Druridge Pools

Caad but sunny for the WeBS count

2012-01-15T18:37:00.002Z

A cold and frosty morning at Druridge, it was bright and sunny though. I quite like cold and sunny winter days.

As I predicted, when chatting to Dave Elliott counting twite near Hemscotthill Hill, the Budge fields were completely frozen, this didn't stop 41 curlew looking for tasty pickings ans as a result, the wildfowl were all on the big poool.

Wigeon were the most numerous (204) folowed predictably by teal (106). A smattering of tufted duck, mallard, goldeneye, coot and moorhen rounded things off for the WeBS count.

The, now regular, over-wintering chiffchaff is still hanging about. Today it was near the road by the path to the hides, seemingly, despite my tip-off, it wasn't seen by any of last weeekends bird-race teams!

Interestingly, there were a few song thrush in the dunes. I counted at least six....recent arrivals? Offshore, a great-northern diver was the highlight of the day. It wasn only about a third of the way out so worth having a look for if you're passing. Also offshore was my first shags of the year (fnarr fnarr), a handful of red-throated divers and common scoters.

No photo's again I'm afraid

63 robin
64 shag
65 great-northern diver

Mammals year-list under way

2012-01-08T22:25:00.000Z

No photo's today, I forgot to take my camera with me. I was a bit out-of-sorts this morning, I'm blaming the Abbot Ale!

So an afternoon visit to Druridge was all I could muster. All very quiet indeed bird-wise, a few common species added to the year-list, otherwise quite dull. The highlights were a huge skein of pink-footed geese lifting off the fields by Hemscothill and flying north over the patch, there was maybe 1500-1800 of them, quite an impressive sight. A count of 38 sanderling was good, considering the number of dog walkers there were.

My mammal year-list finally got under-way and is now already up to three species, harbour porpoise, grey seal and rabbit.

59 dunnock
60 canada goose
61 long-tailed tit
62blackbird

A good start to 2012

2012-01-02T19:31:00.001Z

January 1st

I very rarely do any birding on New Years Day. Usually because of a severe hang-over or football or both. This New Years Day was different. I was our partying the night (and morning) before but still managed to make it down to Druridge albeit with a bit of a thick-head a good-deal of queasiness. I only had an hour though as we had another party to get to.

Highlight of the morning was a short-eared owl quartering the Budge fields and bunds. The wintering chifchaff seen in late December was still hanging around the willows by the Little hide, making an early appearance on the year-list. There were good numbers of duck on the Budge fields, including at least three drake pintail.

Little of interest on the pool, other than a water rail which was poking around the edge of the phragmites bed. A buzzard flew over, quite low, heading south.

I ended the day on 35 species. Not bad for an hours work with an hangover.

January 2nd

I felt a bit more chipper this morning. I did have a lie-in though so didn't make it to Druridge until 1ish.

I started with a look on the sea, 2 snow buntings flew north calling, a good start! A pair of eiders and a group three red-breasted mergansers were added to the year-list.

Next, to the Budge screen. I picked up a large wader on the far side, feeding amongst the grass by the fence that wasn't a curlew. When it emerged it revealed itself as a black-tailed godwit. A rare species in winter in Northumberland and especially at Druridge Pools. Without looking through my notes and lists, I think this may be my first winter patch record for blackwit.

Despite the strengthening and very cold westerly wind I decided a hike around the extremities of the patch was in order. I set off for High Chibburn Farm via the hamlet. At the feeding station at the cottages, tree and house sparrows are added to the list with goldfinch. At the farm, there were 19 collared doves, once a very rare species at Druridge, this wintering flock is nice to see. Also at High Chibburn were a flock of about 50 curlew with redshanks, in the same field as a covey of 12 grey partridge, which were later flushed by a sparrowhawk.

Low Chibburn Preceptory with a flock of lapwing and starling in front

Another view of the preceptory

I got blown along the haul road, seeing very little. A walk through the bushes didn't produce a woodcock but in the willows by the bridge, yesterdays chiffchaff was still calling. This might be of interest to any winter bird-racers who are out next Saturday. Obviously, if I had been bird-racing next weekend (we've got Blackburn at home in the cup so I'll not be) I would have suppressed this!

So, 58 species by the 2nd of January. Not a bad start. It's going to be a hard-slog from now until the end of March, when the first migrants return though.

I hope to a review of 2011 in the next couple of days.

1 red-throated diver
2 guilliemot
3 common scoter
4 black-headed gull
5 common gull
6 sanderling
7 cormorant
8 pied wagtail
9 short-eared owl
10 carrion crow
11 herring gull
12 grey heron
13 chiffchaff
14 stonechat
15 blue tit
16 teal
17 wigeon
18 mallard
19 lapwing
20 curlew
21 shoveler
22 kestrel
23 tufted duck
24 coot
25 goldeneye
26 mute swan
27 water rail
28 skylark
29 song thrush
30 redshank
31 magpie
32 pintail
33 pheasant
34 buzzard
35 pink-footed goose
36 red-breasted merganser
37 great-black backed gull
38 eider
39 snow bunting
40 black-tailed godwit
41 snipe
42 chaffinch
43 redwing
44 tree sparrow
45 house sparrow
46 collared dove
47 feral pigeon
48 jackdaw
49 sparrowhawk
50 grey partridge
51 meadow pipit
52 woodpigeon
53 mistle thrush
54 wren
55 moorhen
56 rook
57 goldfinch
58 starling

Happy Christmas

2011-12-25T13:34:00.000Z

Happy Christmas to you all.

A quick festive stroll around the patch this morning. We got sand-blasted on the ebach by a force 6-7 westerly, a few sanderlings were the only birds of note.

On the Budge fields, we showed my father the wildfowl. By the time we left he identified teal, wigeon, mallard, shoveler and pintail there were three of the latter, all drakes.

Time for wine.......

A Yank! But not the one I wanted.

2011-12-18T22:44:00.001Z

There was a Yank on Druridge Pools this afternoon, not quite the one I wanted though. It looks as though the greater yellowlegs has moved north (why?) so no chance of it now. So I had to make do with a green-winged teal.

A good year-tick and WeBS bird though and my first at the Pools since 2008. It must be the same drake that has been hanging around at East Chevington for the last month or so. It was asleep on the far bank for most of the time I was there, so I only managed this very-poor record shot.

Can you spot him? green-winged teal

This Eurasian teal was a bit easier to photograph.

Eurasian teal

If only this had been a yellowlegs.

Redshank

As I wandered up to the pools, I got onto a chiffchaff making its way along the bund. It wasn't a greyish bird as I might of expected and hoped for, it was very yellow-green-olive with quite pale legs. It flew off before I managed a better picture than this.

December Chiffchaff

There wasn't much else of note today. A few long-tailed tits moved through the bushes with lesser redpolls and other finches for company. Offshore, there were a few red-throated divers, shags and mergansers.

160 green-winged teal

What's wrong with Druridge Pools?

2011-12-11T17:30:00.001Z

What is wrong with Druridge Pools?

Before you switch off, this isn't a rant about the lack of grazing.

Mr (or Mrs) Greater Yellowlegs mustn't like the look of something. It has been commuting between Hauxley, Druridge Bay Country Park, Chev and Cresswell Pond for the last three weeks, so it must be flying over Druridge Pools, why has it never landed?

I've just looked its movements up on the RBA website and it has never been reported from Druridge, so I am presuming it hasn't been seen there - unless somebody knows otherwise (do let me know). Today, it was a stones-throw away, on a small flash pool just north of Hemscotthill Farm. How frustrating! I could see the twitchers watching it from the little hide. Is this as close as I am going to get to it? The chances of seeing it fly over as it commutes along the bay are very, very slim.

The water level on the big pool is as low as it has been all year, so there is loads of 'edge'. Three redshanks thought it good enough this afternoon, so why not a yellowlegs. Maybe it's a snob, come from Boston or New England and doesn't like the look of down-trodden, rough-around-the-edges Druridge pools?

My mood was lightened by a year-tick, snow buntings at long last. Six of them flew off from the beach over the dunes towards the big pool. A patch-record was also broken today with a mahooosive count of 21 collared doves at High Chibburn Farm, easily smashing the previous total.

There was a huge flock of mixed finches on Hemscotthill links, including about 60 twite, certainly worth a scan through them if your passing.

WeBS...week late

2011-11-27T21:59:00.001Z

Wind, dark days, conferences, football, hangovers, new chainsaw.....

All added up to me doing my WeBS count a week later than when it should have been done. The wind has died down by early afternoon which made birding a bit more pleasant.

Not much wildfowl about, only a handful of ducks on the Budge fields. This is due to the amount of thick rush around the edge of the scrapes and vegetation in them. Horses and sheep are OK at grazing grassy swards, but they are selective grazers, nibbling away at the tasty soft-stuff and leaving the rest.

NWT really need to get in and control the rushes, they have done some cutting but only a drop-in-the-ocean. The ground is still dry, they could get a tractor-mounted flail in there if they are quick. Ideally some highland cattle should then be brought in to munch any re-growth.

The water levels on the big pool are the lowest they have been all year, which shows how dry this autumn has been. There's lots of 'edge', ideal for any greater yellowlegs that are passing over (hint). Highlight of the WeBS count was a water rail, poking about on the edge of the reedbed. Water rail is often heard at Druridge but rarely seen, so it was nice to watch this one. Also of note was a shelduck, a very rare bird in winter at Druridge.

Not sure when I'll be back on the patch. It'll be March before I can do any pre or post-work birding again.

Druridge...where's that?

2011-11-22T21:38:00.001Z

It's so long since I was last on my patch I might not remember where it is next time I get a chance to go.

Last weekend was taken up with a trip to see the Toon end their unbeaten run at Manchester City followed by the Northern England Raptor Conference in Durham on Sunday (followed by the Lumiere festival..at least some of it).

I had a chance to twitch the eastern black redstart on Holy Island this morning. As regular readers of the twaddle will know, I rarely twitch, even in Northumberland, but this bird looked a cracker. I only had an hour and a bit on the Island before the causeway closed, it pissed it down the whole time I was there. It cleared quickly as soon as I was off the island and there was blue sky before I finished my work on the mainland.

No news either way on RBA of the bird today, so looks like I've dipped again.

Hopefully I'll do a belated WeBS count at Druridge before work tomorrow.

Gripped

2011-11-13T21:52:00.001Z

I've not spent much time at Druridge this weekend....

On Friday morning, I had a couple of hours pre-work birding. It was a pretty miserable morning and there were few birds about. I tramped the beach and other likely snow bunting habitat with no success.

On Saturday it was too windy to put the nets up, we were just about to head to Druridge when the RBA Mega alert went off...it's bound to be in Cornwall we thought... Probable GreaterYellowlegs, East Chevington... quickly followed by a call from Blakey to confirm it. When we got there it had just flown onto south pool, with no visible edge. It was spotted flying back onto the north pool and we were soon enjoying great views of it on the edge of the pool. Superb!

A County and Western Pally tick for me.

Whilst we were watching the yellowlegs, I got a message from Choppington's finest wildlife guide, to tell me he had just seen a nuthatch at Druridge...GRIPPED! Nuthatch would be a patch-tick for me. MSK wasn't as keen to gloat when I told him what we were watching!

Would I swap a greater yellowlegs at East Chev for a nuthatch at Druridge? Probably not.....

To wet to ring today and probably just as well, as one of the ringing team had too much to drink the previous night and for once, it wasn't me!!! We had a wander around Lynemouth Sewage Works in the mizzle. We need to find a way to catch pied wags, there were 18-20 on the filter beds (nice!). As we checked out potential net rides, a few blackbirds and robins moved through as well as a blackcap. Lynemouth is really hard to bird as the willow is so dense, I think ringing will be the only way to reveal what is really lurking in there.

Hopefully, if the weather behaves, we'll be ringing there tomorrow morning.

alba

2011-11-06T22:59:00.003Z

Ringing didn't happen this morning....I'm blaming the 12.45 kick off for yesterdays match.

I did make it to Druridge eventually though. I wasn't too bladdered to look through the RBA reports for yesterday, snow buntings appeared to be everywhere, so that was my challenge today - find snow buntings at Druridge. I've not seen snow bunting on the patch since 2007.

Despite checking all of the potential snow bunting habitat, nothing. The glorious autumnal sunshine had brought every dog owner this side of the Cheviots down to Druridge to empty their pooches, so any snow bunts on the beach will have been well gone by the time I crawled down there.

There were some other white birds on the beach though, a small group of sanderling seemed nonplussed by the dogs and their owners and allowed me to get quite close.

Sanderling on the beach at Druridge

They spent most of their time asleep - probably worn out after the 100th dog of the day had chased them

Caught one awake

I love the way they do little jumps when they run!

Moist

2011-11-04T18:24:00.000Z

A day offuv work today, the weather forecasts earlier in the week looked promising for some migrant action on the North-East Coast, but it turned into a bit of a damp squib...literally!

I trudged around the patch in the drizzle anyway. Last weekend's bullfinch has been joined by another male, they looked well chunky, but not 'northerns'. Bully is still a very scarce bird at Druridge, a species not logged every year!

A flock of about 18 long-tailed tits moved through the bushes, and, despite ringing 37 in the last 15 days or so, not one of this lot sported any jewellery! I reckon flocks are just moving down the coast, not stopping in the same area for long. If we hadn't ringed any of these birds, one would have assumed that, on consecutive visits, the lotti flock was the same group of birds - not so!

Two chiffchaffs (both sporting jewellery) were the only other highlight. There was no sign of the mixed siskin/redpoll flock.

An early start (9.30 bus!) for the footie tomorrow - so that's Saturday written off, hopefully we'll be ringing on Sunday.

Weekend catch-up

2011-10-30T23:11:00.000Z

My first chance to catch up with the blog after a hectic weekend.

With the prospect of 'fall conditions' for the end of last week, I took both Thursday and Friday mornings off work. Sadly the big fall didn't happen, but there was a bit of an 'influx' of birds. On Thursday, there were song thrushes, blackbirds, wrens, robins and dunnocks moving through the bushes, no warblers to be had, which was disappointing. A couple of big finch flocks were nice though, with 70-80 goldfinch, 30+ siskin and 18 or so lesser redpolls amongst them, I grilled all of the redpolls but couldn't find a mealy.

On Friday morning, we were ringing. The first net-round was very productive and the pick of the crop was this treecreeper.

treecreeper

This is only my second-ever treecreeper at Druridge, the first one was in 2008 and also came from a net. The bright-white supercillium on this bird would suggest it was a northern European familiaris race bird, the underparts where tinged-brown, but not extensively.

There was steady skylark passage over all morning. After I left for work, Janet caught a few finches and a flock of 16 long-tailed tits, this takes the long-tailed tit tally to 37 between 15th and 28th of October.

lesser redpoll

female siskin

I had a bit of a wander about the patch today. I felt as though I had neglected the pools and the sea in favour of the bushes lately, having checked neither since I got back from Jordan. On the sea, there was a single great northern diver and 13 or so red-throats, also eight red-breasted mergansers.

On my way to the pools, I spotted a stunning male bullfinch in the bushes, a welcome year-tick and a bird I didn't see in 2010. On the pools, there was a lot of wildfowl, the wigeon numbers are building (189) but there weren't many teal yet. Due to the lack of cows and minimal rush control, the Budge fields aren't attracting any wildfowl at all.

Archaeology time....

This ships mast has been uncovered on the beach at Druridge by the shifting sands (probably as a result of the recent easterlies). It is quite ornate, I wonder if it still connected to the ship?

Ships mast uncovered on the beach at Druridge.

158 treecreeper
159 bullfinch

Ringing totals for Friday (retraps in brackets)

blackbird 11 (2)
robin 4 (1)
treecreeper 1
blackcap 2
long-tailed tit 16
redwing 1
dunnock 1
blue tit 5 (3) + 1 control (probably from Hauxley - but we will see!)
wren 2
goldfinch 2
siskin 6
lesser redpoll 3
great tit (1)
goldcrest (3)
coal tit (1)

Many, many beiards

2011-10-25T22:52:00.000+01:00

I'm back.... I've been to Jordan...where there were many, many, beiards (as the Jordanians told us constantly - they were right and they were the friendliest people I have met). But more of that later.

The weather conditions as forecasted last night, looked good for the possibility of many, many beiards on the east coast – so I took a flyer from work and headed to the patch.

It wasn’t as good as it could have been, tomorrow might be better? I only managed to get from the plantation at the entrance to the track to the Oddie hide. There has been an influx of birds, most evident were blackbirds, robins, goldcrests and blackcaps. Fieldfares and redwings were flying over in small groups.

Bird of the evening was a short-eared owl, disturbed from its perch in the bushes, it flew out onto the Budge fields and just sat there. Of course, my camera battery was flat so no pics.

An awesome spectacle reminded that patch-watching and birding isn’t just about rare birds. The common starling, albeit over 3000 of them, was perhaps the highlight, as they came into roost in the tiny reedbed in the corner of the big pool. I had hidden myself away and watch flock, after flock, come into roost. It was complete chaos as they jostled and moved for position and then….silence…..amazing!

Let’s see what tomorrow brings!

Jordan was awesome! Great country, great birding and fantastically friendly people. A wadge of Western-Pally ticks for me including little green bee-eater, Palestine sunbird, white-cheeked bulbul, yellow-vented bulbul, Arabian warbler, Arabian babbler, Asian desert warbler, Tristram’s serin, Indian silverbill (tarts tick) and Armenian gull. Bird of the trip probably went to the northern Jordan endemic race of desert lark ‘annae’ – they were really cool.

Common...and not so common. Sinai rosefinch and great tit at Dana

Sinai rosefinch feeding station...some of the 230 bieards in Wadi Rum

Blackstart...cool birds and they were everywhere

Bird of trip...annae race of desert lark in the 'Basalt Desert'

156 redwing
157 fieldfare

Been a long time

2011-09-26T23:02:00.001+01:00

It's been along time since I posted anything on the blog. I was bored with our English summer (cough) so decided to head down to Tarifa in Spain to watch some migration in the sunshine.

Back to Druridge on Saturday. Janet was doing a ringing demo for an NWT group, I got the job of extracting the tit flock from the nets before going to work. I didn't even get to ring anything. Any ringer will tell you that blue tits are the most vicious of birds and will quickly find any wound on your hands to have a go at!

I also managed to call in briefly on the way home from work on Saturday afternoon. Martin Kitchen had reported black-throated divers and a minke whale in the bay earlier in the day so I thought a quick look on the sea might be useful. A few red-throats and decent scoter flock of 230+ birds kept me busy, there were also a handful of teal and wigeon in with them.

The highlight of the day came when I was walking back through the dunes and a blokes springer spaniels flushed a bird from the bushes in front of me. Merlin was my initial reaction, until I got the bins on it and saw it was a cuckoo!

phone-scoped cuckoo

It landed some way off on a bush, where it sat long enough for me to get some crappy phone-scoped shots. I was thinking it was very late for a cuckoo, thoughts of oriental cuckoo came to mind, but I couldn't turn it into anything other than a very late common cuckoo.

Viz-migging

2011-09-11T18:30:00.000+01:00

An early start at Druridge this morning, making the most of the calmer conditions before the gale force winds arrived.

Walking along the road, it was soon evident that there were a lot of birds on the move. Linnets were the most obvious at first, with small parties moving south, hardly any of them stopping to feed, a few goldfinches among them too. Then a group of 12 lesser redpolls moved through, stopping briefly in the bushes.A couple of grey wagtails, my first of 2011, flew south, calling as they went.

There were also lots of hirundines and pipits moving through, along the dunes and over the bushes. I climbed to the top of the highest dune to give myself a good vantage point. I sat there for two and a half hours, just watching the spectacle of visible migration.

I always struggle to count such large numbers of birds on the move, the same with sea-watching unless I keep a tally. Swallows were the most numerous and I estimated about 350-400 per hour, then probably 150/hour house martins and less again of sand martin. I reckoned on about 100-150/hour for meadow pipits.

Throughout the morning small parties of linnet flew south and few goldfinches (but these could have been local birds?). I also had three more grey wagtails, a collared dove, three skylarks and a merlin.

There were also a LOT of racing pigeons, mainly headed south, they were just clearing the top of the dune, so close I got a couple of gliffs.

Also of note this morning was a male marsh harrier and about 360 canada geese on the stubble fields, moved on by a man with a gun, they dispersed into smaller parties.

154 grey wagtail
155 lesser redpoll

The fourth falcon

2011-09-10T23:12:00.004+01:00

After yesterdays three falcon day, one of the first birds I saw at Druridge today was a juvenile peregrine, falcon number four of the weekend.....I'll struggle to get a fifth!

On the sea this morning were about 12 little gulls, just floating about, surely the same group that were on the beach yesterday. A brief seawatch produced little other than a stonking pale pomarine skua, picked up travelling south, before resting on the sea just off where I was stood. gannets were feeding and loafing very close to the shore, many of them were grey juvs. A great-crested grebe was on the sea.

The bushes were quiet, a few chiffs and a blackap or two. A few meadow pipits and a stonechat on the dunes.

One the big pool, a female scaup was the highlight. There were a few female tufties with a lot of white around the base of bill and a pucker scaup amongst them. Over by the haul road, male marsh harrier was hunting and getting harassed by crows.

Storm

A huge storm passed-by, to the west of Druridge, then around to the north over Coquet Island. It appeared dark on its leading edge, but the sky was white behind it, I wonder if it was hail stones? During the storm, the wind really picked up and moved from the south-east around to the south-east....very odd.

Three Falcons or Thirteen Little Gulls

2011-09-09T22:46:00.000+01:00

A three-falcon day at Druridge today vied with 13 little gulls on the beach for the highlight of the day.

The first falcon came this morning and was the scarcest, a hobby, a juvenile picked up scattering a group of hirundines, before heading strongly south. This is my fourth hobby of the year at Druridge (although two records were undoubtedly the same individual). Before this year I'd only ever seen four hobbies at Druridge in all of the years I've birded it.

I dropped into Druridge this evening, a lovely evening with great light. The hirundines again alerted me to a raptor, a small falcon among them, then dropped to fly behind the trees, a merlin, which was seen again later perched on a hawthorn in the dunes, Finally, as dusk approached, a kestrel was hovering over the paddock south of the plantation.

This morning, I had a scan through the gulls on the beach. I got onto three little gulls, an adult and 2 juvs. They were dip-feeding into the pools left behind, presumably taking small sand eels? I counted the red-throated divers (33) on the sea and a slavonian grebe, when I went back to the gulls, there were 13 little gulls all feeding in the same way.

This afternoon, I treated Janet to a romantic trip......to Lynemouth Sewage Works. Lynemouth and sewage,it doesn't get better than that!

We've now got permission to ring there, so I was doing battle with brambles - they won! We caught five birds whilst we sorted the nets out. The site looks excellent, all we need now is some easterly winds.

A tern up for the books

2011-08-24T22:57:00.001+01:00

Once the rain cleared this evening, I popped down to Druridge, my first visit since Birdfair. (Actually, not strictly true, I called in on my way home from work but it was hoying it down with rain, so I went home for tea).

It was too late to check the bushes for passerines, so I had a look through the gull roost on the beach, again 90% common gull, not so many as last week, maybe 1400 at Druridge with another 2000 or so off Chev.

In among them was a juvenile black tern, there was only seven or so terns in the whole roost, so for one of them to be a black tern was a really good find. I've had a couple of black terns before in the gull roost in Autumn always juveniles, but this is my first since 2007.

Also on the beach, three whimbrel and 11 sanderling were noteworthy.

Black tern puts me on 150 for the year, which is excellent for Autumn, given that i have finished on 158 or 157 for the last three tears. I am still missing some nailed-on passage and wintering species so this could be a very good year!

150 black tern

Whilst I was at Birdfair, Dave Elliott was good enough to let me know that he was watching a cracking wood warbler at Druridge. Wood warbler would have been a patch tick for me.....humph....

Coitus interruptus

2011-08-17T22:13:00.000+01:00

I am not sure who got the biggest shock, but I know who was the most embarrassed!

I called at Druridge tonight on my way home from work, first stop was the Oddie hide to check for waders. As I approached the hide I thought I heard a noise, stopped, nothing, so went straight in....

....to discover a young couple in, shall we say, a compromising position, . It was very amusing as I said "Oops, sorry, did I disturb you? Will you be long?". The poor girl was left to respond, as the chap was lurking behind the boards. "2 minutes she replied sheepishly".

I beat a retreat to the little hide, to allow them time to 'gather their things'. They had obviously come prepared, complete with a blanket on the floor. Even with a blanket on the floor, the Oddie hide isn't the most romantic of spots, it stinks of piss for a start. Maybe they wanted to get caught? It wasn't like it was late at night, it had just gone 6pm! Not the strangest thing I've seen at Druridge over the years, but amusing nonetheless.

They soon fled, leaving the hide smelling of sweat and perfume. Shutters quickly opened to reveal a common sandpiper on the bank, the only wader to be seen. Also noteworthy was the gathering of little grebes, at least 12.

On the Budge fields, a creamy-crowned marsh harrier was hunting. There must be life on there somewhere, damned if I can see it.

Offshore, the red-throated diver count was up to 19 and there were four Arctic skuas.four ringed plover were on the beach.

I'm off to the British Birdfair for the weekend, If you are heading to the fair, pop along to the Birdwatching Northumberland stand (Marquee 1, 53 & 54)and say hello.

Hobby again

2011-08-16T22:36:00.000+01:00

We had trip to Lynemouth Sewage Works tonight to check out hirundine activity, of which there was very little. So we headed up to Druridge and much the same as the previous two nights 2500+ martins and swallows over the pool between 8.30 and 9pm. They were all into roost by 9.10 tonight and we had a hobby through the flock again at about 8.50 pm.

So if any Northumbrian birders still need hobby for their year lists, get down to Druridge for about 8.15 pm tomorrow night, get up onto the dunes and watch the flock, it's an amazing sight. And if you get bored of small birds, turn around and scan through 4000 gulls on the beach (so long as there aren't too many dog-emptiers).

If anyone is down at Birdfair this weekend, pop by and say hi. I'll be on the Birdwatching Northumberland Stand, Marquee 1 stands 53 and 54 for the whole weekend.

More big roosts

2011-08-15T21:59:00.001+01:00

Still no internet connection, still waiting for BT, so another post from my phone.

Two huge roosts at druridge tonight again. On the beach well over 2000 common gulls came into roost with a handful of black-headed and large gulls. Too much disturbance on the beach within the patch, so the biggest gathering were to the north at Chibburn Mouth and to the south.

Also at dusk, circa 2500 hirrundines came into roost again in the small reedbed. I would guess about 60-65% sand martins. Quite a sight against a red sky. No hobby tonight, just an idiot in a landrover driving through the dunes!

Amazing spectacle

2011-08-14T21:30:00.001+01:00

The internet is down at home, so this is coming from my mobile, so will be brief. There was an amazing spectacle at druridge tonight, at least 2000 hirrundines roosted in the little reedbed tonight. Before they roosted, they flew over the pool, they were rattled by a hobby which seemed to be enjoying itself.

There was also a single swift in with the flock. On the pool this afternoon, there was 2 common and 1 green sandpiper, not spotshanks though. We ringed on friday before it rained, we only caught 5 birds, hardly worth the effort.

Pom

2011-08-09T22:44:00.002+01:00

An evening visit to Druridge tonight started with a bit of a seawatch. It didn't look promising as I drove towards the patch, there was a fine mist coming of the surf and I feared poor visibility, but on closer inspection it was OK, if you looked straight out to sea. Much to the north and south was obscured.

Three very close manx shearwaters made up my mind that it was worth it. Shortly after that, two bonxies powered north in quick succession and then a few more manxies supported by one or two fulmars and roseate terns.

Then, about half way out, low over the water, came a skua - different flight this time, deep wingbeats and looking purposeful, it had very pale underparts, almost white. It looked good for a pom. It frustratingly disappeared into the deep troughs, but when it re-emerged level with me it showed really well... Pom, in the bag.

After an hour or so, the visibility worsened considerably and I had only added a few more manxies, 70 odd oystercatchers and a roseate tern or two, so I packed up and headed for the Oddie hide.

Still lots of wagtails around the edge and in the reedbed including at least 20 yellow wags, mostly juveniles. There was also reed bunting, meadow pipits, reed, sedge, willow and grasshopper warbler around the edge of the pool.

No sign of the oft reported spotshank again, only a single dunlin, 2 ruff and a greenshank on the wader list. It's spotted crake time of year so the edge is certainly worth checking.

Closer to home, I have heard a quail calling in the fields nest to my house since Thursday - I'm glad I live in the sticks sometimes, I might not have a bus service after 7pm but I've got quails and there's no hoodie-clad chavas nicking x-boxes!

Home to roost

2011-08-02T22:17:00.002+01:00

A late evening visit to Druridge today, in fact it was nearly dark when I left but still 17 degrees C! It was muggy and misty and visibility was poor, meaning the gull roost couldn't be grilled.

I did see another roost though and it was way more spectacular. It started on the big pool, where I saw many wagtails around the edge of the pool, mostly pied juveniles but also a few yellow wags, including some adults.

As I watched them, I noticed some heading for the reedbed. I say reedbed, this is a small patch of Phragmites in the corner of the pool, maybe only 40m square. Many more wagtails were dancing about over the reed before going to roost, joined by the others from around the pool. I estimated that at least 60, quite possibly many more, went into roost. The yellow wagtail count was at least 20, maybe 25. This is remarkable for Druridge!

After they roosted I went up to the dune to check what I could of the gull roost, however, a big flock of agitated hirundines took my attention. They weren't agitated like they are when there is a hobby about, just 'busy'. I watched them fly around for a bit, estimating there to be about 600, mainly swallows, before they too flew down into the tiny patch of reeds to roost. Amazing!

I've seen smaller flocks roost in this reedbed, but never this many. I'll be checking it out again tomorrow. Tomorrow, I am walking deep into the 'Boulmer Birders' patch, as I am leading a guided walk from Warkworth to Craster, hope I find something tasty along the way!

Weekend Catch-up

2011-08-01T22:06:00.003+01:00

These long, light, evenings are making it impossible to catch on paperwork and blog writing, shouldn't grumble though, I'd much rather be out birding than writing about it.

So, back to Friday, a northerly continued all day, so I though an hours seawatching before tea would be worthwhile, it wasn't. The best bird was yellow wagtail over. I guess Fridays northerly was quite localised.

After tea, we had an aborted attempt to catch storm petrels. Aborted due to a technology failure, we need to find a louder recording to use as a lure..oh well, at least everything else worked. There was a BIG gull roost on the beach at dusk and a barn owl hunted through the dunes.

A lie-in on Saturday then a good wander around the patch, it was very quiet, especially for passerines in the bushes. On the main pool there was a gang of juvvy pied wagtails and a stock dove with plenty of hirundines feeding over the water.

A quick look offshore produced a close great-crested grebe and a few red-throated divers but nothing was moving, until, I was just about to pack up when a sooty shearwater went north, really close in. So I though I give it a bit longer, 40 minutes longer and only a handful of manxies and 3 roseate terns to show for it.

On Saturday evening we ringed at Ellington Pond and on Sunday I was ringing at Gosforth Park.

On Sunday afternoon, a strong SE had picked up so I thought I would have look on the sea again at high tide. Again, little was moving, though there was a movement from oystercatcher with about 70 going south in small groups, 3 turnstone also flew south, my first of the autumn and first of the year at Druridge.

Late evening I returned to check out the gull roost, gulls arrived steadily as dusk approached and were still arriving when I packed up at half-nine. The majority were common gull, I estimated 1800 (and this was only the birds in the patch, not the birds roosting at Chibburn Mouth), there were also 450 black-headed and smattering of large gulls. Two Mediterranean gulls were my first of the year and whimbrel flew south.

142 sooty shearwater
143 turnstone
144 mediterranean gull

Stormin'

2011-07-26T21:46:00.000+01:00

The east coast stormie fest continued yesterday whilst I was at work/pub quiz. How long would it last?

I wasn't going to go to Druridge this morning, I thought I would go for an evening seawatch instead.

A text from Dave Elliott at 8am changed that plan "still stormies in the bay".....I had to go. The first 20 minutes nothing, then the first storm petrel, then another. Three in ten minutes, a full on PATCH TICK, my second of the year following hot on the heals of the white stork back in May.

So I went to work a very happy boy. I returned to Druridge this evening, at about 6pm, for my planned evening seawatch and it was very quiet, other than a south-bound bonxie - nothing, nada, zilch. The visibility gone by 7.30pm as a light mizzle set in.

If Dave hadn't texted or I had ignored it and gone straight to work, it would have been a very different story.

140 STORM PETREL (No. 224 for the patch)
141 Bonxie

PATCH TICK

2011-07-26T10:19:00.001+01:00

Storm petrel finally on the Druridge list. More on this story later!

My best chance?

2011-07-25T00:04:00.002+01:00

Today was probably my best chance of adding storm petrel to the Druridge List. An overnight northerly had pushed them into the north sea and this morning they were being noted from coastal watch points in BIG numbers.

I spent most of the morning in bed, I've just returned from the Netherlands on a work trip, with little sleep in the last 3 days so I took the choice of a lie-in.

I eventually made it down to Druridge by 12.30, staying til 14.00. The light was crap, I did see a handful of manx shearwaters and 4 velvet scoters. I also had another try this evening for an hour and a half before dusk, again with no success. Druridge is never going to the seabirds that are seen at Newbiggin or even Snab point, a few miles south and visible from Druridge. I think today, if I had been down there early enough, I might have mailed a stormie?

139 velvet scoter

Cuckoo confusion

2011-07-11T18:25:00.000+01:00

Apologies for the lack of blog-action over the last couple of weeks, work and other commitments has meant little time to visit Druridge and even less time for blogging and it isn't going to get any better over the next two weeks.

To make up for long-days, I took a half-day today to get the nets up at Druridge. Ringing was slow, catching ten or so warblers, sedge, willow, whitethroat and blackcap. We bumped into Mike Hodgson, he spotted a cuckoo flying over the road, first at Duridge this year, I remarked "hope it's flown into out net" - well it did.

Ageing and sexing it has proved somewhat tricky however. We are sure it isn't a juvenile or an adult male. Which leaves the female, which in cuckoo comes in two morphs - grey, very much like the male, and brown or rufous.

Our bird showed some of the characteristics of a brown morph female but not all, more like something in between. A trawl of internet images hasn't helped much, other than apparently ruling out a juvenile due to the lack of white fringing on the upperparts. Looking at Collins, the brown morph is barred dark/rufous brown and the upper tail/rump are also rufous brown, our bird had a grey/brown uppertail and rump.

This bird http://www.pbase.com/charlie_fleming/image/113357739/large has a grey/brown uppertail. This one closely resembles our bird and has been labelled 'hepatic morph female' http://www.flickr.com/photos/nigelblake/3118599073/.

Seemingly there is much variation - Any thoughts?

This is the second cuckoo caught and ringed at Druridge, Janet caught an adult may here in July 2007. This one was a ringing-tick for me.

Here are a couple of other photos from today's ringing.

juvenile robin

Fresh juvenile sedge warbler

juvenile blackcap

Other highlights today, Janet saw an adult hobby at close quarters, before it headed towards the dunes then south. I was checking the nets at the north end... There was also an adult merlin hanging about - I always think that mid July is a good time for merlins on the coast.

Last night, about 8.30pm, the sea was like a millpond, with a light pink sky as the sun started to set. I was watching a 'gang' of arctic skuas harassing the terns on their way north to Coquet Island - I counted at least six by the end of the night. The highlight was mammalian, rather than avian - a pod of white-beaked dolphins about half-way out, visible with the naked eye because the sea was so flat. At first they were in a tight group, with much activity, before spreading out over 300-400 metres. Amazing!

yesterday I had both green and wood sandpipers on the big pool and on Saturday evening I watched a little egret going into roost in the heronry -amazingly, my first of the year!

133 garden warbler
134 great-spotted woodpecker
135 little egret
136 green sandpiper
137 merlin
138 cuckoo

Busy times

2011-07-03T23:43:00.000+01:00

I've been rushed off my feet of late, so both Druridge and my blog have suffered as a result. I did a territory mapping session last Thursday and had a quick visit on Friday morning. Then it was back to Scotland, Dunbar this time to ring kittiwakes. Today was an atlas work, the last atlas work until the next atlas. I was in the Goldscleugh Valley in the Cheviots.

Tonight I had an hour or so at Druridge, the highlight was ten or so white-beaked dolphins offshore. Hopefully I'll catch up the blog with some pictures and a better update before I head off to Cornwall on Tuesday for three days. Hectic times!

It's been a while.....

2011-06-27T22:27:00.000+01:00

Sorry for the lack of blog activity lately. A combination of ringing (not at Druridge), work and a twitching weekend to Scotland has meant little time to get onto the patch and i can't see things improving this week much either.

The twitching trip was mixed bag. On the plus side, king eider at Ythan was a new bird for me. On the negative side we dipped the white-winged scoter. It was great to see four surf scoters though, 3 adults and first summer and at least 60 velvets.

It was nice to hear corn buntings singing in the UK again, now they are extinct in Northumberland. There is a nice little stronghold of them in Aberdeenshire.

Hopefully back on the patch on Wednesday morning.....

Dodged the showers

2011-06-19T21:17:00.000+01:00

I dodged the showers this afternoon, only for an hour mind, then the heavens opened.

Foreboding skies

I managed a quick look offshore and had my first arctic skua of the year, a pale-phase bird harassing terns half-way to Norway. I also had one, maybe two, harbour porpoise breaking the surface.

I went to check the bushes and the heavens opened. It looks like it's going to be a changeable week ahead....

132 arctic skua

A great hobby

2011-06-18T21:59:00.000+01:00

I had the best weather of the week to do my territory mapping exercise yesterday morning, a lovely sunny morning.

No 'fawn yawns' yet

Two large flocks, one of linnets and one of starlings, were on the short grass by the entrance, the latter were all juveniles. It'll be worth checking through these starling flocks soon for 'fawn yawns'.A single spoonbill was still loitering on the Budge fields.

surprisingly awake - spoonbill on the Budge fields

Still sedge, willow and grasshopper warblers, whitethroat and blackcap singing and a pair of reed warblers in the little reed bed. This lapwing was showing off in front of the Oddie hide.

"Look at me, aren't I smart" said the lapwing

Beyond the hides, a barn owl took off from the fence, to quick for photo's, incredibly my first of the year on the patch, bird of the day surely?

A walk around to High Chibburn and back to the hamlet and a pair of breeding yellow wagtail, he was feeding the grass, she was going mental at my presence, scolding me until I moved on.

"Piss off" said Mrs. yellow wagtail

Just beyond the hamlet, I simultaneously heard the hirrundines alarm calling and spotted a raptor flying low over the field, sparrowhawk I presumed, until I lifted my bins and saw a moustache...peregrine, no too small, the earlier barn owl was relegated to second best bird of the day. I was watching a hobby. It flew powerfully, low over the field, before banking up to get some height by the barn conversion, showing its red trousers in the process before heading due south, towards Hemscotthill Farm.

With one, probably two, juveniles last autumn and this adult, hobby are becoming more common on the patch than merlin - a sign of the times?

meadow pipit

130 barn owl
131 hobby

white gull - new evidence

2011-06-16T22:56:00.000+01:00

I've received two lots of photo's now of leucistic herring gulls. This one came from Richard Dunn (thanks) of a bird at South Shields

Leucistic HG at S. Shields (from Richard Dunn)

And Tim Sexton and Alan Tillmouth sent me this link http://laridae.blogspot.com/2011/06/herring-gull-leucistic.html

The bird as Druridge had grey scapulars like the bird above, but I didn't notice the yellowy-brownish outer primaries that this bird has, mind it was a long way off. I am convinced it was a leucistic HG though.

On Tuesday night, Hugh Hanmer and I ringed four little owl chicks from a nestbox on the coast, they are fantastic little birds. I've not ringed them before, compared to barn owls they are 'wide-awake' and interested and a wee bit feisty!

Little owl chick, one of four ringed on the Northumberland Coast AONB

confused.com

2011-06-14T22:36:00.000+01:00

I saw a white-winged gull on the beach at Druridge tonight. At frist I thought it was a glaucous gull, but it didn't 'look right' for a glauc. It was a fair way off, on the edge of the tideline.

My conclusion is, without better views, that it was a leucistic herring gull. The head shape and the depth/length/shape of the bill looked good for herring gull. It certainly was odd and looked like a full adult or maybe a third summer bird? It was generally all-over white, apart from some light grey on the wings, it looked a bit 'bright' for glaucous gull too.

Any local birders seen it about?

Wagons roll....YEEEEHAH

2011-06-12T18:39:00.000+01:00

At high noon they hitched up their trailers and rolled on outta town....Yeeehah!

Well at 3.30 this afternoon the honest romany folk left Druridge in convoy. Who knows why? They normally stay for the summer, hopefully they've gone for good. Sadly I have no photo's of the joyous moment, with any luck things can now return to normal. Once the slugs and snails have eaten all of the 'human eggs' we can recommence our ringing activities.

Like a weight lifted from my shoulders, I continued the WeBS count, good to see three broods of gadwall (1 large duckling and a brood of 6 (was seven) and 8 small ducklings), gadwall is still a species considered by the rare breeding birds panel, but for how much longer?

In the bushes two family parties of great tits were roaming about and a reed warbler sang from the reeds (where else?)

I tried to do a seawatch, but the rain beat me, a ringed plover was on the beach and a red-throated diver flew north.

129 ringed plover

Winter's here

2011-06-11T19:12:00.000+01:00

Winter's here, at least it feels like it. 8 deg C, rain and a force four NW wind.....this is June not February!

With ringing curtailed at Druridge by the presence of our travelling friends (already a good collection of 'human eggs' in the bushes), we ringed at Ellington Pond this morning, until the rain set in, catching 28 birds including this ugly blighter.

moulting great tit, we renamed him 'vulture tit'

A combination of the honest romany folk and the Arctic-like conditions put me off going to Druridge this afternoon. I had a couple of hours on the patch yesterday morning however.

A fine vista - what better place to camp?

It was nice to see these sedge warblers feeding young, no chance of ever finding the nest though.

Sedge warbler feeding young

Spot the male

Offshore there were thousands of birds in the bay, the easterly wind must've have brought food with it.

One of several feeding frenzies

There were several of these 'feeding frenzies' with gulls, gannets, terns and auks all after the same food. away from these gatherings, there were large rafts of guilliemots and puffins with the occasional razorbill.

The drift-netters are also active in the bay and by some strange coincidence, the first freshly dead puffins of the year appeared on the strandline.

Dead

On the big pool, this pair of displaying common terns kept us amused and on the Budge fields there are still two spoonbill and amazingly, they were both awake......well, most of the time.

perfect choreography

Honest Romany Folk

2011-06-07T22:19:00.000+01:00

Imagine my delight when I called in at Druridge to find that the honest romany folk have returned for the summer.

It's great to see these friendly characters back on the patch. I can't wait until they get out and about, helping the old and vulnerable to cut down leylandii hedges and overgrown shrubs, then bring them down to Druridge and pile them up as valuable breeding and roosting habitat for birds.

I'm also looking forward to the extra 'bulky organic matter' they'll deposit, free of charge, in the bushes, helping the trees to grow and prosper.

The dog walkers, birdwatchers and beach goers will feel safer too, knowing that they are camped nearby, watching over their cars, making sure nothing is stolen.

It's really great to have them back. And remember, last time they were here, they attracted a red-backed shrike into their camp, wouldn't that be super!

A nicer day altogether

2011-06-06T23:13:00.000+01:00

This morning started bright and sunny and I was up early to do the last but one territory mapping thingy. There was still plenty to record on the breeding front, there were a few family parties of birds and some independent fledged young, some pied wagtails and these stonechats.

juvenile stonechat - not from the brood we ringed

The grasshopper warblers have started singing again, they sing when they arrive, then go quiet whilst they are on eggs, then, when it is time for a second brood, they start reeling again. I recorded two pairs of grasshopper warblers this morning. This one was doing its dinger.

Doing its dinger - gropper in full reel

quiet..briefly

This magpie was nearby, probably looking for freshly fledged gropper chicks.

hungry-looking magpie

A female yellow wagtail was a nice find. The male linnets are looking very smart at the moment, but it is difficult, nay impossible, to record territories for them as they are hanging about in one big flock of about 35 birds. Still plenty of sedge warbler, whitethroat and blackcap activity.

smart black-headed gull

gratuitous cute bunny shot!

Seawatching

2011-06-05T21:36:00.000+01:00

A cold, wet, grey day on the Northumberland Coast today, what a change from Friday, 25 degrees C to 10 in a matter of hours.

My only visit to Druridge since the moth night was to do an hours seawatch this evening from 18:10 to 19:10. I thought the north-easterly wind might bring some passage. It certainly brought the birds closer, with terns and gannets virtually filling my scope.

A decent passage of manx shearwaters was notable, 58 in an hour. also of not was 5 fulmar and 2 roseate terns.

I gave up counting gannets and the commoner terns, hundreds of each, other totals were:

fulmar 5
gannet 350+
kittiwake 68+
puffin 51+
black-headed gull 23+
herring gull 33+
guilliemot 70+
eider 3
razorbill 6
roseate tern 2
manx shearwater 58
great black-backed gull 3
lesser black-backed gull 4

Mothing and ringing aren't complimentary

2011-06-04T11:56:00.000+01:00

Much excitement last night at Druridge, well there was if you like your moths.

NWT organised a moth trapping night with Tom Tams and his trailer set-up, there was also a crowd of batty people doing some bat survey work.

Tom's trailer, complete with lamp and tablecloth

The moth people were out before dark with the sweep nets, I retreated tot he top of the big dune to look for owls. On Thursday night I had an hour at Druridge before dark looking for owls, I had had no success until Bob Dack arrived and almost immediately picked up on a long-eared owl, quartering the silage field beyond the Budge fields. We watched it for 20 minutes or so, a species I didn't see last year.

No luck with LEO's last night, but I did have a tawny owl calling very close, I've not heard tawny at Druridge for many years. Tawny owl is a species I am happy to year-tick on call only, like quail.

The batty people recorded noctule and pipistrelle, they aslo saw and recorded long-eared bat, which would've been a new bat for me at Druridge - I was busy looking for long-eared owls!

Once it was dark, Tom got the mercury-vapour bulb going on his trailer and the moths started to flock to it, they also had a few traps scattered about.

Excitement as the moths come in

my kind of moth - small elephant hawkmoth

fox moth laying egss on a pot-lid. I transported the moth and eggs to the grass to let er continue in peace.

This hedgehog put in a brief appearance.

It was after 1am when we left, so the plans to ring at Druridge this morning were scuppered, it was too windy by the time we got up. With hindsight, we should have put the nets up before dark and stopped down there, hindsight is a marvellous thing.

127 long-eared owl
128 tawny owl

Quite quiet

2011-05-31T22:13:00.000+01:00

Not much doing at Druridge this evening.

The spoonbills have gone, but I have found out about the colour ringed bird thanks to sleuth work by Mike Hodgson. Have a look at the NTBC website for piccies and details http://www.ntbc.org.uk/2011%20spoonbill.html

I had a look from the dunes to see if there was any sort of gull and tern roost on the shore, only a handful of sarnies and some big gulls. There are still two red-throated divers in breeding plumage loitering offshore and a single manx shearwater heading north was a year tick.

A yellow wagtail was out in front of the Oddie hide (just visible through the grass - NWT have strimmed in front of two hides but not the third?) but a dead camera battery means no photo's.

125 manx shearwater

Colour-ringed Spoonbill

2011-05-29T23:03:00.000+01:00

Two very brief visits to Druridge all weekend, and not because of the drink either!

Other things have prevented me getting down to the patch. These include twitching (terek sandpiper), ringing (Ellington Pond), farm surveying and gardening, and tomorrow I'm at the County Show with work all day....

I caught the last hour of daylight at Druridge this evening, the three spoonbills were still on the Budge field, in front of the little hide and .......they weren't asleep.....not at all.....any of them! They even flew a short way and one appeared to be colour ringed, Brian Bullough's blog confirms my brief sighting. Brian's photo's aren't enough to get a sure result and the cr birding website isn't much help without more detail.

So, has anyone out there seen more on these colour rings? I would love to find out where it has come from.

Sharp Start

2011-05-26T00:25:00.000+01:00

A nice, early, 5.30 start at Druridge for a territory mapping visit before work. Nice to see the back of the awful wind for a while, still quite cool for late May though

A single spoonbill still present on the Budge fields (seemingly two were there later). A Reed warbler (which bred at Druridge for the first time last year) was back and singing on territory, was the other highlight. Also nice to see was at least two out of the three stonechats we ringed as pullus, fully fledged and moved away from the nest site, independent of their parents.

You can't see it, but it has got a ring on it. Juvenile stonechat

There was still only one singing wren recorded this morning, but dunnock appear to be back in small numbers now. On the warbler front, there are still several sedge warblers, blackcaps and whitethroats singing, but the willow warblers have quietened down now.

sedge warbler

Other birds of note were a juvenile goosander on the big pool and a two fledged pied wag young.

juvenile goosander

'All mouth' - juvenile pied wagtail

124 reed warbler

Spooner....finally

2011-05-24T22:08:00.000+01:00

I thought I was going to add Spoonbill to the lengthening list of birds that have been seen at Druridge this year - just not by me (which includes avocet, little ringed plover, hooded crow, spotted redshank, med gull and more), but thankfully it's on my list.

It wasn't this morning though, I've been to Manchester over the weekend, then to the match on Sunday and Monday was just too damned windy for any birding.

Four spoonbills were reported at 6am this morning but there was no sign of them when I got there at 8.40. So, a post-work visit was in order, no sign of them from the Budge screen, the wind was still quite strong but they are big birds, surely they couldn't be hiding? A walk around tot he little proved that one, and only one, was hiding.

Where have the other three gone...who knows?

Four black-tailed godwits flew in whilst the spooner slept (why are they always asleep?), they couldn't find anywhere to land because of the dense vegetation at Druridge and continued north. Two male yellow wagtails having a bit of a tussle was also nice to see.

Territory mapping tomorrow - 5am start!

122 spoonbill
123 black-tailed godwit

Fresh Meat

2011-05-19T23:26:00.000+01:00

At last some fresh meat at Druridge.

Four new cows have arrived on the Budge Fields, just in the nick of time. They have joined the ponies who haven't left for East Chev yet, so between them they should make an impact, but there's plenty to go at and they'll need to be joined by more of their friends in July.

Keep on grazing, there's plenty to go at

I did an evening territory mapping visit tonight, only because I am too busy to get a morning visit in.

It was funny seeing red-legged partridges at High Chibburn Farm, a year tick, but already dull after the excitement of last years 'Patch ticks'. Lots of birds were carrying food, I wish I had more time to spend to watching them and do some more nest finding.

Offshore a single roseate tern was year-tick, a nice close bird too. One the beach were 3 dunlin and 6 sanderling, all in stunning summer plumage. We were watching sanderling and dunlin last week in Spain so there is still more to come!

120 red-legged partridge
121 roseate tern

Woodchat Shrike

2011-05-18T22:47:00.000+01:00

Woodchat Shrike

A woodchat shrike!

Not at Druridge sadly. This explains the lack of blogging over the last week or so, I've given Druridge a dodge in favour of Spain. At appears that nothing monstrously rare had turned up whilst I've been away, my mobile has broken so wouldn't have got any text messages in any case.

I was back on the patch briefly on Sunday morning for the WeBS count, a few new brood of mallards and coot and a lapwing chick were pottering around after their parents. We didn't have any 'D' rings with us so the lapwing went un-ringed.

Should be back on the patch tomorrow evening all being well.

The smell of rain and herons

2011-05-06T22:33:00.000+01:00

At last, some rain. You'll not hear me saying that very often but I think we are all glad there has finally been some. I love the smell of rain when it falls after a period of dry weather. I bumped into ST, we had to cower in the hides dodging the showers. We were rewarded with three wood sandpipers on the Budge fields, another wader remains unidentified but was probably a ruff.

Once the rain eased, the temperature rose to 18 degrees C, I had a wander around the bushes in the hope of migrant or two. Nothing in the bushes, but seven wheatears and two white wagtails looked newly arrived.

I got wet again this evening. We had another go at ringing the herons in the colony. Eight nests this year (ten in 2010), with three looking to have failed.

Smelly! grey heron young being ringed

We ringed three out of four in one nest (the runt was too small) and a single big juvenile in another. In nest number three, four young were still too small and nest number five, they were too big, legging it out across the branches, this lot will be fledged soon. The smell of herons is quite distinctive and hangs on you for ages in contrast to the sweet smell of the rain this morning.

There'll be no posts for a week or so now, all will be revealed.....

Swift!

2011-05-05T22:44:00.000+01:00

The first swift of the year is a notable date in any patch-workers notebook, as the last of the migrant breeders to arrive it marks a bit of a milestone in the ornitholigcal year. I saw my first swift of the year today and it was at Druridge.

It's arrival was overshadowed by another migrant this morning, a much scarcer spring bird on the coast - whinchat.

whinchat - record shot

Whinchats are hard to come by in the spring on the coast, much more obvious in the autumn, so this one was nice to see. In 2009, I failed to see whinchat at all at Druridge. A single white wag was the other notable passage visitor.

Two male blackcaps were vying for territory by the Budge screen and whitethroats were still singing strongly. I recorded 48 species at Druridge in three hours this morning, without a seawatch. I reckon with a seawatch I could have easily seen 55 species, over a third of the average yearly total!

The warmer conditions this morning may have been responsible for a hatch of cinnabar moths - they were everywhere!

Cinnabar moths - at it!

On the big pool, these two were making a racket.

little grebe

redshank in summer plumage

117 whinchat
118 swift

To Mull and Back

2011-05-03T23:02:00.000+01:00

Since my last post I have been to Mull and back.

I've also been Druridge.

Mull was great, a lads weekend away, plenty of eagles and beer but no otters. Good to catch up with Bryan too.

Back on the patch for a wander about proved profitable on Bank Hallada Monday (A bit of Ashington-speak slipping in there, sorry). After we checked some meadow pipits nests, we headed for the Budge Screen, wood sandpiper and spotted redshank had been reported whilst I was away on Mull.

A wood sandpiper showed briefly, but no spotshanks remained. A fly-through house martin picked up by ADMc was also a year-tick and two yellow wagtails were by the little hide. On the main pool the highlight was a pair of great-crested grebes. Once a regular at Druridge these birds are becoming really scarce in these parts now. Also of note was fly-though greenshank and a drake pochard.

rusty returns - Swallows on the gutters at Druridge

drake shoveler, shoveling, on the big pool

Today was 'Visit E' of my territory mapping thingy, so an early(ish) start. Again, many species are getting into the serious business of breeding, so not as many singing birds, the newly arrived whitethroats were blasting out their scratchy song and there was at least five of them. Three grasshopper warblers were also reeling, they'll quieten down soon too.

It was nice to see at least one of the stonechats pullis we ringed last week have now fledged, there were probably more in the grass still being fed. I think this events deserves more stonechat pictures.

Stonechat juvenile complete with shiny new ring

And a couple of pictures of the proud father!

This evening a quick look out to sea produced my first common tern and just as the sun was setting a whimbrel flew north, calling.

112 wood sandpiper
113 house martin
114 great-crested grebe
115 common tern
116 whimbrel

2011-04-28T22:39:00.000+01:00

I've spent the last couple of mornings on the patch, having a good wander about but not turning much up. Yesterday, a singing blackcap was my only year tick since THE stork.

drake garganey on the Budge fields

Today, once the Budge fields had been checked and a natter with John Richardson, I spent the rest of my time looking for meadow pipits nests in the dunes. Meadow pipits are always plentiful in the dunes, which is quite amazing given that the dunes at Druridge seem to be the most popular dog walking spot in the Western World!

This one had it's eye on a passing St. Mark's Fly, which are also plentiful at the moment.

mmmm.....Tasty!

In the bushes I came across this speckled wood butterfly, easily the earliest I have seen at Druridge.

speckled wood butterfly, early?

And to round things off, a stonechat picture, no blog post should be without one. I'm off to the Island of Mull tomorrow, extreme lengths to avoid a certain wedding so hopefully nothing rare turns up on the patch whilst I am away.

male stonechat

111 blackcap

Greenland wheatears??

2011-04-26T23:34:00.000+01:00

I've been looking at wheatears amongst other things today. There are still lots of them coming through Druridge, favouring the short turf behind the dunes and the haul road.

Many of the wheatears coming through at this time of year certainly look different to those that come through in late march and are often thought to be of the subspecies leucorhoa or 'Greenland' wheatears. I've been doing some research into this and it appears to be less than straight forward. Most references seem to suggest that without taking biometrics it is not clear-cut and these 'big orangy wheatears' that come through here in late April could be of the nominate oenanthe race breeding in the Fenno-Scandanavian steppes.

Here are two from today:

This could be a candidate for 'Greenland', with rufousy underparts extending down to the belly and looks long winged and legged?

This one is still rufous, but not as pronounced down to the belly and although not as obvious in this photo didn't stand as 'upright' as the bird in the first photo.

I would like to have a go at trapping some of the 'big boys' to get some biometrics from them.

On the Budge fields, there are still a pair of pintail, garganey and ruff. Regular readers of this blog will know I like a photo of a stonechat, so as not to disappoint...

Daddy of the brood we ringed yesterday. The pair were feeding the young today .

PATCH TICK!!!! White Stork

2011-04-25T22:53:00.000+01:00

A species that has been on and off my Druridge list before is now firmly on it. No. 223 White Stork!

This afternoon, I had been to the Budge screen and found a pair of garganey (at last), returning to the car to retrieve my camera, I heard some commotion, looked up and saw a white stork flying no more than 20 metres over my head, it looked like it was coming into land, I ran back to the Budge screen and watched fly low, without much purpose over the big pool, then NW into the farmland inland from East Chevington. I lost it as it cleared the trees heading towards Red Row. Amazing! White Stork is also a British tick and takes my Northumberland list to 301.

I called a few people, but nobody was nearby. A couple who had just seen it at Cresswell Pond joined me in the hide. An unringed white stork was reported from Kibblesworth in Durham this morning - surely the same bird?

I have seen a white stork before at Druridge, in the final year of Alan Tillmouth's patch competition, Mike Henry watched it fly over before dropping into to Warkworth Lane ponds. A few of us went to see it there and found it sporting a plastic ring - the wandering escapee from Harewood House, the lads took great joy in seeing it removed from my list.

A great end to a good weekend, Yesterday, we set the ringing site up. We only ringed until 11am as a luncheon engagement was beckoning, but we did well, catching nine birds. Star of the show was this lesser whitethroat, a bird I didn't see at Druridge in 2010.

lesser whitethroat

grasshopper warbler

Also of interest was a sedge warbler control, it's probably only come from Hauxley or Chevington but still interesting.

controlled sedge warbler

willow warbler

Whilst chewing the fat with John Richardson, I got onto a large bird, flap-flap-gliding behind the trees over the bi pool, I called marsh harrier until it came into view above the trees and it turned into a short-eared owl, another species I didn't see in 2010.

This afternoon, after the excitement of the stork, Janet and I ringed three stonechat pullis from a nest I've been watching and then we went to check on the grey heron colony. Phil Hanmer joined us, we only managed to ring one young heron, some were still too small and some were to large, legging it across the branches out of my reach.

Phil with the young grey heron, just before it shit on him

On the big pool tonight, strangely three female goosanders have turned up.

I'm off work for the next two weeks so should be bale to boost the year-list a bit.

105 greenshank
106 lesser whitethroat
107 short-eared owl
108 garganey
109 white stork
110 goosander

Patch List 223 white stork

Fret

2011-04-22T21:25:00.000+01:00

I love living on the Northumberland Coast.....most of the time.

The only problem is, sea frets! All it takes is one or two sunny days and a light easterly and we get banks of fog rolling in of the North Sea. Five miles inland it can be a beautiful sunny day, I get home or down to Druridge and it is a proper pea-souper and a temperature difference of ten degrees C!

We've had sea frets (or the Ha') since Wednesday evening now, yesterday and today in hardly budged at all from the coast.

So, this morning I set out to do my territory mapping visit in less than ideal conditions, relying on my ears rather than my eyes more than usual. Two of the more recently arrived breeding species were giving it some! Grasshopper warbler (at least eight reeling birds on the patch) and willow warblers. The residents breeders like reed bunting, chaffinch and dunnock have gone a lot quieter and the poor wrens haven't even started.

Two new arrivals today, single sedge warbler and whitethroat singing. On the passage front, any hirrundine movement was obscured by the fret, wheatears were numerous with at least 15 counted along with five white wagtails.

Tomorrow we are doing a ringing demo at Ellington Pond, so if you're in the vicinity call in, we'll be there from 10am until 2pm.

103 sedge warbler
104 whitethroat

Ruff

2011-04-19T19:10:00.000+01:00

A quick visit to Druridge after a work and a quick blog post.

There was a ruff, well to be precise, a reeve on the Budge fields this afternoon. There are elast five gasshopper warblers reeling now.

Nothing else significant to report.

102 ruff

A bit of ringing, a bit of twitching (the big 300) and WeBS..

2011-04-17T21:50:00.001+01:00

I couldn't help it, even though I will be at Bamburgh for work purposes tomorrow lunchtime, I had to go to see the black scoter.

I couldn't go on Thursday or Friday so yesterday morning we went for it. We got very good views of it among the common scoters for comparison, though it didn't much like it's European cousin's. A lifer for me and my 300th for Northumberland, not a bad bird to get the triple century with, though I wish it could have been Druridge obviously.

After celebrating with not one, but two of Carter's finest Sausage Rolls, it was down to Druridge to do the WeBS count, a day early because a full days ringing was planned for Sunday. Two pintail were still on the Budge fields as were 44 teal and 13 shoveler. Once a really rare bird at Druridge it was great to see count at least 17 gadwall, hopefully there will be a few broods of duckings in a month or two.

Offshore there were a further four pintail, at least 500m out with four wigeon nearby and19 red-throated divers was a good count for this time of year. A grasshopper warbler was reeling from the bushes.

Grasshopper Warbler at Druridge Pools Photo (C) Alan Gilbertson

This morning we were ringing at Ellington Pond, a good session ringing 26 new birds of 13 species including willow warbler, chiffchaff and four blackcaps. Then it was off out west for tawny owls, but there were none to be had, so back to Druridge for a quick gander. Nothing much to add from yesterday other than a single puffin offshore which takes the patch list 101.

101 puffin

Ton up..but still no garganey

2011-04-13T23:15:00.000+01:00

I smashed the 100 mark this morning.

100 species of bird seen on the patch since January 1st, six days later than in 2010. The two new birds this morning were yellow wagtail and greenfinch, not really exciting I know.

I did my territory mapping survey this morning, there has been an influx of willow warblers with at least eight singing males heard. Up to seven chifchaffs were chiff-chaffing and a single gropper was reeling away from the reeds.

Out on the haul-road, the piles of chicken muck attracted eight wheatears, two white wags and a yellow wag as well as numerous meadow pipits, chaffinches and linnets. The retired birders might to worse than to keep an eye on the shit piles, I turned a lapland bunting up there last spring.

It was a lovely sunrise this morning, this was taken from Cresswell.

99 greenfinch
100 yellow wagtail

Retired Birders 3: Ipin 0

2011-04-12T22:41:00.000+01:00

Another day of garganeys being seen at Druridge for what appears to be most of the day by the massed ranks of retired Northumbrian birdwatchers. I arrive after work, no sign, despite staying until dusk.

And it gets worse, Trevor Blake called me today and slipped into the conversation that he'd seen a male ring ouzel in front of the Budge screen...last Thursday!! Ring ouzel would've been a new bird for the patch for me. He did call me but I didn't answer. humph!

I sometimes wonder what it would be like to have a patch where nobody else goes to. Living in blissful ignorance of anything you didn't find for yourself. It would be a lot more satisfying and a lot less stressful! I'll have to ask Stewart what its like!

Anyhow, a black redstart was found this morning by some of the massed ranks of retired birders (I need a collective noun for these people - any thoughts?) in the 'Druridge Bushes' which made up for the disappearing garganeys.

first year male (probably) or female black redstart

A crap photo, but the light wasn't good. I've not seen a black redstart on the patch since 2007 (although others have), the bushes were the last place I would have looked, they are normally to be found around the hamlet/entrance. That's me on 98 species for the year, will I break the ton tomorrow when I do my third mapping visit?

98 black redstart

Garganey....gone

2011-04-11T21:34:00.001+01:00

I got lots of messages about garganey's at Druridge yesterday whilst I was cooped up in the back of a van for eight hours, with only 90 minutes of some mind-numbingly dull football breaking it up.

I went to look for them tonight after work, after a good grilling of the Budge fields I concluded that they'd gone. Two bonuses were a willow warbler singing and gropper reeling at the north end, just before dusk. A little influx of sanderling on the shore included a colour ringed bird, probably from greenland. Three pintail are still present and about 13 shoveler are still on the Budge fields.

There was no lapwing activity at all tonight, it was quite windy earlier on but I fear that they might not breed this year at all.....how sad...

96 willow warbler
97 grasshopper warbler

Contrast

2011-04-08T22:58:00.000+01:00

There was lots of contrast on show at Druridge today, the first to catch my eye was amongst the red-throated divers loitering offshore, at least 45 of them!

I scanned through them for one of the big divers with no luck, but the contrast in plumages was striking, from almost breeding plumage including the red throat through to perfect winter plumage birds and everything in between.

Also offshore were two slavonian grebes, one was virtually in breeding plumage with nearly complete golden-yellow tufts, whilst the other one had just started moulting, which, at distance, had me thinking it might have been a black-necked grebe initially (that would be nice - not see one of those for while!)

There was even contrast amongst the much maligned pheasants. The really dark male that has been frequenting the area around the Budge screen was out in full view tonight. He is a dark iridescent green, nearly black in some lights - quite striking!

very dark iridescent green cock pheasant

The shore-lark hasn't been seen today, it was still showing well in the same spot yesterday evening, it's quite sad to hear numerous tales of twitcher/photographer rage whilst it has been there. I dread to think what might happen when something really rare turns up. Good views of the twite flock on the same grass tonight, they are also in breeding plumage and showing quite a lot of contrast, especially in the pinkness of their rumps.

Only one year-tick today, a fly-over bar-tailed godwit.

95 bar-tailed godwit

Bird Race with a difference

2011-04-06T23:25:00.000+01:00

Regular readers of this drivel might remember me waffling on about a car-free bird race some while ago, well the good folks down at the North Pennines AONB have only gone and organised one.

http://www.northpennines.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=14577

The North Pennines isn't an area I am familiar with, other than several trips down there to look for the elusive SW Northumberland race of honey buzzard.....but this could be fun.

But even I, a committed coastal type who gets a nosebleed if I venture west of Morpeth, might well give this a go. I do like the principle of it, even if I have use to half a tank of diesel to get there.

Do they have buses in the N. Pennines? - I'd best find out. I wonder how many teams will have honey buzzard on their lists?

Larkin aboot

2011-04-05T22:14:00.000+01:00

A shore lark was found at Duridge this afternoon, on the short grass, just north of the plantation. It was there from lunchtime, seemingly found by Winnie Banks, a very nice find indeed!

To me, it looks like a female, smaller horns, yellow on the face not as bright as the male and more streaky. I found a shore lark a few springs ago which was certainly a male, big horns and bright yellow on the face. I could well be wrong though....

Shore lark at Druridge (c) Alan Gilbertson

Shore lark isn't a new bird for me at Druridge, I can't find it in the database (still 10 notebooks to go into it!) but it was in the autumn and a good few years ago. Great bird though, especially in the spring.

There were seven twite on the grass with it which gave excellent close views until they were scattered by a dog walker.

Thanks to Alan for the piccie and letting me know about it.

94 shore lark

Territory mapping: Visit B

2011-04-03T21:58:00.000+01:00

An early start at Druridge this morning for my second mapping visit of the breeding season. A little bit of light rain first thing soon cleared to leave a bright, sunny morning.

Generally, it seemed quieter than ten days ago, which is a little odd. Skylark and meadow pipit numbers are back up to full strength and it was really encouraging to see a pair of stonechats carrying nesting material and at least five pairs of grey partridges and eight singing reed buntings.. Worrying though was the lack of dunnocks (1 singing male) and wrens (two singing males).

male stonechat

female stonechat with nesting material

On the migrant front, two more swallows were logged and at last, three wheatears were added to the list.

one of three wheatears

In the dunes, the common dog violets are flowering amongst the even more common dog shit.

common dog violet

93 wheatear

could it be summer?

2011-04-02T21:03:00.000+01:00

Three things make me think it might be summer.

1) I saw my first swallows at Druridge today
2) Racing pigeons - loads of them passing through
3) Some mental bloke was swimming in the sea

All signs of summer in my book, all that was missing was some charvas in a clapped out corsa burning fenceposts and swigging from 3ltr bottles of super-strength cider.

I managed five year ticks at Druridge this afternoon, not bad going if I say so myself. It got me over the disappointment of seeing a snow bunting less than 200m from the patch boundary :-(.

I hadn't even stopped the car when a swallow came over, not the earliest swallow I've seen but certainly close and a full eight days earlier than 2010. A chiffchaff was singing in the bushes. AG had tipped me off about a pochard on the Budge fields, right enough it was there. I was looking for garganey, I was sure I would get one today, sadly not. There were three pintail still on the Budge fields, a pair and female and 18 shoveler with lots of displaying, making eight species of duck on the pools (also three species offshore).

Little grebe - this fella was trilling like crazy!

A pair of sparrowhawks were chasing each other, even talon grappling at one stage, near the Budge screen, good sign they'll be breeding at Druridge this year.

Offshore I picked up my first sandwich tern of the year, flying north, just the one though. There were a few sand martins over the dunes and two more swallows, feeding in front of the dunes - an invasion!

So, still no wheatear or puffin on the list yet, but the year list now stands at respectable 92. I plan to a territory mapping visit tomorrow so hopefully I'll add a few more species?

88 swallow
89 chiffchaff
90 kestrel
91 pochard
92 sandwich tern

Weekend Update

2011-03-27T23:21:00.000+01:00

Friday - my first CBC visit of 2011. I've decided to try to continue doing the territory mapping exercise adapted from the CBC methodology again this year, so Friday morning was Visit A. In terms of breeding birds, skylarks and meadow pipits are certainly back in good numbers with at least 30 of the latter in the dunes. Not much happening on the migrant front though, a single sand martin was a welcome sight.

Highlight of the morning went to a pair of water rails. Mr water rail was in the reeds squealing for all he was worth whilst she pottered around the ditch non-plussed. Another positive sight was seeing tree sparrows hanging about by our boxes, fingers crossed they use them this year.

Today, after stopping briefly at Cresswell Pond to shamefully twitch a drake American wigeon (it is ages since I've seen one), we had a couple of hours at Druridge in the warm spring sunshine. The same sunshine had brought out my first two butterflies of the year, a large white and a very shabby looking peacock.

No new migrants to report, a look offshore for sandwich terns and puffins drew a blank, sic red-breasted mergs and 14 red-throated divers were good counts. At the north end, we watched a group of 40 or so starlings swirling and twisting, quite amazing, the reason? A sparrowhawk, a male judging by his size. The flock was tight at first, twisiting in formation, then it broke up, one bird hit a parked car, flying off, a bit donnered, another fell victim to the pursuer, carried off into the bushes to become a tasty meal. Now, I'm not a fussy eater by any means, but if I was a sprawk, I'm not sure a starling would be my first choice on the menu. Give me a nice, plump, collared dove any time.

86 water rail
87 sand martin

Back to the patch

2011-03-22T21:55:00.000Z

Yesterday afternoon found me back on the patch after a weekend away on the Lancashire coast. We fancied a weekend away, but the middle of March isn't really a good time for anywhere, so as I'd never been to the Ribble estuary we headed for Lancs.

The highlight was the RSPB reserve at Marshside, an amazing place, featuring two freshwater wet meadows and some small pools, not unlike Druridge in some ways but much bigger. It has about 100 pairs of breeding lapwings and there were already about 20 avocet there when we visited. Get this though...they maintain the wet meadows as suitable wader breeding habitat by grazing them with cows...amazing!

The day before we were there, a spotted crake had been seen (early?) and a scaup was reported, which we didn't see, which by Sunday had turned into a lesser scaup!

Anyways, back to the patch and no new migrants. I was hoping to pick up at least a chiffchaff or wheatear, maybe a puffin or sarnie tern. Offshore, there was a razorbill and a single great northern diver amongst the red throats.

A young seal pup had plonked itself onto the beach, it looked perfectly happy and healthy until the dog walkers gathered around it, this really annoyed it. It amused me when it tried biting the man who tried touching it, he deserved that. Someone had obviously called the RSPCA, as an inspector arrived and ushered the young seal back into the sea.

On the pools, a pair of pintails were the highlight, shoveler, teal and wigeon all still present. Five Canada geese on the big pool were new for the year.

A chifchaff was singing outside my office this morning, so I fully expect to hear one at Druridge on friday when I start my territory mapping surveys again.

82 razorbill
83 Canada goose

Coppicing...Aborted

2011-03-14T20:34:00.000Z

Another coppicing session this morning, starting where we left off, just north of the Budge screen. Joined by Steve, the three of us made good progress until my chainsaw made strange noises, noises that sounded expensive...if not fatal!

So that was us, no chainsaw and not really fancying tackling some of the bigger trees with a bow saw, what else to do but go birding?

Whilst we were coppicing skylarks, wrens, robins and dunnocks were all singing. In the dunes, it was heartening to see pair of stonechats back on territory, I feared this species might have succumb to two successive cold winters. Amazingly, the dunes now seemed full of meadow pipits.

No 'true' migrants yet, I had my hopes pinned on an osprey - may as well aim high!

The only other highlight was big female sparrowhawk hunting over the Budge fields and along the edge of the shelterbelt. It flew straight at us in the Budge Screen. Now, if I had two grands worth of dSLR kit, I would've had frame filling flight shots. As I haven't, here it is, miles away, perched in a tree.

Sparrowhawk

Douglas' Island was attracting some attention from a number of species today, I've lost track of the Douglas' Island list.

Douglas' Island

Finally, a word of advice. If you're heading for Druridge Pools and intend going to the Oddie or little hides, do bring your wellies. This poor couple hadn't, but were obviously keen to see what was on the pool, as they scaled the bund and teetered along the edge to get there.

No mountain to high for these two intrepid birders

Nature-based tourism at its finest! Would Norfolk Wildlife Trust would get away with this Cley?

82 stonechat
83 sparrowhawk

Saturday: Sounds of Spring, sounds of winter

2011-03-13T18:30:00.000Z

The sound of spring was in the air at Druridge today, two or three skylarks were high in the sky, blasting out their song, a lapwing was peewiting over the fields and at long last, the first returning meadow pipit since the snow was displaying in the dunes. I'm not sure it had anything to display to mind, with no sign of any other meadow pipits, but it wasn't deterred.

This time last year, the 10th of March to be precise, I had my first wheatear of the year at Druridge. It was my earliest ever Wheatear and something like the fourth earliest County record.

There were still sounds of winter to be heard at Druridge too. A flock of about 35 twite (with a handful of linnets and eight skylarks) were amongst the cattle at the north end and overhead a huge skein of pink-footed geese came up from the Warkworth Lane area, settling in the field in front of the hamlet. There was a single Eurasian white-front in with them - bonus! My first patch white-front for over three years.

I counted the pink-feet flock and got about 2700 which isn't bad as my in-flight estimate as they flew over was 2500.

This week will hopefully bring with it some migrants, I've the day off tomorrow but will be too busy to look for migrants. We're having one last coppicing session before the breeding season. Hopefully I'll get ten minutes off for a look about.

78 twite
79 linnet
80 meadow pipit
81 white-fronted goose

A hunch that didn't pay off

2011-03-08T20:09:00.000Z

There's been a pair of smew on Ladyburn lake at Druridge Bay Country Park for a few days now, I was there for a meeting this afternoon and a colleague had seem them at lunchtime. After the meeting I decided to have a look for them myself.....no sign.

They had probably flown over the ridge onto East Chevington, but what if, a big IF, they had gone a little bit further south....to Druridge?

Only one thing for it, I would have to check it out. My first proper post-work birding of 2011, I've missed it, just popping in to Druridge on my way home. Anyhoo, my hunch hadn't paid off, no smew at Druridge.

I did have an interesting buzzard, hovering low over NW corner of the Budge field, briefly, before it flew W behind the mounds. It was hovering quite low, with deep wing beets and showed a lot of white in the tail.

A common buzzard with white in the tail I hear you say, probably......

Magpies are nice - honest!

2011-03-06T22:10:00.000Z

Sometimes, it is east to glance over some of our more common birds, forgetting how beautiful they are. How many times do you think "Oh, it's just a blue tit/swallow/teal etc"

I was pondering this whilst admiring a rather smart magpie, strutting around the Budge fields this afternoon. Often despised by gamekeeper and conservationist alike, there is no getting away from the fact that magpies are stunning birds. The sun was catching this particular individual in all the right places, showing its glossy green tail and iridescent blue rump. They are cheeky characters too, which does make them hard to dislike, even if they do eat lapwing chicks.

I spent the morning at Ellington Pond, putting up some tree sparrow nestboxes, so didn't get to Druridge til gone midday. Today was a lovely, sunny, spring day, which brought out lots of people to visit the coast. My short visit brought an unexpected haul of new birds for the year.

Small birds are still thin on the ground, a lone dunnock singing at High Chibburn was the first of the year on the patch and only one wren and one robin were logged. No sign of either meadow pipit or stonechat yet.

A pair of mute swans and a little grebe on the big pool made it on to the year list. There are a few smew in the County at the moment including a couple of drakes so I was hoping for one of them, sadly not. They'll no doubt turn up when I am work during the week!

A quick seawatch was productive as kittiwake and fulmar both flew by and a slavonian grebe was close in, the latter, a scarcity at Druridge, which can be missed in some years.

72 mute swan
73 little grebe
74 kittiwake
75 fulmar
76 slavonian grebe
77 dunnock

Not a one trick pony

2011-02-27T22:22:00.000Z

NWT have proved they are not a one trick pony when it comes to grazing the Budge fields. Previously cows and sheep have been utilised, now they are employing two Exmoor ponies. Exmoor ponies are great grazers and are used frequently for conservation grazing schemes.

One of the Exmoor ponies

As welcome as they are, it's great to see some grazing, I fear it will take more than two ponies to get the Budge fields into suitable condition for lapwings by April. Hopefully, this is just the advance party.

After an aborted ringing session at Ellington Pond (due to the strengthening cold NW) I headed to Druridge for an afternoon visit. The cold NW was still blowing and there were a few drops of rain.

Admiring our coppicing work from Friday (I am still in pain!), a flock of siskins passed through, even feeding on some of the cut material, among them were a few tits, chaffinches and a stonking male brambling - see, it's only been cut for two days and its already bringing the birds in!

The Budge fields are still holding decent numbers of wildfowl, shoveler and gadwall now number 6 and there were two snipe, the first since the snows in December.

Spring is here, the coltsfoot are in flower and I clocked the first summer visitors arriving back today, well flying through, four lesser black-backed gulls moving north offshore.

Coltsfoot

Coltsfoot is odd in the plant world in that it produces its flowers before it grows its leaves. It is also used for treating coughs, so if you're feeling a bit wheezy, you know where to find it!

On Druridge Lane, the little owl was still in its usual spot.

68 brambling
69 snipe
70 lesser black-backed gull

A first!

2011-02-25T17:04:00.001Z

This is my first, and probably last, blog post sent from my mobile phone. I downloaded the blogger app so thought i'd give it whirl.

We were coppicing at druridge today for 6 solid hours, i'm knackered now, not used to hard work these days. We got quite a bit done, just north of the path to the budge screen. So when you hear singing whitethroats there this spring.....

I managed two year ticks whilst fuelling the chainsaw, 4 barnacles over with some pink-feets and a single skylark heading north.

coppicing

2011-02-24T20:36:00.000Z

The National Trust had a group of volunteer in coppicing the trees at Druridge recently. Well I say coppicing, to be honest its more like a cross between coppicing and pollarding - a hybrid technique.

Recently coppiced/pollarded alders

The reason we do this semi-pollard/coppice thing is two-fold. Firstly, it stops the rabbits eating the regrowth, secondly, it provides safe nesting 'cups' for birds amongst the new stems, clear of the ground.

It looks brutal at first, all of the trees hacked down, but this is essential work. My territory mapping exercise last breeding season proved this. The number of species and number of territories was higher in the recently coppiced areas. The strip of trees and bushes at Druridge is primarily alder and hawthorn, with ash, willow and some whitebeam with other oddities.

If left, the alders would get quite high, the only birds that would nest would be magpies and crows, the height would further limit the area of the Budge fields for breeding waders. I'm off tomorrow, so were going down to Druridge to a bit more coppicing, it grows so quickly once it is cut, we can't get round it all quick enough!

Alder is quite pale colour straight after it is cut, but it soon turns this lovely orange colour.

Bright orange brightens a grey day at Druridge

Today wasn't so grey, by far the warmest day of the year so far. My work took me to Seahouses where the drake eiders are looking rather resplendent in their breeding plumage!

drake eider looking rather dapper

Sunday 20th Feb

2011-02-21T22:56:00.000Z

I went to Druridge yesterday, it was cold and damp and grey and miserable, I left in a similar mood.

A shelduck has appeared, mid February, bang on cue!

Still three pintail on the Budge fields.

I hate February

67 shelduck

I wish it was March

2011-02-13T22:30:00.000Z

WeBS count day today, yesterday evening's beautiful spring-like sunshine now gone, a cold SE wind with freezing rain at Druridge.......Joy!

Seeing the National Trust with volunteers coppicing trees lightened my heart, good to see this vital work getting done, I hope to do some myself next weekend...the Big Society in action!

Less wildfowl on the Budge fields than of late, but still reasonable numbers of wigeon (226) and teal (118). A pair of pintail still remain, the male looking very resplendent with his long tail feather sticking into the air, ten shoveler and two whooper swans were also notable.

36 curlew and 35 lapwing were on the adjacent fields, six stock doves were in among the curlew which were nice to see.

I wasn't brave enough to check out the sea, I was freezing so headed home for a bacon butty.

Blustery Day

2011-02-07T20:29:00.000Z

Not ideal weather conditions for birding today, but I had a day off and was starting to get cabin-fever after yesterdays rain kept me indoors.

So a lunchtime visit to Druridge was attempted, it started off quite nice, if a little windy, watching a flock of goldfinch in the bushes, hoping to see Alan Tillmouth's brambling from last week. A flock of 16 siskin in the alders were a year-tick.

The Budge Fields were 'lifting' with wildfowl, the pintail count now up to five and a couple of whooper swans there too. Wigeon was most numerous species with at least 350 present and about 250 teal.

You could have surfed on some of the waves on the big pool, but was brown like the chocolate lake Augustus Gloop fell into in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, so it might not have been pleasant. The sky began to darken from the north, we beat a hasty to retreat back to the car, before a squally shower of rain/hail/sleet hit us.

We're off to the Cheviots tomorrow to finish our winter atlas work, hope it hasn't snowed too much up there!

64 whooper swan
65 siskin

How many honkers does it need to do the job of one cow?

2011-01-31T23:22:00.000Z

There were 161 greylag geese grazing away on the Budge fields this afternoon. There haven't been any cows grazing there since November.

Grazers measure livestock in units, one cow is one unit, one sheep is 0.15 units, one goose is ?

It's going to take more than 161 honkers to get the Budge fields looking like suitable lapwing habitat by the spring, especially as they won't touch the big clumps of rush dominating the site, NWT seem as reluctant to tackle the rush clumps....

Druridge Pools is in Higher Level Stewardship, a European agricultural subsidy that pays the landowners to manage the land for maximum environmental benefit....

The fields are looking good for wildfowl at the moment and the pair of pintail seen earlier this week were still hanging present, wigeon numbers are back up to normal since the thaw with an impressive 285 today with about 160 teal and 52 curlew.

Still very few passerines to be seen, a flock of 17 goldfinch was notable. Offshore, a great-northern diver was in the bay with three red-breasted mergansers and a handful of common scoter. An eider flying south was a year tick.

61 eider
62 pintail

neglecting the patch

2011-01-29T16:34:00.000Z

I feel as though I have been neglecting Druridge of late, and am paying the price.

A combination of work, a broken car and very little daylight has meant no visits to Druridge since last weekend. Today, I was in the Cheviots squeezing atlas tetrads in while the weather was good.

Whilst I've not been at Druridge, others have been, and have been seeing pintails, whooper swans, velvet scoters, short-eared owls......All good patch birds which could be missed (I didn't see SEO last year).

It was a beautiful day in the Cheviots today, glorious sunshine and firm underfoot due to the heavy overnight frost. We managed 21 species in four hours over two tetrads around South Middleton and the Dod, despite hunters being out in force. A full ermine stoat at Bywell on the way home was nice.

Hopefully I will be at Druridge tomorrow all being well, we have a new ringing site in Ellington to test out in the morning though.

Hard Work

2011-01-23T22:04:00.001Z

I find birding the patch at this time of year hard work.- Once the initial flurry of year ticks is over in the first couple of weeks of January, it becomes harder until the first of the spring migrants turn up in March.

Until then, I'll keep slogging away. It won't be long before the first wheatears, chiffchaffs and sandwich terns arrive. Before them the Shelducks will be back in February.

I walked out to Low Chibburn Preceptory today, to see if anything of interest was roosting in it. It's an interesting place, having served various uses from hospital for pilgrims, a dower house and a World War II look out.

Artist's impression of how Low Chibburn may have appeared in the 1400s. Drawn by Terry Ball.

Follow this link for more information

This is how it looks today

There wasn't any birds there, but there were some fresh barn owl pellets. Walking back by the farm I added wren, song thrush, robin and reed bunting to the year list.

The sea was miles out but I did manage to add a solitary gannet to the list.

55 robin
56 song thrush
57 reed bunting
58 wren
59 jackdaw
60 gannet

WeBS Saturday

2011-01-15T17:02:00.000Z

I did my WeBS count today, a day early, because I have a rather important football match to go to tomorrow. I'm already starting to get nervous, I hate derby days. The buses leave St James' at 10am, we've found a pub that opens at 9 so we can get a couple of nerve settlers in before we set off.

No bitterns today, or yesterday when I checked at first light....humph.

There was lots of wildfowl on the Budge fields, mainly wigeon, teal and mallard. Shoveler, gadwall, goldeneye and tufted duck were year-ticks.

Top counts were:

teal 226
wigeon 197
mallard 78
redshank 41
lapwing 58

It was very windy, force 4-5, from the west which made the big pool very choppy, giving the four coots cowering in the Phragmites bed, the place to themselves.

Nothing much else to report

51 shoveler
52 tufted duck
53 gadwall
54 goldeneye

AGGGGHHHHHH New bird for the patch...... and I didn't see it

2011-01-13T23:22:00.000Z

Gripped off big style!

I went to the Northumberland and Tyneside Bird Club Meeting tonight to hear an excellent talk by Huw Lloyd about Peru - another place added the list of places to go!

Anyhoo, that aside, shortly after arriving at the venue, Trevor Blake and Tim Dean, our County Recorder tootle over to me, Tim casually announces that he had been watching a BITTERN..yes BITTERN at Druridge Pools at lunchtime today. Not a flyover, commuting between Cresswell and Chevington either, this was sat out on the Budge fields in front of the screen hide.

See the NTBC sighting page for the gruesome truth!

For some reason, Birdguides wouldn't put he news out? I've given Tim my mobile number.

This wouldn't be a just a patch tick for me, this is almost certainly a new bird for the patch.

I'm off to cry myself to sleep.

A thought about birdracing

2011-01-10T23:20:00.000Z

I've participated in bird races for a few years now, both winter and summer. We haven't done the summer birdrace for a couple of years now, midnight til nigh on the following midnight, it takes up the whole weekend including time to recover, it's tough going and difficult to find a free weekend.

I do enjoy a winter birdrace, as long as it's not on the 1st or 2nd of January, for some reason, there didn't appear to be a winter birdrace this year at all (unless nobody told me, which is possible) and this got me thinking about the whole principle of birdracing.

As fuel becomes more expensive and people think more about their carbon footprint, twitching has become more of a taboo, hare-arsing around the country in the pursuit of rarities, burning the worlds precious resources..... I wondered whether the cost of fuel and guilty conciousness are making people think twice about bird racing?

On a summers bird race, I bet it is easy to clock up 250-300 miles roving the far-flung bits of the county in search of ospreys, wood warblers and black grouse. At £70 to fill the tank, it's an expensive day out. I also got thinking about Stewart and his OFFH (on foot from home list) and ADMc and his incredible bike list of 2009. People have year lists without resorting to using a car, or any form of motorised transport, could a low-carbon birdrace be a possibility?

It could be on foot, on a bike or on the bus or a combination of the three..... It's got me thinking!

In recent years, our team and no-doubt others have developed finely-tuned routes that they stick to and for me, that got a bit dull, as the planning was the best bit!

So, any thoughts on a low-carbon summer bird race? Anyone fancy a challenge?

SaTURDay

2011-01-09T21:07:00.002Z

My only visit to the patch this weekend was yesterday morning, there was no updates last nights due the appalling display by the toon in the FA Cup which saw us exit the competition at the hands of lowly Stevenage. I was too emotional to post anything last night!

I was cheerfully optimistic about the football and my visit to Druridge yesterday morning, I shouldn't have been about either.

mallard and teal on thin ice

There was very little to see at Druridge and the westerly wind made it bitterly cold. The pools is largely still frozen, a few hardy teal and mallard hanging about by the unfrozen patch.

The normal wigeon flock has been gone for weeks now, I wonder where they go? Grey herons are thin on the ground too, I hope it is a case of them having moved on rather perishing, we might even get a ringing recovery from the pullus we ringed last spring, the big rings should be readable in the filed if a bird is on ice.

Still no robin, dunnock or wren on the 2011 patch list, again, I wonder where the wrens go, they tend not to fly far so it'll be interesting to see if we catch any of 'our' birds in the spring.

A look offshore was worthwhile, 14 red-throated and two great northern divers were in the bay, three drake red-breasted mergansers and a handful of common scoter. Frustratingly, I saw a bird I couldn't identify, it was a long way off mind, long-winged like a wader, but with a more gull like jizz. It looked short-tailed and 'dumpy' and had an obvious dark leading edge to an otherwise greyish looking wing, overall it appeared to whitish/greyish. Befuddled me.

peek-a-boo, a little owl on Druridge Lane

On the drive to Widdrington farm shop for a fat-free diet pasty, an unfortunate moorhen, frozen off the ponds, was a roadkill victim by High Chibburn Farm and the little owl was in its usual tree on the lane.

47 great-northern diver

48 grey heron

49 common scoter

A New Year, same old patch...

2011-01-03T19:49:00.000Z

Back on the patch today for the first time this year.

Birding on new years days is never really an option for me and with the Toon away to Wigan yesterday today was my first chance to get out.

I did promise a short report of 2010, I ran out of time on NYE, too busy preparing tapas and making my 'Captain Chaos' outfit. It might still happen.... Amazingly last years bird species total was exactly the same as 2009 - 157! One short of 158 in 2008 and well short of my best ever total of 168. Two new species were added to the patch list, great-white egret back in April and red-legged partridge on Christmas Day.

Hopefully 2011 will bring a few more patch ticks, there are still some commoner species I still need such as bluethroat, pallas's warbler, icterine warbler, wood warbler and tree pipit.

Today, the 2011 list got of to a fair start given the very cold weather we have been experiencing. It was still cold at Druridge with a biting NW wind, the ponds and fields still frozen. I walked up to the Preceptory and down to High Chibburn and back via the hamlet.

A quick look on he sea produced five nice drake red-breasted mergansers in full summer garb and a single red-throated diver. Passerines were thin on the ground, with the winter thrushes present last week apparently retreated back inland, robin, dunnock and wren also notable by their absence.

My first raptor of the year was a buzzard, out from the back of the big pool, I caught up with Bob Biggs and he picked up a distant peregrine on the patch boundary - nice one Bob!

Other good patch birds to get the list rolling were stock dove, woodcock (still plenty about), long-tailed tit, yellowhammer (still good numbers on the roof of the farm) and collared dove, once a rare bird at Druridge, have now taken up residence at the farm.

Rabbit and hare were the only mammals of the day.

here's the list:

1 shag
2 red-breasted mersander
3 cormorant
4 guilliemot
5 sanderling
6 carrion crow
7 herring gull
8 great black-backed gull
9 common gull
10 black-headed gull
11 teal
12 wigeon
13 red-throated diver
14 curlew
15 redshank
16 starling
17 skemmie pigeon
18 mallard
19 grey partridge
20 greylag goose
21 stock dove
22 long-tailed tit
23 common buzzard
24 lapwing
25 rook
26 pheasant
27 blackbird
28 magpie
29 chaffinch
30 yellowhammer
31 coal tit
32 collared dove
33 blue tit
34 house sparrow
35 moorhen
36 mistle thrush
37 pied wagtail
38 oystercathcer
39 woodpigeon
40 tree sparrow
41 great tit
42 dunlin
43 woodcock
44 peregrine
45 pink-footed goose

Out like a lamb

2010-12-30T15:28:00.000Z

The new year didn't really come in like a lion at Druridge and it looks like it might be going out like a lamb....

Probably my last visit of 2010 to the patch and it was very, very quiet. There is a bit of a thaw on, even some green grass showing in places, but the budge fields are still frozen solid, so is the big pool apart from a postage-stamp sized bit of open water which was occupied by bathing gulls. The wigeon and teal stood around it, together, for safety.

Grey partridge are still easy to spot and two coveys of eleven and twenty were at the north end.

The farmer at High Chibburn has agreed to put up a little owl box in his barns, so I called in there to drop him a box in. I've been seeing a little owl regularly on Druridge Lane and there has been one around the hamlet too, so hopefully they will find the box in the new year.

All going to plan there should be an annual review posted tomorrow before I sign off to celebrate the passing of another year with copious amounts of lager.

Christmas presents don't get better than this - A FULL PATCH TICK!

2010-12-25T15:46:00.000Z

Christmas comes but once a year.Nowadays patch ticks don't come much more frequently.

We had our traditional Christmas Day walk at Druridge this morning,the first bird was a barn owl hunting by the road - a year tick. The other highlights were an ermine stoat, it's aeons since I last saw a winter stoat - this one still had some brown along the ridge of its back, otherwise white, and a merlin.

As the road between Cresswell Village and Cresswell Pond is now pretty much impassable, we headed home via Widdrington and thank god we did!

Just as we rounded the double bends, I spotted a bird crouched by the roadside. Bins on it, it was a partridge, but not a grey partridge, common at Druridge, especially lately - this one was a red-legged partridge!

Then there were two, then three, then a whole covey of at least 18 birds! Amazing! What better Christmas present could a patch worker want than a full patch tick?

I see red-legs all over Northumberland, often within two miles of Druridge, but I've never actually seen one on the patch - until today

It has to be said though, only a patch watcher could get excited about seeing red-legged partridges!

PATCH LIST 221

Merry Christmas to one and all!

Christmas Greetings from a bright, white, Druridge

2010-12-24T20:33:00.000Z

Not much snow on the land today, but as I slid my way to Druridge today it was certainly snowing offshore from Cresswell.

Dramatic snow storm out to sea (best place for it)

Druridge was white and bright, a crisp, cold day. There wasn't many people about either, though it sure to be busy over the next few days, the road is well dicey near Cresswell Pond so that might have a few people turning back.

Bright and White - Druridge today

I walked along the road via the Budge screen and back along the beach. There were a few thrushes about and I soon had all the common winter thrushes in the bag, including this fieldfare gulping down haws.

fieldfare gulping down berries

There was a large flock of siskins moving through the bushes, feeding on the bountiful alder mast, I counted about 40 and grilled them for redpolls without any luck. There were a few goldfinches in with them though, this one was obviously bored with alder seeds and feasted on a teasel instead.

siskin - one of about 40

Goldfinch - enjoying some teasel seeds

There were still lots of woodcock about, it was almost comical to see several trying to feed in amongst the sheep like the grey partridges were doing not far away, plenty of them too with coveys of 10, 11 and 25.

One of several woodcock in among the sheep

The beach was almost devoid of birdlife sparing a pied wag and a handful of sanderling.

It just leaves me to say "Merry Christmas" to you all and enjoy your festive birding!

I'll be at Druridge for our traditional Christmas Day walk tomorrow, I am not sure the blog will get updated though!

Triple-Whammy

2010-12-13T21:49:00.000Z

Gutted.....

That's what!

Firstly, Janet and I arrive in the Oddie hide this morning, having taken a day off work, get talking to a photographer chap who tells me he had a snow goose over Druridge Pools yesterday. I've seen snow goose before at Druridge but it was yonks ago and it would have been a great year-tick.- Gutted!

Secondly, after we found a little owl (my first and only owl species of the year at Druridge) being mobbed by small birds in the pine plantation, we split up, me going down the field side of the willows, Janet along the road. She gets onto a great-spotted woodpecker (a year-tick), calls me over, it flies off, I don't see it - Gutted.

Thirdly, I read the comments on yesterdays post, ST telling me had been watching two barn owls at Druridge on Friday. Two more than I've seen this year.

Humph

Still lots of woodcock about and a rock pipit on the beach

Just heard there's a lesser white-fronted goose in Norfolk, that would be nice!

The Thaw

2010-12-12T22:20:00.000Z

The snow has virtually all gone from the coast now, the fields are all holding water and the Dunbar burn is running at 'full howk' over the beach.

I only had a hour or so on the patch this afternoon, trying to get out between the showers. The wet fields all had waders in them, mostly redshank and curlew and in the fields to the north there were at least 1600 pink-feets, which flew over the patch after some shots were fired, so much for shooting bans.

Pink-footed Geese

Other birds are concentrating on feeding up after the snow, not really bothered where they do it, there was family of mute swan and a dozen redshank right by the side of the road

Nice to be back

2010-12-04T21:58:00.002Z

I was so pleased to get out and go birding today, having fought my way to work and back every day and stuck at home all last weekend it was great to be back on the patch. What made it even better? Quality winter birding!

Cold

To kick off - lots of geese between Druridge and Hemscotthill, approaching 1000 pink-foots with nine pale-bellied brents in with them. I didn't get the scope for out for fear of scaring them, so I didn't get a chance to grill them for any other species.

Pink-footed geese near Druridge Hamlet

I had a good walk around the patch, the most obvious and amazing thing was the number of woodcocks, they were everywhere! I din't need to walk through the bushes, there were four in the willows by the Budge screen, twelve in the pine plantation by the entrance, four in the scabby blackthorns at he north end and even one in the mugwort valley of death. There was shooting going on in the surrounding shelterbelts all day - I wonder if it was woodcock they were after?

The only ~~woodcock~~ curlew photo I managed to get - I think a fox may have got it first

Whilst looking for woodcocks to photograph, I saw a stoat prancing about after something, no photo's sadly but great to watch.

The big pool had lots of wildfowl on it, nothing unusual, just common winter ducks, wigeon was the most numerous at 250.

Winter wildfowl on the big pool

There were lots of small birds on the move too. A flock of 50 or so skylarks were put up by a sparrowhawk, 60 twite where in the dunes to the north, two flocks of long-tailed tit and a flock of 55 goldfinch were roving about.

goldcrest on teasel

Nothing of note on the beach other than this gruesome dead grey seal minus its eyes and a peregrine over the dunes.

Not looking good.....

At High Chibburn Farm an incredible 29 yellowhammers were keeping their feet warm on top of the cowsheds and 20 or so skylark fed on spilled grain by the barn.

One of 29 yellowhammer son the roof of the barn at High Chibburn Farm

So not a bad days winter birding - 51 species without even trying.

Service - Second to none

2010-11-26T19:28:00.001Z

WOW - I am so impressed!

In this age of internet shopping and especially my recent dealings with courier firms, I thought the days of good, even bog-standard, customer service were over.

They're not, not if you buy from Swarovski.

A week or two ago, I caught my Swarovski's on the boot of the car, breaking the little plastic clip on the strap, not a disaster, but not good.

On Wednesday, I emailed Swaovski to ask for a new clip, I thought the strap was looking a bit shoddy (they are 10+ years old and have been most of the way around the world), but thought it cheeky to ask for a strap.

So today, while I was snowed in, the Postie arrived with a package from Swarovski, not just a clip but a whole new strap, in less than 48 hours since emailing them.....Amazing!

My Bins have been back to Austria twice, once my fault, once a design fault, both times they sent me another pair to use whilst mine were away.

I've not been to Druridge today, there was 6-8" of snow overnight and I thought it was unlikely the road to Druridge would have been treated. Should get down tomorrow, but as I write this the snow is beginning to fall again.

These pics were taken from our ringing site at Ellington

heading for a cold snap

2010-11-22T20:18:00.000Z

The long range forecast predicts a cold snap for the weekend, freezing cold northerlies from Thursday with a dump of snow for the east coast...could be interesting. The north wind will be particularly strong on Friday and I've got the day off.

White bird brightens grey day

2010-11-21T15:45:00.000Z

I went to Druridge this afternoon, it was grey, wet and miserable. I saw a little egret flying over the Budge fields, it landed by the little hide, it brightened my day.

It rained, I went home.

Well travelled sanderling

2010-11-15T22:08:00.001Z

I recently received an update of one of the colour ringed sanderlings I saw at Druridge back in 2009 and again earlier this year. http://ipinswildlifeblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/life-history-of-colour-ringed.html .

This individual is ring number 896110, here are a few key dates:

16/05/2009 Sandgerði, "first beach" Iceland 64.02.35 N 22.42.54 W Bob Loos

27/05/2009 Sandgerði, "second beach" Iceland 64.02.39 N 22.42.54 W

16/08/2009 Druridge Links, Morpeth, Northumberland 55.16.34 N 01.34.05 W Iain Robson Janet Fairclough

23/12/2009 Le Curnic, Guissény, Finistère France 48.38.26 N 04.26.50 W Pierre Leon

28/12/2009 East Chevington, Northumberland 55.17.29 N 01.34.05 W David Elliott

03/01/2010 Druridge Links, Morpeth, Northumberland 55.16.34 N 01.34.05 W Iain Robson

28/03/2010 Low Newton-by-the-Sea, Northumberland 55.30.45 N 01.36.52 W Chris Redfern

16/05/2010 Sandgerði, "second beach" Iceland 64.02.39 N 22.42.54 W Jeroen Reneerkens

18/05/2010 Sandgerði, "first beach" Iceland 64.02.35 N 22.42.54 W Jeroen Reneerkens Bob Loos

25/10/2010 East Chevington, Northumberland 55.17.29 N 01.34.05 W David Elliott

Not bad eh? What made it travel from France to East Chevington in less than five days in December, maybe it was the weather, maybe just catching up with the family for Christmas?

Thanks to Dave Elliott for the update

End of another ringing year

2010-11-14T21:09:00.000Z

As there are now no leaves left on any trees at Druridge, at all, it's time to pack-up the ringing site, which basically means taking away our bamboo net poles for winter storage.

I've not had time to work out how many birds we have done this season, but I will and post some figures on here soon.

The wind had moved some of the poles deep into the bushes, so I spent most of this morning crawling under and through blackthorn and hawthorn bushes to retrieve them (seemingly it's what trainee ringers are there for). I now look like a self-harmer.

Whilst retrieving the poles, I came across a mixed flock of finches, mostly siskins (about 20 of these) moving through, feeding on alder cones.

Today was also WeBS count day, the Budge fields and the big pool are both brim-full, a large sand bar was blocking the Dunbar Burn mouth, it's flowing a bit now, but is well backed-up. If you are heading to Druridge soon, take your wellies, you'll need them to get to the Oddie hide.

The cows have mysteriously disappeared from the Budge fields, have they been rustled? I thought they were supposed to be on the for the winter, there is certainly more work for them to do.

Lots of teal on the Budge fields (I notice the green-winger was at Cresswell today, it would be nice to see it at Druridge before the turn of the year!), the wigeon were all on the big pool and 35 curlew were on the adjacent fields.

Stormy Seas

2010-11-09T23:26:00.000Z

No Druridge today unfortunately, the necessity that is work got in the way again.

I was out and about a bit though, this morning I was in Rothbury and on my drive there and back I saw flocks of thrushes, fieldfare and blackbirds mainly moving about, looking as though they had just arrived.

Boiling seas at Howick

This afternoon, I had to go out on site in Stewart's patch. Two days of near gale force easterlies have certainly whipped the North Sea into a frenzy, as we drove along the coast road, clods of foam were flying over the car, landing amongst the sheep in the filed next to us.

The sea was boiling and although the wind had eased a bit, was still blowing spray our way - it was quite exhilarating! In the small, stunted hawthorns by the Coast Path, we saw a few newly arrived goldcrests busily feeding and a couple of blackbirds. Goldcrests never cease to amaze me, such tiny creatures making it over the north sea in such horrendous conditions.

The boys from 202 Squadron at RAF Boulmer were using the bad weather to get some flying practice in.

202 Sea King over the Bathing House

202 Sea King over Rumbling Kern

Another Stonechat Picture

2010-11-07T22:20:00.000Z

Yet another picture of a stonechat at Druridge...

Another stonechat at Druridge

I know, I always have photo's of stonechats but they are nice and they do ask to be photographed. And today, there was precious little else to take photographs of.

Druridge was just about devoid of any for of life other lots of people taking advantage of crisp sunny autumn day. despite a chilling NW wind, it was rather pleasant and a stroll on the beach in the sun, sheltered by the dunes, it was actually quite warm.

The wind is going to turn though, with strong easterlies and rain forecast for the next couple of days. It is getting a bit late for a big fall, but we might get a mega rare, hopefully at Druridge. I would be happy with a brown shrike.

Druridge hamlet in the autumn sunshine

Ringing Recovery

2010-10-30T22:06:00.001+01:00

We've just had word of another ringing recovery from Druridge. We don't get many recoveries, so it's quite exciting when we do - even if they've not gone very far.

This one didn't get very far...

It was a goldfinch, ringed by me on 31st October 2009, it was caught on 29th June 2010 at Swarland, having travelled all of 13km!

View Goldfinch X370587 in a larger map

I was ringing at Cherryburn today, we didn't catch much, two redwings were the highlight. I won't get to Druridge tomorrow either as there is a rather important football match to attend....everything is crossed!

Mermaids Tears

2010-10-24T23:06:00.000+01:00

Finally back on the patch after too-long an absence. It was bright and breezy, with the odd icy shower thrown in, a brisk northerly keeping the temps well down. The weather wasn't conducive to finding passerines and as a result the list of species recorded in the notebook was poor for October.

A walk along the track first, checking the Budge fields and big pool from the hide then a walk back along the beach, with nothing really noteworthy seen along the way. A covey of twenty one grey partridges in the dunes was impressive, so was the sea, boiling after the recent northerlies.

We were saddened to find a lot of mermaids tears along the strandline.

Mermaids Tears

The technical name for these 'mermaids tears' is nurdles. Nurdles are small plastic pellets and this is the form in which plastic as a raw material is transported around the world. Nurdles get into the sea directly from plastic factories via the the drainage and river systems, they also leak from containers and ships.

Nurdles can now be found on virtually any beach in the world. Mermaids tears are ingested by sea creatures, including birds, which are both poisonous themselves and attract other toxins in the water, poisoning the creatures that swallow them.

see http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-mermaid-tears.htm and http://www.sas.org.uk/pr/2007/mermaids_tears_1.php for more gen on mermaids tears.

The recent storms have changed the beach profile dramatically, taking the dune fronts back a foot or two. I have never seen the second row of tank blocks exposed this much in all the years I have been going to Druridge.

Second row of tank blocks well exposed

tank blocks

There was nice light this afternoon

Druridge Beach looking south

I was also disappointed to see the appearance of second Dalek by the entrance to Druridge.

Not one, but two pointless bins

When will people learn that bins in rural, coastal locations don't work? Not only do bins and other bits of pointless clutter ruin the countryside, they actually cause more litter than they solve. People who get as far as these bins have already made the decision to take their litter with them. Moron's who drop litter will drop it no matter how many bins there are. All that will happen now is that they will fill with picnic waste and chip wrappers, people will dump stuff by them and the gulls, crows, foxes and badgers will tear the lot to shreds and scatter for it miles.

I despair, when are people going to be made to be responsible for their own actions, if you take stuff out into the countryside, take the rubbish home with you!!

Not so Sloe

2010-10-12T22:36:00.000+01:00

I had a day offuv work today, I had two chores to do at Druridge, moving some poles around our ringing site and picking some sloes for the sloe gin. I had also had to do the WeBS count.

A great-crested grebe was the only interesting bird on the pool, the Budge fields still being thigh high vegetation.

A lot of birds have moved out since the weekend, but there are still birds arriving. I saw a few small groups of thrushes coming in over the dunes.

Skylarks were moving, mainly south, all morning. Impossible to count, maybe a hundred in a couple of hours, including one flock of 25. There are still good numbers of migrants in the bushes though, robins and goldcrests being the most obvious.

Last year we hardly saw a goldcrest on the coast so it is nice to see these cheerful little chappies flitting through the bushes.

A few blackcaps and chiffchaffs went onto the list as did a single garden warbler.

The most important thing though, I got the Sloes picked and they are now happily soaking in some gin, the book reckons you should keep it for 18 months. Two chances of that!