Beautiful...

...is the only way to describe the weather this weekend. I even managed to see my first butterflies of the year too. On Saturday, a Peacock narrowly escaped the foot of a sniffing terrier in the garden, but a Comma, looking tired after hibernation was more approachable. A Small Tortoiseshell on Sunday was the last of a very welcome trio.

Two Dark edged Bee-Flies added to the insect interest, including only my second in the garden.

Dark edged Bee Fly

Comma

On the bird front, a drake Ring necked Duck caused some excitement for the young or newer birders in the county, being the first here since 2010. We used to see them quite regularly in the 80's / 90's with long staying birds touring a lot of sites. This bird is favouring Hauxley Nature Reserve ( closed until special weekend opening times) with an odd excursion down to East Chevington.

As the Ring necked Duck was distant in my photo, I did this small drawing back at home.

We dipped it at the latter site, where the wintering Shorelarks and Twite, 16+ Scaup and 60+ Goldeneye were the main attraction, luckily we caught up with the dapper yank later on at Hauxley NWT.

Above - Shorelark

Above - Twite

Reed Bunting

Chevington Burn mouth, the haunt of shorelark, twite and snow bunting....

Third time lucky...

This morning, the weather forecast was quite uninspiring with rain predicted for most of the day, however, as with most things weather related, the day didn't turn out as reported. It started off dark and overcast but ended up quite bright and fair, and we scarcely saw a drop all morning.

I met with John and headed off to East Chevington again for the third time since Christmas, hoping, again, to catch up with the wintering Shorelark flock, present here since November. Today was to be third time lucky as the birds, all 7 of them, were feeding on a tiny ribbon of strand tidemak as soon as we peered onto the beach. A few dog toting dudes did their very best to chase the birds off, but they were keen to get back and we finally got some great views. One bird in particular was a stunner, a full, horny male, with jet black face and breast markings on a primrose yellow background, while one was a drab female. The other 5 were more intermediate in colour and condition , but all were very nice, charismatic birds.

While John took a few photos, a nice flock of 42 Twite dropped in to feed near the larks.

From here we had a brief stop at Amble Harbour where the local Mediterranean Gull was sat on its rock on the little shore, then we headed off up to Boulmer. The tide was miles out here, but there were a lot of birds, distantly to scan through. There were 35 Bar tailed Godwits, 3 Grey Plover and the juv Glaucous Gull down on the waters edge. Off we set, resulting in John getting some decent shots ( check his blog out here).

As it started out dull, I didnt bring my camera but managed a few shaky seconds of video with my phone hand held on to my scope. Not bad?

The Glorious 10th...

10th April 2016.

In Northumberland, our spring passage starts in earnest today. 'Whats he on about', you ask, there have been spring migrants for the last fortnight or more, with hirundines, wheatears, chiffchaffs and others all along the coast. But all is not as it seems. Those early birds, are just that. Early. The product of southerly airflow well before its time, depositing hungry swallows in an insectless Northumberland, only for them to need to move back south a couple of hundred miles when we get some late frosts.

No, the 10th has some significance, as this is the date when in most years there is a very noticeable arrival of spring migrants. You don't need to scour the local ponds for a one off sand martin or walk five miles of headland for a wheatear, birds like this are much more widespread, and the 10th April 2016 was no exception to the rule.

I was on my way to meet John at Warkworth at 7 o'clock this morning when I noticed a raptor putting up the gulls near Hipsburn. Buzzard I thought, then as I drove the next mile, keeping it in sight, it looked a bit different so I pulled over for a quick look. Marsh Harrier! A male too, slowly moving south. I put my foot down and arrived just before it in the top car park to get it on Johns patch list before it continued on its way. How many birds do we miss like this I wonder....

A quick check of the car park scrub revealed a male Blackcap in song, our first of the year, then down past the Old Water near the estuary we had 4 Black tailed Godwits in summer plumage, 2 Sandwich Terns and half a dozen Sand Martins near the pier. We're on a roll.... Others of note were 60 Knot, a Little Egret and a few Stonechat.

A flat coated retriever rolling on a long dead grey seal provided some value too, much to the concern of the owners...

Unfortunately, none of the summer birds lingered long enough for a photo, but two Twite were more obliging...

Sandwich Tern and mates...

One of the Twite on the washed up flotsam.

A later tea stop, found us up at the Birling Redpoll field. There were no surprises today but still lots of Linnets, a few Redpolls and 25+ Meadow Pipits. Three small groups of Pinkfeet flew N overhead. Back at the car, we heard the unmistakeable 'tew tew tew' of a Greenshank but try as we may we couldnt get on to it. Still, calls count as a tick in the year list.

Back at home, I glanced out of the kitchen window and first bird I see is a year tick. A male Blackcap skulking through the roses. Nearby a Siskin pair were showing well and even singing, but my camera was still in the car. By the time I snipered out and got it, the Blackcap had continued its migration, I did manage a Siskin though.

Later as I cut the grass, 2 Lesser Redpolls joined the Goldfinches and Siskins at the niger seed. I waited in the outhouse and got a nice shot of one of the redpolls, I'm quite happy with this one. Good light and good range make all the difference.

Lesser Redpoll

Male Siskin in song. Looks a bit soft as its taken through the kitchen window...

Redpoll...week 4.

You will all be getting sick of me chuntering on about the Coues's Arctic Redpoll at Birling / Warkworth by now, but today we managed some great views and this time I even had the camera instead of the scope.

I've jumped the gun a bit though so first things first. I met John at Warkworth at 7.30 this morning just as it was getting light. It was nice and calm for a change, overcast and cold. To start things we walked down towards the beach and along to view the salt marsh, to check the local Twite flock for the first time this year. As expected, about 15 Twite showed well, in less than good light, but with them were 2 Redpolls, one a sure fire Mealy, the other more ambiguous. I dont recall ever seeing redpolls in this habitat before...

While here, a Barn Owl hunted the car park banks and a host of waders roosted along the edge, where Bar-tailed Godwit and Little Egret were both new for the year.  

Twite in the gloaming at first light.

From here we walked back up and followed the field north along the golf course to view the redpolls. Today numbers were up to 34 birds and the Arctic was easily picked out as they came in and sat, obligingly, along the fence line.

Coues's Arctic Redpoll showing well, sticking out like a sore thumb. This shot shows its bull-head and necked appearance well.

We stood back from the fence a few yards and the birds came in every so often. Here the Arctic is showing its typical puffed up pose, complete with huge, unstreaked white rump.

In this shot, the Arctic has not had time to fluff up, giving an altogether different appearance. It appears to be a first winter male as there are odd reddish feathers in the upper chest / cheek area. 

 This is my fourth audience with exilipes and he never fails to impress. What a little cracker!
As we watched, John and I met with John Richardson and Sasha Elliott who also got some nice photo's. Pleased to meet you Sasha....

From here, we returned to the car for a refill of tea, pasty and cake ( no....) then off down to the harbour and estuary. Highlights here were a nice male Goosander, 3 Purple Sandpipers and the adult Mediterranean Gull has finally returned, albeit a little bit late....

So, a nice winter morning out with some excellent birds. If only all weekends were like this....

Mediterranean Gull with Black headed Gulls, Little Shore, Amble.

 

Twite...

Time flies at this time of year. Its been nearly two weeks since I posted about the Chiffchaff, so here is a little update of what I have been seeing since then.

On the 19th it was a very mild 15 degrees so the moth trap was put out. I was pleased to catch my earliest ever Hebrew Character as well as a Chestnut. A Red Squirrel dashed across the road at our lane end, the first I've seen here for a little while.

The 23rd brought an early Christmas present when a nice Merlin dashed past me while I walked Bunty. It perched up on a fence a couple of hundred yards away giving good binocular views. This brings the patch year list to a round 150 species.

On 24th a hint of de ja vu came when a Peregrine over flew the exact same flight line as yesterdays Merlin. A Barn Owl hunted for half an hour outside our kitchen window and 2 Bramblings were with 100+ Chaffinches in the rectory stubble field.

No white Christmas this year though and on the big day only a lone Siskin and 8 Pink feet flying south made it into the notebook.

Last night while returning home from visiting the 24 hour long rain deluge had finally stopped leaving us with seriously flooded roads. No sooner had the rain abated the owls came out, with a nice Long eared Owl sitting on a hedge lit by the car headlights, then a Barn Owl near home sitting the same way.

Thats us up to date. Today I popped out to see John at Warkworth for a wander around the estuary area. Apart from the usual crack, it was uneventful bird-wise until a group of 19+ Twite flew in to the salt marsh. This was a regular traditional site for them some years ago but now they seem to prefer the Druridge Bay links.

Back home, 20 Siskins and a Lesser Redpoll fed in alders, while 7 Stock Doves were with other birds in the rectory stubble, but there was no trace of the Bramblings...

Twite creeping through the grass like mice...

Lesser Redpoll

150. Merlin

Peachy faced Twite...

Day 8. Still snowing. I took a walk down the coast to the Howick Burn mouth and back via the coast path today.

Cold, snowy conditions usually mean that there will be something of interest to see. It might not be 'rare', but sometimes good numbers or an unusually scarce bird out in the open for example.

Todays walk produced such a selection. Firstly, the waders in the wet field have increased, with a massive 400 Dunlin there, alongside 30 Golden Plover, 100 Lapwing, 40 Redshank, 5 Snipe and a few Oystercatchers and Curlew.

Further down the track and a Kingfisher flew over the frozen field heading towards the very cold and blustery rock pools. A large manure heap here concentrated 22 Grey Partridges, 50 Skylarks, 10 Linnets and 2 lovely peachy faced Twite. An uncommon bird around here, these two showed very well.

On the return journey, 2 Woodcocks flushed from the field edge near the shore ( I had a flock of 3 together this afternoon at Longhoughton, flying from the roadside at dusk). More small parties of Skylarks, Partridges and Reed Buntings punctuated the closing leg.

A nice wander out thanks to the snow!

 As I said, peachy faced creatures, these Twite...