Tystie, tystie, very, very tystie

Twists of fate led to a full-fat patch tick on Friday.

Firstly - I wouldn't have normally been at Druridge on a Friday lunchtime. I'd have been at work. A good friend from Malta, Justin Vassallo, was visiting so I took the day off to take him birding. Justin is a legend - he started the first Maltese Raptor Camps in 1999, when he was only 19. I met him in 2001 when I went to my first of four raptor camps. We've been friends ever since. 

Secondly - We'd spent the first part of the morning seawatching at Snab Point so wouldn't have ordinarily gone back to look at the sea. We were in the little hide at Druridge when a couple of visiting birders told us they had seen two great northern divers with a single red-throated offshore - A chap had put them onto them. We retrieved the scopes from the car and headed up there. The 'finder' wandered off when we arrived. No sign of the GNDs but there was enough to look at so we stayed a while.

And that's how I happened to be in the right place at the right time.

We counted at least 20 red-throats on the sea, 160 common scoters, large auks, red-breasted mergansers, three scaup, great crested grebes. All good stuff for a Maltese birder. After 30 minutes or so of scanning, I picked up an auk headed north, already north of us - big white wing patches stood out immediately on an otherwise black and white 'motley' auk. Justin was looking south when I called it  - Black Guillemot! Despite my best efforts I couldn't get him onto it before it disappeared into a trough and was lost to sight. Given the scaly-dusky-ness of the bird I think it was a first-winter rather than a winter adult. 

I suppose 'tystie' is overdue as a patch bird and I shouldn't have been unexpected but it certainly wasn't on my radar for Friday - given reports from elsewhere, great shearwater or white-billed diver would've been more likely. So,  a pleasant surprise. Tystie takes my patch list to 253 and the patch list to 272.

We retired to the Drift Café for lunch and a celebratory beer.

Justin and me - celebrating a few lifers for him and a patch tick for me with a bottle of Curlew Return each

Elsewhere on the patch, late common darter and migrant hawker dragonflies were on the wing and three mistle thrushes were around the farm. Four barnacle geese were new for the autumn.

One of many common darters

Mistle thrush - not common on the patch

After the excitement of Friday, Saturday was a bit more mundane. 

It was a grey day, no wind, just flat... as was the birding. I decided to have a look on the sea. The sea was flat too. There was steady, northerly, kittiwake passage and three little gulls lingered offshore. A single female scaup came in with a red-breasted merganser and two turnstone flew north. 35 red-throated divers were on the sea, eight flew north and one went south.  

Coal tit in the plantation on Saturday

Today, Janet and I walked north from the plantation and back by the beach. The bushes were VERY quiet. The three mistle thrushes were still about. On the beach, a single rock pipit feeding on the seaweed north of the Dunbar Burn was a year-tick. Rock pipits are tricky at Druridge so it was welcome. 

Rock pipit

Carrion Crow on the beach

Razorbill - still a few auks feeding close inshore

Ringed plovers from last week

A sizeable (250+) flock of finches roamed about the dunes, I think 85-90% of them were linnets. No twite yet. 

This week on the patch

Internet problems have prevented any blog updates this week, back online now so here goes:

Monday

Monday morning was cold, but bright and sunny. There was some notable vizmig;

Pink footed goose - 954 south in several skeins

Skylark 23 (s)

Swallow 24 (s) including a group of 17

Tree Sparrow 4 (S)

Meadow Pipit 34 (S)

Linnet 15 (S)

Siskin 9 (S)

A couple of Chiffchaffs and the first Goldcrests of the Autumn were noteworthy

Some of the 953 Pinks that flew south

Tuesday - Ringing

Tuesday looked the best day of the week so I took a flexi-day from work and set some nets. The day started cold and I didn't get much early on as the birds stuck to the sunny edge of the bushes. A Lesser Whitethroat, three Yellow-browed Warblers and couple of Chiffs were with a tit flock. 

As it warmed up, the birds used more of the bushes and I caught a few Goldfinches then some of the Long-tailed Tits with two of the Yellow-brows and a Chiffchaff. A few birders were loitering around my car and watched me extract the first Yellow-browed Warbler from the bag and promptly let it go - how embarrassing. All ringers occasionally let a bird go, but not with an audience. Luckily there was a second bird.

I caught 40 birds, no photos though as I was ringing on my own.

Two Grey Wagtails flew south and a Great-spotted Woodpecker was about. 

Wednesday 

Patch-gold at the end of the rainbow?

Would there be 'patch gold' at the end of the rainbow?

Wednesday started bright but light rain set in. I walked north and back by the beach and got very wet. It was quiet, s couple of Chiffchaffs were singing and two Swallows went south.  The highlight was a Rock Pipit feeding amongst weed and detritus on the edge of a pool at the Dunbar burn formed by the big tides. My first Rock pipit since 2013 - a difficult bird on the patch that needs a build up of weed. Not quite patch gold - bronze mebbes?

Weed and detritus at the mouth of the burn - Rock Pipit habitat

Thursday

Thursday - the first day of October. It started cloudy but brightened up later, the brisk SW wind made it feel colder. A Ruff was in the Front Field with two dozen curlew.  A single Yellow-browed Warbler called from the 'Little Wood' and a couple of Chiffchaffs 'wheeted' from the bushes. A bit of vizmig was going on:

Pink-footed Goose 230 (S)

Wigeon 8 (In-off)

Skylark 22 (SW)

Tree Sparrow 4(S)

Meadow Pipit 35 (S)

Crossbill 12 (Over - seemed to be generally heading north)

Goldfinch 44 (S)

Siskin 9 (S)

Today (Friday)

A proper frost this morning - a crusty grass frost. A little arrival of Song Thrush and Goldcrest maybe? One Blackcap was the only warbler noted. There were 38 Curlew in the front field and depressingly 26 Pheasants - all but three of which were cock birds. 4 Lesser Redpoll and five Siskin flew south and more unusually, three Little Egrets went north. 

Whilst Openreach replaced the cable to our house (we could do no work) we headed north to Bamburgh Golf Course to twitch the Two-barred Greenish Warbler that has been there since Monday. As usual when I twitch anything, I dipped - it hadn't been seen since first-thing. As Unlucky Alf would say - Bugger!

Bugger!

A Pile O' Shite

A very large pile of shite has appeared on the patch

A large pile of shite

Closer inspection revealed it not to be shite but a pile of the compost the Council produce from garden waste, still, it might bring a few birds in. The farmer used to leave piles of chicken muck lying around and it was good for all sorts of birds.

Anyhoo, there were no birds on it tonight, and not many elsewhere on the patch, the bushes were pretty quiet. I checked out the beach for snow buntings, there weren't any, but a wheatear and a rock pipit were nice finds. 

There was also this dead seal pup, not very old (less than four weeks?) It looked a little different and I was thinking it might be too early for grey seal pups, especially this far from the Farnes, unless they are pupping on Coquet Island this year. Might it be a common (harbour) seal pup? They are tricky and head shape and nostril pattern are good indicators - I didn't photograph the nostrils but the head/nose area was pretty mangled anyhoo. Maybe Steely offuv the Farnes can help?

Dead Seal Pup - common or grey?

Its heed

To be honest, when I first saw it, I thought it was a small white dog.

This spotted flycatcher was on the fence at dusk, it looked really orangey at time sin the setting sun.

Spotted Flycatcher

small flocks of birds flew in, or over, at dusk, including a small group of redpoll and some linnets.

And a nice sunset to round of the evening.

Sunset through the dunes

The wind will be coming out of the east over the weekend, SE to begin with, then swinging more northerly, with good, clear conditions on the other side. All we need is some murk and mizzle to drop birds in, but it is looking unlikely, though XCweather is predicting some mist tomorrow evening. We'll have the nets up whatever.