. There were no migrants in the weeds but 2 male Lapland Buntings came 'in-off' doing that 'tickety peu' call as they went. A glance offshore here had single Arctic Skua south  and a drake Velvet Scoter north.

At the top of the headland I was surprised to see the Buff breasted Sandpiper fly low past me and on to the beach where it fed for a while with wagtails and Starlings before heading back towards the village. a Short eared Owl was getting chased by crows for a while. Down at the south end of the patch, Foxton GC scrub was checked hoping for a Yellow browed but it wasnt to be ( Dan Langston had one in the village later). 50+ Swallows and a few House Martins were still around plus a Chiffchaff and a Grey Wagtail.

Some nice birding in a morning just along from home...

Longshot longspur...

Lately I have been quite pleased with some of my photos on here, a distinct improvement since the start back in 2006 when I was digiscoping with a poor quality compact camera. Today sees a return to the good old days! Not digiscoping mind you, oh no this is all DSLR with Canon lenses and all that jazz, its just that the taget was so far away and elusive, you would think the images had been taken in the fog through a carrier bag over the lens!

This morning we had a quiet wander around the Coquet Estuary seeing very little, so we decided to take a long shot and try a revisit to the Coues Arctic Redpoll. It seems that he is long gone, but there were still redpolls in the field including at least one Mealy. The weedy rank stubble was full of bird though with lots of Yellowhammers and Reed Buntings, Linnets and Skylarks with a few Grey Partridges and Brown Hares for good measure. As we walked up we herd a faint 'tickety tickety' over head and after a scan around picked out a lone Lapland Bunting circling around with other finches and buntings.

What a merry dance this bird lead us for the next hour or two, back and forward up the field sometimes missing it all together then lifting it nearby only for it to fly the length of the field and drop back down! I managed two glimpses on the deck as it ran along a wheel rut showing a nice rusty nape, but photos were an impossibility. Then, didn't it make a change from normal Lap Bunt behaviour and land up on a bramble bush next to the main track! Although way too far for pictures, we could see its nice pale form quite well in the binoculars. Well here are the delightful images I promised you. Prepare to be amazed...

'tickety tickety' and off...

Squint. Thats it in the middle. 

A much better shot. Showing rusty nape and chestnut wing panel with white underparts...

 While the views and photos are nothing to write home about, it is still a Lapland Bunting and a very nice record for John's patch. Its a while since I've seen one...

Above - Male Lapland Bunting, Bells Links, Druridge - 22nd March 2007.

See photos below and compare. I haven't done much drawing recently, I think I'll get back into it...

Boulmer today, sunny, light NE2, pleasant.
Still very little in the way of new birds. 80+ Wigeon flew into Seaton Point from the south and 15 Ringed Plovers were on the beach. Thats it.