Swan & Gooses

Fowls, Un-seasonals and a Yank

Started the day at Killingworth where the showy female Smew continues to perform on the smaller lake.

Willow Tit at Hackworth then onto Holywell to check out the geese - the two Eurasian White-fronts were flying around the fields upon our arrival, while the Tundra Bean Goose resided on the pond with the Grey-lags. No sign of the Mandarin. Soon after our arrival in the public hide, the two airborne White-fronts circled the pool and managed to attract the attention of the other geese, taking them off to the western fields, permitting a couple of iPhone/scope images...

Blyth didn't provide a Black Redstart (Chips at South Beach did show briefly).

Up the road to QEII lake for another Slavonian Grebe (no sign of the Iceland Gull), then onto Cresswell, where a Ruff and female Marsh Harrier complimented the long staying (and long distance) Long-billed Dowitcher.

Completed the coastal visit with a look out from Druridge's Budge screen - no Water Pipit, but three more Eurasian White Fronted Geese over the back.

Closer to home, 4 Little Egret on the burn along with a single Grey Wagtail

Geese, Diver and Grebes

iPhoned at approx. 400m range from the Military Road.

Headed west to Whittle Dene late morning - distant views of the three Tundra Bean Geese along with 1 Pink Foot, three Whooper Swan and three Mute Swan.

Further north-east, the Black-throated Diver remained at Maiden Hall Lake, and East Chevington still held both Red-necked and Slavonian Grebe.

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.

Loose Goose

A quick scout around the Druridge area was good for geese with grey lag, canada, pink footed, European white fronted, 3 tundra bean and the wayward (?) ross's goose all picked with relative ease. The latter was distant at East Chevington with the large pink footed flock, while nearby at at Maiden Hall three tundra bean were on the edge of the impressive European white fronted and pink footed gathering.

Three short eared owl noted, with 2 at East Chevington and a single at Druridge.

Dull Day?

Headed north mid morning for a very rough circuit of Druridge Bay.

A brief stop at QEII park, Ashington was rewarding with good numbers of gulls (nothing unusual amonst them), great crested and little grebe, many coot, tufted duck, wigeon, goldeneye and a single whooper swan with the mutes.

The sight of a couple of hundred geese flying off from the West Chevington / Maiden Hall Lake area was not promising, but alas, the main target was still present just west of the "mound"... two bewick's swan. Always tough to get up here, this duo appear to be possibly birds 5 & 6 of the winter, with the Big Waters/Arcot and Ellington bird being two adults. I'd not seen a juvenile quite like this one, the pinkish toned bill was a surprise.

Druridge Bay County Park provided my first smew of the winter - three duck types - all out of camera range.

Onwards to East Chevington and "a missed by a few minutes" bittern made the cold feel ever so slightly colder. The hat and gloves remained nice and warm in the car. A single slavonian grebe frequented the northern part of the north pool, while lake fodder comprised of grey-lag geese, wigeon, tufted duck, a single drake gooseander, cormorant etc.

Pointing the car south towards Cresswell the journey was interrupted by a quick stop near Bells Farm - the pink-footed goose flock were close to the road, and a party of twite (maybe fifty birds) buzzed over the dunes.

An inspection of the goose flock ensued, and much to my surprise, and subsequent fumble into the cars boot, two tundra bean geese were effectively the closest birds to the road!

The clicking of the camera shutter wasn't favoured and the closest group moved into the centre of the field... the photograph below illustrates the darker backed bean geese and thinner white trailing tail tip nicely with the flying pink-foot.

Cresswell was well worth it's visit. Pretty much as soon as I arrived a male pheasant did the decent thing, flushing the jack snipe out of the reeds and onto the sandbank in front of the hide. All too quick for the camera though. Bizarrely the pheasant took a strong dislike to the miniature snipe, and proceeded to ruffle itself up and chase the jack snipe back into the reeds!

Waterfowl were good too... a single drake scaup fed on the pools southern edge, along with tufted duck and some very smart red-breasted merganser and goosander. Early afternoon had completed the triple sawbill fix.

Over the dunes two short-eared owl had been observed from the hide - and the return to the car was delayed as they grappled over dunes-rights. I'm pretty pleased with the "grab" shot below...

Meanwhile a pair of stonechat worked the road edge - the recent hard winters have taken their toll on this species, so it was good to see a pair.

With the 'Bay pretty much cleaned up I headed back towards home - two attempts at black redstart (Newbiggin and North Blyth) were fruitless ~ though Mediterranean gulls at the former always add value to a stop.

West Hartford was the final destination as the dull afternoon progressed to dusk. Two fox were a bonus as they chased each other round the fields - the dog stayed put long enough for a photo. It was intriguing to watch them hunt - pouncing into the grass tufts and digging down into the ground.

Three more short-eared owl put the day tally to five ~ a quick flypast gave another record shot. Bit of an odd day photographically - every shot posted was hand held!

One

It was a later than anticipated start to the 2012 birding. Left the house at a little after 10:30 and headed north to East Chevington.

First up was the dapper drake green-winged teal on the South Pool, while on the North Pool I could not locate the reported smew ~ a female scaup was good, as was a single Eurasian white fronted goose and a fly thru short-eared owl.

Heading south to Cresswell I connected with the large pink-footed goose flock - a scope thru produced one tundra bean and one Eurasian white-front. No sign of any snow bunting at Bells Farm, and Cresswell itself was pretty quiet.

Onwards to Newbiggin - where med gull is a doddle these days, while a few hundred meters up the beach, the desert wheatear remains. Didn't carry the camera up with me today (given yesterday's session), yet I could not resist a couple of iPhone pictures ~

So with the wheatear in the bag I scuttled back to the car and headed south to Marden, where the wintering lesser scaup was eventually found roosting. So far so good!

A quick stop at Killingworth Lake did not produce anything of note, so a little later I arrived at Prestwick Carr. Superb showing of short-eared owl here, with a modest count of 12 ~ eight of which were in one field! Peter got me onto the great grey shrike just be it flew off into the distance - the quality just kept coming....

Back to the car for a nip up to West Hartford, not before a willow tit gave itself up. A mere 4 short-eared owl were on show by dusk (17 for the trip out!) - while the final, nearing dark, pitstop at Horton Burn was also rewarding - 1 kingfisher flew downstream, with 2 moorhen and 4 mallard. A day of quality!