February - the longest month?

Yes, I know that if you count the number of days, February is the shortest month. But for the patch watcher it always feels like a long month - the long wait for spring. A new year and a new year list makes January quite exciting, by the time February comes along you've seen most of the birds that you're going to see until the first spring migrants turn up at the end of March.

I saw three new species of the year on a brief visit to Druridge this afternoon - little egret on the Budge fields and a buzzard over the haul road were new. Fulmar was the other addition, flying south offshore. A January Fulmar is rare at Druridge,  I always think of them as a February bird, a bit like gannets.

Little egret feeding on the Budge fields

There were at least five black-tailed godwits on the Budge fields and alongside the little egret a drake pintail was nice. I couldn't find the earlier-reported knot but the light was against me. Two lapwings were having a right barney so spring might already be in the air.

territorial lapwings

Black-tailed godwit

The same bird - feeding

Offshore the tide was well out and the birds distant. A scrambler bike on the beach did for any shore bird interest.

Two white-fronted geese flying over - from last weekend

Flighty

It was still blowing a hooley today and as a result everything seemed to be a bit flighty at Druridge.

I had a walk up to the Preceptory, the pink-footed geese were lifted off the fields by a passing tractor and didn't settle again. Whilst they got up a pair of marsh harriers had put everything up on the Budge fields and then flew towards the far, the male settling on the filed the geese had vacated for a while.

Pink-footed Geese

There were thousands of starlings skimming the fields and hedges in big flocks, before settling for a while. This flock had a bathe in a small pool.

About 80 fieldfare were also roaming about the damp fields.The Preceptory was bird-free.

Back towards the cottages, a buzzard was being mobbed by a couple of crows. As it got closer, It looked quite long-winged and I noticed really obvious pale patches in the upperwing which got me interested so I fired off a few shots. It was just a common buzzard, but an interesting bird.Variable things, Buzzards.

Buzzard

There are still two pintail on the Budge fields and the common scoter is still on the big pool. Also of note was two woodcock flushed from the bushes, my first of the winter.

76 long-tailed tit
77 woodcock
78 canada goose
79 marsh harrier
80 fieldfare
81 buzzard

PWC score 100

Back on the patch

I was back on the patch today after my trip to Mallorca.

Before I set off, I had envisaged returning to the patch to find wheatears, sand martins, chiffchaffs and sandwich terns....maybe even a swallow or a ring ouzel.

Instead I return to sub-zero temperatures and spring well and truly on hold! Talking to Alan Tilmouth and ADMc, it sounds as if there has been no migrant action at all yet, anywhere up north.

Chatting to Andy and Alan, it was good to catch up with an old friend - Tijan Kanteh. I first met with Tijan when he guided a group of us around the Gambia in 2004 and then later a couple of Birdfairs. Tijan is a really nice, funny guy and great guide, it was good to see him again. He had been out birding with Steve and Dave, I wonder what he thought of the cold as they walked along the beach?

Tijan with ADMc in the Budge Screen

There were a few signs of spring. Meadow pipits in the dunes and by the flash, skylarks singing and pied wagtails (also by the flash). Also of note was a woodcock, which came out of the shelterbelt as I wandered through.

skylark

I've heard all about the 'wreck' of seabirds on the East coast, particularly involving auks, so I had a wander along the beach to see for myself the devastation. Between the north end of the patch and the big dune, I found 22 puffins, seven guilliemots, one razorbill and a kittiwake. All very sad, but I am sure it won't have too much of an impact on the population - we'll have to wait and see.

dead puffin - one of 22

razorbill

There were also lots of cuttlefish 

Two loony-tunes found a way to keep out the cold - dancing and doing star jumps on top of the dunes. Not a bad idea!

Loony-tunes

82 ringed plover
83 oystercatcher
84 buzzard
85 woodcock
86 pied wagtail

A hunch that didn't pay off

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......

A New Year, same old patch...

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