Sunday sunshine

Today's  sunny spells, although brief, were very welcome after four days of dreichness. And in the sunshine, it felt quite warm.

I took advantage and had a quick roam about the patch. In the bushes, there were still a lot of blackbirds, unless there has been another influx this week? Single fieldfare and song thrush were also noted. Wrens are still everywhere, they seem to have had an amazing breeding season, we ringed 47 new wrens at Druridge this year, more than ever before.

Dunnock

Two male bullfinches were standing out like sore thumbs against the bare hawthorns  and mixed flocks of chaffinch and goldfinch were moving about.

Stonechat

I walked up to the top bushes, where one of four stonechats was sat on the fence.

I walked back along the beach, no sign of snow buntings, but there were lots of people out emptying their dogs.

These McDonalds balloons were on the beach, a sight we will no doubt see more of on the Northumberland coast when the new store opens in Alnwick.

Dangerous to wildlife, but seemingly McDonalds could give a shit.

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No new species to add to the year list on what could be my last chance of the year to visit the patch....

Dawn to dusk (nearly)

I had an early start at Druridge today, followed by a late(ish) visit tonight.

We decided to put some nets up today and put them up early as showers and strengthening winds were forecast for afternoon,  so I was down on the patch for before 5am.

Ringing was slow, which is typical for this time of year. As expected we caught a few recent fledglings, but no warbler juvs yet - chaffinches, robins, dunnocks and to our surprise this stonechat.

recently fledged stonechat

This shot shows the lovely rufous rump

Despite stonechat being a breeding resident, with two to three pairs annually, they tend to stay in the dunes, rarely venturing into the bushes, so we don't get the chance to ring them, other than pullus in the nest.

We had some interesting warbler retraps including a willow warbler ringed as an adult last year and a returning sedge warbler ringed as a fledgling last July.

Ringing total were as follows (retraps in brackets)

chiffchaff 2
robin 2
chaffinch 2
stonechat 1
blackbird 1
dunnock 1 (1) and a re-trapped control
willow warbler (2)
sedge warbler (2)

I've had to buy a new (to me) camera because my old camera died. I decided to go for a Canon 7D, though I had little time to play around with it today.

I took this with my 50mm lens, is it a sawfly?

Sawfly?

This evening I had a quick look on the sea and added a single manx shearwater to the year list. A single red-throated diver in non-breeding garb loitered in the bay and a few fulmars, terns and auks moved back and forth. The rest of the evening was spent scanning from the big dune.

Three spoonbills circled and landed behind the rushes, one was an immature bird, I couldn't age the others. Also of note were two little egrets, garganey and hunting barn owls.

133 manx shearwater

PWC Score 174

Sooty Saturday

Saturday was like the calm before the storm. I should've had some nets up on Saturday morning, but didn't. I had a couple of nets up on Friday evening and only caught a single wren, the bushes were empty. Which didn't inspire me to bust-a-gut on Saturday.

I had a look around the patch at lunchtime. The bushes were still quiet. A couple of chiffs on the path to the hides with the tit flock was a highlight. There were no waders at all on the big pool and only a couple of curlews on the Budge (that were visible). Lots of moorhens though, at least 15.

One of  the many moorhens

I had a scout around the bushes to the north and a quick look offshore. A harbour porpoise loitered just offshore and there were 14 sanderling on the beach.

This dunnock loitered in the 'Druridge Bushes'

I returned for last-gap seawatch before dusk. 1820-1920 after reports of skuas and sabine's gulls further south. It started quietly. Plenty of gannets on the horizon and few kitti's.

Then I got onto a sooty shearwater, about half way out, flying north. It's been a good autumn so far for sooties, so about time I connected with one. I had another sooty north and a distant skua going south which remained other unidentified.

The light got the better of me by twenty-past-seven, so I headed home, happy with my soooties.

The storm that was forecasted for today didn't seem as bad as the weathermen predicted, though it was very windy. So no birding for me, instead I spent the day preserving garden and foraged produce.

147 sooty shearwater

Ringing babies

We had our first ringing session of the year at Druridge today. Normally we would start earlier than mid-June, but the alders have only just come into leaf, some of them are still bare.

Today was definitely a day for catching baby birds, most of them having very recently left the nest. It was also a day for whitethroats, we caught ten in total. Most years we only catch one or two and even our best year for whitethroats, we only caught six.I reckon there are at least nine territorial male whitethroats at Druridge this year and I am seeing them elsewhere too.

Five of the whitethroats were juveniles, probably the same brood as they were all caught in the same place.

juvenile whitethroat

We also caught four baby robins (as well as their parents)

Juvenile robin

and six willow warblers (and a parent)

Juvenile willow warbler

We caught one juvenile goldfinch and re-trapped great and blue tits and a dunnock.

Interestingly we didn't catch either blackcap or chiffchaff which both seem to be thin on the ground this year.

This evening there were eight summer plumage sanderlings on the beach, presumably;y these birds are just late heading north? There were also six summer plumage red-throated divers in the bay.