Druridge....2 minutes of fame

After receiving email from 'concerned' members of the public about dead puffins on the beach, BBC contacted me yesterday to do an interview about them. So, having been up since dawn, ringing reedy stuff with Ian at E. Chev, I headed down to Druridge to meet the man from the Beeb.....chief reporter no less!

We were down on the beach a good while the cameraman got his shots, which gave me time to scan the sea - six red-breasted mergansers have appeared since last night.

You can watch my efforts at http://www.bbc.co.uk/england/realmedia/looknorthnecumbria/bb/looknorth_16x9_bb.asx

whizz forward to 06:25 to get to the story

We talked about bycatch and driftnet fishing a lot, but sadly none of that made it onto the final cut, I guess there isn't much of a story, puffins die as result of completely legal fishing which isn't affecting the population....


MSK and ADMc had both told me recently that they had seen little owl on Druridge Lane, just outside the patch, well, today I saw one at last. Sadly though, not as I would have wished, it was squashed, on the road..

It was certainly worth the early morning, Ian and I caught over 30 birds at E. Chev, mostly juvenile reed and sedge warblers as well as this nice juvvy reed bunting

Short Seawatch

I called in at Druridge briefly tonight after a session ringing barn owls pullis with Hugh in the Doddington area.

A short seawatch was the game, there were lots of terns fishing offshore, mainly 'commics' with a lot of sandwich and at least five rosey's. The great northern diver (reported earlier today offuv E. Chev) was now off Druridge and an adult little gull flew S as did two manxies.

A group of 19, presumably returning, summerish plumaged sanderling pitched onto the beach with a couple of ringed plover - soon scared off south by dog walkers with out-of-control hounds!

Grim Bycatch

July heralds the arrival of drift netting boats being seen in Druridge Bay....and the arrival of dead puffins on the beach.

Drift netters fish from cobles, usualy seen at dawn, they use nets that aren't attached to the boats, they are 'set' then left to drift and collected back in later with their catch of salmon, sea trout........and puffins.

Unfortunatly puffins are a bycatch of this type of fishiong, the birds, diving for sand eels, become trapped in the nets and drown. The young that they are feeding on nearby Coquet are also likely to die of starvation if one of the parents die. I counted 13 dead puffins on 1km of beach dead, all fresh corpses.

Every July and August for as long as I can remember I have seen dead puffins on the beach at this time of year, previously healthy birds, an unfortunate bycatch of this type of fishing.

There are few drift netters still operating on the North East coast, many licences have been bought up or the fisherman encouraged to cease (for the sake of the salmonids, not the puffins!), but a few still operate and every July and August, early in the morning, you will see the tradional cobles out in Druridge Bay drift-netting.


A few hours later the first corpses arrive on the beach. If you do come across any whilst out walking, turn them over to check if they ringed.

busy, busy week

It's been an incredibly busy week since my last post, I've been to Ireland with work which included a trip to the Causeway Coast and Binevenagh AONB in North Antrim, very nice bit of coastline it is too..

Causeway Coast near Giant's Causeway

When I got back we did a farm survey over at Carraw Farm on Hadrian's Wall, on Saturday afternoon I went ringing mute swan cygnets with the Hanmer family, very entertaining.

Him and his younguns, waiting to be ringed at Lee Moor Farm

Is that a swan sticking out of your arse or are you just pleased to see me?

flat-packed swan, Ikea bags make handy swan weighing devices.

And when the pacific golden plover was flying around East Chev, very nearly on my patch I was on my way to theatre in Sunderland. Add to this making jam and cakes, going to a two year olds birthday party, identifying that I have 'onion white-rot' and there is no cure, it didn't leave much time to go to Druridge.

On the short visits to Druridge there wasn't much to report, I spent all of Friday's visit strimming the net rides...

Yesterday we had a dark green fritillary butterfly on the track to the Oddie Hide (still there tonight), this is the first DGF I have seen at Druridge for a few years.

We also saw a barred straw moth by the Budge screen.

In the dunes there are hundreds of six-spot burnett months this year and lots of caterpillars too, there were 8 on this one thistle flower.

To make up for not seeing the pacific golden plover at Chev, I did get two year-ticks today at Druridge, firstly this afternoon, a fly-by little tern offshore.

I went back down to Druridge tonight to finish strimming in front of the hides, so the otter-spotters can see out.

As I had scared everything of the pools, I went to look offshore, scanning a small gull roost on the beach, I picked up a colour-ringed second summer med gull, the cr was red with white text, I thought I could make out a 'P' on it, which would make it polish, sadly I couldn't read the rest.

So, if anyone reading this is an NTBC member waiting for their monthly bulletin, that'll be my fault as my section is still not finished, there's simply not enough hours in the day!

120 little tern

121 Mediterranean gull

The weekend

I've not really been down to Druridge much over the weekend, we had a quick visit on Friday night, again there wasn't much new about, but the sunset was nice.

Saturday was spent ringing, firstly with Ian at East Chevington, which was quite disappointing as we expected a good catch, but actually caught very few. This juvvy reed warbler was nice though (Pic by Ian)

We packed in at 0920 and I went north to meet the Hanmers to ring some barn owls in the Alnmouth to Rennington areas. We ringed young out of three boxes, with the other not quite big enough.

On the Howick Estate as we were leaving one of the boxes, Hugh got his eye on a long-winged raptor ahead, we bundled out of the car to see a red kite. We watched as it picked up height, at the same time I was on the phone to the Boulmer Birder as it was nearly over his house, sadly mobile reception in this area is not good and BB did not get onto the bird.

The bird was untagged, but was probably from the release scheme, a few birds are starting to drift north now, how long until I get one at Druridge?

A brief visit to Druridge this evening, dodging showers. The Silage field next to the Budge field has been cut and as I predicted has attracted birds, tonight there were about 50 rooks and jackdaw, 34 curlew, 28 lapwing, 5 whimbrel, 3 golden plover and an oyc. Not bad!

The three lapwing chicks we ringed last week are still alive an pottering around the fields and the stonechat pair in the dunes have fledged another brood of three younguns (making it six this year).

There were a few damselfys on the track to the oddie hide, a painted lady and several meadow browns, there were also these two strange beasts 'on the job' - no idea what they are - any thoughts?


This latticed heath moth was on the track too.

greylag family

I am off to Ireland for a few days with work, let's hope Druridge stays quiet until I get back!

nowt doing

It's that dead time at the end spring when nothings on the move at all, I've been to Druridge four times in the last three days and everythings the same. On the sea tonight there were two arctic skua's, 2 rosey's and a handful of manxies.

Nothing of note on the pools, they were cutting the grass on the silage fields behind the reserve tonight, so that might bring something in?

Depressing

How depressing is this? Sat in my office in Morpeth all day, watching the glorious sunshine out of the window, leave Morpeth after work, still a lovely summers day, get home and it's dull and overcast. Worse still, get to Druridge and it's thick fog and can't see a blimmin thing!

We only get four days of summer in North East England in an average year, but on the North Sea coast three of the four days are blighted by bloody sea frets.

So no seawatching (couldn't see the sea!), no waders (there might have been a spotted sandpiper on the far bank but I wouldn't be able to see it for the fog), nowt really..

Oh.......the mute swans have hatched five young...........happy days!