Edge of Winter

 November starts in autumn and ends in winter. Our old county winter atlas surveys began on 13th of the month, so I tend to think of that period as the beginning of winter, though autumn bird migration can continue into December. By mid month, the majority of our winter visitors will be in situ, and our summer birds long gone. 

This week is make or break for one iconic winter visitor in Northumberland. This will not relate to more southern counties but it is very accurate up here. Waxwings. If it is to be a Waxwing Winter, Northumberland will have a decent arrival before bonfire night.  In 2023, I had seen 5 Waxings on patch by now, and a flock of 45 was in residence by the 20th. Overall by 31st December exactly 100 Waxwings had presented before me. Come 1st January I didn't see another! So, 2024 / 25? not a report of a single bird yet here, so I'll go all out to say, no Waxing Winter this time...shame.

The first week of November has been quite good on the local patches of Howick and Boulmer. No real rarities but a good variety of species to keep up the interest.

To summarise - 

1st Nov - 

High pressure  with mild calm dull days has been the flavour this month, so far. What is it they say? In like a Lamb out like a Lion?

5 Whooper Swans flew west over the garden, while 66 Curlew, a Stonechat and 7 Grey Partridges enlivened a quite early morning dog walk around the village.

2nd - 

Unusually, Peggy was asking to be out at 0530 so off we tootled into the darkness for no more than 5 or 10 mins. We were met with bird calls all around. Redwings and Blackbirds at the rate of about 10 cals per minute. We also almost stood on a Woodcock beside our neighbours corner too.

A couple of hours later I was up at first light to see if any of these birds were grounded.

In an hour I had 32 Redwings, 94 Fieldfares, 35 Blackbirds, 1 Chiffchaff, 3 or 4 calling Brambling, 1 Sinipe in off, 1 Whooper Swan over, Golden Plover S, 12+ Chaffinch and 400+ Starlings.

A stand around on the drive for an hour mid afternoon added 1 Raven N, 23 and 7 Whooper Swans S, 1 Brambling beside the garden, 5 Long tailed Tits and 3 Mistle Thrushes.

3rd - 

Met John at Boulmer where we did an ebird full count of our walk. The route was only three miles around by Longhoughton Steel but the bird range was excellent with 69 sp recorded. Not on the list, below, was a huge falcon bearing a red breeders ring, on the rocks with prey. Unsure of its parentage but Id say Peregine x Lanner or Saker... the Xs below are birds present in good numbers but we didnt bother counting them.

Apologies for the poor digiscoped phone shots...

As we enter the dark days of a Trump administration across the pond, who will say what disasters will befall us at the hands of the orange manbaby...

Storming the Castle.

 This might be a longer blog post than most recently, as this week I've finally got something to write about, so please bear with me. There has even been some good signs of spring.

Before I come to the weekends events, on Tuesday mornings dog walk, a smart adult, summer plumaged, Mediterranean Gull flew low south over our village with a team of Black headed Gulls. My first of the year on patch. As far as gulls go they don't get much smarter than these, with backlit angels white wing tips and contrasty hood..

Mediterranean Gull.

The next few days were standard, with that treading water feel to it, until Friday.

I was office based on Friday morning when at 09.17am a WhatsApp message came through - 

Alpine Swift is a rare bird in Northumberland with only around 15 records and there hasn't been one 'gettable' for about 30 years. Not in my time anyway. 

Now, my office is 40 miles from Bamburgh Castle so it is not exactly a short jaunt away. When that last message came through I felt some relief that it had gone, but a short while later, it had returned. Had I been working from home, Bamburgh is only 15 miles away, but not today. 

After another hour and more updated grippage of 'showing well' and a frame filling pic, it all became too much, I had to go. So, colleagues updated, I was going to pop out and work from home in the afternoon...

After a sluggish tractor / tourist subdued drive up the A1 the car finally came to a halt in the large car park over shadowed by the huge bulk of Bamburgh Castle at 12 noon. A quick scan with the bins. Nothing. Just blue sky and fluffy clouds.

Checked phone. 

Bugger. No news for an hour. Its not looking good.

I pulled out of the car park and drove a few hundred yards to the south and parked on the road side so I didn't need to pay and thought I'd give it half an hour and see what happens. As I got out of the car I was joined by Alan Hall who was buzzing having had great views of the bird. By now I had resigned myself to having wasted my time, but you have to try or you'd never succeed.

Then, Alan became quite animated. Gesturing over the dunes  - 'There it is!'

And it was coming our way.

What a bird, Alpine Swift is a good deal bigger and bulkier than Common Swift, appearing like a more stiff winged Merlin as it approached and went low, straight over our heads then gone towards the village. This is only my 2nd UK record after seeing one on this very same date in Scarborough 19 years ago. Alan left for home but I went back to the car park where a few others were watching the now very high Alpine Swift feeding. Sometimes it would drop lower and strafe the castle walls and flag pole at great speed, rocking its wings side to side. I wished for my camera that was lying at home, but no worries, the lack of it meant I could just take it all in above us.

After about half an hour, the car park attendant came. This was cue for me to head back home and work. What a day. The swift was present only for a short while after I left when a rain shower seemed to move it off and despite some vague reports around 3pm it was not seen again. 

Back to reality now. Yesterday was another pleasant day so I met John at Seahouses Farm layby and after some car shuffling where we took one vehicle up to Craster then drove back to Howick to walk the coast line looking for migrants, we set off in clear blue skies for the walk north.

Soon the sound of trumpeting Whooper Swans was followed by the lovely sight of a majestic flock of 47 slowly following the coast north. Another party of 72 was seen later on at Craster as well as a big flock of 350+ Pink footed Geese following the same route back up to breeding grounds. 

Whooper Swans

As we approached the small Salters Gate layby an early Sand Martin flew low west while a couple of Chiffchaffs could be heard singing.

A few Skylarks, Meadow Pipits and Wagtails were also on the move north along the coast path.

Chiffchaff, Howick coast path.

Meadow Pipit

The rocky shore between Cullernose and Craster is excellent for Wheatears or a Black Redstart maybe but we didnt see any on this walk. New additions to my Local Patch year list were welcome though with a drake Red breasted Merganser and 3 Lesser Black Backed Gulls N. A few Razorbills were displaying on the sea below Cullernose cliffs and the first Kittiwakes were back on the sea.

Razorbills displaying.

After a wander around Craster seeing only 9 Purple Sandpipers of note, we arrived back at my car for tea and sausage rolls before moving back down the coast for a short seawatch off Howick. At this time of year seawatching is usually slow but we had things like wildfowl or maybe a Sandwich Tern newly back in the county, in mind.

We had 8 Red throated Divers N, 12 Common Scoter N, 4 Dunlin ( another new patch tick), a few Gannets and Kittiwakes, 1 Shelduck N, 2 Lesser black backed Gulls N and a Harbour Porpoise. More intriguing though, I picked up a flock of tiny dots miles offshore towards the horizon that looked a bit like Lapwings at that range. It was clear they were coming in off so I stayed with them to confirm. When they finally came within reasonable range, I could see it was a group of 31 Jackdaws! What on earth were Jacks doing miles out to sea? That's a first for me, migrating Jackdaws... 

Migrating Jackdaws out at sea.

Low right, adult Lesser black back.

2 of 9 Purple Sandpipers

So not a bad morning out, a good end to a good week. The moth trap has been active too since Friday so here are a few of the moths caught -

Acleris literana

March Moth

Oak Beauty 

Red Chestnut

Twin spotted Quaker, orange spotted form.

Pine Beauty,

 

    

The Weekend

 What a glorious weekend that was. Lovely sunny days and calm with it, but despite the conditions, nothing new was found for the 5kmr patch.

On Friday, a pair of Collared Doves below my feeders then displaying around the village were noteworthy in a local patch context. These are the first I've had on the deck this year. It is much much easier to see a Barn Owl, Fulmar, Kittiwakes etc here than Collared Dove. Imagine then, when numbers increased to 3 birds on Saturday. I was well chuffed! 

As the weather was nice, Saturday was spent gardening and keeping an eye on the sky overhead. From here I was lucky enough to get in on the Whooper Swan passage that has been a feature over Northern England over the past couple of days. The first flock was over 100 birds in a string, moving along the coast path, followed a bit later by 50 birds. Not the big numbers seen in some places but 150 Whoopers from the garden cant be bad.

While pottering, my first butterfly, a Small Tortoiseshell, was seen and a Tree Bumblebee too.

Sunday morning was spent along at Boulmer. For the second weekend in a row, no new birds were noted but we did dip out on Snow Bunting and Sandwich Tern. They should be added during the year so no real concerns here.

Boulmer Village and haven from the south.

From Seaton Point in the South to Longhoughton Steel in the North we had 19 Bar tailed Godwits,  3 Grey Plover, 27 Sanderling, 6 Ringed Plover, 50 Dunlin, 42,14 and 2 Whooper Swans N, 9 Shelduck, 4 Teal, 2 Common Scoter, 1 Red throated Diver, a pair of Red breasted Merganser, a Barn Owl and 3 Stonechat.

Whooper Swans on passage.

 

Back home, 2 pairs of Grey Partridge were in the back field.

The weather is going to deteriorate this week so in might be a while before there are any local hirundines, despite two Swallows and a few Sand Martins in the county yesterday.

 

Winter is leaving....

On my way to work this morning as I crossed a bridge known as the Dry Arch, a bird flushed from the roadside and flew towards the car. All I saw was a broad pale band on the end of the tail and knew instantly what it was. I screeched into a worn laybye and looked back, with no bins or camera, to find a lone Waxwing hopping about on the verge. What on earth it was doing there fails me, but, in headless chicken mode I thought, get home for the camera. I drove back through the arch to the Howick Hall main entrance then thought better of it, I would be massively late for work, so I turned around again but this time the bird was no where to be seen? Maybe on Wednesday when I'm off...

In a winter when they have reverted back to normality after a good few years of influx, I never thought I would get one on the patch, but this one was inside the boundary by about 10 metres!

A recycled Waxwing photo from a few years ago, its been on here before, but no camera this morning.

On the return from work journey at 6pm I passed a field at Warkworth containing 120 Whooper Swans where yesterday there were only 23, so I fancied they might be on the move. Nearer home I got my eye on a flock heading north, containing about 60 birds, just outside my patch. I put my foot down hoping to get them looking back from home, but I was too late.

Inspired, I set off with Bunty in the dusk over the back field. Nothing was seen other than 2 Goldcrests in the hedge but no 'whooping' swans. We headed back. Just as we approached home, there was the distinctive bugling coming from the east. Manoeuvring into a better position I waited until 90-100 Whooper Swans flew north along the coast and out of sight at Craster. Lovely.

Not a bad non birding day then :)

101. Waxwing
102. Whooper Swan

Sunday morning - Coquet Estuary.

Nine Whooper Swans, only 1 juvenile.

The weather was quite inclement this morning with a strong westerly wind and a few squally showers coming through. We had a trip to the Coquet Estuary, checking out Amble Harbour to Warkworth Beach car park. As could be expected in this weather, it was generally quiet, but a few things of interest were seen.

A party of 9 Whooper Swans arrived from the east to settle on the river below Warkworth weir for  a spell before heading off further south.  Nearby along at the Marina, a nice drake Scaup, a female Common Scoter and a winter plumaged Great crested Grebe swan around beside the boats.

There were plenty of Wigeon, Teal and common waders in wintering areas too.

Up in the scrub, only a few Blackbirds, Song Thrushes and Robins, with a male Stonechat gave cause to lift the bins...

As the days grow ever shorter, its easy to pine for spring or summer or easterlies or northerlies or whatever, but it pays to appreciate just what we have, every time we get out there, its all fantastic!  

Scaup at distance with a Wigeon.

Herring Gull fly by...

Warkworth...

This morning dawned nice and clear with a thick white frost over the car. I collected JWR from home and we headed down to Warkworth to check out the Coquet Estuary for a change.

The tide was full on arrival so we took our time strolling down the north side, checking the newly created pools near the caravan park. The floods had good numbers of Teal, Wigeon and Redshank plus a few Meadow Pipits and Reed Buntings.

The light was excellent so I took this panorama shot on my phone to show the scene -

This is the area we used to catch a few Snipe for ringing a some years back. The marsh and phragmites area look excellent now, and , being set back a hundred metres from the east coast, must surely pay dividends to anyone who regularly checks the area during passage periods. During our time of regular visits we managed Red backed and Great Grey Shrikes, Yellow browed Warbler, Black Redstart, American Wigeon, Long billed Dowitcher etc.

Now, I think it scarcely gets a glance.

Back to today, we covered the whole length down to the pier. There was a single Snow Bunting on the beach at the pier base, 6 Black tailed and 1 Bar tailed Godwit, many other waders including Knot, Dunlin, Redshank, Turnstone, Grey Plover, Lapwing and Ringed Plover. Two Buzzards squabbled overhead while a Sparrowhawk took a Redshank from right in front of us.

We then moved over the road side of the estuary where more wildfowl had gathered including 15 newly arrived Whooper Swans. Several skeins of Pink footed Geese flew south.

 As we left, the sky began to cloud over and the temperature began to drop...

Winter is knocking...