Anyone think of a headline about a Bittern?.....

Saturday was chilly but bright, so Jane, Peggy and I took a drive west over to Harwood Forest for a walk. Little Peggy is very timid of loud noises so our coastal bird scarers have her a nervous wreck in minutes.

Harwood is very remote and is generally silent and free from traffic or industrial noises so seemed ideal for an afternoon walk. Only the usual pine forest species were active with Crossbills, Siskins and Coal Tits, Sparrowhawk and Great spotted Woodpecker plus 3 Roe Deer to break the monotony.

Sunday was bitterly cold, dry and breezy. The kind of wind that chilled the bones within minutes of exposure. The beginnings of this 'Beast from the East' had John and me seeking shelter where ever it could be found. Once out of the wind, the day wasn't too bad at all.... 

A short scan of the Coquet Estuary from Amble Marina seemed a little quiet, with 29 Whooper Swans N being the highlight.

Down at Druridge Bay Country Park, we scanned the lake for wildfowl. This used to be the county's premier site for Smew 20 years ago but not these days. Maybe the cold on the continent will drive a 'white nun' across the North Sea. Its years since Ive seen one here.

At the boat launch, this darvic ringed Black headed Gull has wintered here from Norway for the last 5 years. On the water, 5 Red breasted Merganser and a Pochard were the best, while down at the feeding station 10 Bullfinches were cleaning up the last of the feed.

The area was quite busy with dog walkers so we drove around to East Chevington and walked up to the L shaped hide to get out of the wind. These steel structures are cold in July, but at least they keep the wind chill off.

From here, 3 Otters cavorted at the south end of the pool for a while and on the lake, 32+ Goldeneye had a lone Long tailed Duck for company.

After a short wait John called me to look north, where a Bittern had jumped from the reeds and was flying along the north shore before dropping back into the phragmites at the NW corner. 

Distant Otters...

Distant Bittern....

 So what started as a bit of an ordinary day didnt turn out badly after all....

In the woods....

On Sunday I met John at Homebase at 7.30am when we headed south to Morpeth before crossing over west via Elsdon and back to Alnwick by Rothbury and Alnwick Moor.

The day was calm and frosty, very pleasant indeed.

First stop was at Abbey Mill where two Marsh Tits were calling and flitting around near the bridge layby. Its not so long ago you could bump into Marsh Tits in any wooded areas such as Howick, Warkworth, Bothal, Morpeth etc but now they are very scarce indeed, meriting almost twitchable status. These are my first for a couple or three years now.

From here, a short walk to the Hornbeam row found a pair of Hawfinches, the male in full song. It seems that there are very few keys left on these particular trees for them to feed on so maybe they've dispersed further.

Hawfinch pair, him on the left.

A quick check of the River Wansbeck near the car park had a brace of Dippers sitting about 2 feet apart, back to back in a territorial border dispute.

A successful start then.

We decided to head inland to Harwood Forest and old stamping ground of mine. I used to come here every Saturday morning walking the dog, for several years back in the day, where Long eared Owl, Hen Harrier, Gos, Great Grey Shrike, Two barred Crossbill and Water Rail [?] were noteworthy.

No such goodies today on offer but we had a good walk for a few miles around the clear felled conifer blocks, seeing only Crossbills really. Maybe 30+?  but this did include a nice family party with well fledged young being fed.

A couple of Red Grouse chased around the moor, but then it was time for a scenic route home.

 

Crossbills.

We had a brief stop to check out a site near Elsdon for a visit in summer for inverts, flowers etc.

Today it looked like this...

It might be in interesting place in June....

Gold and some Barnacles....

Winter Aconites and Snowdrops at Denwick Curch.

On Sunday morning John and I headed North towards Lindsifarne.

First stop was Stag Rocks to scour the sea for sea duck, grebes, divers etc. We had exactly - nothing. No birds on the sea except one Red breasted Merganser and I missed that. A few smart sum plum Herring Gulls flew N along the rock edges.

Down at Budle Bay, the wintering Spotted Redshank was calling hard as it ran around the nearest creek. A lot of birds were on the bay, with 400+ Brent Geese, 142+ Shelduck, many Wigeon, 6 Shoveler, 18 Ringed Plover, hundreds of Teal and a tightly packed roost of 150+ Redshank .

I fancied a walk so we moved up to Elwick and wandered across a few fields then along the bund on the S edge of Fenham Flats. This is a magnificent, huge , open area with thousands of feeding birds, it was difficult to know where to start.  There were 600+ Barnacle Geese inc 2 white ones, 75+ Pink footed Geese, 600+ Brent Geese, 340+ Shelduck, 84+ Grey Plover, uncountable Wigeon, Mallard and Teal, 1 Little Egret, 6 Meadow Pipit, 1 Buzzard, 1 Sparrowhawk, 1 Fox, 2 Roe Deer and a Hare.

Prize though must go to the swirling mass of barking Barnacles as they flew over head. Magnificent!

On the way back home, Denwick Church yard Winter Aconites were such a spectacle I just had to turn the car around and stop for a photo or two. I cant resist these every winter, a fore runner of spring unsprung....

The Lindisfarne Elwick Barnacle Geese were superb...

Going for 'The'.

What does that mean? I think i have used this on here before, so if you are seeing a repeat, please forgive me, its my age...

Well, a lot of birders spend their whole birding time touring around seeing the birds that other people have found. I'm not knocking it, each to their own and indeed it can be quite fun sometimes but more often than not we only tend to 'go for the' when 'the' is a good bird for us, a rarity.

The birders I refer to above go for 'the' Slav Grebe or 'the' Little Stint, or whatever, birds that can be found yourself with a little bit of research and the imagination to check suitable locations. I'm not too bothered about doing that ( but have still done it in the past and will no doubt in the future too, if I happen to be in the area).

In the past I have had people say to me 'Have you been for 'the' Red necked Grebe?' when in actual fact, I am wondering which Red necked Grebe they were on about?

Today we thought we would try and make a change for us, and go for 'the'.

In this case it was 'the' American Wigeon, 'the' Great Grey Shrike and 'the' Hawfinches. All birds that have lingered for a while and have attracted a steady number of visitors over the winter. Mornings like these can mean that very little else is added to the notebook as a lot of time is spent sitting in the car.

First stop this morning was down the far south west of Northumberland to look for Black Grouse. Despite checking a lot of suitable areas on a beautiful frosty morning, they remained elusive. Still, a ringtail Hen Harrier mobbed by a crow as it flew past the car was a nice diversion.

Roadside Red Grouse telling us 'go back' ' go back' were nice as were flocks of early returning Lapwing and Golden Plover in the fields.

Next stop was Grindon Lough for 'the' American Wigeon. Despite hunting through hundreds of Wigeon and Teal, we failed miserably to find our target. A drake Pintail and 20 Goldeneye were the best on offer.

Time to track north where the next stop was to see the returning Great Grey Shrike at Prestwick Carr. If you check my blog for last Feb you will see that I made a similar trip last year. These birds scarcely count as 'the's due to their rarity and are really actually worth twitching.

In the sun it looked lovely sitting atop choice hawthorns in a marshy field. A bit too far away really but some nice views in the scope were had.

Above - Great Grey Shrike at Prestwick Carr.

   All too soon our time was up and we had to call it a day. We never did get 'the' Hawfinches....  maybe next time...

White- winged Intuition...

My drive to work takes me along some nice scenic Northumberland coastal spots. In particular I enjoy the short stretch between Warkworth and Amble where the road accompanies the River Coquet on its final leg to the sea. There are always birds to see, even from the moving car, a heron on the weir, or an egret fishing in the shallows maybe. Sometimes a few Black tailed Godwits are feeding right beside the road making an id possible from almost periphery views.

On Tuesday it was such a loose drive-by scan that made me notice quite a good gathering of Great black backed Gulls on the increasingly exposed sand bar as the tide receded. I wondered if I had time to pull in to the car park for a quick look? Now this is a very short bit of road for thinking so I was almost on top of the junction when I swung into the car park almost without braking.

Right, I have 10 mins to check the flock, so scope out, a 50mtr brisk walk to the watersports centre to view the estuary and start at the far left. GBB after GBB all nice and contrasty in the morning light, then after about 50 or so, bingo, a bright white apparition looms into view, floating down the old water channel at the back, a huge 3rd winter Glaucous Gull. It, has a long thick bill and a big head so is probably a male, and it slowly drifted onto the sand bar where it sat idly gazing around, having a drink and a bit of a preen. I watched it for a few minutes then continued my once only scan to the right just in case.

Nothing new jumped out so, after one more look at the Glauc, I packed up and left for work, smug in the knowledge that my intuition had been correct. With all the new Great black backs I would have been disappointed if there hadn't been a Glauc in there!

I had a more typical juv Glaucous Gull here just before New Year, but this almost white bird was very different. These days it is very uncommon to see anything other than juv Glaucous on our coast and I cant remember the last adult I've seen here?  Anyway, it is always pleasing to get a prile of white wingers before the end of January ( Med Gull, Iceland and Glaucous) . Lets hope one of the rarer ones might follow before spring...

[Note - I thought this bird was a 2nd winter but some hunting on the Internet shows that its pale iris makes it a 3rd winter.]

  

Snow...

This is a nondescript post really. I have been on holiday since last Thursday, but not been very far as I have been keeping our new arrival happy and getting her used to life in darkest Northumberland. Meet Peggy, a Patterdale x Lakeland cross, 4 yrs old ( or so they tell us) and a refugee for Darlington Dogs Trust. Peggy only arrived at the trust a week past Saturday and we collected her on the following Tuesday. She is a timid little thing and was in need of a loving home, so as we had a terrier sized hole to fill, we thought she would fit the bill...

Other than that, the other highlight of the week, was this -

... Snow! We haven't had lying snow here for at least 3 years, so this was a bit of a novelty. We do get snow a short way inland, but on the coast it is a real rarity these days.

This morning's walk uncovered a very small hard weather movement of 8 Fieldfares, 90 Golden Plover, 1 Mistle Thrush and 3 Meadow Pipits all S along our coast path. This afternoon a short look along the village lane had a nice flock of birds in a small, low-yield, corn crop stubble - 250+ Linnets, 32+ Stock Doves and a male Sparrowhawk.

But, its back to work tomorrow and Friday where the day is spent wishing for lighter nights...

Fowl play...

Out this morning down the coast with JWR. We checked Amble braid and harbour and Hadston T junction with little to show.

A flock of 200+ Pink footed Geese next to the road at Hauxley held a single neck collared bird - Silver or Grey UBB. Don't those collars look bloody awful, but they are very effective, being easy to see and then to read with the scope.

A stop at Widdrington Moor Lake was quite productive with a large female Peregrine sitting on the same rock as a bird we watched last year at this time. She looked around casually, probably deciding whether to try duck or lapwing. Also here were 2 Great Northern Divers at the eastern end of the lake, a drake Pochard, seemingly rarer than the divers lately, 3 Goldeneye and a few commoner ducks.

Breakfast was calling so a detour via the Drift Cafe for a full Veggie offering was a fine set up for the rest of the morning.

We moved back up to Druridge Budge Fields to look for Water Pipit. On route a female Merlin dashed through Bell's Links, S.

In the freezing cold steel observation screen at the Budge Fields there were good numbers of wildfowl to scan through - 100+ Teal, 400+ Wigeon, Mallard, 10+ Shoveler and a nice drake Pintail.
While counting Teal, on the hunt for a Green-winged, all of the Wigeon flew off the bank into some water between dense juncus. I put the scope on them and was straight onto an 'American' Wigeon. It was swimming hard left toward vegetation, so I got John onto it, then it vanished into the cover.

A further half an hour plus passed by without a sign then all birds flew out again. This time John picked it up at half the distance. This time we could get a better view in a well lit position. As it fed, it was soon obvious that all was not quite right here. The bird's supposedly green eye band was actually a nice bronze colour mainly at the back. The body was a nice brick pink but had a lot more grey wash on it than it should too. I wondered if it could be a trick of the light as it looked good in the first view.

I discussed it with others in the screen, in particular Jonathan and Tariq Farooqi who were now also of the opinion our bird was showing a few too many Eurasian Wigeon features to be a pure American Wigeon. We took a phone scoped shot or two that confirmed our fears. Our new yank was indeed only half way there. An American Wigeon hybrid. Oh well you cant win them all, it was an education and it did get the adrenaline flowing when first seen....

Check here, in particular the Cley bird in 2015.....

Also here were 1 or even 2 Water Pipits and 1 Little Egret.

A phone scoped effort and below, my notebook. Sketched on site coloured back home.

A sunny day.

And what better than to head down to the coast before first light to see what is around as the sun rises.
I met John at Boulmer first thing. As we scanned from the car park there were plenty of birds to see - a Pale Bellied Brent Goose swam with a couple of Shelducks and there were loads of gulls milling about. We hoped that last week's Ros's might drop by, but it didnt, nor did the highly unseasonal Whimbrel seen the other day by Ben on the pool behind the pub ( Bull's Mere).

As the sun rose, good numbers of divers began moving around and soon we had logged 43 Red throated Divers N and 3 Great Northerns in with them. As they headed north, a steady movement of Pink footed Geese went south totalling 180. Also moving at sea were 4 Goldeneye, 6 Common and 1 Velvet Scoter with good numbers of auks.

In the flooded field were 70+ Lapwing and more gulls.

We wandered along to Longhoughton Steel where the newly exposed shore held lots of waders including 18+ Bar tailed Godwit, 251 Curlew, 600+ Golden and 5 Grey Plover, 13 Purple Sandpipers, 20+ Turnstone, 17 Knot, 100+ Dunlin and 66 Sanderling.

A male Peregrine almost caught a Lapwing over the sea but lacked the stamina.

A few ducks were around including 30 Wigeon, 40 Mallard and 10 Shelduck but 3 Gadwall in-off were more surprising.

The only passerines noted were 2 Stonechat, 10 Pied Wagtail, 2 Rock Pipit and about 6 Song Thrushes.

After tea and a scone we had a look up to High Newton where we walked across the fields to Football Hole and back by the Tin Church.

A local told us he had seen two Short eared Owls here this morning but we couldnt find them. Apart from the lovely sunshine and sea views the best we had were 24 Goldeneye, 100+ Golden Plover, 4+ Yellowhammer, Grey Partridge, Treecreeper and Goldcrest.

The moon rose over the arctic...

Picture it. It is 31st December 2017, New Year's Eve, 3.30pm.

Up here, it gets dark early at this time of year, around 4.15pm.

All birders across the land are posting a hootenanny of the years birding highlights across all social media platforms. There are pictures of Rock Thrushes, Yellow Warbler, Orphean Warbler and Needletail. Everyone tucked up at home awaiting the nights revelry, reviewing the best birds 2017 had to offer.

All I had to do was discuss the splitting of Isabelline Shrike into god knows what on our county WhatsApp group, when I saw a cryptic message appear from Tom Cadwallender saying 'I'll be there soon Ben' or something similar. I shrugged and thought Tom had posted on the wrong channel, then carried on. 

I automatically flicked to our 'Rare Birds' channel and was floored. While we were sitting in front of a warm fire, Ben Steele was out in a gale watching gulls roosting on the rocks at Longhoughton Steel near Boulmer. A good job he was too, because in with hundreds of Black headed, Common and Herring Gulls was a little snowflake from the far North, a Ross's Gull, the first to visit our shores since 2014! [ well, after Ross Ahmed's untwitchable sighting at Lindisfarne the other week, indeed this might be the same bird]

I raced along in the car, a 10 minute journey from home, then ran the half a mile north to the spot. When I say 'ran' it was more like jogged, strode, choked, gagged, coughed and walked.

On arrival Ben, Tom and Mu had taken their eyes off the ball and our arctic rose was concealed in a mass of white sleeping birds.  The large full moon rose over the sea and I was getting a bit fidgety. A few others arrived then Farooqi jnr called 'There it is, flying'. No need to panic as it only flew 10 yards then dropped into the pack. At least we now had its location.

In the ever dimming light of 2017, the 7 lucky birders who either live close enough or were birding near enough to Boulmer managed views that varied from ok and reasonable to down right shocking, but when its a new bird for my Northumberland  list, I cared little... this enigma of the ice is one of my very favourite birds, even giving the outstanding Wryneck a run for its money. So my third ever Ross's Gull and a welcome county grip-back.
Unfortunately it was gone by dawn on New Years Day and not seen again... but...

remember people, it is still out there somewhere...

Sunset on New Years Day and some disappointed twitchers, 24 hours too late.

Ross's Gull, adult winter, Longhoughton Steel, Boulmer.

Bunty.

You might think I have just abandoned the blog over recent weeks, but I just wasn't that interested.

Christmas has been a dreadful time for us.

Back in September our lovely Bunty had a small lesion on her eyebrow. After several visits to the vet and more lesions cropping up on her, some biopsies taken in November found that she had lymphoma, a type of cancer, and there was nothing we could do.

After battling with her illness for several weeks, our little raggy dog finally succumbed on 23rd December. We are now finding recovery very difficult indeed. She was our life. Even writing this is proving to be a task.

Anyway, I will leave you with a few pictures of how we remember her, as a firey little bundle of laughs. The next doggy to live here has some big shoes to fill...

Another type of Christmas Red breast....

On Sunday, a,near adult or adult Red breasted Goose turned up with the Pinkfeet in Druridge Bay, near Hemscott Hill Farm.

I assumed it to be the bird that has frequented Big Waters, near Newcastle, since the autumn, but, now that it 'looked wild' I thought I would have a look, for insurance purposes you understand.

The bird at Big Waters was originally with some Greylags, and looked nothing like being wild, so I didnt bother with it. As Sunday progressed, word came out that this might be a different individual. Also fanning the flame, apparently there was a dark bellied Brent and a Barnacle Goose with it, so it could end up being accepted by BBRC. Mmmm...

Monday morning before work was lovely and sunny with a light ground frost as I pulled into the Drift Cafe car park, at Cresswell. The Red breasted Goose was feeding only a hundred yards away behind the cafe, with some vigilant Pinkfeet and, sure enough, a Dark bellied Brent and a Barnacle Goose were near by.

I set up my scope to grill the bird. What a real stunner it was, a harlequin, bedecked in black, white and chestnut, shorter than the Pinkfeet with a smaller bill too. Possibly one of the smartest of the whole wildfowl crew.

Then the bomb dropped. As it wandered around, I noticed it was wearing the trappings of captivity in the form of a blue/grey closed ring on its left leg. It was just a fine band, and on a black leg it would be impossible to see at range, but here, at scope filling range, there was no doubt, our bird was a fence -hopper!

Oh well, never mind, one day we might get a real one...

Freezing Nutcrackers.

This morning was a proper cold day, the likes of which we have not seen for at least 3 years and possibly a lot longer. It was -6 degrees until 9am, and this morning was no warmer than -1 by lunchtime. At least it was sunny and calm, a grand winters day to be out.

Our first stop was East Chevington where 80% of the north pool was frozen solid. In the open areas, only kept ice free by the wildfowl swimming around were 34 Whooper Swans, 49 Goldeneye, 2 Long tailed Ducks, the Great Northern Diver, 11 Little Grebes and a lot of other assorted commoner wildfowl. Two Water Rails squealed from the reeds closest to us.

Down to the burn mouth where 35 Twite, 8+ Pied Wagtail , 10 Sanderling fed on the beach and a Stonechat was nearby. 4 Bullfinches fed in a lovely frosty, berry laden sea buckthorn.

Sea Buckthorn

Time to get warmed up, so it was off to the Drift Cafe at Cresswell for breakfast.

On the way, a field at Druridge was full of Golden Plover near the road, They looked really smart in the frosted grass but the camera was in the car boot...

As we drove past Cresswell pond, it was frozen solid with all of the wildfowl looking lost standing on the ice. Teal appeared the most abundant with maybe 200+ birds present.

After a grand, full veggie breakfast we headed off to Morpeth for a look at the Hawfinches at Abbey Mill.

We saw one bird as soon as we arrived sitting atop a lone bare tree looking like a giant amongst a flock of about 30 Siskins.

Above - Hawfinches.

For the next hour we were treated to lots of brief views of both male and female birds flying and perched. We must have seen at least half a dozen though only 3 together at once. The metallic 'Chiznk' calls were heard as they took flight over the trees. One female showed very well munching on the hornbeam keys for about 15 minutes.

It is a pleasure to meet up with these birds again after such a long absence. Those of us long enough in the tooth can remember that Hawfinch was an annual delectation at places like Hulne Park, Hexham and Wallington Hall back in the 80s/ early 90s with flocks up to 35 strong at Hulne where I've seen them courtship feeding in yews down to only a few feet. I have been lucky enough to see them at those sites just mentioned but also at Bothal, Sandhoe, Stobswood and Howick over the years. It would be great if that could happen again, they're fantastic birds.

Jack gets Gold!

This morning I met John at Homebase with a plan to go looking for Crossbills at Thrunton Woods.

With a few Parrot Crossbills further south, you never know. Its donkeys years since I last saw a Parrot Crossbill, but that wasn't about to change today. We managed about 15 Common Crossbill in pairs with singing males on territory and very little else other than wet feet as I'd forgotton my wellies.

Back home, and the sun shobe nicely this afternoon so I thought I'd try a photo of the Coal Tits coming to my feeders. As I loitered, our friendly local racing pigeon ( Pigeon John) was on high alert. All of a sudden he erupted into flight and off and warp speed. Then the village jackdaws were all up, calling so I stepped out and scanned upwards, only to see, a little jack Merlin going like a rocket towards our feeders. His speed flushed everything for a hundred yards into the air.

He locked on to a small passerine from the feeder flock as they took to the air and chased it over the back field. The Merlin was loop the looping over our house so fast I couldn't even find it in my view finder let alone take a picture. As it chased the hapless passerine out over our back field into the open it made a speedy attack only for the prey to side swerve out of the way. Merlin towered high above then dropped like an arrow, just missing again. This happened again and seemed to tire out the target. Then finally Merlin came in at a million miles per hour and grabbed our bird from behind. It was over.

No Christmas meal for this little fellow.

The Merlin glided fast and low towards the fence line and landed to eat his meal.

I scrabbled for the scope and good views were had of the Merlin and one of our Goldfinches on the post. One of our neighbours who is interested in wildlife happened to be passing, so I was pleased to get him a good scope view of the lovely slatey blue Merlin on the post. Soon a Magpie flushed jack another couple of hundred yards up the fence where he totally cleared off his meal then sat scanning around the scene. He was in view for over half an hour. 

What a bird!

The only shot I got, but you can just see the goldfinches face hanging below...