Autumn

As the build up for Autumn commences, Arcot scores its first Avocet - an immature to boot (a first record of both autumn and immature for Cramlington).

Still a rare in Cramlington, with all other records from West Hartford in Spring.

Back in Black

A relaxed couple of weeks after being made redundant - a few drinks, a few days away in Barcelona and a few days catching up with things that should have been done earlier.

So today, a quick trip out with Armstrong to Arcot.

Very productive in terms of waders (by Arcot standards) - 21 Black-tailed Godwit (my highest ever Cramlington number), a Common Sandpiper, 30+ Lapwing and 3 Oystercatcher

The chicks - Common Tern and "Shelducklings" survive too.

Jolly good stuff.

"L"easter Sunday

With the moderate success of Saturday I headed out round the doors early again today. Noticeably cooler early on, and stops at both West Hartford and Arcot were devoid of any interest.

Up the coast, Druridge was apparently garganey-less though there were plenty of shoveler...

East Chevington eventually yielded the summer plumage black-necked grebe, one of three species available, with little and perhaps six great-crested too. An immature male marsh harrier drifted through, but hoped for sandwich tern etc were elsewhere.

Cresswell pitstop on the way home enabled two avocet to be added to the Northumberland year-list.

Reports of 2 common crane flying north got me back out at 1230, and an optimistic attempt to pick them up over West Hartford was soon kicked out of me, though the temperature had increased a bit.

Late afternoon provided another opportunity to confirm that there wasn't a great deal to see or hear at both West Hartford and Arcot, with highlights being 10+ sand martin, ever increasing numbers of willow warbler and the prospect of booze back at home this evening...

Seconds

Where the actions is/at...

More of the same this afternoon, with a couple of hours at Marden Quarry - brief view of the Pallas's Warbler, prolonged views of Yellow-browed Warbler and Siberian Chiffchaff. Quite a trio of Sibes...

Prior to that, Arcot was twitched - Whooper Swans for the patch list courtesy GM.

Good times...

A taste of the Med

Thoughts of a cycle to the coast were diminished when Gordon alerted me to the presence of a Mediterranean Gull at Arcot - a moulting adult and only my second in Cramlington.

A ringed bird, Gordons pictures may permit an accurate reading. Flew off east late afternoon...

Common Sandpiper still present, though feeding areas of mud have been reduced with recent heavy rainfall.

Patch A.M.

A grand morning in Cramlington, with Liverbirders drake scaup collected at Arcot - a Cramlington first for me (and the bike for that matter). The cycle to West Hartford was little owl-less, but an encounter with LMcD was good value as always.

West Hartford produced a little ringed plover - always good to get in spring, while the cycle home was broken up with a check of the wheatear fields at East Hartford - 1 male and 2 female this morning.

Warblers today included willow, chiff, lesser whitethroat, whitethroat, blackcap and grasshopper. Still not managed a sedge, but plenty time for that.

Work commitments prevented a trip back to West hartford for the wood sandpiper - hopefully I'll catch up with one later.



Bags now packed, a trip is about to happen!

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.

Locycling

As March falls into it's latter stages, the warmth of Spring is not even hinted. Its absolutely freezing, with a cutting easterly blow.

Sundays birding was from the relative discomfort of the push-bike, with a lap of Northumberland's most delightful village. The route took me to West Hartford where STH had reported a drake shoveler earlier in the morning. Sure enough the dapper drake was still present, along with 40 teal, five gadwall and a couple of mallard. Good going for the patch. Ten oystercatcher huddled on the shore.

Bassington NR was a void of nothingness, my hopes for a Cramlington green woodpecker are decreasing as the first quarter ends, it'll be up to a calling bird at Arcot for a few weeks last hope.

Northumberlandia was the next port of call - despite the weather a few families were out for midday walks, and the site was very quiet bird wise. The land to the east of the opencast looks promising for the next few years, with newly planted trees looking favourable for owls and the like, maybe a wintering great grey shrike too... From the top of the Northumberlandia "face"I could get a great view of the surrounds - snow to the land not far west, and raging seas along the east coast. Ah, I do love Spring.

Beacon Lane remains little owl-less and I even managed not to find any yellowhammer today. Arcot Pond was better - still good numbers of wildfowl on the water - three goldeneye were my first in Cramlington for 2013, while support came from pochard, teal, mallard, wigeon, tufted duck and plenty of coot. Could not see the little grebe, probably in the reeds...

The detour via Valley Park did not provide the hoped for Jay, but approximately 25 waxwing at the start of Greenlaw Drive were a nice bonus.

Holiday Blues(throat)

After the relative excitement of Saturdays trip to Amble chippy with Mark, Sunday and Monday (so far) has been a quieter affair.

Hopes were raised moderatley on Sunday when an inquisitive text asked if I had heard anything about a reported white-spotted bluethroat (I hadn't and didn't for the rest of the day)...

As dusk descended and the wine was opened, a garden tick was in the form of a dapper male siskin on one of the seed trays - a hasty record shot was taken through the utility room window.

First glance down the pager this morning revealed a local white-spotted bluethroat report from Sunday, but on an area with no general access... so West Hartford it was.

2 wheels taken out instead of four, the trip out ended up being a prolonged potter, taking in the Horton Burn, West Hartford, Bassington, Beacon Lane, Arcot, Valley Park and West Hartford (again).

Trip highlights, birdwise, were 5 shelduck & 25 teal on the water at WH & my first willow warbler (previously reported by Phil and GM). Raptors on the route included 3 buzzard and 1 of kestrel and sparrowhawk. No SEO today. Grey heron were abundant with ~3 in the WH area and 5 on Arcot Pond. Chiffchaff are everywhere and one blackcap was heard. Hoped to bump into a wheatear or even garganey...

None birdwise I managed not to get a puncture (always good), having a 12ish year old lad driving past me in a Renault Megane up Beacon Lane (honest!) and a pitstop at my parents for a hot-cross bun and tea.

Swansong

Just when I thought that the November blog posts were done for the month, news on the phone from both STH and MA had me diverting to Arcot Pond on my journey home from work. I'd already seen the particular birds a couple of weeks ago, but today's connection was much more important as it constituted a Cramlington patch tick! No camera equipment with me, but the trusty bins were in the car - and between goodbyes at work and lunch at home, the two bewick's swan were added to the Cramlington list. Hurrah! Also noted during the quick pit-stop ~ great spotted woodpecker, c30 teal, bhg, cg, pheasant...

Little to report...

As rare as a "Turkish Robin" (it still huts), here's a blog update. Basically work has predominated June so birding has been very limited - and in fashon true to form the birding pace has weakend with all the migrants settling to breed. West Hartford has been visited but there is nothing to report! Arcot this morning was better, with me finally making the effort to "twitch" a Cramlington rarity - Phil had found this little egret earlier in the week ~ and it looks rather settled this morning, roosting and observing from the trees in the south west corner of the pool.
The water levels here are decreasing, so waders could be a real possibility later in July...

Dip, Dip, Hop.

After a frustrating Friday - not connecting with either black-crowned night heron nor black scoter, Saturday morning has been spent trying to get to grips with grasshopper warbler at Arcot. It's a blustery but sunny day here - so while light is good, conditions are tricky as the warblers' are buffeted about in the bramble.

Eight common tern on the pond was a good count and lesser whitethroat are vocal, while at West Hartford, all was quiet...

Inbetween Nights

Nightshift has restricted any migrant watching this week.

Tuesday ~ called into Arcot Pond at 06:00 ~ grasshopper, sedge, willow warbler, chiffchaff and whitethroat all singing their hearts out from the road.

Over 'sometimes HQ 4 house martin made a welcome return yesterday evening, it's always nice to hear their "chatter" as they arrive back for the summer.

Wednesday ~ called into West Hartord for a quick walk to the wheatear wastelands next to the pools at 06:10 ~ no sign of any wheatear, but probably three grasshopper warbler "reeling", willow warbler a-plenty, while on the pool a pair of mallard looked suprised to see me so early, and gulls were represented by lbb,hg, bh and 1 c...

A long weekend beckons, hoping for some decent weather and some photo opportunities.

West Hartford Continues...

West Hartford has enjoyed a decent birding-run over the last two weeks or so, with great white egret being added to the patch list just over a week ago and then a steady trickle of good West Hartford birds / signs of Spring... chiffchaff have arrived, a couple of sand martin have passed through, grey partridge are calling, short-eared owl are semi-regular (though not tonight!), peregrine (Monday), 5 goosander through, and tonight... another summer migrant.

It was rather cold tonight, but the clear conditions were enough to get me out for a couple of visits. Late afternoon was quiet and is hardly worth a mention.

Late evening - dusk was much cooler but more satisfactory, as the first scan west to east over the fields, River Blyth and pond produced the aforementioned migrant - a mighty osprey!

Actually, this was almost predictable... the north-east has seen a good passage of these fish-hawks through the region today - indeed, a quick scan of RBA reveals three in Durham and one in Northumberland...

It looked a bit like this -


Osprey - Florida, January 2006


... but it was really quite far away! The bird was a couple of hundred feet up, loafing in a NW direction , roughly above the River Blyth. It's funny how things turn out - Phil and I had been talking earlier this week about new birds for West Hartford (I fancy a Spoonbill by the way!) - and we never really discussed osprey...

This was my second osprey in Cramlington - the last being a two day bird at Arcot Pond in May 2003. This bird also turned up on a Sunday evening and was even fishing the pond! I arrived early the next morning armed with a trsty 3 mega pixel compact camera and scope, and to great suprise, found the osprey perched in the dead trees at the west of the pool (where in 2010 the 1s hobby rested - Cramlington is such a mecca!!)



Osprey - Arcot Pond, May 2003


So, with osprey added to the West Hartford list (I must count my tally up...), here are my anticipated species for the future -

1. Spoonbill - why not? If Castle Island can draw them in no reason why WH can't either
2. Little Egret - long overdue, beaten by its' larger relative last week!
3. Tawny Owl - already seen and heard by others, I've been too lazy to venture out at the right time.
4. Pectoral Sandpiper - Arcot has had them in the autumn, other waders have found WH to their liking...
5. Bittern - There is a nice reed bed forming south of the pool, may be one hard winter will bring one in?
6. Red Kite - only a matter of time.
7. Reed Warbler - habitat getting better.
8. Great Grey Shrike - outside chance on passage - Arcot has had one
9. Common Redstart - infrequent through Cramlington on passage (though I did have one in my parents garden many moons ago!)
10. Cuckoo - a tricky bird in Cramlington, but possible.

Common Tern

This is one of the two common tern that was fishing Arcot Pond on Saturday, inbetween having a pop at the hobby! Common tern do not breed at Arcot, but presumably commute from Big Waters.

Arcot Hobby

Here are a couple more images of the 1s hobby at Arcot Pond on Saturday 24th July. When I first arrived the hobby was perched distantly in the dead trees at the west end of the pond. The image is posted more for "bird in habitat" than that of stunning portrait!

The flight shot (below) was taken as the bird swept in low over the pool chasing insects. The hobby had just managed to shake off an angry common tern! As previously mentioned, the speed at which the hobby would hunt was staggering - this is one quick mover!

Hobby: touring the patch.

I checked out West Hartford this morning and much to my surprise one of the first birds to be picked up was the 1s hobby (11.25) - distantly feeding on insects above the River Blyth. As with the first appearance of this Cramlington mega, it did not hang round long - it sped off east along the course of the river, towards Bebside. A great start! I dispatched a text to STH, who replied pretty quickly with news of a shoveler at Arcot (Cramlingtons other well watched spot).

Not too much was going on over at the flash - the hobby sighting was complimented with a soaring buzzard and a couple of kestrel.

Checking the pager there was news that a hobby, possibly this bird, had been at nearby Wallsend Swallow Pond at 11.00.

Then the mobile rang - it was STH, with an enthusiastic "Hobbys' at Arcot!!!"... so it was back to the car and off to Arcot for me!

Sure enough the 1s hobby was still present, in fact it was showing very nicely, perched in the stand of dead trees that are in the south west corner of the pool (these trees once held a 1s osprey in the early 2000's!).

With not much further a do, it fed for the next forty minutes or so, freaking out the barn swallows and common terns on the pool, gorging on the plentiful insects. Often the hobby would soar very high then without any notice, stoop incredibly fast to the pool and zoom over the water. Needless to say it was very very tricky to photograph - the image in this post is hot off the card... I think I have a better shot or two to play with later.

As if the hobby wasn't good enough, another Cramlington scarcity appeared over the back of the pool. With the presence of hobby freash in our minds, my first call of "hobbys' back" was quickly sense checked - it was a cuckoo!... mmm, oops! To put the cuckoo sighting  in perspective, it's probably the first I've seen in the town since approx 1992!!

Also at Arcot this morning: grey heron, great spotted woodpecker, common tern, sedge warbler, buzzard, kestrel, sparrowhawk, mallard, moorhen and canada goose.

So a great morning. The hobby drifted south-east (to Holywell / Wallsend Swallow Pond?) just after 12.30. Hope we get another visit.

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?

Update from the patch...

After missing the West Hartford temmincks stint earlier during the week (it had chosen to be found just as I was leaving for nightshift..., flying off that night, no sign on Thursday but one common sandpiper to compensate etc...) I've realised I need to keep a closer eye on the patch.

It has been an early start on both Saturday and Sunday, and the birding has been ok to very good by Cramlington standards.

Three visits to West Hartford on Saturday gleaned the following: two ringed plover, four shelduck, grasshopper warbler, two grey-lag geese and one obliging barn owl (no camera!!!).

Early morning Saturday at Arcot Pond produced 2 grey-lag geese (probably the birds at West Hartford later that evening), a family of Canada Geese (four goslings survive), lesser whitethroat, common tern, sedge warbler and curlew. Great-spotted woodpecker continues to be conspicuous.

A tip off from Phil earlier in the week led me to the fields near the Plessy windmill, where after a bit of scanning, my first red-legged partridge in Cramlington was picked up. What a delight!... (a temmincks stint would have been better though...). Yellowhammer were also singing in the area.

Sunday birding has commenced as early as that on Saturday, with two trips to West Hartford by 09:00. Undoubted highlight was the text from Gordon, just as I was pulling up onto the roadside verge for vist number two: Marsh Harrier at West Hartford!!!!!

I jumped out the car and within a few seconds, thanks directions from Gordon, I was watching my third marsh harrier on the West Hartford patch and my 4th in Cramlington. By the looks of it its' an immature, probably on a summer wander... And wander it did, having lifted from the field it attracted unwanted attention from the carrion crows and gradually increased height, being lost to view north of the River Blyth.

As the harrier departed a cracking fox arrived...

Followed closely by a single roe deer...

Lindsay McD arrived a little later (probably best not to post a picture here ;-), as did a single ringed plover, three oystercatcher and a pair of mallard.

Inbetween the two early morning vists to West Hartford I had been back to Arcot - which was quieter than on Saturday, though a non singing grasshopper warbler was on view briefly and stock dove were kicking about.

More later?... 

Punkbird

Another image from Sundays' session with grasshopper warbler at Arcot Pond. Fascinating birds...