All Grey

Apologies for the lack of posts recently, it's not that I've not been to the patch, I've been most days, there just hasn't been much to write about.

December is usually a bit spartan but this December seems more so. It's hardly been light enough to bother taking the camera out - sunny days have been few and far between, just day after day of grey and rain.

The wind was out of the north for much of yesterday and strengthened into the evening - strong enough to bring some Little Auks down? - only one way to find out. When I got up this morning it was sleeting hard and just looked miserable, but a check of 'Rain Alarm' suggested a brief window of dry weather from 11ish, which happened to coincide with high tide.

The sleet promptly cleared away at 10:50 and I was set up for a seawatch. The sea was big and the wind still out of the north but it felt quiet - quiet enough to count gulls and auks - mostly unidentifiable dots on the edge of the world but a few came close and the sun had come out providing a really nice light. 

Nice light

About 15 minutes in I picked up a small pale-grey bird, almost looking white in the sunshine, heading north just beyond the breakers, it was disappearing into the troughs but as it drew level I got some good views - it was a Grey Phalarope. This is the third Grey Phalarope I've seen on the patch - and I've always thought how pot-bellied they look, side-on, like a little dove or pigeon - they're a compact little thing too. Virtually white below, with darker-grey upperparts and a really obvious white wing bar on the upper wing. The dark 'eye-mask' stood out in the strong light, I didn't really notice the bill - it must've had one!

It kept going north along the bay, hugging the line just beyond the breakers. I notice that Jonathon Farooqi had one much earlier at Church Point so it's unlikely this was the same bird, unless it stopped-off to feed en route?

Seawatching continued to be quiet in terms of numbers but plenty of variety. I had a skua species heading south, again on the edge of the known world - it was just a shape really, towering constantly as it went south. I thought Pom but more likely a Bonxie as the Newbiggin lads had a few south and Bonxies are usually distant birds at Druridge. Other highlights included both Great Northern and Black-throated Divers and a drake Velvet Scoter with a smattering of Red-throated Divers, Gannets, Kittiwakes etc

I continued until 12:20 when a heavy sleet shower arrived. No Little Auks but the Grey Phal more than made-up for that. Full list here. 

Incoming

Last weekend was a bit frustrating. We'd bumped into Janet's parents just as we were leaving Druridge - they headed off north for a walk. Later in the afternoon, Janet's Dad messaged to say he had seen a male Hawfinch on the fence along the Bridleway north of the turning circle. We spent an hour-and-a-half looking but no joy - it could've been anywhere. Alan knows his birds so little chance of mis-ID. Another patch-tick missed this year. I'll have to insist that he takes his mobile with him when he's on my patch!

Otherwise not much to report - the Water Pipits (up to three) are still on the Budge fields but are difficult to spot, up to two Chiffchaffs are sticking it out but this cold snap might move them on and three Scaup have regularly been seen on the big pool. A few Bullfinches are also hanging about - not a common over-winterer at Druridge.

My year list is now at 178 - is 180 still a possibility? Some wintery weather might be needed.

Here's some photos I've taken since my last post. Happy Christmas everyone.

Sanderling probing for food amongst the froth

I usually don't like 'running' wader photos

Little Grebe on the big pool - one of two

Catching a few fish...

Never get bored of Stonechats

Grey Partridge  - there's been up to 17 in the weedy dunes

And now...the NEWS

Ages ago I volunteered to do NEWS - or the BTO's Non Estuarine Waterbird Survey  and my section is the Hemscotthill Burn to Chibburn Mouth - 90 % inside my patch.

I did my survey on Friday lunchtime (it has to be done three hours either side of low tide), it was bright and clear but cold. The first birds I saw were two mistle thrush, a welcome year tick. whilst I was looking at some twite and surveying the sea for waterbirds, the pink-footed goose flock that had been in the filed in front of the cottages, had been disturbed and flew overhead and out to sea before coming back over to return to the same field. I was a bit slow in getting me phone out to video them going overhead. There was a single barnacle goose amongst them.



Just beyond the big dune, I stopped to count some gulls and check the sea for birds. As I was scanning a diver flew through my scope - I immediately ruled out red-throated diver (it was close in and looked black and white and it's head was fled straight out and wasn't going 'up and down' as it flew) but it wasn't heavy enough for great-northern - it was a black-throated diver. A rare visitor to the patch and my first since 2014.

Two sanderlings were the only waders I recorded. This is telling of the numbers of dogs now using Druridge Bay I reckon - disturbance is one of things BTO ask us to record.

Today I was back on the patch to do my usual WeBS count for BTO. I stopped first at the edge of the patch to have scan through pink-footed geese flock that were still in the field.

Pick a bean goose out of that lot

As I scanned, a big female sparrowhawk came through and perched on the fence. Tin Tin and Sacha joined me for a bit and we picked out barnacle and some white-fronted geese, there were at least six and all were Eurasian white-fronts. We had a water pipit over, calling.

Some visiting birders from Teesside got onto a peregrine and there was at least three buzzards about. ADMc joined me for a bit, just as he was leaving I got onto a goose with thick, stocky, orange legs. It wasn't one of the WFGs and the bill looked for bean - but the flock was disturbed and moved together into a huddle and I lost 'my bird'. I'll go back tomorrow when I have more time.

Onto my WeBS. The Budge fields were completely frozen so only six black-headed gulls to record. A water pipit was showing well in front of the screen.

Robin on the path to the Oddie hide

Onto the Big pool, the canada/greylag flock had moved from the fields onto the pool and the four barnacle geese were still amongst them but no Greenland white-fronts. The drake scaup was still present, but no sign of the hybrid Aythya and ten pochards are still there.

Little Grebe

My year list stands at 76 species and my PWC score is 88 with the addition of a few 'two-pointers' in the last couple of days.

Quiet start to the Autumn

Autumn has started quietly on the patch. On Wednesday I put some nets up for a ringing session. I caught a mixture of adult and juvenile warblers (chiffchaff, willow and sedge warblers, blackcap), which I presume were all local birds as nothing was carrying any fat. I also caught a grasshopper warbler, a female with the remains of a brood patch, very close to where a male was singing for a few nights four weeks ago. A bullfinch was calling nearby but I didn't catch it.

I also caught a few robins, wrens, a chaffinch and a tree sparrow. I watched a stunning juvenile marsh harrier flying over the Budge fields, right in front of the little hide - no photographers at that hour!

I spent some time on the patch today. A Saturday night out at the Cluny meant it wasn't an early start. I think all of the birds were asleep by the time I arrived.

Little grebe - asleep

Mute swan  - asleep

This common gull must have had no 'craic' as the black-headed gull was obviously bored

There were three juvenile ruff and black-tailed godwit (which was also asleep for much of the time) from the little hide and two common sandpipers on the far bank of the big pool.

There were a few 'wheeting' phylloscs in the bushes and a family of four juvvy blackcaps. I checked the fences and bushes at the north end for whinchats but none were found. I photographed some insects as there were no birds about.

Lime-speck Pug on wield

Noon fly or Noonday fly on knapweed

I headed back to the patch this evening, hoping the high-tide might have pushed some waders off their usual haunts. Six oystercatchers and five turnstones flew south, but not the hoped-for knot or grey plover. Three red-throated divers were on the sea - they were asleep too!

End of summer?

I do like my notebooks and there is always something nice about finishing and old book and starting a new one.

The first two birds written into the old book were pied thrush and Kashmir flycatcher, in Sri Lanka - that will take some beating. The first bird in the new book was a blue tit, in the bushes by the entrance at Druridge. I wonder how long it will be before the notebook is replaced by an app that sends the records straight to the cloud? The technology is here now.

Yesterday there were a lot of warblers, mostly juveniles, in the bushes. Between the entrance bushes and the Budge screen I counted 9 whitethroats, 10 willow warblers, 4 chiffchaffs and a sedge warbler. A goldcrest called by the Budge screen.

willow warbler

There were also a lot of hirrundines moving south. At first they mainly appeared to be swallows, but soon house martin took over as the most numerous.

On the pools, 13 ruff dropped in with two smaller waders (later tracked down by Dave as an LRP and a dunlin).  And that was it, I had limited time as I was off to the match

Due to a massive hangover, it was after 4pm when I got down to the patch today. Yesterday's ruff were still on the Budge fields with at least nine snipe and a redshank. A dunlin was out in front of the Oddie hide.

little grebe enjoying the sun

In the Oddie hide, there was a swallow mystery. The two chicks were still some way of fledging when I checked them on Wednesday, with perhaps another six to eight days to go. Today, there was no sign of them, nest empty and deserted. It is feasible, as they were on a ledge, that a rodent or mustelid got them.

There were still some butterflies on the wing including red admiral, wall and this speckled wood.

speckled wood

So the dunes. This arctic skua was harassing terns just offshore, most of my photos of it were out of focus, these two weren't bad.

arctic skua

common gull

There were 21 sanderling, one dunlin and one ringed plover on the beach.

Juvenile dunlin

Add caption

sanderlings

So, today is officially the end of summer, it's felt autumnal since the first week of August I reckon. There might be some easterlies this week, with a potential low pressure moving in towards Friday....

Ringing, WeBS and Darters

We put some nets up on Saturday morning but ringing was very slow and by midday we hadn't reached double figures. We caught our first goldcrest of the autumn and a couple of warblers, goldfinches, a blackbird and blue tit.


There seemed to be a few birds int he bushes, but maybe it looked as though there were more than there actually was when the birds gathered on the eastern edge to make the most of the warm sunshine?

This spotted flycatcher was the star amongst the whitethroats, blackcaps, chiffchaffs and willow warblers. A great-spotted woodpeckers was heard but not seen and a pair of kestrels and a sparrowhawk were the raptor highlights.

spotted flycatcher

I had a quick look on the sea in the evening, there were lots of red-throated divers in the bay in varying plumages.

Today was WeBS count day. The Budge fields didn't take much counting, 12 teal, one mallard, two curlew and grey heron.

There was little more life on the big pool, although a great-crested grebe was nice to see - a bit of a scarcity at Druridge in recent years.

This little grebe was amusing, it seemed determined to be sat on a rock, trying three before it finally settled on one it liked.Quite odd to a little grebe perched out like this.

Second choice of rock

Maybe this one will do?


A bit more company here...

The 'Indian summer' the newspapers are heralding hadn't brought many butterflies out bu there were lots of common darters. A good chance to practice my dragonfly photography.

I wasn't down at Druridge in time to see, or take part in, the mass skinnydip, but you can read all about it here 

 148 spotted flycatcher

Dreich at Druridge

Definition of dreich

adjective

Scottish

• (especially of weather) dreary; bleak:

  

  Dreich - even the ponies look miserable

  Well, that pretty-much summed Druridge up this afternoon. Whilst it was beautiful and sunny yesterday, I was at work and unable to get down to the patch. 
  
  So I had to make do with a short visit this afternoon. There is still a short-eared owl hanging about, it was perched on a fence-post on the edge of the Budge field for most of the afternoon.
  
  Two new species were added to the year-list; little grebe and common scoter, which take the list up to 79 and the patch competition score up to paltry 89. The February league table will be out soon and will show me lagging miles behind my Northumberland rivals.
  
  On the bright side, it's now March and I will soon be adding migrants to the list. I would expect to see sand martin, chiffchaff, puffin, lesser black-backed gull and sandwich tern before the month is out.
  
  78 little grebe
  79 common scoter
  
  

WeBS count

We decided to ring at Lynemouth sewage works this morning, a bad idea. All of the weekends migrants seemed to have moved through, we only caught six birds for our efforts.

Ringing in the morning meant that it was afternoon visit to the patch to do my WeBS count, which proved to be as disappointing as the morning's ringing session. For some reason, when the big pool is brim-full, like it was today, birds avoid it. Obviously species like teal and wigeon like an edge where they can get out graze, but the diving ducks also seem to avoid it when it is full. So the highlight of the count was six whooper swans, which soon flew off, finding Druridge to be to their disliking

Two of the whooper swans

Off they go. One of them is sporting a yellow ring. Even blown up it is difficult to make out the code, I'll send it to  WWT anyway.

Despite the arrival of six cows on the Budge fields, they haven't made a mark on the tall vegetation yet, there could've been cranes and storks out there, you wouldn't see them! . There were some curlew visible in front of the Budge screen and a juvenile and adult little grebe on the big pool.

curlew on the Budge fields

juvenile little grebe

In the bushes a few cresties were moving through and a chiffchaff 'wheeted', otherwise it was quiet. A look on the sea didn't bring my hoped-for grey phalalrope so I headed home.

WeBS count

curlew 12
mallard 8
coot 9
teal 10
whooper swan 8
little grebe 2
wigeon 2

Depressing

No blog activity this week. I've been internet free for a week at the famous (amongst ringers at least) Icklesham site in East Sussex. It's been rather nice having not having to deal with email for a week.

Back on the patch this morning before the rain set in. It was depressing. Highlights were a new brood of little grebe (three) and a year-tick stock dove.

It depresses me even more to hear of the new scrapes at Newton coming up trumps with a Stilt Sandpiper. It's brilliant for the Stringer, he has put a lot of work in there and deserves some good birds. Druridge could and should be pulling in birds like stilt sandpiper. It won't attract any passage waders this autumn and won't again until the Budge fields are properly grazed. The frustrating thing for me is that I can't do anything about the situation....

Here are some photos from today.

Hoverfly Helophilus trivittatus 

Hoverfly Helophilus trivittatus 

Green-veined white 'on the job'

small skipper on knapweed

Swift!

The first swift of the year is a notable date in any patch-workers notebook, as the last of the migrant breeders to arrive it marks a bit of a milestone in the ornitholigcal year. I saw my first swift of the year today and it was at Druridge.

It's arrival was overshadowed by another migrant this morning, a much scarcer spring bird on the coast - whinchat.

whinchat - record shot

Whinchats are hard to come by in the spring on the coast, much more obvious in the autumn, so this one was nice to see. In 2009, I failed to see whinchat at all at Druridge. A single white wag was the other notable passage visitor.

Two male blackcaps were vying for territory by the Budge screen and whitethroats were still singing strongly. I recorded 48 species at Druridge in three hours this morning, without a seawatch. I reckon with a seawatch I could have easily seen 55 species, over a third of the average yearly total!

The warmer conditions this morning may have been responsible for a hatch of cinnabar moths - they were everywhere!

Cinnabar moths - at it!

On the big pool, these two were making a racket.

little grebe

redshank in summer plumage

117 whinchat
118 swift

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