Getting lighter...

 Apart from a couple of fine days the weather remains pretty much dreadful across the board. At least the days are beginning to lengthen noticeably now, which is good.

For what is generally accepted to be one of the slowest months for birding, February is not turning out too bad considering.

The White Blackbird hung around into the 1st but despite looking daily I've not seen him thereafter. Pity, I hoped he would become a feature of the village.

What must be the highlight of the month came on the 7th when news emerged of an totally unprecedented flock of up to 40 Common Cranes in a field by the A1 at Denwick! At first we were all sceptical of such a number, but it turned out to be true, well, almost with up to 38 birds counted. I didn't arrive on site despite it only being 3 miles from home until nearing dusk at 4.30pm but sure enough 29 Cranes were in view striding in a line across a rushy field. All appeared to be adults and some observers even noted some tentative displaying between them. In my life I dont think the Cranes I've seen previously totaled 29 birds.

I did an Alnwick Wildlife Group guided walk before the Cranes news arrived also on the 7th around the local Arboretum and coast. 12 souls dared the weather and were gifted with a dry window for once. 46 typical mainly woodland species of birds were recorded plus some oddities such as Oak Moss Evernia prunastri , Harts Tongue Thyme Moss Plagiomnium undulatum , Frizzled Pincushion Plenogemma pyllantha Crystal Brain Fungus Exidia nucleata, Hairy Curtain Crust Stereum hirsutum, Velvet Shank Flammulina velutipes, Lumpy Bracket Trametes gibbosa and Turkey Tail trametes versicolor. 

Guided Walk

Frizzled Pincushion Plenogemma pyllantha

Lumpy Bracket Trametes gibbosa 

Unusually for us we had a trip down to the Druridge Bay Flesh Pot where we caught up with a couple of good birds but missed out on the White tailed Eagle that has been around for a few days. We did get 16 Pochard singing Cetti's Warbler at DBCP, a nice Red necked Grebe showing nicely at East Chevington with more Cettis' and 23+ Goldeneye and 2 Otters, a redhead Smew at Widdrington Moor lake with 5 Mediterranean Gulls and finally back at Alnmouth we were over flown closely by 12 Russian Whitefronted Geese.

 Red necked Grebe, East Chevington.

Yesterday I finally caught up with the Tundra Bean Goose influx with 4 nice birds showing at Gloster Hill Amble on my way to work. Pad these out with multiple Barn Owls, Ravens, Woodcock and a Little Gull its not been a bad couple of weeks.

A poor phonescoped shot with 4 Beans, 1 RWF and a Greylag.

Frustrating stuff...

The morning dawned very bleak indeed, with heavy sleet and leaden skies for the first hour. Despite this, John and myself headed up to the far north of the county to check the wide sandy bay of Goswick and Cheswick for the Black Scoter that has been around for a couple of weeks. From previous experience of this bird in past years, its one of those individuals that you need to 'get your eye in' before picking it out.

A busy Sunday at Cheswick Sands viewing north.

and viewing South...

Today was no different. In the gloom, early on,all the scattered scoter were either drab first year males or females, with many birds too far off to identify. As the sun came out, I called a false alarm as a nice adult male Common Scoter with extensive yellow on its bill was lit like a beacon.  Closer scrutiny revealed it to be a phony black scoter though as the yellow didn't have that swollen, spongy appearance that the Black Scoter has, As we scanned, a few more male Commons looked very bright in the low sun, but we couldn't find the target.

It was frustrating later when it was reported twice, especially when we had been there looking at the exact same time as the first report. To be honest, we did the usual birders thing and diss the report, but there were a lot of birds out there so we could have missed it, even though we kept picking out a female Velvet Scoter despite us moving from one end of the beach to the other.

Anyway, we did manage the Velvet Scoter, 3 nice Great Northern Diver ( one very close in the surf, and two together at half distance all at the same time), 8 -10 Long tailed Ducks inc a few fine males, 6ish Red throated Divers, 6ish Razorbills inc 2 in summer plumage and 2+ Shag.

(Numbers increased later with 150 Long tailed Duck! Black throated Diver, the Black Scoter, 3 Jack Snipe, Merlin, Twite and Short eared Owl by Ross Ahmed)

Two Tundra Bean Geese, a pair., with 7 Greylags in shot.

The male Bean Goose at the bottom.

12 of the 16 Russian White-fronted Geese.

We returned to the car park at Cheswick and noticed a few geese flying around about a fields length to the north, so we went to check them out. I'm please we did, as the 100+ strong flock of Greylags also held 16 Russian White-fronted Geese and 2 cracking Tundra Bean Geese, showing very well in the, now, sunny weather.

On the return, 2 Skylarks were singing and a Stonechat fed from the fence line.

All was well...

A wild goose chase.

A day spent around about home, turned up a few good birds.

This morning we walked to the coast path where a pair of Peregrines were casually soaring not too high over the laybye before gliding off north to settle on a stone wall. A few minutes later on the walk back, a female Merlin came close by, behind a flock of Starlings, looking for an opportunity.

Back home, a male Blackcap was calling and flitting about the drive while on the feeders were 10 Tree Sparrows, 7 Goldfinches and a Great spotted Woodpecker.

A few of the 10 Tree Sparrows in the garden today.

At lunchtime Gary Woodburn rang to say he has seen a large flock of geese land in a field at Dunstan Hill just NW  of Craster. There were two white birds in the flock that looked to be Ross's geese. As this is only 2 miles up the road for me, I was there in 10 mins to join Gary and Mike Hodgson scoping the birds in stubble next to the road.

What a superb mixed flock too. All too often we check goose flocks to find nothing but Pinks or Greylags, but this group consisted of 6 species!

Ross's Geese 2 adult
Tundra Bean Geese 2 ( though Mike did wonder if they were Taiga's, but I didnt think so?)
Eurasian White fronted Geese 5 ( 4 ad and 1 juv)
Barnacle Geese 53+
Greylag Goose 1
Pink footed Geese 600+

After an hour or so they were flushed by farm workers but seemed to drop down slightly further west.

Also here 100+ Fieldfare, 1500+ Woodpigeons and a Buzzard.

Part of the goose flock with the Ross's in the foreground. One Bean Goose is at the top of the geese at the far left hand edge of the photo.