Thursday 7 October 2010

A Pile O' Shite

A very large pile of shite has appeared on the patch

A large pile of shite
Closer inspection revealed it not to be shite but a pile of the compost the Council produce from garden waste, still, it might bring a few birds in. The farmer used to leave piles of chicken muck lying around and it was good for all sorts of birds.

Anyhoo, there were no birds on it tonight, and not many elsewhere on the patch, the bushes were pretty quiet. I checked out the beach for snow buntings, there weren't any, but a wheatear and a rock pipit were nice finds. 

There was also this dead seal pup, not very old (less than four weeks?) It looked a little different and I was thinking it might be too early for grey seal pups, especially this far from the Farnes, unless they are pupping on Coquet Island this year. Might it be a common (harbour) seal pup? They are tricky and head shape and nostril pattern are good indicators - I didn't photograph the nostrils but the head/nose area was pretty mangled anyhoo. Maybe Steely offuv the Farnes can help?

Dead Seal Pup - common or grey?

Its heed
To be honest, when I first saw it, I thought it was a small white dog.

This spotted flycatcher was on the fence at dusk, it looked really orangey at time sin the setting sun.

Spotted Flycatcher
small flocks of birds flew in, or over, at dusk, including a small group of redpoll and some linnets.

And a nice sunset to round of the evening.

Sunset through the dunes
The wind will be coming out of the east over the weekend, SE to begin with, then swinging more northerly, with good, clear conditions on the other side. All we need is some murk and mizzle to drop birds in, but it is looking unlikely, though XCweather is predicting some mist tomorrow evening. We'll have the nets up whatever.

5 comments:

Birding about Northumberland said...

Lets hope the pile of shite attracts some nice birds for you, hubby was impressed with the sunset shot, lovely shot
Michelle

Bryan Rains said...

It's a Grey Seal pup. The Common Seals pup around June time so this has to be an early Grey Seal pup.

Warren Baker said...

Is that a late Spot fly for you Ipin? I never see any past sept.

Stewart said...

Predicted weather is spot on Roppa, get the nets up, the place is lifting with stuff. Bluetail for you tomorrow I reckon...

Yep Warren it is late for Spotties but we do get odd ones in October if the weather is right...

Ipin said...

Stewart, today was looking good from Tuesday, bang on - it's good when these things happen on a Saturday - no bluetails though, maybe tomorrow

Brian - I was thinking late common? I'll get some gen offuv Steely on the Farnes.

Warren - As Stewart says, we get the odd Sept record, there was at Newton today