In the harbour

Rude not too...

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Despite a lack of blog updates since January, local birding has continued into the first week of February, with essentially local ventures to atypical places.

Waxwing made an appearance on the estate on 22nd - a single on the Horton Burn. Very scarce so far this winter, so  a good patch year tick

February has started with signs of Spring - skylark back at West Hartford, Linnets too. The marsh has at least one jack snipe and water rail, along with another winter 13/14 scarcity a day or two ago - short-eard owl. Reports of a bittern are interesting but so far no connection.

Today saw a loop round Seghill for the european white-fronted goose that Gordon found this morning - associating with a large flock of grey-lags, some of which were wearing neck collars, of which I took no note of any details. At the links south of Blyth I again scanned the large pink-footed goose flock, and today, like Sunday, it was bean-less...

European White-fronted Goose - pink toned bill, large white band on tail tip

The great little tawny finch

The last few days have been spent local.

Sunday saw an afternoon visit to the River Blyth to see the Great Northern Diver at the confluence of the Sleekburn.

Weekday birding has been round the doors, with a cracking Tawny Owl perched on the roadside at the delightful industrial estate near home, worth the 05:20 departure for earlyshift...

After work, mild excitement in the form of a male chaffinch in the garden - possibly the fourth "in garden" record... not sure why this species is so unusual here - less than 100m from the door I see them regularly on the Horton Burn... the next destination in this rambling post - with todays potter along revealing the Little Egret as close to the house as it could get, a kingfisher too.

West Hartford still has teal - I feel a green-winged will appear soon... and 4 wigeon, an infrequent visitor to the flash pool.

Horton Burn - The Little Egret is on this picture (the white dot on the far bank to the left of the photo... honest)

Chaffwich

The hint of a milder morning and more importantly no strong easterly wind was enough to lure me out on the bike this morning. The route took in the delights of Cramlington, Bellasis Bridge (passed PCF - don't think he'll have recognised me in a bright orange t-shirt!), Castle Island and the Blyth estuary.

Not a great to report - my first chiffchaff of the year near Shaw garden centre, hods of skylark in fields along the roads and a single sandwich tern, first of year, off Blyth promenade.

Reports of tree sparrow at West Hartford still tease...

Little Snow

But still enough to be a pain, so much for Spring....

Took the bike down to a raw feeling Blyth this afternoon, it was high tide with a rough sea, so the relative sanctuary of the harbour was to be the birding destination. And jolly good it was too.

Four little gull continue to show extremely well between the piers - with the feeding taking place only yards away I wish I had troubled myself to bring the SLR down... but no, the bike list demands light travel, so the new Powershot was taken.

Flight photography is very tricky when using the LCD screen, so I took many a "part" little gull and a heap of blurred images in the difficult windy conditions.

One record shot;

More obliging for the point and click was the snow bunting - nicely pointed out by Brian.

On the little beach between the piers a few waders fed - sanderling, turnstone and one purple sandpiper.

Spuggies

I was lured out on the push bike late morning, for what was a cold hour.

Headed down to Blyth to check the pink footed goose flock - rewarded with a single immature white-front (assumed to be the bird from Woodhorn in February). Not able to pick any bean out - need a scope for that!

The unexpected highlight was the discovery of a small flock of tree sparrow at the Laverock Hall Farm - my first in almost 30 years of birding Cramlington, right on the border mind!!

Three quarters tundra...

With an early shift complete and news of a late morning goose nearby, a quick trip out was called for inbetween wake-me-up coffees.

Headed out just after two, turned onto Horton Drive and boom, woodcock flies over the car. Good start, it again shows in flight as I cross the Horton Burn.

Arriving At the Blyth links car park soon after, it was pleasing to find some of the lads watching the afternoons main quarry - albeit distant. The Tundra bean goose had eluded me on a couple of occasions already in 2013, but not today, as it fed in fields just off the coast road with almost 200 pink-footed geese. Too distant and gloomy for the camera, I resorted to attempted iPhone digi-scope shots. Can't quite manage anything other than record pictures...

Meanwhile a merlin arrives, promptly landing on the fence giving great scope views. And that was that, a decent 45 minutes out.

Frustrating!

Lateshift duties severely restricting birding opportunities this week...

Ridley Park in Blyth yesterday was devoid of any bluetail action - 50 or so redwing along with robins and blackbird were the only migrants on offer.

This morning, St Marys' - no sign of yesterdays dusky warbler, nor todays pallas's / long-eared owl. Hods of robin, redwing (dropping in out of the mist), brambling, goldcrest, blackbird.

Journey back produced a lone woodcock lifting out of a garden in Hartley.

It just could happen...

Sticky yellowish mouldable substance-wing

The trusty camera almost needed a dust-down prior to today's little foray out to Blyth. The four waxwing were my first of 2012, in what was a truly strange week.

Pah...

Sunshine and snow

Ventured to Blyth this morning to catch up with the snow bunting south of the cemetery. A small stubble field with amazing ability to conceal the hords of feeding finches and buntings ... Really good to see high numbers of yellowhammer, along with tree sparrow, chaffinch and a mere 5 snow bunting (which took a while to pick up). In addition a pair of grey partridge were useful. The journey back via the river added turnstone and red breasted merganser, while the Horton burn was decidedly quiet.

Frosty start. Snowy end.

Mark and I headed to the "hawfinch hedge" just west of Morpeth this morning... and it was a cold one at that, saved by a beautiful blue, cloudless sky. A two hour vigil was suitably hawfinch-less, though marsh tit was appreciated.

We failed to locate any of the white-fronted geese at Woodhorn, though chips at Newbiggin were consumed while watching a couple of Mediterranean gull scavenge around the car park.

Blyth was the next port of call (pah!), and it was thanks to Brian that we connected with a distant red-necked grebe at the river mouth. Our journey back to the car was interrupted by six snow bunting, that photographically saved the day...

The final stop of the outing was the Burton House pub in Cramlington, where an apple-less apple tree failed to retain any of the waxwing that had been enjoyed a few days ago. No sign of the blackcap either!

A later report on the pager mentioned that there were 16 waxwing at the Shaw garden centre in Cramlington ~ while approx 40 were noted by Birdingsometimes Senior in Alexandra Park yesterday... probably the flock on the move...

Quite_Sunny_Quiet

Took the pretty much standard Saturday route up the coast with Mark this morning, calling in at Cresswell, Druridge and East Chevington prior to the main purpose of the trip north – pie, chips and curry sauce at Amble. The latter was probably the highlight today!


Mark had started the day earlier than I, picking up bewick’s swan and two green sandpiper at Whittle Dene.

Our joined effort was rewarded with a nice male stonechat, tree sparrow and peregrine at Cresswell, seven pale-bellied brent geese in fields between Cresswell and Druridge, fourteen grey heron at Druridge and not too much else. The route back included a stop at High Hauxley to check for any puffin activity on Coquet Island (none) and there was no apparent sign of the iceland gull at Blyth South Harbour.

This evening I spent a cold thirty minutes at West Hartford as dusk descended. Nothing really of note there today, with a minimum eleven oystercatcher and uncountable numbers of teal / mallard, hidden in the marsh area to the south of the main pool. One buzzard over and a couple of kestrel too.

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I’ve added a couple of more blog links to the "other voices" section – posts from Western Australia and Japan are sure to be interesting reading and viewing…

Gull.goose.duck

Saturday morning dawned reasonably bright, so Mark and I headed up the coast for a casual potter.

First stop was Newbiggin, where four adult and one 2nd Winter Mediterranean gull were readily available. It was cold and cloudy, so I did not venture onto the beach for any photographs - I'll save that for when the adults are developing their black hoods.


At Woodhorn Flash the goose flock was smaller and distinctly white-frontedless, we later found a larger and Greenland white-fronted inclusive flock (the four birds that have been present a week or so now) just north of Woodhorn Church.

Note in the photograph how much smaller than grey-lag geese the white-fronts are, along with the overall darker plumage, orangey bill and thin white trailing edge to the tail. These first winter birds don’t have much in terms of barring on the belly yet and the "white-front" is restricted. Click the image for a bigger and sharper version!

Druridge held three then four smew, including the 1st winter drake – I think this may be the first I’ve seen in this plumage. All four smew kept to the nothern side of the pool, which is a pity. The pools also held wigeon, mallard, teal, goldenye, red-breasted merganser, while overhead the predominantly pink-footed geese flock passed over a couple of times. It transpired later that the tundra bean geese (3) were also in the area today, so it’s feasible that we could have seen these had we looked!

At Blyth we had no luck with the droopy winged 2nd winter Iceland gull, it was reported later in the afternoon, so I’ll try again some other time.

And that was that, bacon and eggs were calling at Birdingsometimes HQ.

Nice to see Northumberland waxwing reports increasing and taiga & tundra bean geese reported in unusually high numbers today. This is proving to be an interesting time…

Sunshine and ice

After hearing about 5 jack snipe that had been seen at West Hartford earlier in the week I headed out into the marsh with Mark late morning.

No jacks, but several non-jacks lifted, plus 35ish teal and the occasional wren and reed bunting. The main pool held a pair of shelduck and the usual mix of gulls. Three roe deer were feeding in the western section of the field.

Blyth Harbour still held an increasingly bleached single iceland gull - I expect it will move on shortly. Also in the harbour were several eider, five kittiwake, cormorant, herring gull, rock pipit and pied wagtail.



An attempt at purchasing chips was curtailed not once but twice... with chippies at Blyth and Seaton Sluice having queues out onto the street.



Distinctly warm today, the spring migrants should be teaming up the UK now!

Early Doors

An early morning birding with Mark began at Blyth South Harbour, where the two immature iceland gull were readily available, standing (almost) together on the harbour buildings next to the gated pier. After a quick cuppa we headed off to St Mary's, where the long staying water pipit was soon located on the beach, along with several rock and one meadow pipit, plus some purple sandpiper, ringed plover,oyc etc. One red-throated diver headed north, while the wetland held gadwall, teal, mallard and wigeon.

Northumberland reports on the pager and blogs today include green-winged teal at Bothal Pond, adult iceland gull at Amble Harbour, smew at Bolam Lake... so a bit more stuff in the county to get me out the house tomorrow... ?

Blyth White Wings

It was another bright winter afternoon so I headed down to Blyth South Harbour where two iceland gull have recently been frequenting. Initial scanning of the harbour did not produce much, only a few herring, great black back and black-headed gull, long with a single red-breasted merganser and up to twenty eider. Feeling a bit despondent I started to work my way back from the harbour master building and quickly picked up an apparent immature iceland gull in flight - great! Moving closer to the area where the bird was I was surprised to find BB... photographing it on the water (initial reaction was that this was a glauc, bill was very two-tone... see Northumbrian birding blog to see why its' an iceland, a great advert for digital photography in use while birding) Not much later a second bird arrive, both lingered, allowing several photographs to be taken, although the light soon became tricky as the sun began to set. One bird was distinctly browner toned than the other, I expect this is down to individual wear, tear and bleaching through the birds life-cycle.

Glaucoides 2 of 2

Driving back home after a successful trip to North Shields I was pleasantly suprised to find that the large pale gull feeding on the roadside at South Beach (Blyth) was another iceland gull!

This is probably the bird that I dipped a week or so back in the harbour, and I assume its the bird that Brian (Northumbrian Birding) had seen a few days ago. Iceland gulls - they're just like buses eh, none for ages, then 2 on the same trip!

I pulled the car over (shunted up onto the verge) and managed to grab a few record shots hand holding the 500mm - blasting the shutter in the short gaps between the bemused cars that were passing. The gull soon lifted and drifted over the houses, presumably to another verge to feed. A great end to a short trip out.

Snow but no ice...

A quick trip to Blyth was 50% successful - I could not locate the immature iceland gull that has been frequenting the south harbour, but two snow bunting were readily available - feeding on the small sand dunes just over the wall. Although flighty, the snow bunting provided some delightful photographic oportunities in nice light. Upon arival home the iceland gull was reported again on the pager - so maybe I'll try again...