Could it be spring?

Could it be Spring?

It felt like it this afternoon but down on the patch first thing it was a cold and frosty start. -1 degrees C but hardly a breeze and a lovely white frost.

Frosty start

Despite the cold, spring was in the air for the stonechats as they chased each other around the turning circle and for the skylarks who sang out above my head. Towards Chibburn lapwings were tumbling - it is spring y'know!

One  the stonechats - pausing for a while before resuming his courtship

Out in the fields about 780 pink-footed geese grazed - it's still winter...

I continued down to the Budge screen where it was nice to catch up with ADMc who was counting the grey herons, he'd got to 29 which is an impressive count for the patch and might indicate a good breeding season ahead - they'll be on eggs soon.

The other 'Budge' highlights included the three almost resident ruff, one of which is very lucky to be still with us. Andy called out a peregrine speeding low, north, it flushed the waders and ducks before gaining some height to stoop on one of the ruff, the ruff darted left and avoided being breakfast.

The three ruff coming back in to land - one of them very lucky to be there!

There weren't many wader s on the Budge in contrast to Saturday when there 153 redshank, 16 dunlin and 53 curlew.

One of Saturday's 153 redshank

In the fields beyond the Budge were more geese, pink-foots mostly but a scan through them produced three Eurasian white-fronts. Disturbed by something, all of the geese got up and estimated 1000 or so, added to my 780 earlier by the haul road,  I jotted down 'c1700'.

Shoveler numbers are still good - I estimated 41.

With chores to do I, I left Andy chatting to Marty Anderson and headed home. One of my more enjoyable chores was to clean out and check our 30 or so tree sparrow boxes at Ellington Pond Nature Reserve. Two water rails weren't put out by my presence and chased each other around the pond-margins squealing like pigs!

Two views of carrion crows

Coot from Saturday

Sharing the patch

On Saturday I had the opportunity to share my local patch with a group from the Natural History Society of Northumbria. This is the second guided tour of the patch I've given recently after the North Northumberland Bird Club visited in October.

About 18 participants came along and my colleague Ellie made sure that we didn't lose anyone along the way. I think I was allowed to lose up to 10 per cent of them.

We had three hours and I took them on what would be a normal walk around the patch for me. We had to be done by midday so I could get to the football on time so we didn't have time for a seawatch.

And in the round window...

We started at the entrance to the reserve after some confusion about the meeting point had been resolved and everyone enjoyed good views of the local celebrity - the little owl was in his favoured spot of the round window.

Five whooper swans were in the front field.

Four of the five whooper swans

Passerines were thin-on-the-ground but everyone enjoyed the spectacle of hundreds of waders and ducks on the Budge fields, notably curlew, lapwing, wigeon and teal. We had a huge count of 19 grey herons and watched them carrying nesting material into the shelterbelt. They'll be on eggs soon.

Onward to the Oddie hide. There wasn't much to see on the big pool, a couple of goldeneye and little grebes were nice, so we made our way north to the dunes along the coal road. before we got there a huge flock of pink-footed geese came south, well over 1000. A lot kept going bu hundreds landed in the fields west of the road.

Some of the pink-feet heading south

A flock of 40 or so twite flitted back and forth, settling close-by at time affording great views through the scope. There were linnets, reed buntings and chaffinches in with them. Tariq Farooqi kindly put the group on to a huge female peregrine that he had found perched on a fencepost beyond the geese and everyone enjoyed good views of it.

The group enjoying the peregrine on a post

We managed to see 38 species by my reckoning, which isn't bad given the size of the group and the time of year.

I made it to the match on time. Maybe I should've just stayed at Druridge?

Our list on eBird

Snow days

It's been a bit wintery this week.

I managed a midweek excursion to the patch on Wednesday (one benefit of working at home), frosty ground made it an ideal day to walk through the fields towards the Preceptory and back via High Chibburn and Druridge Farm.

A song thrush was on the path towards the hides and the usual selection of duck were on the big pool which remained unfrozen. Towards the Preceptory a handful of lapwing and golden plover were feeding in the pasture field - they sat tight as a peregrine passed over heading north, it was high so they probably did the right thing.

Down to the farm and a large flock of about 25 chaffinches where in the small copse with three coal tits - it's so unusual to see coal tits at this time of year at Druridge, they are normally just an autumn bird.

One of the coal tits at the farm

House sparrows and skemmie pigeons were numerous around the farm buildings but I was hoping for yellowhammers - I was out of luck there. Stock doves were notable in the fields as I returned along the road to Druridge and a large female sparrowhawk flew past me and landed on the fence.

In the hawthorns a robin sat out - my first of the year.

Robin in the hawthorns

On Saturday Janet joined me and we walked the same route - only this time there was snow underfoot and all around us - the song thrushes on the track had multiplied to four.

Snowy track to the hides where song thrushes flew

The field that held the goldies now had over 70 curlew feeding with a few lapwing, goldies and black-headed gulls for company, with a couple of hundred starling.

As we walked to the farm, two skylark flew up calling, 'the cold weather has brought them in' I said to Janet.

snowy track

frozen fields with a flock of pink-feet flying over

Ten tree sparrows were flitting about the farm with the chaffinches and house sparrows and as we approached the cottages two fieldfare flew over the fields - another bird of hard weather.

In front of Druridge Farm at least 800 pink-footed geese grazed, a single greylag was the only exception. We cut through to the beach hoping for snow buntings which we didn't see but we did see five meadow pipits in the dunes - another species brought in by the cold.

With no home-working this week, it will be the weekend before I am back.. but the evenings are getting lighter now and some post-work birding isn't far off.

Two walks

The weather wasn't suitable for ringing at the weekend, which is probably just as well as the bushes seemed to be devoid of birds. It looks as though there might be a hint of an easterly wind by Sunday.

So on both Saturday and Sunday I walked the full length of the patch.

On Saturday there were some signs of autum. Skylarks were almost constantly overhead and when I checked the plantation I found coal tits and goldcrests - both autumn species on the patch and in the dunes to the north there were five or six dunnocks with at least ten reed buntings feeding in the weedy patches.

Coal Tit

Coal Tit

 A single whooper swan flew north as I headed for  the beach and my return to the car. Offshore,  a black-throated diver flew north, quite close in, close enough for photos. There were a few red-breasted merganser close in shore and this guillemot was very close, even for a photo. I think this is the first guillie I've photographed on the patch.

Guillemot

On Sunday I did the same route but in the afternoon, once the rain had cleared, and as a result it felt quieter than Saturday. As I walked north I heard the 'yick-yick' of a great-spotted woodpecker, it was flying over the dunes from the sea as soon as it cleared the dunes, it dived straight into the nearest bushes out of sight and probably to rest, as it is highly likely it had just crossed the North Sea from Scandinavia.

On reaching the dunes at the north of the patch, where the reed buntings were still feeding in the weedy bits, I headed for the beach, which was empty  - of birds and people until I got to the southern end where this common gull was on it's own and a single carrion crow was mooching about.

Common Gull

Carrion Crow

Offshore,  I got onto a raptor high and quite far out, maybe 300 meters or more, it was a peregine and was just circling - someone suggested it could have chased a bird out to sea and it was waiting to pounce when the bird returned to land.

Magpie - Another species I don't often photograph

A few new January birds

I've been down to the patch a couple of times post. No photos though, it's just been too dull.

I had a nice dusk visit on 20th, it was nearly dark when I left at 16.15. Highlights were two ruff and eight dunlin on the Budge fields and flock of about 15 fieldfare flying over and into the bushes, quite often a species I have to wait until autumn for.

Standing at the Budge screen, I heard a water pipit calling, but I couldn't find it, I think it was overhead. There were also three drake pintail still present.

On Sunday, I took look one look at the number of people at the Budge screen and gave it a dodge. I had a quick look offshore, but it was very quiet other than a flock of about 40 scoters flying south which included five velvet scoters!

This morning was quite warm, but the strong southerly wind and overcast skies made it feel colder. And there very few people about - which is good.

There are still plenty geese about though. The majority, a flock of over 3000 pink-feet, were over by Low Chibburn somewhere - they lifted and settled gain after a light aircraft flew over. A smaller group of about 350 came down into the fields west of the Budge - there were at least five European white-fronts and five barnacles with them.

I saw three species I wouldn't normally expect in January:

Greenfinch - one on the feeders, a species I wouldn't normally expect until the big post-breeding flocks of finches arrive in late summer - the presence of feeders has dramatically increased the number of finches, tree sparrows and reed buntings overwintering at Druridge.

Shelduck - normally a February arrival (there were two on New Years Eve - not a species I would expect in December at all).

Stock Dove - Two on the Budge fields - again a February/March bird

My other year-tick today was little owl - thanks to Dave Elliott for the tip-off

From the Budge screen, I picked up a very large (must have been female) peregrine sat on a fencepost beyond the Haul Road way over towards Low Chibburn Farm. The drake scaup was still on the big pool.

My year list now stands at 86 species and 99 points for the Patchwork Challenge.

Feels like summer

Yesterday I spent pretty-much all of the daylight hours on the patch and what splendid daylight hours they were. Warm and sunny with light variable winds, it may have touched 20 degrees in the afternoon.

We were ringing for most of the day and it was so warm I was in a T-shirt for much of the afternoon...in November.

It was soon apparent that the influx of thrushes had quickly passed inland, no redwings or fieldfares to be seen. There were plenty of blackbirds and we ringed a single song thrush. Most of the blackbirds were continental birds, the adult females a nice grey colour and many with longer wings than our resident birds. Some of the blackbirds were carrying a lot of fat - they were on the move.

As well as blackbirds we caught a lot of goldfinches and siskins which are taking advantage the abundance of seeds this year. The siskins are especially liking the alder cones.

We caught a single brambling, a nice first-year male. This is the first brambling we have caught since 2006 at Druridge.

Brambling

We caught 95 birds of 17 species by the end of the day. The increase in the population of tree sparrows in the area around Druridge and generally in Northumberland means we are catching more of these beautiful birds.

Tree sparrow

Also of note was a late chiffchaff, not a 'sibe' this one, a typical yellowy-green collybita. It was also carrying a lot of fat, it weighed over 11g.

We also caught a female chaffinch that we ringed way back in August 2009 in its first year, odd that we haven't caught between then and now. Six and-a-bit is a good age for a chaffinch.

Early in the morning we watched a short-eared owl being mobbed by passerines over the Budge fields. In the afternoon a peregrine passed through and a large female sparrowhawk was seen chasing blackbirds through the bushes.

 A brief seawatch after the nets had been put away produced two drake velvet scoter on the sea and a handful of red-throated divers.

Summer birding

Summer birding can be at a bit slow at Druridge, both in terms of birds and birders, with most of the 'regulars' off hunting butterflies or dragonflies at ne'er previously encountered ponds.

The mud on the Budge fields is keeping me interested, it hasn't turned up anything unusual this week but looks as though it could. Ruff was the best of the bunch mid-week when I also saw my first peregrine of the year, turning up bang on-cue with the returning lapwings. There has been good counts of yellow wagtails this week too.

The swallows in the hides seem to be doing well this year, with broods of three, one and five all fledged another four nearly ready to go. I've managed to ring them all.

The great-crested grebe pair are still persevering on their very late nest.

Stonechats are also doing well. This pair look like they are going to triple-brood

I had a ringing session yesterday but only caught 11 new birds and two retraps. I was very bright with a strengthening easterly wind, so not ideal conditions. There seems to be some drift migration going on as I caught four willow warblers which I don't think were locally bred. I also saw a juvenile yellowhammer by the Dunbar burn, yellowhammer don't breed at Druridge so that one was definitely doing some post-fledging dispersal.

The strangest sight yesterday was an off-white, tinged yellowish, small finch. I didn't have my bins on me, but it stood out like a sore thumb. It was either a escaped canary or an albino goldfinch (seemingly there has been a canary seen recently at Hauxley and Cresswell??). Either way it will soon be sparrowhawk food I fear.

common blue in the dunes

142 peregrine
143 yellowhammer

PWC score 188

Owls and Raptors

An abandoned point-to-point meeting at Alnwick meant that I got to spend the afternoon at Druridge rather than spending my money with the bookies!

I was treated to a fantastic short-eared owl display. At least three SEO's were in the vicinity of Druridge this afternoon. It was great to watch, especially when two of them came across one another...they would have a bit of a set-to before heading off to hunt. This happened a few times over the Budge fields.There seems to be a lot of SEO's wintering in Northumberland this year, I hope a few stay to breed. It must be ten years since I saw them in the Cheviots.

various short-eared owl views

Whilst I was watching owl-fest,  I also saw a merlin flying over the big pool and Budge Fields and later, a peregrine, which was high at first, over the farm. It then headed north towards Hemscotthill scattering various flocks of waders, corvids and starlings as it went.

Offshore, I saw my first gannets of the year, four of them on the horizon, flying north. There was also a harbour porpoise in the Bay among the red-throated divers, mergansers and shags.There was also a red-breasted merganser on the Budge fields briefly.

red-breasted merganser on the Budge field pools

and it was gone.....

I walked through the dunes for a while. I came across at least six 'thrushes anvils'  - this was the most impressive.

'thrushes anvil' in the dunes at Druridge

On Friday night, I drove home via the patch and scored a barn owl at High Chibburn Farm.

74 barn owl
76 merlin
77 gannet
78 peregrine

The fourth falcon

After yesterdays three falcon day, one of the first birds I saw at Druridge today was a juvenile peregrine, falcon number four of the weekend.....I'll struggle to get a fifth!

On the sea this morning were about 12 little gulls, just floating about, surely the same group that were on the beach yesterday. A brief seawatch produced little other than a stonking pale pomarine skua, picked up travelling south, before resting on the sea just off where I was stood. gannets were feeding and loafing very close to the shore, many of them were grey juvs. A great-crested grebe was on the sea.

The bushes were quiet, a few chiffs and a blackap or two. A few meadow pipits and a stonechat on the dunes.

One the big pool, a female scaup was the highlight. There were a few female tufties with a lot of white around the base of bill and a pucker scaup amongst them. Over by the haul road, male marsh harrier was hunting and getting harassed by crows.

Storm

A huge storm passed-by, to the west of Druridge, then around to the north over Coquet Island. It appeared dark on its leading edge, but the sky was white behind it, I wonder if it was hail stones? During the storm, the wind really picked up and moved from the south-east around to the south-east....very odd.

A New Year, same old patch...

Back on the patch today for the first time this year.

Birding on new years days is never really an option for me and with the Toon away to Wigan yesterday today was my first chance to get out.

I did promise a short report of 2010, I ran out of time on NYE, too busy preparing tapas and making  my 'Captain Chaos' outfit. It might still happen.... Amazingly last years bird species total was exactly the same as 2009  - 157! One short of 158 in 2008 and well short of my best ever total of 168. Two new species were added to the patch list, great-white egret back in April and red-legged partridge on Christmas Day.

Hopefully 2011 will bring a few more patch ticks, there are still some commoner species I still need such as bluethroat, pallas's warbler, icterine warbler, wood warbler and tree pipit.

Today, the 2011 list got of to a fair start given the very cold weather we have been experiencing. It was still cold at Druridge with a biting NW wind, the ponds and fields still frozen. I walked up to the Preceptory and down to High Chibburn and back via the hamlet.

A quick look on he sea produced five nice drake red-breasted mergansers in full summer garb and a single red-throated diver. Passerines were thin on the ground, with the winter thrushes present last week apparently retreated back inland, robin, dunnock and wren also notable by their absence.

My first raptor of the year was a buzzard, out from the back of the big pool, I caught up with Bob Biggs and he picked up a distant peregrine on the patch boundary - nice one Bob!

Other good patch birds to get the list rolling were stock dove, woodcock (still plenty about), long-tailed tit, yellowhammer (still good numbers on the roof of the farm) and collared dove, once a rare bird at Druridge, have now taken up residence at the farm.

Rabbit and hare were the only mammals of the day.

here's the list:


1 shag
2 red-breasted mersander
3 cormorant
4 guilliemot
5 sanderling
6 carrion crow
7 herring gull
8 great black-backed gull
9 common gull
10 black-headed gull
11 teal
12 wigeon
13 red-throated diver
14 curlew
15 redshank
16 starling
17 skemmie pigeon
18 mallard
19 grey partridge
20 greylag goose
21 stock dove 
22 long-tailed tit
23 common buzzard
24 lapwing
25 rook
26 pheasant
27 blackbird
28 magpie
29 chaffinch
30 yellowhammer
31 coal tit
32 collared dove
33 blue tit
34 house sparrow
35 moorhen
36 mistle thrush
37 pied wagtail
38 oystercathcer
39 woodpigeon
40 tree sparrow
41 great tit
42 dunlin
43 woodcock
44 peregrine
45 pink-footed goose

Nice to be back

I was so pleased to get out and go birding today, having fought my way to work and back every day and stuck at home all last weekend it was great to be back on the patch. What made it even better? Quality winter birding!

Cold

To kick off - lots of geese between Druridge and Hemscotthill, approaching 1000 pink-foots with nine pale-bellied brents in with them. I didn't get the scope for out for fear of scaring them, so I didn't get a chance to grill them for any other species.

Pink-footed geese near Druridge Hamlet

I had a good walk around the patch, the most obvious and amazing thing was the number of woodcocks, they were everywhere! I din't need to walk through the bushes, there were four in the willows by the Budge screen, twelve in the pine plantation by the entrance, four in the scabby blackthorns at he north end and even one in the mugwort valley of death. There was shooting going on in the surrounding shelterbelts all day - I wonder if it was woodcock they were after?


The only woodcock  curlew photo I managed to get - I think a fox may have got it first

 Whilst looking for woodcocks to photograph, I saw a stoat prancing about after something, no photo's sadly but great to watch.

The big pool had lots of wildfowl on it, nothing unusual, just common winter ducks, wigeon was the most numerous at 250.

Winter wildfowl on the big pool

There were lots of small birds on the move too. A flock of 50 or so skylarks were put up by a sparrowhawk, 60 twite where in the dunes to the north, two flocks of long-tailed tit and a flock of 55 goldfinch were roving about.

goldcrest on teasel

Nothing of note on the beach other than this gruesome dead grey seal minus its eyes and a peregrine over the dunes.

Not looking good.....

At High Chibburn Farm an incredible 29 yellowhammers were keeping their feet warm on top of the cowsheds and 20 or so skylark fed on spilled grain by the barn.

One of 29 yellowhammer son the roof of the barn at High Chibburn Farm

So not a bad days winter birding - 51 species without even trying.

late seawatch adds nicely to year list

This post could equally have been called 'Balearic beauty'

I've been seawatching, I left it a bit late, not arriving at at Druridge til 1730 and judging by the totals on RBA I missed the best of the days action. I did 2 1/2 hours through til 8pm when, to be honest, it was getting tricky to pick up manxies out by the pot flags.

Bird of the evening was a relatively close (for Druridge) Balearic shearwater, virtually the first bird decent bird I saw, going north at 1735, this is my third for Druridge and all of them have been at similar distance.

I didn't bother counting kittiwakes (or the terns) , by far the most numerous birds, with long 'strings' and groups going through most of the evening. I collected a few year ticks including; sooty shearwater, only 1 though, bar-tailed godwit, knot and grey plover (summer plumage  - nice)

Totals were (1730-2000):

Balearic shearwater 1

cormorant 4

manx shearwater 47

sooty shearwater 1

fulmar 48

gannet 358

sandwich tern - gave up counting

common tern  - ditto

arctic tern  - ditto

great black-backed gull 9

bar-tailed godwit 1

teal 18

lesser black-backed gull 6+

kittiwake 1000+

red-throated diver 7

common scoter 26

roseate tern 5

arctic skua 3

bonxie 3

tufted duck 4

guillemot 5

red-breasted merganser 5

dunlin 1

oystercatcher 1

knot 1

eider 4

grey plover 1

ringed plover 5

Yesterday, I walked from Berwick to Coldingham along the Berwickshire Coast path with work with TAC and others, there wasn't much time for birding, but an adult peregrine feeding fledged young at Marshall Meadows was nice,  in Scotland we had more pergrines including an adult and juvenile whilst we were having lunch at Burnmouth, also nice to see were coastal ravens.

Just south of Coldingham in a scrubby dene, TAC  and I picked out a calling warbler which was different, but something we had both heard before, a disyllabic call, we only got the briefest of views, it was certainly a phylloscopus warbler, but it didn't show much. In flight it was green-grey, when it flitted through the bushes I could see it was white below, but that is all we saw, we had to catch up with the others in order to catch our bus back to Berwick, when it flew further up the dene, we had to leave it, but we are pretty much certain it was greenish warbler.

133 balearic shearwater

134 sooty shearwater

135 knot

136 bar-tailed godwit

137 grey plover