Yank Teal

I finally managed to see the green-winged teal today, it turned up at Druridge whilst I was in Sri Lanka but I've missed it on two visits.

It was on the Budge fields, spending its time alone, away from the other teal. This is the first Druridge record since 2011, another long-staying drake.

iPhone-scoped drake green winged teal

The Budge fields are still holding decent numbers of wildfowl, including about 20 shoveler, a single pintail and a shelduck. Shelduck are normally a February addition to the list, so this one is quite early. There were also two black-tailed godwits.

The female type common scoter was back/still on the big pool, but little else of note.

I had a half-hour look on the sea. There are still lots of red-throated divers and an unusually high count of over 50 guillemots. I'm not sure why there are so many guillemots in the Bay this winter. Amongst the guillies and divers there was a red-necked grebe, great-crested grebe and a first-winter drake velvet scoter (which was on its own, well away from the main scoter flock). There were a couple of kittiwakes feeding offshore.

63 shelduck
64 green-winged teal
65 moorhen
66 greylag goose
67 velvet scoter
68 great crested grebe
69 kittiwake

PWC Score 85 Points

I tried an evening seawatch

I checked RBA at lunchtime and before leaving my office tonight and there were some pretty impressive seawatching totals from the regular east coast sites, including a few long-tailed skuas, so I thought I might chance my arm at Druridge after work.

But.....not before a quick check of the Budge fields which produced a nice year-tick in the form of a wood sandpiper. 

So to the dunes. It was still very cold, with a force three north-north westerly blowing. Within 20 minutes I was freezing cold, the cold didn't put-off some eediots though who thought jumping into the sea would be fun (they looked like young farmers or summick - obviously trying to impress the girls!).

I did an hour and 20 minutes, but things had obviously tailed off. I saw no shearwaters or skuas, not even a manxy! There were long lines of kittiwakes heading by and plenty of fulmars, some flying along the dunes right past my nose. there were also strings of gannets and guilliemots (with the occasional razorbill) all heading north.

The highlight of my seawatch was a male velvet scoter sat on the sea, not too far out.

I've got the whole Bank Holiday weekend off which makes a change so hope to be out birding or ringing for most of it.

120 wood sandpiper
121 velvet scoter

Both of these species are worth two points in the patchwork challenge (unbelievably the same as nightjar!!), taking my total to 148.

Like a bank holiday...

You get two sunny days in a row and every man and their dog(s) head for Druridge. It was like a bank holiday Monday in August this afternoon, cars, people, dogs and kites everywhere.

A quick look on the sea produced a flurry of year ticks - guillemot, red-breasted merganser, eider, razorbill and kittiwake (the patch competition is very generous, awarding two-points to the latter three species!). There were also 11 red-throated divers offshore and 17 sanderling on the beach.

After nearly being attacked by a huge black shark (on the end of strings, held by a small child) we headed for the tranquility of the Budge screen.

The Budge fields still hold a lot of water and a lot of birds. The highlight were three pintail amongst the wildfowl. A visiting birder alerted us to a short-eared owl, perched on a fence to the south of the screen. It sat, perched on the same fence-post, for half an hour. It was too far away for photo's.

Two long-tailed ducks are still on the big pool. The female was being harassed by the first returning shelduck of the spring.

At the 'top-end' a mixed flock of goldfinch and linnet also contained a single greenfinch.

So the year-list stands at 73, giving me a score of 81 on the patch competition. The mini-league for the 'Coastal North' has been published for January and I am last - got some catching up to do.

65 moorhen (seen last week but missed)
66 kittiwake
67 eider
68 red-breasted merganser
69 guillemot
70 razorbill
71 short-eared owl
72 shelduck
73 greenfinch

Patch tick dip

My 500th blog post but I am gutted. I've just dipped a full patch tick - Mandarin Duck!

After a busy day, I got down to Druridge after six this evening, starting with a look on the sea and quick scan for owls from the big dune but if I'd gone straight to the Oddie hide I would have a patch tick in the bag. 

I didn't go to the Oddie hide because yesterday there was nothing to so see there.

So, I wander down from the big dune and bump into Alan Hall and Steve Rippon heading towards their car and tell me they'd just been watching a female mandarin duck on the big pool...."That'll be a patch tick for you?"...

They both headed down to the Oddie hide with me to show me where it had last been seen. I gave it an hour or so until we all agreed that it was either gone or had gone to roost. Gutted.

There's always tomorrow.

Aside from the anguish of dipping a patch mega, the highlights were a summer-plumaged red-throated diver offshore (first one of the autumn), a drake scaup on the big pool and the best bit of all - the long-eared owls have fledged three chicks, they were all calling on the reserve tonight.

This morning I've been up to Dunbar for the annual ringing session of the kittiwake colony there.

Dunbar Harbour kittiwake colony

I also got to ring herring gull chicks

I've been trying out the macro facility on the new camera, not sure what I am doing with it yet (like how to i get the whole damselfly in focus not just the head or tail) but here are a couple of efforts.

Azure damselfly

Large skipper and viper's bugloss

121 Scaup

Magpies are nice - honest!

Sometimes, it is east to glance over some of our more common birds, forgetting how beautiful they are. How many times do you think "Oh, it's just a blue tit/swallow/teal etc"

I was pondering this whilst admiring a rather smart magpie, strutting around the Budge fields this afternoon. Often despised by gamekeeper and conservationist alike, there is no getting away from the fact that magpies are  stunning birds. The sun was catching this particular individual in all the right places, showing its glossy green tail and iridescent blue rump. They are cheeky characters too, which does make them hard to dislike, even if they do eat lapwing chicks.

I spent the morning at Ellington Pond, putting up some tree sparrow nestboxes, so didn't get to Druridge til gone midday. Today was a lovely, sunny, spring day, which brought out lots of people to visit the coast. My short visit brought an unexpected haul of new birds for the year.

Small birds are still thin on the ground, a lone dunnock singing at High Chibburn was the first of the year on the patch and only one wren and one robin were logged. No sign of either meadow pipit or stonechat yet.

A pair of mute swans and a little grebe on the big pool made it on to the year list. There are a few smew in the County at the moment including a couple of drakes so I was hoping for one of them, sadly not. They'll no doubt turn up when I am work during the week!

A quick seawatch was productive as kittiwake and fulmar both flew by and a slavonian grebe was close in, the latter, a scarcity at Druridge, which can be missed in some years.

72 mute swan
73 little grebe
74 kittiwake
75 fulmar
76 slavonian grebe
77 dunnock