The weekend so far

Catch up with some returning migrants in the north-east - inland for swift, pied flycatcher, tree pipit, wood warbler, redstart, ring ouzel...

and always nice to see...

iPhone-scoped

Foraging in the South West

A venture South West today in glorious conditions... Allen Banks / Morralee Wood provided all target species - Pied Flycatcher (2 males), Redstart and Wood Warbler.

Further south, a family party of Ring Ouzel at Sipton Burn - both adults and two juvs.

Yellow & Grey Birding

Started the birding day at a wonderfully sunny Tynemouth, where a very active yellow-browed warbler continued to flit about the sycamores' just prior to the pier. Nice birds, ybws', but damn tricky to photograph! This bird was occasionally calling but tended to keep high up the bank. I later received a text from CB (who had been at the pier... he had a ybw in his garden - nice!)

Early afternoon saw me arrive a ridiculously busy Holy Island. Newcastles' Northumberland Street must have been empty today - everyone was here!

A quick trudge across the dunes near Chare Ends (viewed north from the "9" on the map) saw me and a noisy RSPB-type group have views of a single great grey shrike - always a stunner but clearly a very wary bird, keeping to a distance of over 100m. Maybe it was all the unnecessary irrelevant noisy chat from the people there...

View Larger MapDriving Directions

The village was very quiet bird-wise; the occasional brambling was seen and heard, while the vicars garden held one pied flycatcher. No sign of TC/MHs spotted flycatcher and I did not make the effort to head to the straight lonnen for their barred warbler as tales of long waits were not in my favour.

The significant highlight of the Holy Island was undoubtedly the delicious bacon buttie from the cafe. Always a winner.

West Hartford pit-stop visit produced c100 lapwing, a few bhg, a single mallard and a buzzard over the River Blyth.

Hopefully get out on Sunday too...

Catching up with the migrants

Messed up by not getting out on Tuesday, so today I tried to make amends. A pleasant trip was had birding from Seaton Sluice - St Mary's - Whitley Bay Cemetery.

Numbers were low but a reasonable selection was had;

Whinchat - 1 @ SS
Wheatear - 2 @ SS
Reed Warbler - 1 @ SS
Spotted Flycatcher - 2 @ SM
Pied Flycatcher - 1 @ SM
Great Spotted Woodpecker - 1 in the "gut" at SM
Redstart - 1m @ SM

No sign of the reported Barred Warbler / Wood Warbler at SM.

Hopefully there will be more to come, late Northumberland  news from today included booted, greenish, marsh warblers, ortolan bunting, more wryneck....

Allen Banks

I headed west this morning for a spot of birding at Allen Banks with Mark. It was a sunny if slightly windy morning, so hopes were high for a good show from our targeted migrant species.

Two pied flycatcher were singing during our visit - a very smart species in spring. Both birds were mobile, singing frequently - I assume these are very recent arrivals and have not yet established their territories yet.

Allen Banks has also proven to be reliable for wood warbler in recent years, and this mornings visit heralded just one mobile singing bird. Wood warbler is actually becoming a tricky bird to catch up with in Northumberland, so this is generally the best time of year to nail the species in the county (in 2007 there were no recorded observations in the autumn!).

Overhead swift were conspicuous and on the river itself a pair of dipper were active, taking plenty of food into a nest.

Also noted were goosander, grey wagtail, mallard, chiffchaff, blackcap, nuthatch, treecreeper and wren. Redstart was neither seen nor heard.

A quick stop-off on the journey back home produced one yellow wagtail at Whittle Dene, with a pair of swallow apparantly intent on nesting in the hide.