Boobycarnage!

 This morning before leaving work to go into the office a local WhatsApp message popped up - 

Brown Booby, North, Long Nab, Scarborough.

This is a message that causes a basic life pause, just for a second while the info is mentally processed.

Then its reported very close in past Cowbar in Cleveland.

Clearly this is the bird that has spent a couple of days off Filey, so, what chance that it is actually on the move and not just circling around in the sea haa looking for a nice feeding frenzy to join in with?

Just in case, you understand, not that the chance would arise, and yes I am remaining cool, it might be worth checking timescales.

Long Nab to Cowbar took 1 hr 15 mins for 36 miles.

Cowbar to Newbiggin in Northumberland, only 2 miles from my office is 75 miles. By counting fingers and toes I can deduce from this that the tropical Sula could be due in around 11.30am.  

No, I'm still not too bothered, chances are it will be back in Filey before I get in to work.

Fast forward and I am in the office at 10am and logged on.

A message banner pops up on my phone. Brown Booby past Hartlepool Headland, very close in...

Shit is getting real, this could be on the cards.

A humorous and hasty conversation with colleagues and manager about 'weh hey' Brown Boobies ( insert emoji) and I cant hold on much longer, I'm off to Newbiggin arriving at 10.50am.

Already there are 20 people eagerly concentrating and grilling the rolling calm waves into the mist. The good thing about these type of twitches is that we can meet up with good friends we don't see so often, so its always going to be a win. 

The tension is palpable. Each juv Gannet gets a sigh as it passes. The concentration is broken briefly when a Black Guillemot flies through my scope and on to several peoples county and year lists.

'Cullercoats Brown Booby North towards Seaton Sluice'.

That is almost in sight! Come on...

After a few minutes there begins to be some coughing and fidgeting in the now 35 strong crowd. The rumour mill is grinding. Word has it, that it has not been seen at Whitburn a seawatching mecca. But there are close in immature Gannets. Then one observer says that the sighting at Hartlepool was believed by some ( always a good one) to be a Gannet too.

The observers at Cullercoats chip in that it might not have been a Booby?

It turns out there are NO confirmed sightings North of Cleveland.

Ah well its been a pleasant two hours and I am back in the office at 12.45.

Things should have ended there, but no, life is never that easy, is it.

Gary Woodburn calls. After all the earlier confusion, conspiracy and string, the real deal has just gone past Whitburn! Could you believe it. Right, one last ditch attempt sees me back at Newbiggin for 1pm but I need to be back by 2pm.

I needn't have worried, as I got out of the car Gary messaged to say 'Stand Down, the Whitburn sighting is erroneous too!'

Whats going on here. Looks like another young Gannet is responsible.

While standing discussing this with those who about turned back to the point, we had a close in very dark Balearic Shearwater, a Bonxie and a few Manx and Red throated Divers.

Balearic Shearwater courtesy of Paul Weddle.

30 minutes passes, time to call it a day. While there had been several Boobies this morning there was no Brown Booby for Stew.

As we left, a photo came through of the cracking adult Sula leucogaster now loitering off South Gare. Looks like it has never passed Cleveland after all...

  

Of his Time....

 I'm not sure what is going on lately, but things have been a little bit ... well  'meh' or 'pfff' so to speak.

Motivation has been as elusive as a good bird around these parts, but here are a few bits and pieces from over the last two weeks or so.

Maybe my highlight of this period is finally getting around to reading all of Steve Gale's short 1970's memoir of his early birding experiences 'Of my Time'. Steve is a great writer and his diary had me nostalgic for those better times. The anecdotes about his formative birding years around London, Dungeness and the south of England, had me gripped!  

Only one grumble, Steve  - get on with the 80s!

Hedgely North Pit despite looking good for waders on all of the pits, we heard that the farmer drives around the very margins on a Quad each morning to check his stock, thus chasing off any grounded birds!

On Sunday 27th we headed inland to Hedgely and Branton Pits to avoid Bank Holiday on the coast. While we had a pleasant wander in good weather there was little of note other than 9 Little Grebes, 300+ Lesser black backed Gulls inc 2 'intermedius' types with very dark upperparts and long wings. This big flock of gulls were put up by two Marsh Harriers, a female and an imm male who soon drifted off south. Single Greenshank, Wigeon and Kingfisher, a few families of Redpolls, 2 Ravens and a Spotted Flycatcher were the best of the rest. Until I got back home that is....

Mid afternoon I was on our drive when the local Swallows began mobbing something. A scan over the back field revealed a small, spiky, Hobby casually flying away from the hirundines off to the North. Through the bins it looked very grey and was likely an adult or near adult male. Its long swept back wings really did match the 'swift-like' cliche.  

On Bank Holiday Monday we mostly remained around the garden and village where 2 Ravens in the back field, an adult Mediterranean Gull in plough at Cullernose and 2 garden Holly Blues were the highlight, narrowly taking the prize from an off patch Peregrine over the road on our way home from Sainsbury's.

A mid week seawatch for an hour had 26 Manx Shearwaters, 54 Shag, 3 Sandwich, 3 Common and 1 Arctic Tern, 1 Common Scoter and 400 Gannets per hour all N. 

As the forecast was for warm sunshine yesterday we went on a dragonfly search inland at Corby Woods. The first two hours were cool and quiet with not much seen other than for a dozen Crossbills.

flitting around.

Once the sun came out so did the insects with 4+ Common Hawker, 4+ Black Darter and a dozen Emerald Damselflies. The the pine plantation were full of post breeding bird flocks with many Chiffchaffs and Goldcrests seasoned with 1 Treecreeper, 1+ Redstart and 2+ Spotted Flycatchers.

Larch Ladybird, Lesser Willow Sawfly larvae and Spotted Toughshank fungi were all new species for me. Hopefully the autumn will have a word with itself and kick in soon...

Black Darter

Common Hawker

Larch Ladybird

Migrant Moths

 Northumberland and VC68 in particular (North Northumberland) aren't exactly renowned for migrant lepidoptera. We get a few but nothing like what can occur in the south . Apart from Silver Ys and Diamond backs most other things cause a raised eyebrow at least.

Last autumn was quite good in my garden for migrants with a few good arrivals, in particular Scarce Bordered Straw, Hummingbird Hawkmoths and Beet Moth. Now that we are three parts through August we are starting to see a few more migrants arriving here, so hopes are high that it might become another good season.

Last night a nice arrival came with 25 Silver Y and single Vestal, only my second in 14 years, Rusty dot Pearl, Rush Veneer and Diamond back. Earlier in the month my first Great Brocade for 5 years was a surprise too. Here's to more of the same, but there is one mystery.  Where have the Dark Swordgrass gone? We used to get them most autumns with good years like 2011 when I had 13 over the year. Its almost 2 years since the last in my garden...

Diamond backed Moth

Rush Veneer

Rusty Dot Pearl

Silver Y

Vestal

Great Brocade

 

  

Wader Time.

 Yesterdays post is a bit out of kilter date wise. I meant to post it on Saturday but forgot, so read that as Saturdays news.

This one is for Sunday.

The morning was warm and pleasantly sunny with a light SW breeze. I was along at Boulmer for 7am to meet John to have a look for the White rumped Sandpiper found on Saturday by Mark Eaton. 

On arrival the tide was high leaving little room for the birds but a scan along towards Seaton Point showed there to be masses of gulls and waders gathered . The bird has been favouring north of the village but that can wait until the tide starts to fall back opening feeding areas there. For the minute we wandered along the shore to check out the feeding frenzy.

There was no White rumped but that didnt detract from the scene as there was a nice Little Stint, 1 juv Curlew Sandpiper, 1 Ruff, 1 Common Sandpiper, 40+ Ringed Plover and 30+ Dunlin with good numbers of Redshanks, Sanderling and Turnstones . While we watched a Yellow Wagtail flew S along the coast.

It was quite sad to see a dead Porpoise on the tideline here. I often wonder if Dolphins are the suspects...

Deceased Harbour Porpoise.

 

Little Stint with other waders.

As the tide began to recede we walked back to the village where we soon picked out the White rumped Sandpiper from the masses of other feeding birds. It showed well and at times came quite close, but it was never still so the photos are poor and I couldnt get it steady enough for a video. It was a nice adult and a first for Boulmer taking the site wader list up to 39. What will 40 be? My money is on Spotted Sand...

Also here another 2 Little Stints, 1 Ruff, 4 Knot inc 2 in red summer plumage, 1 Bar tailed Godwit, 1 Whimbrel, 150+ Ringed Plover and 100+ Dunlin.

Adult White rumped Sandpiper.

White rumped Sandpiper, Boulmer

Boulmer was now filling up with visitors so it was time to bail out. Next stop the Aln Estuary. Apart from an Environment Agency Hovercraft racing up river and mud flats alike putting every creature for a kilometre square into the air there were a few waders to see.

3 Avocet, 47 Black tailed Godwit, 6 Knot, 2 Ruff, 1 Greenshank, 4 Dunlin and 7 Little Egrets.

Once the hovercraft with its engine like a Sea King helicopter had cleared the decks, we decided to call it a morning...

Stand aside bird life here comes a thunderbird at 30 mph into your feeding area.

Taking mud samples. There must be a less intrusive way than this surely.

All change...

 I smell change in the air? Or maybe its the stench of a dying social media platform due to the mismanagement of an egotistical madman? 

With Twitter (up yours Elon) being degraded faster than the NHS, there is the makings of a mass exodus of people I had previously enjoyed following. They have now left the building, as it were.  

It seems however, that there is a surprising benefit of this in that, coincidentally, some of these good folks are also top bloggers with the likes of Gavin Haig and Alastair Forsyth showing some renewed blogging vigour after the demise of Twitter accounts. Still hanging on there in the Twitterverse, formerly the most regular of bloggers, North Downs and Beyond big hitter,  Steve Gale, has also indicated a return to past form.   I wonder if there are other hitherto unknown bloggers out there ready to follow suite. We might even get more from our local stars like Ipin at Druridge and Alan Tilmouth. Its looking good .

Getting back to the job in hand, today I had hoped to be blogging about some tasty local patch birds after last nights stiff Easterly with heavy rain. In years gone by, a forecast like this below a big high over Scandinavia would surely have dropped in some birds to hunt through for things a bit more scarce.

Some observers will say that when recording natural history sightings, a nil count is just as important as a large number. If that is the case, today has been brilliant.

I got up shortly after first light and after coffee and breakfast headed out on foot for a walk along the coast path to see what goodies had been grounded. An hour and 15 minutes later I was back having seen exactly nothing. No Willow Warblers, Pied Flycatchers or Garden Warblers and certainly no icing on the top with a spare Wryneck, Barred Warbler or 'Icky' ( Icterine Warbler). The only things in the book were 2 Whimbrel N, 6 Swifts S, 3 Sand Martins over the village and a pair of Stonechats feeding a third brood.

When I posted this outcome on Twitter, responses said 'Pied Fly at Seaton Point according to Birdguides'. There had been a Garden Warbler there too and a handful of birds on Holy Island and down at St Mary's Island but that's not the point. That's more of a Shifting Baseline Syndrome. What should there have been? As mentioned above, 30 years ago, a forecast like this would have dropped in double figures of these commoner species and an odd individual of the rarer ones too. For example in 1995 early Sept an hour lunch break from work had 20+ Redstarts and 30+ Pied Flycatchers at Newbiggin. Another day in 2002 had a range of rarer and commoner species that would seem fanciful in today's times.

I hope I am wrong but I fear the days of having to hastily arrange a day off work to enjoy 'fall conditions' may be over...

My only patch Icterine warbler, Sept 2008.

August

 I'm being neglectful again. 14th August and no blog posts this month!

So, whats been going on over the past fortnight?

The month began with a bit more seawatching. Despite reasonable conditions it remained a bit underwhelming really for example, on 3rd an early hour had 3 Manx, 2 Arctic Skuas, 5 Roseate Terns, 13 Common Scoter and a Bonxie. The hundreds of Gannets and Kittiwakes gave a false impression.

Later that day, another afternoon hour was pretty much the same.

On the 6th another two watches , one for 2hrs from 6.40am had 6 Roseates, 2 Common, 6+ Arctic and 8+ Sandwich Terns, 1 Arctic Skua, 1, yes 1 Manx, 3 Puffin, 10 Common Scoter and the watch saviour a year tick when 3 summer plumaged Bar tailed Godwits flew N.  

This watch was accompanied by an influx of weed smoking, chav, mackerel anglers. Nice.

An hour after work on Wednesday 9th was a bit better with 124 Manx N , 5 Sooty Shearwaters N, 3 Arctic Skuas N, 1 Bonxie N, 4 Common Scoter N, 3+ Puffins N and a Whimbrel.

 Other than the seawatches, not much has been happening. A trickle of yellow Willow Warblers through the village and a lone Peregrine just offshore one morning were about it.

On the moth sugar table, nightly, up to 3 Old Lady have been feeding with a few Yellow Underwings, Dark Arches and Rustics. Interestingly I've found Old Lady twice last week on buddleia flowers after dark, not something I've seen before. Holly Blues are going strong in the garden alongside another 9 species in reasonable numbers. 

In the trap a few early autumn species kicking in - 

Dark Marbled Carpet

Grey Chi x 2

Pammene aurita, only my 2nd after one last year.

Pebble Prominent, well you have to...

Ypsolopha scabrella, not a common or even regular moth in my garden.

Xitter...

 I used to enjoy Twitter. Now that a billionaire Bond Villain has taken over, Twitter has gone the way of so many free birds and died the death. the blue bird is no more,and the site is now called 'X'. It has basically gone down the Xitter so to speak.

I've taken a few days out over this weekend and I'll see how it goes from there. It'll be a shame to drop it all together as I have enjoyed engaging with like minded people I've never met. Time will tell.

After the seawatching of a week ago abated my attention was drawn again to the garden moth trap.  Looking back I see Ive not mentioned it for a few weeks so here are some pics of what has been occurring...

Gold Spangle, always nice to catch. I get single figures each year. Not a rare moth in the county.

Large Twin Spot Carpet. Zero to Hero. No records prior to 2018 here, now I have 49 records of over 70 individuals.

Ash Pug.

Crambus perlella barely annual.

This moth, Dingy Footman has a more meteoric rise than the Large Twin spot Carpet. Still very scarce in the county as a whole but not here. No records before 2018 now its common with 33 individuals this month alone!

Still catching a few Garden Tigers.

Sand Dart is a scarce species in the county, this is my second this year.

Cream bordered Green Pea. An unbelievable first for Northumberland in my trap the other day, found nowhere near the north East of England.

Dark Spinach, just about annual here, scarce generally.

Yellow Tail. Used to be rare in the county but also on the move. 5 individuals in the garden since the first in 2019.

An upside down Brown China Mark. Not a rare moth but always adds some interest, especially when the prefer to hang upside down like this.

Brown Line Bright Eye. Used to be much commoner but only singles in 22 and so far in 23.

Burnished Brass a common bread and butter species but it was nice to get one feeding for a change.

Dingy Footman of the pale form. Only about 1 in 10 here look like this.

Least Yellow Underwing, used to be quite scarce but now a late summer regular.

The Old Lady rarely enters my trap so few records but as soon as the old fruit and sugar mix is out she loves it.

I believe this is Brown Plume, only caught the other day, a garden first.

Seawatching

 This post might seem a bit austere as there are no photos. The main reason for this is that yesterday it poured with rain most of the time we were out. 

With a NE breeze blowing we could only do one thing - seawatch. The first of the autumn. 

In situations like this a fishing brolly is a godsend so we carted the gear down the track to tuck in behind a ridge and watched from 0720 - 0920 before deciding the day was just about a write off...

Still, a few reasonable local patch birds made it into the notebook - 

Sooty Shearwater 1N always nice to get the season off with a July Sooty. 

Manx Shearwater 23 N

Roseate Tern 4ad 1 juv N

Arctic Tern 15 N

Common Tern 3 N

Sandwich Tern 20+ N

Puffin 25 N

Common Scoter 18 S 13 N

Goosander 4 on sea

Common Sandpiper 1

Golden Plover 50+ 

Lesser black backed Gulls 7 N 

Swift 1

The rain eased off by 3pm so when news of a Cory's Shearwater past Newbiggin it was time for a double shift. This time at Cullernose, no brolly required. Another 2 hours 3.35 - 5.35pm was not lucky with Cory's but was pretty much a copy of this morning with

Sooty Shearwater 1 N

Manx Shearwater 21 N

Roseate Tern 5 ads N

Arctic Skua 2 dark phase N

Puffin 8 N

Turnstone 25+ N

The wind is still quite brisk today so I might get an hour later on...

Arctic Skuas

 

Coming soon...

 Mid July here and its ages since we've done any proper birding. But, fear not dear reader, there are some northerly winds forecast for the weekend so the seasons seawatching will begin...

In the meantime its back to creepy crawlies, flappy things both day and night and green stuff to keep us entertained.

When you drill down and take notice of the little things, there are never any quiet days. Lifers tend to call by every week, or day if you are a more diligent observer.

Last week I was about to leave our village hall and realised I was trapped. The wheelchair thresh outside had split and sprung up keeping the door shut. So, not being one for finesse a big push with the shoulder knocked the thresh into next week and I made my escape. Then I noticed a tiny creature jumping about on the concrete ramp, having been disturbed.

It was a small jumping spider that was duly captured for some pics then released back to its place.

The images showed it to be Euophrys frontalis a scarce spider up here. The males are even smaller but more colourful with red 'goggles' and black and white 'gloves'...

Euophrys frontalis, female, only about 4mm long. A scarce spider up here and a first for me. 

A calm mild night last week seemed a good time to start sugaring in the garden. Results were pleasing and by 11.45pm there were 1 Old Lady, 2 LYU, 2 Dark Arches, 1 Light Arches, 1 Double Square Spot, 1 Common Rustic agg. Since then its been cold windy and raining so that activity is on hold.

There was a good flurry of activity on Peggy's morning walk last Friday. The calling Quail that has not been heard for 10 days was singing up towards the Hips Heugh on Thursday then on Friday it or another was down beside the village in the coast fields. As I scanned around for it ( yes I know) almost as surprising was a sharp whistle alerting me to a Kingfisher darting past me over dry grass fields and into the village. It had come from the shore and was likely heading in to the ditches just inland.

Then as we walked along a nice adult Mediterranean Gull still in summer plumage flew over with some Black headeds.  

Not much happened over the weekend other than decorating, so on Monday when the sun shone I took a cuppa into the garden at lunchtime. A few nice bees on the Boarge looked interesting. They were male and female Willoughby's Leaf Cutter Bees, Megachile willughbiella. New to me and another example of how you can keep things fresh just by broadening your horizons a bit.

Female

Willoughby's Leaf Cutter Bees, Megachile willughbiella Male