Local chat

With the realisation that the coast would be chocca with charvas, I opted to cycle around Cramlingtons finer sights this afternoon - having missed the mornings marsh harrier at West Hartford it made sense to start there - no harrier nor sanderling / little stint, but compensation in the form of 4 whinchat and a single wheatear.

Onwards to Arcot and the belated addition of garganey to the bike list. Lots of teal, some mallard and a stack of coot too.

With the sun shingles it was then back home for ice cream. More later?

4

...Wood sandpiper at West Hartford this evening, plus Phils' earlier found cracking whinchat (good spring record), 2 wheatear, a pair of ringed plover & shelduck

Warblers still warbling - grasshopper, sedge, willow, chiffie, whitethroat...

All good stuff.

7

4 of 7...

West Hartford held an impressive seven wood sandpiper this morning, the highest I've seen at one time there. Supporting cast included a single redshank, oystercatcher, two shelduck, circa 5 reeeling grasshopper warbler, sedge warbler, chiffchaff, willow warbler, whitethroat, swift, house martin, barn swallow, reed bunting and a lone female northern wheatear.

Weird Weekend... W

Wheatear are always appreciated at West Hartford, there has been a steady stream of birds through over the past week.

However, this species pales into insignificance after the amazing record of wryneck on the patch! Frustratingly for me, I arrived ten minutes after the last sighting (and spent a significant amount of time trying to relocate it) on Sunday. Congratulations to Phil and Lindsay - hopefully one or two of the photographs taken will appear soon.

Increased observer coverage led to the discovery of some other West Hartford scarcities - a singing yellowhammer was only my second on the site and common tern (2) were note-worthy. Grasshopper warber have started to sing for prolonged periods, so there are few dull moments at present.

Grass & Wheat

Spent some time at West Hartford this sunny morning. On the pool a single ringed plover was nice, until the arrival of some rival shelduck (6 birds today) created some disturbance and it flew east. One redshank also made an appearance, though there was no sign of the green sandpiper.

Warblers have arrived in good numbers, with chiffchaff, willow warbler, whitethroat, blackcap singing away, and at least 4 reeling grasshopper warbler. The grasshopper warblers have only just started to sing, and they were more off than on - prolonged singing should kick in over the next few days. No sedge warbler that I could hear (although they are back at Arcot). House martin intermingled with the barn swallow - no swift (or bee-eater!) yet...

Species of the day was northern wheatear - three males and a female at the end of the road this morning. Not the easiest species to pick up in Cramlington, generally a spring pass-through.

Whooper, Black Redstart & Crane. A Quiet Northumberland P.M!

I headed up the coast this afternoon – taking advantage of another week of nightshifts coming to an end.

First stop was QEII park north of Ashington – here two sand martin were my first of the year, while the lake itself was quiet, holding Canada goose, mute swan, coot, mallard, goldeneye and a mix of c/bh gulls.

Druridge Bay Country Park took the sand martin count to eight for the day, with six hawking the west corner. Nine whooper swan were unexpected and very photogenic – expect a couple of more images when the pace settles.

After a check of Hadston beach, I headed back south to Druridge Pools, where a beautiful male black redstart was available, though not photographable. The black-red was feeding in the dunes just south of the reserve entrance, and had a minimum of three wheatear for support, two of which were bright males.

Again no owl action at Cresswell, so I headed home via Eshott. The common crane had last been reported near Warkworth on Monday 22nd, so it was a great surprise to find that this mighty “grus” was still present. A bonus for me today is that the crane was much more mobile – feeding in roadside fields both south and north of Eshott.

The cranes’ presence was not accepted by the soon-to-be-breeding lapwing ~ dive bombing ensued, causing the crane to become very vocal! A record shot is below…