Viz Mig - it's just a hobby!

Firstly, apologies for the lack of blog updates. There just aren't enough hours in the day and when it is still light in the evenings I would rather be out birding than sorting photos or writing blog posts, especially as most of my time these days is spent in front of the computer in my office.

Since my last post we had a holiday to Wales - a week in the Llyn AONB with an excursion to Anglesey for the Elegant Tern at Cemlyn Bay and two new damselflies. All in all, a great trip!

Back to Druridge, I've managed a few visits before and after work and the patch year-list is now on 146, a couple of decent seawatches and a few early migrants, like Cuckoo and Green Sandpiper, have pushed it up in July.

Common Tern feeding offshore in 'Golden Hour' light in July

Barn Owl - un-ringed second year female

Back to the here and now, on Friday I took a day off work and spent the morning on the patch. I did a bit of viz-migging from the high dune, it was reasonably quiet but I did scope the Little Owl at the preceptory. I had a wander down to the hides with the macro camera to look for bugs and beasts, where, bizarrely,  I bumped into a chap from Oxford whom I'd met at Icklesham back in 2011, where I'd spent a week ringing with him as a trainee. As we were chatting a small falcon flew fast, over the bund, spooked by seeing us, it banked around over the Budge fields and headed off in the direction from which it had come - Hobby! An adult. My first on the patch since 2015.

I scrambled up the bank to look out over the big pool but I had gone. Shortly after I was sat in the little hide with a chap called Harry and we saw the same bird come back over the Budge fields before again heading our over the big pool. I think it must've been hunting hunting dragonflies. Both views were brief but the grey upperparts, lighter plain tail, paler underparts and heavily streaked under-carriage with reddish buff 'trousers' all visible, but it was it's jizz that made us all call hobby before detail as noted. 

Common Field Grasshopper - pink form

New for the patch - Denticulate Leatherbug (Coriomeris denticulatus)

Comma Butterfly - not common on the patch

Roe Buck headed south across the Budge Fields

Yesterday, on arriving at the patch, just before 8am, I saw a few Swifts overhead, Janet sent me a message to say she had seen Swifts moving over the marina in Amble. Another viz-mig session I thought... The wind was stronger from west, which is good for viz-mig at Druridge as birds are 'pinched-in' to the middle of the bay, but also tough-going so I chose a lower spot, rather than the big dune.

Swift passage continued and by 9am I'd counted 109 going south with strong passage of hirrundines, mostly House Martins. This continued until after 10 am when it seemed to ease, in total I counted 245 Swifts south in two and a half hours.

One of over 245 Swifts that went south

A Hobby, presumably yesterday's bird, soared high on two occasions, between Druridge and East Chev and over towards Low Chibburn before drifting south. Scope-views was I all I had, but they were prolonged as it soared on the thermals. Two Merlins and two Sparrowhawks came through as did a juvenile Marsh Harrier  - it was almost like being in Tarifa (maybe not). Green Sandpiper (with a Snipe), Little Egret, four Black-tailed Godwits and 17 Meadow Pipits went south.

One of two Sparrowhawks

And it was gone... one of two Merlins

I went looking for Harebell Bee in the dunes afterwards with no joy but did see some other interesting critters. 

Dune Robberfly (Philonicus albiceps)

Small Copper Butterfly in the Dunes

Hoverfly Scaeva pyrastri

New Bins

I was on holiday in northern Scotland for the first two weeks of June and it's taken me a while to find the time to write a blog post. The garden was top priority, work has been hectic and on light evenings I'd rather be out than sat in front of the computer.

I missed some good 'County birds' whilst I was away - Red-necked Stint and Pacific Swift. I did catch up with the American Golden Plover at Cresswell on the night we got back, but missed it on the patch on the Tuesday when it was last seen. A new bird for the patch taking the patch list to 271. 

I've not had that much time for birding but I've been down to the patch a few times since we got back. I've added a few new birds to the year list including Cuckoo, Roseate Tern, Manx Shearwater, Bonxie, Little Egret and Wood Sandpiper. The first birds I saw on my return the two Ruddy Shelducks that had been on the patch the whole time I was away. 

Ruddy Shelducks

Common Tern over the Budge Fields

Lapwing on the Budge Fields

Coot with young in tow (it'll have killed the others)

Cool Robberfly - Pamponerus germanicus in the plantation

On Thursday morning I did my territory mapping exercise. harder work at this time of year with warbler silent, feeding young. Some are on second-broods and have started to sing again. It was a lovely calm morning and unlike the previous Tuesday no campers, motorhomes or 'drunk miscreants'! If only every day was like that.

Thursday Morning

I've been pondering buying a new pair of binoculars for some time. My Swarovski 8.5x42 ELs are 21 years old now, whilst optically fine, they are big and have some action. Time for a change.

The new Swarovski NL Pure 10x32s caught my eye, but a discussion with Neil Osborne and others led me to testing out the Zeiss Victory SF 10x32s for a weekend. Zeiss do a brilliant 'try before you buy' deal whereby they send you the bins via courier for a weekend and then collect them again the next week. Brilliant!

I enjoyed using them, much smaller and lighter than my ELs and 10x as opposed to 8.5x that I'm used to made a difference. The field of view was amazing and a huge amount of light came in for 10x bins. I was impressed.

I had to try out the Swaros too. Swarovski don't do a try before you buy deal, but London Camera Exchange in Gosforth got a pair in for me to try, which I did this morning. Luckily they also has a pair of the Zeiss in too so I could try them side-by-side (okay only in Gosforth High Street, but the light was testing). 

Side-by-side - the Zeiss and the Swarovski 10x32s

The result:

Clarity and light: - on par, Swarovski slightly edging it

Field of view:  - on par

Close focusing: - Zeiss were a couple of cm closer but not much in it.

Weight: - Zeiss slightly lighter but not enough to be noticeable in use

Use and feel:  - this is where the big difference was for me - the Swarovski bins felt much more comfortable to use, there were places for both my thumbs whereas the Zeiss felt slightly awkward. When testing the Zeiss at home, I couldn't quite get the eyecup relief right and I found the same today. I found the focusing wheel a bit stiff at first on the Swaros (almost too light on the Zeiss) but it loosened with use, probably just because they were new. Now this is an odd thing to say - the Swarovski's felt 'better quality', the Zeiss feeling a bit 'cheap' (they're not!).

Binoculars are a personal thing, what suits one person doesn't suit another. Janet can't get away with my Els for instance. That's why when people ask for advice about a pair of bins, I always tell them to try some out against each other if possible. 

In the end,  it was the ergonomics of the Swarovski's that won it for me, they just felt 'right'.

The Zeiss are excellent and I would recommend trying them. Since buying the Swarovski's I've heard some negative stories about the armoring deteriorating - which isn't good considering the price of them! Time will tell I guess. 

So, I'm the proud owner of a new pair of bins. The old Swaros resigned to a spare pair/house bins.

The post that doesn't stop giving

Thought I would mix things up on Thursday evening.

I started at 'The Post'  - and had frustratingly brief views of both Coelioxys elongata and Megachile versicolor but not long enough to photograph them, the latter is going into the back of the post and there is a collection of 'leaf bits' to signify this.

I also had a new wasp on the same post which I think is Ancistrocerus scoticus, intriguingly I also had a ruby-tailed wasp species on the same post which I also failed to capture. The ruby-tailed wasp species Chrysis ignita parasitises on A. scoticus - the plot deepens!. The Fork-tailed Flower Bees were still going about their business. The post that never stops giving.

Ancistrocerus scoticus?

I had a wander up the path to the hides and found some hoverflies and an interesting cranefly, spider and ladybird.

Syrphus ribesii (female)

Platycheirus albimanus (female)

Melanostoma mellinum (male)

Melanostoma mellinum (male)

Spotted Cranefly Nephrotoma appendiculata -  I think

Spider - ID tbc

14-Spot Ladybird  - Propylea quatuordecimpunctata

I had a wander through the bushes and disturbed a family of roe deer. The 'youths' were funny - making a sneezing, yet squeaky noise to the female who was close by, I made some squeaking noses back and one of the youngsters came a bit closer before scampering off. I also disturbed a roosting Asio owl species, presumably on of the short-eared owls that have been seen regularly recently?

Young Roe deer

The clouds rolled in and the temperature dropped so I dropped the macro lens -  for the 400mm and scope and headed for the dunes (still fantasising about that albatross) . Offshore there were a few hundred common scoter - they seemed disturbed and were constantly on the move, a single drake velvet was among them. I was just about to go home for tea when the clouds parted and the light was superb. Terns were feeding close to the shore so I went for a closer look...

Sandwich  tern

Arctic Tern

Arctic Tern

Common Tern 

Passing eiders

Sanderling - still showing some breeding plumage

Thousands of jellyfish on the beach

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.

Ringing, WeBS and Scoters

I've been away with work, neglecting the patch somewhat.

When I have been to Druridge, I've been keeping any eye on the scoter flock that is loitering in the Bay. My theory is that there is a regular turn-over of birds, last weeks c450 birds might not be there today amongst the 600+. The presence/absence of velvet scoters shows this. There were two flocks tonight, about 450-500 off the patch and about another 200 well north off the T junction at Hadston.

The scoter flock today

linnet

I had a little seawatch on Thursday evening as the northerly wind felt good. About 40 manx shearwaters moved through, two arctic skuas, three roseate terns and an adult med gull where the highlights. Three spoonbill and a little egret were still on the Budge fields.

On Saturday I was ringing. It was quiet, I only caught 16 new birds and five retraps, mostly juveniles.

Ringing totals were (retraps in brackets)

wren 1 (3)
blackcap 5 (1)
willow warbler 1
dunnock 1
magpie 1 (juvenile)
great tit 1
blue tit 1 (1)
chiffchaff 1
reed warbler 1
coal tit 2
chaffinch 1

A single spoonbill loitered on the Budge fields and a family of stonechats were in the bushes in the dunes. A quick evening visit produced a little ringed plover on the Budge fields with two ringed plover, three whimbrel and a single spoonbill.

One of three juvenile stonechat in the dunes

Today was WeBS count day. It's difficult to count birds on the Budge fields when the rush and grass cover is so high, but I did my best. There were very few waders compared to recent days - a single common sandpiper on the big pool was all of note. What was interesting was two female/juvenile goldeneye, I've been through my records and I've never had a July (or August for that matter) goldeneye at Druridge. A great-crested grebe was also of note.

great crested grebe in silvery light

common tern on the big pool

Offshore, there was a single velvet scoter with the scoter flock and at least three roseate terns.