Russians arrive...

 Been keeping local recently after the flurry of county twitches earlier in the year.

As you can imagine, it has quietened off somewhat but there is still a few bits and pieces to keep the interest up. I'm also trying to use ebird for my patch birds as a way to keep up with a year list and to provide records that I might not otherwise have.

On the plus side, apart from an odd hurricane force storm, the weather seems to be better than last year too. By late Jan 2024 we were already up to Storm Isha ( they are named alphabetically) but at the same time in 2025 we only have Storm Eowyn...

So what has been seen....

Around the village, coast and pond, keeping a count of commoner species is a good thing to do. In this 1 sq km ( maybe 1.5 sq km) a flock of small birds in stubble comprised of 25 Yellowhammers approx, its hard to get them to sit still long enough, with 5 Reed Buntings and 65 Chaffinches, but no Bramblings this winter. Tree Sparrow numbers have declined too with usually only up to a dozen present. 55+ Linnets left the coast blackthorn roost this morning but arent feeding in with the stubble flock? and up to 12 Goldfinches present too.

A male Kingfisher is usually at the pond on days with better weather, sitting up along the back edge, fishing for sticklebacks.

An Alnwick Wildlife Group guided walk on the 18th added Fieldfare, Rock Pipits, Ringed Plover, up to 300+ Lapwings and 400+ Golden Plover while 7 Goldeneye were on the sea.

3 drumming Great spotted Woodpeckers were in the wood on 20th with a couple of Nuthatch and Treecreeper.

Short visits have been made to Boulmer and Craster over the last couple of weeks too where up to 18 Purple Sandpipers and 2 ad Mediterranean Gulls plus the resident hybrid Falcon still causing mayhem.

Without a doubt though, the highlight over the past week has been the presence of 6 Russian White fronted Geese in the field behind the Bathing House. A rare bird on my patch with only 3 previous records in 15 years and these are my first ones to be actually on the deck! Such a smart grey goose these are, well camouflaged in a field filled with molehills, they were all present and correct still this morning.

Crowded Beaches...

The hungry hoards.

A day off work is all the better when the weather is good, and today was just the job. Calm and sunny, very spring-like.

After a visit to Alnwick, I grabbed the gear and headed up to Low Newton, to see if there were any waders on the shore. And were there! The image above is just a fraction of the hoards as the tide washed rotting seaweed around freeing up juicy invertebrates that all the birds seemed to like. Further up the beach those awful black sandflies were swarming in clouds, so I kept nearer the water where possible.

Sitting on the sand as the tide pushed the wader flock closer is great fun, they run past only feet away and are constantly active...maybe they see me as a seal? Er, not a word from you lot...

Dunlin

Purple Sandpiper actually showing some purple...

Sanderling

There were 140+ Sanderling, 20+ Purple Sandpipers and a few Dunlin, Redshank, Turnstone and Oystercatchers as well as gulls, eiders and half a dozen Goldeneye.

This plane came over low, putting the birds on edge so I left them to feed...

Along at the scrapes and pool, were masses of wildfowl - 130+ Teal, 80+ Wigeon, lesser numbers of Mallard, Shelduck, Gadwall and Goldeneye. In with 50+ Greylags were 3 White-fronted Geese. This one was really going for it, calling constantly, a sound I cant recall hearing before, it was like a diver, doing that warbling and wailing thing quite unlike the sounds we're familiar with? 

White-fronted Goose having a 'gander'.

 The scrapes look excellent for the spring passage. It wont belong before the Yellow Wagtails and Wheatears are skipping around over it...

A day of two halves...

First half, this morning went quite well.

Out with a  recovering terrier ( she was spayed on Thursday) first thing, a Lapland Bunting flew south over the village calling, then, better still for me, 3 White fronted Geese flew low right over our house, a great one for the garden list. Seen only with the naked eye they were low enough to see the full blaze on the lead bird and the thick black belly bars on them all as they passed right overhead.

This isn't the WF Geese from this morning, but the view was exactly like this. These birds were near Boulmer a while back... 

A male Blackcap was on the last remaining elderberries in the garden a bit later on...

Then.

Late morning...

A message came through that ADMc had turned up a Greater Yellowlegs at East Chevington.Putting this in context, I have seen about 4 Lesser YLs in the county but must be the only Northumberland birder who failed to make the relatively short trip to Rockliffe for one of the last twitchable records of this species about 20 years ago. Why, I cannot remember...

So, a lifer and a county addition, 20 mins from home had me twitching like an epileptic at the oscars. the problem being, I had to take Bunty for a vets check up at 11.40 and would not be 'daan saaf' before 1pm.

I duly arrived at a queue of cars at Chev at 1 o'clock to find 50 birders gazing at water, the bird having gone north 20 mins earlier towards Hauxley. Off I went...

Bondi Pool -  Redshank 4 nothing else.

Hauxley main pool from the Tern Hide - Lots of birds but not a sniff of yellowshank. Worse still, I'm on me todd, not another birder in sight to help look.

Striding back towards the car a small podgy wader flew from my right only 20 yards away, low over the dunes and out of sight on to the shore - Grey Phalarope! No, must be a roosting Sanderling heading back to the shore and off I traipsed never giving the 'sanderling' a second glance. I had bigger fish to fry.

Amble Braid - Checked the Coquet estuary very briefly as Alan Jack had beaten me to it and still no mega yank to be had.

Out of time, I was gutted and limped off home to lick my wounds.

4.10pm RBA annouces - GREATER YELLOWLEGS, Bondi Pool ( it stayed til dusk) and...GREY PHAL on the beach.

Shite.

Guess where me and most of the birding community ofr 300 miles will be in the morning....