Another good tern

The white-winged black tern found at East Chevington yesterday evening finally made its way down to Druridge Pools this afternoon. 

An adult white-winged black tern - what's not to like?

Despite the grey and drizzly conditions, the light wasn't as bad as I expected it to be. The tern had a route around the pool, starting in the NW corner, flying south then into the little bays, before flying east past the hide, into the SE corner and flying back up the northern edge to start again. Like clockwork, for half an hour when it went to the Budge fields. Amazingly, for that half hour, Janet and I were the only ones in the hide. That's Northumberland for you!

This is my second patch white-winger, the first was on July 1st 2017 - again another adult summer plumage bird.

This cormorant entertained us briefly, wrestling with an eel.

Cormorant with Eel

Somewhere around the Little Hide, there is a pied wagtail feeding chicks.

This week it has been mostly foggy

It's felt more like October than August this week, the cloud, got or mizzle has hardly lifted and neither has the temperature. Sadly, despite the murk and the wind having easterly in it, we didn't have the birds of October. 

It's been mostly misty this week - keeps the crowds away though

I've been down to the patch most days this week, some seawatching, looking for migrants, a bit of ringing and culminating in two 3 hour seawatches today.

I had a bit of lie-in this morning, but when I got up the Whatsapp group had news of Long-tailed Skuas heading north along the coast. About time there was some good seawatching as it's been a damp squib so far this week. I headed for the patch, arriving just after 9am. More messages of Long-tailed Skuas  - failed to connect with any of them, had they gone too far out for me? Lots of Manx Shearwaters, a single Bonxie and Arctic Skua and then at 10:40 a closer Skua, almost coming out of the Bay rather than heading north, a Pomarine Skua, no 'spoons' but a superb bird and close, it headed out into the bay.

I called it a day at 11.30 and headed home for coffee, worried I had missed the Long-tails but happy with my Pom. In the dunes I came across my first Wheatear of the autumn, a moulting juvenile.

Juvenile Wheatear

After lunch I was about to head for the allotment when Dave Dack kindly called me to tell me that more Long-tailed Skuas were heading north. I re-parked the wheelbarrow and jumped in the car and back to the dunes. Another report of five!! yes five Long-tailed Skuas past Snab Point - I didn't see them. I was about to hoy me scope into the sea and take up metal detecting. Then at 4pm I got onto a skua heading north, more bouncy and tern like in flight, it was looking good as it came north, about 2/3rds of the way out. As it drew level with me ID was clinched - Long-tailed Skua, the steely grey of the bird against the sea tied in with the jizz as it flew past, it didn't get very far before landing on the sea off Chibburn Links. After that another L-T Skua was reported with two Arctics from Newbiggin. 24 minutes later I got onto three terns - they were distant mind. It was good to compare 'jizz' though  - the first bird much more buoyant and 'aerobatic' than the two that followed, the cold-steely grey could be picked up at that distance -honest!

Two more Long-tails were reported past Newbiggin Church Point at 17.15. Thirteen minutes later I was watching them, closer than the previous skuas, amongst the pot flags this time. Amazing  - four Long-tailed Skuas. 

At 17.34 a Pomarine Skua went north at Church Point and amazingly exactly ten minutes later I picked it up, powering north. It got here quicker than the Long-tails and Arctics which is surprising when you watch them fly!

Manx Shearwater passage was heavier in the morning than the afternoon and even Gannets were thinner on the ground after lunch. A couple more Bonxies came through and an Arctic Skua was 'resident' in the Bay, harrying terns. 

Black-headed Gull headed north

Six hours well spent!

On Monday my walk produced a flock of 14 Goosander headed north and a pair of juvenile Buzzards over the dunes and perched in the bushes. This Grasshopper Warbler was by the Dunbar Burn.

Grasshopper Warbler skulking as they do

Goosanders headed north

I tried a ringing session on Tuesday morning before work but it was very quiet, I only caught 14 birds and 5 of them were retraps. It was almost as if the resident warblers had mostly cleared out, leaving a few willow warblers behind. Wednesday was very quiet too so I walked back by the beach and saw my first Turnstone of the year when three flew north and Whimbrel called overhead. 

Carrion Crow on the beach

One of 14 Cormorants over

Juvenile Blue Tit in the dune bushes

Seawatching on Friday evening produced a single Sooty Shearwater among a handful of Manx. About 250-300 Common Scoter are hanging around offshore with a few guillemots and couple of  Great-crested Grebes in amongst them. 

The week definitely ended on a high. It looks like the northerly will switch south on Tuesday, I hope we get another one before the winter. 

The easterly winds have deposited huge numbers of Jellyfish on the beach. This is a Lion's Mane Jelly. 

Not in Andalucía

I shouldn't have been at my desk writing a blog post this afternoon, I should've been in Bolonia near Tarifa in Spain, looking at vultures and migrating raptors.

Ages ago we booked a 10-day trip to Andalucía, with a few days around Tarifa followed by a trip out the wonderful Doñana National Park, staying at El Rocío - a place I've not been to since 2004.

As the news about Coronavirus began to unfold from Spain on Thursday our trip was still on but looking doubtful, by yesterday afternoon it was looking dicey and by 8pm last night we decided to cancel as Spain declared a state of emergency and it looked likely that the whole country would soon be in lock-down. We did the right thing as Jet2 flights bound for Spain turned around mid-air this morning and headed back to the UK.

I was really looking forward to this trip. I've got two weeks (valuable) annual leave, which I have to take this month - wasted!

So this morning, instead of being on a plane headed for Malaga - guess what? I was at Druridge in the gloomy grey and cold dampness, counting ducks.

I missed the WeBS count last week, so caught up with that. There was a lot to count with many of the wintering species still present in good numbers including 196 wigeon and 84 each of curlew and redshank. Predictably lapwing numbers have decreased but birds are displaying now.

Displaying lapwing 

A good smattering of waders including the first two avocet of the year, four ruff, eight dunlin, two black-tailed godwits and a single snipe.

Teal numbers have decreased to 41 but the shoveler count remains high at 31. A pair of pintail were still present. A flock of 35 whooper swans flew north overhead, bound for Iceland - Coronavirus doesn't stop them from flying. 

On the big pool, tufted ducks numbered 26 and a couple of cormorants fed. A single great-crested grebe is holding territory but no sign of a mate yet. 

Feeding cormorant

This hybrid/domestic/mallard thing has been hanging around for a couple of years, this drake mallard seemed particularly attracted to it...

In the bushes, spring is starting to stir with singing resident birds evident. It won;t be long before the first chiffs are back. In the dunes, the first meadow pipits are back - parachuting in song. 

Scarlet elf-cup fungus - looking a bit chewed since I first found it last week

Offshore there was plenty of red-breasted mergansers, red-throated divers and a flock of about 35 common scoter. My first lesser-black backed gull of the year flew south and a couple of gannets passed by. 

We've booked a few days away in Scotland so not all my annual leave will be wasted but I fear that it won't be long until the UK is in 'lockdown' to use tabloid language. Will that stop me going to Druridge?

End of another year

Well, I'll not make it back to the patch again this year, so it's time to reflect on a very average 2018 at Druridge.

On the birding front it's been relatively quiet year after an amazing 2017 which saw no fewer than eight new species added to the patch list, no new species were added in 2018 - the first year that's ever happened.

A half decent seawatch which added red-necked grebe, little auk and grey plover to the list made up for an otherwise uneventful autumn. With no easterlies until late November, there were no falls of migrants to speak of and very little passage which meant more common passage migrants like redstart, pied and spotted flycatcher and whinchat weren't recorded.

Other passerine species missing from the 2018 list include yellowhammer, bullfinch, greenfinch, snow bunting, and tree pipit (usually seen on viz mig). It was quite a good year for waders with only temminck's stint and jack snipe missing from the likely candidate list.

We've ringed less birds than any previous year this year as well. The 'beast from the east' storm in April did for many of the resident passerines, completely wiping out wrens with no pairs recorded this year. We had very few chances to ring in the autumn because of the weather. We did manage to ring some storm petrels on the beach and had the nice surprise of a Leach's petrel too.

The winter has been unseasonably mild again, with temperatures in the mid-teens on some days. This has meant species usually associated with cold weather haven't been recorded, like yellowhammer and red-legged partridge.

The patch bird list for 2018 was 167, which is an average total based on the last few years but well behind the 174 totals from 2107 and 2016.

It'll be late January before I'm back on the patch so Happy New Year to you all and thanks for reading.

Here's some photos from the last few days of the year.

Cormorant in flight

A group of whooper swans in flight over the patch

Carrion crow

Mute swan taking off from the big pool

The easterly wind that just keeps giving...

The wind has been out of the east for well over a week now and it just keeps bringing the birds. I didn't manage to get onto the patch during week because of work, other than a quick look around the plantation on Thursday evening when I saw and heard a siberian chiffhcaff (tristis) in the willows by the entrance. It looked very drab compared to the collybita that was in the same tree, It's call was really obvious - quite a sharp, almost monosyllabic 'peep' which it did frequently.

Not really being one for twitching, I decided against heading south to see any of the Siberian Accentors that have turned up and concentrated on the patch (and football) instead. There will be one in the county by the end of the week...

Saturday morning was damp, with light rain/mizzle most of the morning, I started in the plantation and work north towards the 'Mike Carr Path'. There had been a big arrival of birds on Friday (I was on Holy Island and it was 'hotching') and it looked like little had cleared out in the foul weather and more birds were arriving with flocks of thrushes being obvious - blackbirds, redwings and song thrushes did drop in, the fieldfares perched on treetops before moving off inland quite quickly. Goldcrests and robins were really obvious but I couldn't find anything rarer amongst them.

robin

A single male brambling was in the willows and few siskins were seen towards the Budge screen. From the bushes, I heard some commotion of the Budge fields and looked across to see a juvenile marsh harrier coming through - it pounced on something and stayed down - presumably eating what it had caught. Eventually I had to drag myself away to go to the match.

This morning I started in the plantation where I had a group of six mealy redpolls fly in together and perch before moving on - these are the first mealies I have had on the patch since 2005! Moving on north through the bushes there were still huge numbers of goldcrests - I estimated 80-100 and plenty of thrushes, even some fieldfare were still feeding on hawthorn and whitebeam berries.

A kingfisher called and I got onto it flying north over the Budge fields -  a good year for a very scarce species on the patch.

Siskin, lesser redpolls, goldfinches and brambling were roaming about the alders. As I got to the Mike Carr path it had started to rain and I thought about heading home for lunch, luckily I couldn't drag myself away and got onto a firecrest on the edge of the path, but I was looking through the bushes at it - when I was repositioning myself to try and get a photo a male sparrowhawk shot through and scattered everything and I couldn't find it in increasingly heavy rain - time for lunch.

These two large woodpigeon young were still in the nest

The rain stopped by 2pm and I was back on the patch by 2.30 and headed for the area that the firecrest was in. The first bird I saw was a lesser whitethroat - a species I had given up on this year. I didn't get long on the bird before it flew off, not even time to reach for the camera. Superficially the upperparts appeared brown, the head was grey and the dark 'mask' was obvious but not striking. I would have loved to had more time on this bird and got some photos but it vanished and I couldn't relocate it. Onwards...

In the same area I came across a willow warbler, quite late for this species and my latest ever record on the patch. Here it is...

Willow warbler

I spent some time by the low whitebeams and watched a constant stream of goldcrests coming through with at least three chiffchaffs and then a strip warbler - not as stripy as I was hoping for though - a yellow-browed warbler - not it's more flashy cousin that I was hoping for,,,

I had to leave the warblers to do my WeBS count before it got dark. five black-tailed godwit, one ruff and a couple of little egret of note. This cormorant was nice in the setting sun.

Cormorant

The addition of brambling, mealy redpoll, firecrest and lesser whitethroat takes my year list 170 - one off my record tally of 171 in 2013 and 2014. Could this be a record breaking year?

WeBS Waders and a wasted opportunity

I'm a bit gutted. Druridge was 'hotching' with warblers today, I should have had the nets up for a ringing session but I didn't...."Why?" I hear you ask.

Well, all of the weather forecasts for this morning was for heavy rain by 9am, some forecasting it earlier. So, based on that we decided not to ring. When did the rain finally arrive? After lunch - typical! 

I did my WeBS count this morning instead. Just as I got the scope set up in the Budge screen hide, a big female sparrowhawk put everything up, so I headed for the other hides and met this unlikely double-act on the way.

Scarce and rare visitors to patch

One of them admitted to not being to the pools for at least three years, the other couldn't remember how long it was. Rarer than barred warblers at Druridge, the pair of them! Nice to see them though, don't leave it so long next time!

By the time I got to the little hide, the waders had settled back down. Two, maybe three wood sandpipers, one green sandpiper (which alluded me yesterday), one greenshank and three common sandpipers with several dunlin and over 25 snipe.

Other WeBS highlight were a good count of 191 mallard, 14 little grebe, two little egret and the pair of nesting great-crested grebes.

Cormorant from the Oddie hide

Yesterday there were five greenshanks, a calling green sandpiper, two wood sands and a single common sandpiper. There were also dozens of visiting birders, from Tyneside, Cumbria and even yorkshireland! Despite the little hide being full to capacity for much of the morning, it didn't deter the swallows from feeding their rapidly growing chicks.

Swallow feeding young in the little hide

Butterflies on the wing over the weekend included wall, red admiral, meadow brown, painted lady, peacock, comma and small copper.

painted lady

Head on - a rarely photographed view of a red admiral

Dragonflies have been very scarce at Druridge this year, but not elsewhere seemingly...odd?

Female common darter in the plantation

On Thursday night/Friday morning we had another go at catching storm petrels on the beach, with moderate success, catching three. Two of them were already ringed, which isn't a bad thing, catching them again helps to increase our understanding of this species.

Finally, just to show that we get a better class of vandal at Druridge...

Seemingly Maria was there too.

147 Green sandpiper

PWC Score 207