A local Easterly...

 Busy, busy, busy now that Autumn is in full swing and the wind has been from the eastern half over the past week. There is never enough time to do everything.

On 31st August I managed a couple of short seawatches at The Bathing House. An hour in the morning resulted in some decent birds with 1 ad Pomarine Skua, 1 close in juv Long tailed Skua, that bonked one of 25 Arctic Skuas on the head forcing it to land before moving away north. A great comparison of size and structure could be had during the interaction. 1 drake Velvet Scoter was a surprise  along with small numbers of Common Scoter, Wigeon and Teal.  It really is that time of year. 80 Manx Shearwaters completed the show.

It felt good so after work I popped down to Cullernose, but an hour and a half showed that most passage was now over. Still, 2 Long tailed Skuas, 14 Arctic Skua, 1 poss Pom but too distant and 30 Manx made it still worth while.

On Saturday 3rd September rain and easterlies looked good for an arrival of migrants to off we went to check the coast path area. Up at Holy Island and the Isle of May birds were falling in with plenty of scarcities too, but a random bit of mainland isnt really like that. We just hope for scraps really...in this case, I didnt even get those. No migrants at all, not so much as a Chiffchaff. Some compensation was had on the way back when I flushed a lovely Convolvulous Hawk-moth from the verge. It was soon pocketed and taken home for photos then released after dark.

Convolvulous Hawk-moth, one of our largest moths. 

Sunday 4th dawned foggy and mild with a light south easterly breeze. I met John at Boulmer where we were filled with hope of what the morning might uncover, after all this is a big headland into the North Sea.

The final tally is less than inspiring so here are the highlights - Curlew Sandpiper 1 juv on the beach with Dunlin, 3 Black and 1 Bar tailed Godwit flew S, 9 Brent Geese N at sea. The only passerine that got us going was an 'educational unstreaked acro' in a ditch near the car park. Doesnt that phrase make your heart sink? All I wanted was a Wryneck, not of this educational nonsense ( a phrase used to try and get some meagre enjoyment from stringing a common species). The acro turned out to be  Reed Warbler no matter how hard we tried. It is still a decent bird on this patch really, Ive only ever seen maybe 4 or 5 in the area.

Above -  Reed Warbler, top 2 mine, bottom one is by JWR a much nicer shot than my efforts. 

As the wind was set firmly from the east,a couple of days annual leave were booked for Monday and Tuesday.

On Monday a half hour sea scan had 8 Red throated Divers and 3 Arctic Skuas S with 1 Arctic N, but the glare from the sea was appalling so I gave up and went along to check Craster. On route back, a juv Peregrine went over N and a Whimbrel S .This is the north end of my patch and its not been visited much this year.

A good yomp around Craster Village fuelled with numerous juicy Brambles at last had a few birds.

Pied Flycatcher 2, Lesser Whitethroat 2, Blackcap 2, Calling phylloscs 12, non seen but 1 Willow Tit showed well. More insect migrants included 6 Red Admirals and a Hummingbird Hawk-moth.

The moth trap has produced some good stuff this week too but thats for another post...

  

 

 

 

A garden surprise.

Yesterday morning as I sat outside counting the moth trap, a niggling little sub-song was going on in the front garden. I thought it might be a Garden Warbler, its a long time since I had one on patch let alone in the garden, but often I think this, to find on investigation that the songster is a new starting Blackcap before he gets in tune.

I went back to the moths. I popped inside for a new pen and said to Jane, 'you know, there's a bird out there singing a bit like a Reed Warbler, I am hoping its a Garden'.,..

As the moths were done and dusted I went quietly to the gable corner with my bins for a look. The singer was in our dying currant hedge, the home of numerous sparrows making finding a warbler difficult. Then, a still or slightly moving shape caught my eye. A drab bird, back facing me, bent over right preening its shoulder. Mmm, looks good for Garden Warbler. Some spuggie nonsense followed and my target jumped along the hedge towards me and began singing, this time in open dead twigs.

It wasn't a Garden Warbler at all. It was only a goddamn REED WARBLER! In my garden! What on earth? I was just thinking out loud when I said to Jane the quiet song was like Reed Warbler, I never thought it actually would be one. We have no phragmites for 6 miles around me and in Northumberland Reed Warbler is a scarce breeder, as you would imagine, fixed to the few reed beds we have.

The Reed Warbler then flew up into a tall sycamore of all places. I wondered about Marsh Warbler but the song had no mimicking in it. Marsh would possibly be just as likely as Reed here. I rang my neighbour Geoff Sample who is a known wildlife sound recordist to have a listen. The bird 'chug-chug-chug, chit-chit-chitted' He confirmed that it was a bog standard Reed Warbler. Later it returned to the hedge and sang on and off til about 11.10am when it was not seen or heard again afterwards.

Reed Warbler is garden tick #135. One in an autumn fall would be more likely but a spring singer, I'll take it!

Technicolour....

I'll split this post in two halves, firstly I started out here at home for an hour, then popped down to Warkworth to meet John, then back here to loiter around the garden again as yesterday. A lovely sunny day, a bit cooler, but a cracker of an autumn day all the same.

Howick.

This morning was out before sunrise down to the Bathing House area just to see if there was any viz mig and to get a sunrise photo.

70 Golden Plovers were roosting in Tommy's field, while 300 Pinkfeet flew south over head. 3 Swallows, a few Skylarks and Meadow Pipits also moving south shortly after it got light.

At 7.30am I headed off to Warkworth, see below, returning at 12.30pm.

This afternoon I spent a lot of time just watching what was going on around our garden. There were loads of butterflies again as well as many Silver Y moths. As the sun was quite bright, I kept the camera handy to get some shots of the butterflies as they appeared....

Peacock

Small Tortoiseshell

Comma

Red Admiral

In addition to these four, there were Speckled Wood, Large White and Small White.

The roving party of Long tailed Tits came back, this time bringing a Treecreeper and 8 - 12 Chiffchaffs. Two Blackcaps fed in the yew and elder bushes. Still no striped sprite...

Blackcap

Warkworth.

The time spent at Warkworth was equally lazy but this time sitting at a picnic bench drinking tea and scoffing Bakewell Tarts while watching the birds pass overhead. We had a steady stream of Skylarks ( 50+), Meadow Pipits, 9 Redpolls, 6+ Pied Wagtails, 3+ Swallows, 250 Pink-footed Geese, a few Linnets, Goldfinches and Tree Sparrows. A Snipe bucked the trend by going North.

In the scrub were 4 -5 Chiffchaffs, 2+ Blackcaps, 1 Reed Warbler, 10+ Blackbirds.

Reed Warbler

  We ended down at the estuary where things seemed a bit quieter. The juv Black tailed Godwit was there but there were only 2 Knot with the masses of Redshank, Dunlin, Curlew and Lapwing. Two Little Egrets and 18 Teal were above the weir.