Terns

Yesterday morning I had a plan. That plan was to go to Cresswell and try some rockpool photography with the new macro lens. I' writing a beach guide for work and I'm short of a few rockpool photos so I thought I'd give it a go, but I'd have a quick look in at the patch first.

My first stop was the dunes for a look on the sea, as I scanned the foreshore I noticed lots of gulls and terns feeding in a pool on the edge of the tideline and it reminded me of photographing terns in a small pool back in 2013. I had to investigate...

Two hours and one and a half 16GB CF cards later, I headed home.

The pool had attracted over 200 black-headed gulls and hundred or so terns of three, maybe four, species (I didn't get any arctic tern photos). Here are the results...

This sandwich tern was colour ringed. It's a green ring with either EJO or EJD on it. I've not looked it up yet.

Sandwich tern in 'angel pose'

Mid-air acrobatics - I think this Sandwich tern was having a shake after an unsuccessful dive 

I've always wanted to photograph a tern just before it goes into the water...

Lift-off from an unsuccessful dive  - I love the energy in this shot

Common tern in angle pose

Common terns with  fish

Rozza

Stunning bird! Roseate tern

Profile view  - Roseate tern

And not to forget the gulls in this tern-fest...

Adult Herring gull

Black-headed gull

There's hundreds more photos...

I eventually got down to Cresswell this morning to photograph the rockpools with mixed results which I'll try and put on here later in the week. This excursion meant I was doing my WeBS count at 8.30pm tonight, The Pectoral sandpiper is still on the Budge fields, with two greenshank, two ruff and a handful of snipe and redshank (someone had a wood sandpiper later which I didn't see). On the big pool, teal and wigeon are returning and two molting pochards were a rare sight. Two adult Med gulls were on the beach.

Light nights

These long, light nights leave little time for updating my blog, so I apologise for the lack of activity lately.

I have also discovered another way to waste my valuable time - Flickr. I have started uploading photos from various trips on my new Flickr page - have a  look at https://flic.kr/s/aHske5c4fQ

As spring is over and autumn has yet to start, birding on the patch has been slow. I've tried a couple of sea-watches and managed to add roseate tern to the patch year list, but nothing else. With over 80 pairs on Coquet Island, it was just a matter of time.  There were two harbour porpoise in the bay tonight.

The Budge fields are still proving popular with black-tailed godwits, there were 28 there tonight. No other migrant waders were noted over the last week though. The two curlew chicks are still alive and well and getting bigger, their bills are lengthening too.

I saw a colour-ringed little egret on the big last weekend. You can see from the record-shot below that it has a yellow ring with a black 'T' on the left tibia and a red ring with a white 'F' on the left tibia. has anyone else seen this bird around?

I saw my first patch-grasshopper warbler of the year tonight, it was reeling in some umbellifers  on the edge of the dunes. This species seems to be a bit boom-and-bust at Druridge in recent years.

Well travelled sanderling

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