Long-billed Dowitcher on WeBS count

I did my WeBS count today.

There was a very blustery SSW wind blowing which didn't make counting easy. A lot of birds were seeking shelter behind the tussocks of reed so I have probably under-counted some species.

Whilst counting ducks from the little hide, the curlews and redshanks that had been over by the Budge screen lifted and and settled a bit nearer to me. As I was counting the curlews, a smaller bird shoved its very long bill under it's wing and went to sleep - "that's the dowitcher" I said to myself as there was nobody in the hide.

Curlews counted (53) I came back to the long-billed bird. It was now obscured by sleeping curlews. Patience eventually paid off when the pack reshuffled and the dowitcher was exposed in all its glory - having a bit of a preen.

This is the third time I have seen this bird at Druridge. I am sure it must get up here more often than it is reported. There are definitely less birders getting to Druridge whilst the road up from Cresswell is closed which is no bad thing.

Amongst the wader flock were also two dunlin, two black-tailed godwits and a ruff. There are still about 300 wigeon and 70 teal on the Budge fields.

Away from the WeBS count, there was little to report. The National Trust were having a bush-craft day for kids.



Four whooper swans were in the field in front of the cottages, hanging around the feeding troughs with a couple of mutes and a greylag goose.

Whooper swans - a family party?

Mute swan

LBD

Another very windy day, but at least it was dry.

I didn't have high-hopes for my visit to the patch today, the weather wasn't good and it is February, my least favourite month alongside December.

After an uneventful look on the sea, I headed for the Budge screen, it was really windy, even inside the screen. I had a quick scan through the bins first and to be honest, if it had looked quiet I was just going to go home, but it wasn't. There were lots of waders. About a dozen redshank in front of the hide, with more over the back, 30 or more curlew and over 100 lapwing - more waders than usual. I picked out a squat, grey bird among the lapwing so got the scope out - the wind was making viewing difficult though.

The grey wader was a knot - a scarce bird on the patch, usually only picked up as fly-over or in a group offshore during autumn passage. The next bird I got in the scope was even more unexpected - the long-billed dowitcher had left it's usual haunt at Cresswell and come back to the Budge fields. The first time I saw it, on New Year's Eve it was flying off, so it was really nice to get some good views of it as it fed just beyond the water in front of the hide. 

A really strong gust of wind sent all of the waders into the air and the wigeon, that had been grazing, back onto the water. I scanned through the lapwings, curlews and redshank when they resettled but couldn't pick up the dowitcher again, the knot had gone too. I add three black-tailed godwits, two ruff and three dunlin to the tally though, but in the end the wind got the better of me and I headed home.

The dowitcher and knot take the year list to 90 species. As for the Patchwork Challenge, it depends on whether the dowitcher counts as self-found. When I re-found the Cresswell stilt sandpiper on the patch it counted, so I am presuming the same rules apply here.

There were no other birders at Druridge today, I presume the long diversion from Cresswell pond because of the road closure at Hemscotthill is putting them off.

Just outside the patch boundary there are still a couple of hundred fieldfare with lesser numbers of redwing and mistle thrush just of Druridge Lane. I had a scan through them but picked nothing unusual up.

Left it late for a full patch tick!

I left it a bit late to squeeze another patch tick in this year but a long-billed dowitcher flying around the patch before heading back to its favoured Cresswell pond this morning was a very welcome addition to the patch list. Not the greatest views, I wished I had seen it on the deck, but it still counts.

A big thank you to Jonathon Farooqi for the tip-off that it was there.

My second patch list addition of the year following September's fantastic red-footed falcon. This takes the patch list up to 238.

Jonathon had also found a couple of water pipits on the Budge fields, they were joined by a third for a while. These are the first water pipits I have had on the patch in eight years, the last ones being in front of the Oddie hide and along the haul road.

The dowitcher and water pipits take my year list up to 161 species. Not a disaster, but not great.

This snip from my spreadsheet shows the last eight years totals from the patch. Maybe 2013 and 2014 were just exceptional years...

So what did I miss?

The obvious omissions from this years list include

Salvonian Grebe - six out of the last eight years
Grey Plover -  5/8
Bonxie  - 7/8 (the first year I not recorded bonxie!)
Redstart and Pied Fly - 4/8
Garden warbler - 6/8
Lesser whitethroat - 6/8
Bullfinch - 5/8

Also of note today was an odd duck that I still can't make my mind up about. It was with the pochards and looked like an Aythya. At first I thought it might have some shoveler in it, as the head was green and the bill looked long and spatula shaped. The more I looked at it, the more I ruled out shoveler - although the bill was very long and flatish

The head shape was right for scaup and the colour looked good. The bird seemed to show some reddish brown on the front and under the tail - in certain light. I still think it is a hybrid - probably scaup x pochard - but it could be a first winter drake scaup in moult. I'll need to have a better look.

Well, that's it from me for 2016. Not sure when I'll get back to the patch, but when I do, I hope that dowitcher is there.

Recovered Stormy

We only caught two storm petrels in a single session this summer, the weather getting the better of us.  One of them was already ringed (a control in the language that ringers speak).

We've just heard back from BTO with details of where it was ringed; Eilean nan Ròn which is off the Kyle of Tongue on the north coast of Scotland, only 26 days before we caught it.

A distance of 403km. It is amazing the distances these tiny seabirds travel!

Here is a google map of storm petrels we've 'controlled' 

https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=z4Qkjic5Jjcs.kEcXq64P2UoA&usp=sharing


Nothing much to report from Druridge today. The long-staying 'Cresswell' long-billed dowitcher put in another appearance on the Budge fields again this morning before heading back south to it's favoured spot. It obviously doesn't think much of Druridge - it doesn't hang around for long.

There are now six pochards on the big pool, a handful of goldeneye and a red-breasted merganser - there were 15 'mergs' on the sea.

Forecasters wrong again...

The weather forecasters got their predictions wrong for this weekend. Heavy rain from yesterday lunchtime (it rained at 4pm) which would last until the early hours of Monday. It rained over-night but there's hardly been a drop since.

Even our local WeBS organiser sent an advisory message out yesterday to recorders not to take risks in the weather. The only risk today came from wearing too many layers and over-heating. Light winds increased but it was 15 degrees C, dry, and quite pleasant.

Perfect weather for WeBS counting. Whilst I was counting from the Budge screen, a couple arrived and we chatted about the long-billed dowitcher that has been at Cresswell (and briefly at Druridge...grrr) for the last few days. They told me the tale of seeing it two weeks ago on the Budge fields but weren't confident of the identification (they knew it was something different), so they didn't say anything.

I encouraged them, that if they should find anything 'different' again, to let someone know. We all get things wrong, me especially, and we are always learning. That bird could have easily moved on and nobody would have seen it, let alone at Druridge.

My disappointment was soon gone when I picked up a female merlin sat out on the Budge field, it seemed to pull apart some prey before flying over and landing on a post for a while. My first merlin at Druridge for a long while.

Shortly after that a splendid short-eared owl put on a good show for us, quartering the fields in front of the hide. It was also right next to the path when I went to the Oddie hide - of course I had left my camera behind because of the forecast of rain. 29 whooper swan flew south.

Four pochard were still on the big pool (I saw them yesterday). My first record of pochard this year, they are certainly very uncommon at Druridge nowadays.

Yesterday I walked back along the beach, looking for snow buntings, which I didn't see. I did see a swallow though, a male, feeding over the dunes and beach. There were still plenty of insects about in this spell of warm weather. November 14th is very late for swallow and is my latest patch sighting. I have had a later 'Druridge Bay' record with one on 4th December many years ago, flying north at Chibburn Mouth.

Pochard and merlin put me on 156 for the year, which is very disappointing. If I don't see anything else new, this will be my worst year on the patch since 2012 and my second-worst since 2005. There are still some possibilities - snow bunting, white-fronted goose, brent goose, black redstart, bullfinch, red-legged partridge...maybe even the dowitcher will come back. That would be nice!