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.

Could it be spring?

Could it be Spring?

It felt like it this afternoon but down on the patch first thing it was a cold and frosty start. -1 degrees C but hardly a breeze and a lovely white frost.

Frosty start

Despite the cold, spring was in the air for the stonechats as they chased each other around the turning circle and for the skylarks who sang out above my head. Towards Chibburn lapwings were tumbling - it is spring y'know!

One  the stonechats - pausing for a while before resuming his courtship

Out in the fields about 780 pink-footed geese grazed - it's still winter...

I continued down to the Budge screen where it was nice to catch up with ADMc who was counting the grey herons, he'd got to 29 which is an impressive count for the patch and might indicate a good breeding season ahead - they'll be on eggs soon.

The other 'Budge' highlights included the three almost resident ruff, one of which is very lucky to be still with us. Andy called out a peregrine speeding low, north, it flushed the waders and ducks before gaining some height to stoop on one of the ruff, the ruff darted left and avoided being breakfast.

The three ruff coming back in to land - one of them very lucky to be there!

There weren't many wader s on the Budge in contrast to Saturday when there 153 redshank, 16 dunlin and 53 curlew.

One of Saturday's 153 redshank

In the fields beyond the Budge were more geese, pink-foots mostly but a scan through them produced three Eurasian white-fronts. Disturbed by something, all of the geese got up and estimated 1000 or so, added to my 780 earlier by the haul road,  I jotted down 'c1700'.

Shoveler numbers are still good - I estimated 41.

With chores to do I, I left Andy chatting to Marty Anderson and headed home. One of my more enjoyable chores was to clean out and check our 30 or so tree sparrow boxes at Ellington Pond Nature Reserve. Two water rails weren't put out by my presence and chased each other around the pond-margins squealing like pigs!

Two views of carrion crows

Coot from Saturday

Not seeing red...again

You may remember this post from April? It was about me not seeing a red-rumped swallow and red kite on the patch because I was at work.

Well, it happened again yesterday. Stuck at work in a meeting when news comes through of another red-rumped swallow at Druridge and then it gets worse... there were two! Worse still, straight after my meeting I have to go to an evening event in Bamburgh and don't get home until after dark. So no chance!

Meanwhile, lots of birders are enjoying crippling views of the birds over the path to the Oddie hide and getting some great photos to boot.

Oh well...

I have had some luck this week, I caught up with a few good birds on the patch. On 8th I managed to see jack snipe and a channel wagtail from the little hide at the same time. The jack snipe was just in front of the hide and I managed to get this nice video of it bobbing along.

The Channel wagtail was close enough for a photo too. This was my second 'Channel' wagtail at Druridge, the previous one was on 18th May 2010 which you can see here. There were also six yellow wags and five ruff.

'Channel' wagtail

On 9th, two little ringed plover were with a group of dunlin and ringed plover and there was a velvet scoter offshore.

On Friday, I was working at home when a message came through about a citrine wagtail just down the road at Lynemouth flash - I could be there in five minutes. So a midday lunch break was taken and I was soon enjoying close views of a stunning citrine wagtail. Only my second ever in Northumberland and the best I've seen away from the breeding areas in Poland.

Citrine wagtail off-patch at Lynemouth flash

We popped into Druridge on our way home where there were two avocet and a drake garganey on the Budge fields.

On Saturday the drake garganey was still present with a wood sandpiper. Reed warblers were back in the little reed bed and a long-eared owl flew across the Budge fields. Offshore, I saw my first puffins of 2017.

Sunday was WeBS day - the wood sandpiper was still there with two black-tailed godwit and a nice male ruff.

Drake gadwall

Coot

On Sunday evening it was obvious that Cresswell barn owl botherers had decamped to Druridge in hope of long-eared owl photos - there wasn't a sole at Cresswell. It was nice to bump into Cain and Heather.

'Toggers'

Tonight, there were plenty of swifts and hirundines but no red-rumped swallows. There is a lapwing on eggs on the budge fields, she got disturbed by the arrival of a heron and I managed to get this video of her returning to her nest.

The year list now stands at 132 - still missing collared dove though.

Dead camera

Little gulls were the avian highlight at Druridge over the weekend. I saw at least four on Friday evening and again today. I tried photographing them today, one shot (below) and my camera died...."Err 01 - Communications between the camera and lens is faulty. Clean the lens contacts". I've looked at some of the forums and it looks as though I might need a new lens. Bugger!

Little gull - only shot of them before my lens died

The other highlight today was five black-tailed godwits of the islandica race on the Budge fields. 

There were five hares on the Budge fields, boxing and chasing each other about at high speed.

I checked the heronry the other day, only six occupied nests this year, down from eight last year and twelve about five years ago. Many of the heron young have fledged now and pottering about the budge fields, harangued by lapwings.

Both coot nests now have young hatched.