Baltic

It's been really cold this week, with snow and ice dominating and a brisk easterly through to southerly wind making feel even colder.

Continuing restrictions have meant limited trips to the patch and a lot of birding on foot from home for the 5km patch list which is coming along nicely. I have been popping into the patch, if I've been passing that way and a 'change' in rules has meant that surveys like WeBS can continue as long as you stay local and obey social distancing rules. I suppose there had to be a relaxation given that it was legal to stand in a field and shoot birds but not to count them.

The cold weather has brought an influx of birds not usually seen in big numbers at this time of year. Hundreds of winter thrushes, particularly redwings are now on the coast, there are Woodcock, Snipe and Jack Snipe (we saw one today) in decent numbers and I counted 67 Meadow Pipits on the Budge fields today and 18 Stock Dove near the farm yesterday.

Snipe flushed from the Coal Road yesterday

One of many Redwings

Some of the Canada Goose flock yesterday with Pink-footed Geese in the fields behind

The WeBS count was busy with big counts of Wigeon (352) and Mallard (106) but lower numbers of Teal (64) than usual. A Long-tailed Duck on the Big Pool was a bonus. 

All of the wildfowl are looking smart now and this drake Shoveler was particularly dapper

The Budge fields were almost frozen over and devoid of ducks,  a few Lapwing and Curlew needed counting though.

The Lapwing were finding any shelter they could from the cold southerly winds

Carrion Crow looking for food on frozen ground

Moorhen legging it through the snow

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