Ringing again

I succumbed and went to Holy Island yesterday to see the Brown Shrike that's been there for three days, we enjoyed good but distant views of the bird which should be making it's way down the Pacific coast of Asia or somewhere now. The 'supporting cast' was canny too -  a Red-Flanked Bluetail and a Dusky Warbler in the village. I don't enjoy twitching but it was nice to see some people you don't get to see very often as well as some great birding. It was too busy for me though. There was a handful of Red-flanked Bluetails in the county this weekend - a skeleton I need to lay to rest at Druridge after screwing one up a few years ago.

After my 'away-day' I was back on the patch this morning with Janet to do some ringing. Conditions were good but we were disappointed to only catch 29 new birds. For an Autumn day, after easterly winds, not to catch ANY thrushes, Robins or Chaffinches is unheard of.

We did catch a species that we've never caught before on the patch. As I approached our 'bridge' net, a flash of iridescent blue shot along the channel that links the Budge fields to the Big Pool, I'd disturbed a Kingfisher which must've been fishing for minnows. The channel goes into a bramble thicket so I didn't expect it would get very far and I was right, it doubled-back and straight into our net. 

Female Kingfisher

Same bird showing the iridescent blue rump

Kingfishers aren't common on the patch, averaging one very three years, but I've seen them in four out of the past five years, so maybe they are becoming less-scarce?

The usual 'Autumn' birds made up the rest of the catch. A couple of Blackcaps, one of which was carrying a lot of fat, two Bullfinch and three Siskins were unusual.

First-winter male Blackcap

Female Bullfinch

Male Bullfinch

Male Siskin

Between net-rounds we saw a Lesser Whitethroat making its way along the Whitebeams, a Yellow-browed Warbler and most unusual a Green Woodpecker! It was picked up heading north by Welsh Joe - "What's that? It's flying like a woodpecker" because it was a woodpecker, a Green Woodpecker. It kept going north until it was out-of-sight. Only my second-ever on the patch after a fly through (also north ) on 7th October 2017. A Great-spotted Woodpecker was hanging around, calling all for most of the morning, but we didn't catch it. 

I also did the WeBS count today. Teal numbers have picked up to 121 and Wigeon to 60, waders were scarce - 97 Lapwing, 36 Curlew and a Redshank.

We packed-up just after 2pm. 

A great morning's birding

More apologies for the lack of activity on the blog, but I have been down to Tarifa for the Raptor Migration, that's my excuse.

I arrived on the patch this morning with the intention of walking the whole place, not expecting to see much after a run of westerlies. I parked at the entrance and  had a quick look in the plantation which was quiet - a few crests. Then I went back to the bushes by the entrance, the elders there are hanging with elderberries and I fancied that they might pull something in.

A few blackbirds, songers and robins and then I got onto a sylvia warbler, well, bits of one as moved low through the elder - I was 'lumbering' about and I fancied it was barred warbler but I needed better views.... Then a message came through about a white-billed diver passed Whitburn and a unidentified diver passed Newbiggin.

I legged it up to the dunes, as I clambered onto the dune ridge a bird flew of the wrack on the beach, calling - snow bunting,  a male, flew straight over my head - nice.

Three red-throats came through together, then a minute or two later a larger diver. It was a canny way out and silhouetted against the rising sun -  I had no chance. Shape-wise it was either a great-northern or a white-billed - I couldn't do any better with those views so back to the elder bush.

I got quickly on to the warbler, it was plucking elderberries from the front edge of the bush- a juvenile barred warbler. Typically bulky with well-marked 'panels' in the flight feathers, darker undertail and greyish upper and with that typical pose with it's tail held high. My first patch barred warbler since 2010 when I had two in the same autumn. 

As I was watching it, a bird heading toward me from the north caught my eye. It was big and had an undulating flight, closing it's wings between flaps...woodpecker...but not a great-spot. It flew between me and the bushes I had been watching,  GREEN WOODPECKER! It flew on towards the plantation and swerved into the trees, showing the lovely lemon-yellow rump as it went. I followed it in there but I couldn't find it again. A full-fat patch tick.

Martin Kitching had mentioned that he had seen a green woodpecker at Druridge earlier in the week, so surely the same bird? It makes up for missing the one that was on the feeders at the cottages a few years ago.

The barred was still there when I returned, I went to the car to grab the camera. As always happens with my camera, it disappeared for ages, before showing very briefly a couple of times, deeper in the bushes (a few folk had turned up by this point). I'd seen another sylvia warbler, whilst I was watching the barred which turned out to be a garden warbler, an increasingly scarce species at Druridge and my first on the patch since 2013. Jonathon Farooqi got a couple of shots of the barred warbler. 

Since I got back from Spain the other highlight was a yellow-browed warbler on Saturday and Monday behind the Budge screen.

Green Woodpecker is my 245th species for the patch and my fifth new species this year.