Wits and Wood

Earlish morning saunter to West Hartford to pick up the two early morning black-tailed godwit (looking very Icelandic) backed up with a pair of gadwall, Canada geese, mixed group of h and lbb gulls.

At Arcot two grasshopper warbler, willows and chiff, blackcap, sand Martin, swallow gave a summery feel, while both great spotted (2) and male green woodpecker vocal and visual. 

The Un-countables

Started the day finishing a prolonged week of nightshift - the 06:15 stop-off at Arcot produced nothing new for the year, only a calling and drumming green woodpecker and woodcock (that flushed from the roadside hedge).

Thoughts of what to do later in the day were assisted by Tim Sexton and his post of blue-headed wagtail at Whitley Bay. Nice sunshine (albeit cold temperatures) and more importantly, a defined short walk from the car park saw me there late afternoon, just as the tide was getting a wee bit high.

The wagtail flock was impressive - may be a dozen white variants, a few pied and the apparent blue-headed. I say apparent - I did wonder about the paleness of the "blue"... however a quick skim through the Birding World article (Volume 20 Number 3) perhaps supports this bird being blue-headed rather than a  "channel" variant - the darker ear-coverts may add to the weight of "bh" argument.

Whatever - a bonny bird nonetheless. The other uncountable was also photographed, perhaps a little less vigorously - so a pic for the blog with a nice nit of litter in the background will suffice.

In addition to the wagtails the beach contained plenty of rock pipit, a wheatear or two, many sanderling and redshank. Loads of swallow moving north.

News of a great white egret saw me heading Prestwick bound, but news from the site suggested otherwise. And that ended that sortie.

Back to Bass

Should have taken the 500mm ~ sat for a while but any attempt to get closer and it's off!

With all the excitement of Saturdays trip and a selection of fine ale in the evening, Sunday dawned dull and late ~ 11:15 to be precise! Several cups of coffee, a read through the 2010 issue of "Birds in Northumbria" and an investigative text to GM defined the reduced hours availability for birding - back to Bassington.

Twenty steps in, and with bullfinch, goldfinch, greenfinch, chaffinch, blue tit and great tit already in the bag, the purpose of the mission was complete - up flew the female green woodpecker from the track. Green wood is annual in Cramlington, probably overlooked, and most often heard at Arcot in the Spring. So an apparent wintering bird is to be savoured. Very flighty, doing a circuit round the "reserve"... It's a gem of a spot - small and full of birdlife, a site to watch...

The glorious sights of Bassington NR - the flooded area behind the fence in the SW corner could be interesting...

In addition to the species already mentioned, a great-spotted woodpecker was calling, while blackbird and song thrush were also noted.

Nearly..

Morning Pic(us)

A jay was a nice bonus en-route to West Hartford a couple of evenings ago - with a single bird on the A192 central reservation near Crowhall Lane. I normally only see birds flitting around trees aligning the River Blyth. Maybe they're spreading out? West Hartford was extremely quiet!

The drive to work at 05:25 this morning produced a more significant (in Cramlington terms) sighting - on the central reservation opposite Shaw garden centre was a juv green woodpecker. I've only ever seen green woodpecker once in Cramlington before (it shared a tree with a great grey shrike - see the image below!). Normally I've just heard them "yaffling"- and they have all been at Arcot.

Left - the incredible Cramlington pairing, April 2005!

Could this be the first confirmed breeding in the town? or maybe its a juv from nearby Blagdon / Plessey?