Viz-mig.

Now that all of my work time is spent at home I can record some birds and wildlife on most days. Usually I would be away to the office during the hours of daylight so blog posts would be thin on the ground, not least because I see very little.

This week I have tried to have half an hour viz mig each morning, soon after sunrise, just along the road, maybe 100 mtrs, from our house.  This is not a hill top, an escarpment or an island in the landscape, its just a random bit of east coast that is 19 metres above sea level on a rise in the road. It gives a clear 360 view thanks to the decimated intensively farmed surrounding countryside.

The view below is facing north along the coast road. Migrating birds seem to follow the line of the road give or take a hundred metres so counting is pretty straight forward.

Not a usual viz mig spot.

My timings and counts are below - 

2nd November 0715 - 0745

Snow Bunting          1 S

Crossbill 6,4,6       16 S

Siskin 9,4              13 S

Goldfinch 15,9,6   30 S

Meadow Pipit         1 S  

Redpoll 3,1            4 S

3rd  1530 - 1600 

Whooper Swans 42,12,11     65 S

Didn't have time to count in the morning.

4th 0715 - 0745

Egret sp         1 S likley Great White Egret but no size comparison and bird backlit in morning sun. 3hrs later a Great White Egret flew south at East Chevington so it must have stopped on route?

Whooper Swan     10 S

Twite                     4  S

by 10.30am - 

Pink footed Geese 1800 S

Barnacle Geese         2 W

Skylark                     13 S

5th 0715 - 0745

Brambling         5 W

Meadow Pipit   6 S

Siskin                1 S

Grey Wagtail     1 S 

Song Thrush 4 new in.

Pink footed Goose all day total 2300+ S over our garden.

Crossbill           3 S

6th 0715 - 0830

Pink footed Geese 600+ S 6 N

Crossbill                    10 N

Pied Wagtail                 1 S

Whooper Swan 4, 9   13 S

Fieldfare                        1 W

Song Thrush                 2 W

Meadow Pipit                 6 S  1 W

Canada Geese                50 N

Great spotted Woodpecker  1 S high dropped in to the farm, may have been local?

Peregrine                     1 imm low S.

7th 0850 - 0920

Little moving.

Meadow Pipit    2 S

Rock Pipit         1 S

Redwing            1 W

Fieldfare             10 W

Not big totals but its great to see the change over of birds moving through our site. Soon it will be all over...

Swiftly south..

Another visit to Boulmer this morning to meet up with John in less than ideal conditions.

It was windy and raining steadily under thickly overcast skies. From the cover of our two cars we soon noticed that some Swifts were on the move along the coast, John, on route here, had noticed about 60 near Seaton Point so we started a count.

From 6.30 until a little past 7.30am groups of between 40 and 140 appeared from the north, over the village, powering south sometimes so close over head the slash of scimitar wings in the wind could be heard as they passed.

Where these birds are going I couldn't say, but it seems early for true migration though the numbers involved seemed excessive for them to be feeding parties dodging a weather system? Overall we counted over 700 though local birder, Daniel, boosted the count to over a thousand from his viewpoint in the dunes where he could scan a further west horizon than we could.

As the numbers dried up, the weather didn't, so we called it a day and went home for breakfast but not before a 1st summer Mediterranean Gull skimmed south along the beach. The third bird present here recently.

Later, at home, I was pleased to see first one, then two Cuckoos at our lane end, more early or late migrants going one way or another because they don't breed locally. To bolster the unusual theme, a pair of Siskins fed on my niger feeder in the garden all afternoon...

Common birds continue to raise questions no matter how long we have watched them... 

Monday 29/06/20 Edit -  Yesterday 28k swifts flew south past Hunmanby Gap and this morning it is reportd that 22,500 had gone past Gibraltar Point by 7.15am! Puts our meagre count into perspective...

Some of the good numbers of Swifts as they moved south in grim weather this morning.

The view north from the Boulmer car park.

Migrating Spuggies.

Today I took my birding gear to work with the intention of bunking off at 12 to drive the 50 miles to the nether extremes of our county for the long staying Bee-eater at Haltwhistle. I could have gone on Sunday but couldnt be bothered with the drive, so today was the day. Fired on by Mike Carr's superb photos, I WhatsApped John to tell him of my plan and jokingly commented that it would probably do a vanishing act before I got there, as the weather today was mild, calmish and clear, a lovely day.

Well, my prophecy couldnt have been more accurate. The feathered rainbow was still around at 9am, but at 10 it flew up higher and by 11 it had gone. Not to be seen again other than a fleeting report at 4.20. Time will tell if it returns.

The disappearance of the B.Eater at least saved me a half day holiday and some deisel, giving me time to consider my own sighting of the day.

Its no rare vagrant but Tree Sparrows were on the move this morning with two flocks of 9 and 19 at dawn flying S at a height along the coast path. The hard thing with these is to determine were these migrating or just leaving a roost locally as we still have lots of Tree Spugs here. Some discussion on our local bird group pointed me to think they were indeed on the move as large numbers had been through Spurn recently and a few at other headlands in the NE.

So whilst not a pulse racing  rare, its these migrations that are the food of the patch watcher so I am quite happy with that.

A Patchy post...

Its been a while since I did a full on local patch type post so Saturday and today were spent doing just that, with maybe a step just a fraction outside the 'official' boundary, which I am quite happy to do. Its no good being precious about these things. Either way all sites visited today can be walked from home and are mostly within the map in the side bar.

On Saturday morning a walk around the coast path and Rumbling Kern with Peggy had - 4 adult winter Mediterranean Gulls, together, in the cow field just north of Seahouses Farm. Two weeks ago there were two adults here, the first time I have had a multiple occurrence on the patch, so to see four in one binocular field of view was excellent. A pair of Stonechats were in scrub by the Rumbling Kern. A five minute seawatch here with bins only had 1 dark Arctic Skua S very close in, 1 ad Common Tern  and 2 juv Arctic Terns N along the rock edges. Further off were 5 Red throated Divers on the sea and another two going S.

A bit of viz migging had 11 Siskins S, 7 Coal Tits coasting S and 9 Skylarks S.

A few butterflies were in the garden- 1 Small White, 8+ Red Admirals, 4 Speckled Wood.

As the wind swung north for the first time in millenia, later in the after noon I did an hour long seawatch from Cullernose Point. It was dire, but I sat it out catching the last sun and fresh air for 4 Red throated Diver, 1 Shelduck, 1 Manx Shearwater, 2 juv Arctic Terns ( probably those seen earlier), 3 Teal and 67 Common Scoter all N. A Small Copper was a late sighting on the coast path and another male Stonechat sat up giving nice close views.

Today I didnt have much hope of seeing much. Last night was clear and cold with a white frost on the car by 11pm. Still we thought we would give Craster ( north end of patch) a try today in case a Yellow browed Warbler had finally made it here.

As John arrived at 7am I put my gear in his car and a flock of 30+ Redwings flew out of the small copse next to our garden. The first of the autumn and a surprise giving the weather.

We arrived at the Craster public car park at about 7.20am and spent the next hour just standing around listening and watching birds viz-migging. Some were coasting S others dropping in from high east having just crossed the North Sea overnight. We totalled a decent list in the next hour -

Brambling 9 in off
Redpoll 60 S
Siskin 58 S
Redwing 38 in off
Fieldfare 3 IO
Song Thrush 3 IO
Goldfinch 12 S
Mistle Thrush 1 S
Golden Plover 13 S 38 N
Dunnock 2 IO arrived high from the east like pipits.
Linnet 13 S
Pied Wagtail 3 S
Crossbill 5 IO
Pink footed Geese 442 S

A Great Northern Diver flew N over head and a Barn Owl flushed from some Ivy on the old quarry wall.

In the bushes around were 2 Goldcrests and 2 Bullfinch.

Not a bad hour standing in  a car park!

We then checked the rest of the village area - 3 Willow Tit, 2 Chiffchaff, 2 Grey Partridge, 1 Great spotted Woodpecker and 1 Treecreeper. The sea was all but dead, 1 Wigeon and 6 Common Scoter N.

This afternoon I walked Peggy down through the village wood to the Pond field and back.
28 Long tailed Tits were very active flying around the village as if not sure where to go next, 1 Chiffchaff, 9 Redwing, 1 Collared Dove, a scarce bird here with maybe two or three records a year, 1 Jay, 1 Brambling S, 1 Wigeon and 10 Mallard on the pond with 2 Mute Swans and 3 Moorhen.

And thats about it for the weekend. No rarities and not even a YBW, but some nice birds to see on the doorstep and to witness migration is always good too... now where are those easterlies?

Seawatch from Cullernose.

The view north from Cullernose

Howick Bay

The coast path facing south

Around the garden and village.

Long-tailed Tit feeding on aphids below elder leaves.

Grey Dagger caterpillar.

I'm off work now for a couple of days for no reason really, I just fancied it.

As the weather has been quite nice yesterday and today ( yesterday best, today was a little bit dull) we've been catching up on some gardening and just generally mooching around the village with Bunty.

On Thursday at dusk my first Pink footed Geese of the autumn flew south over the house, about 100 birds in total.

Yesterday arrivals continued with 30, 65, 70 all going south. I thought that the low cloud today would bring a better count but I only saw one party of 60 all day.

A few phylloscs have been hanging around, with 8+ Chiffchaffs and a single bright Willow Warbler associating with 13+ Long tailed Tits, 2 Goldcrests and the usual commoner garden dwellers. Long tailed Tit is not that common in the village, usually being found in the wooded areas along the road. I've been grilling this flock until I am boss-eyed trying to find a Yellow-browed Warbler. Maybe next weekend...

Over head some viz mig has produced   a few Redpolls, Skylarks and Grey Wagtails with one or two Song Thrushes newly arrived from the east.

This mild summery weather has brought a lot of butterfly activity to the garden. There have been Red Admirals, Peacock, Small Tortoiseshell, Large and Small White, Speckled Wood and Wall Brown. Two Painted Lady were along the coast path.

This lot is all well and good but its not adding to the flagging patch list. Hows about a hint of easterly in the weather forecast please?

It was still quite dark as I arrived at the top car park at Warkworth this morning to meet up with John.

After yesterday's heavy rain and SE winds hopes were high of something interesting in the car park scrub, but, like with Craster yesterday, it was very quiet. Still as the sun came up birds started to get active. An immature Marsh Harrier came from its reed bed roost, circled for a while then headed off north towards Alnmouth.

It soon became apparent that there were some birds on the move over head - VizMig...
Whilst we didn't do an accurate timed count quite a few birds were involved. From 7am - 10am we had -

Meadow Pipit - The main species involved - over 125 birds S.
Redpoll - 16
Grey Wagtail 3
Yellow Wagtail 1
Skylark 5+
Siskin 1
Swallow - began a bit later -  a slow passage south in small groups.

Skylark on the move south....

 Near the golf club  we got a surprise when a Roe doe and two yearlings ran past us. The adult cleared the fence without a problem but the youngsters weren't as athletic and  ran in the opposite direction. The doe was soon searching for them, so we left her in peace. I hope they were reunited...

The Roe Doe, the family ran in the opposite direction...

Little Egret

Down on the estuary, fewer waders than lately were on the flats. 1 Grey Plover, 7 Knot, 14 Ruff and a Black tailed Godwit, all juveniles, were the highlights here. A Sparrowhawk flushed everything including this Little Egret into a close fly past.

Up river, 6 Wigeon were of note.