Terns

Yesterday morning I had a plan. That plan was to go to Cresswell and try some rockpool photography with the new macro lens. I' writing a beach guide for work and I'm short of a few rockpool photos so I thought I'd give it a go, but I'd have a quick look in at the patch first.

My first stop was the dunes for a look on the sea, as I scanned the foreshore I noticed lots of gulls and terns feeding in a pool on the edge of the tideline and it reminded me of photographing terns in a small pool back in 2013. I had to investigate...

Two hours and one and a half 16GB CF cards later, I headed home.

The pool had attracted over 200 black-headed gulls and hundred or so terns of three, maybe four, species (I didn't get any arctic tern photos). Here are the results...

This sandwich tern was colour ringed. It's a green ring with either EJO or EJD on it. I've not looked it up yet.

Sandwich tern in 'angel pose'

Mid-air acrobatics - I think this Sandwich tern was having a shake after an unsuccessful dive 

I've always wanted to photograph a tern just before it goes into the water...

Lift-off from an unsuccessful dive  - I love the energy in this shot

Common tern in angle pose

Common terns with  fish

Rozza

Stunning bird! Roseate tern

Profile view  - Roseate tern

And not to forget the gulls in this tern-fest...

Adult Herring gull

Black-headed gull

There's hundreds more photos...

I eventually got down to Cresswell this morning to photograph the rockpools with mixed results which I'll try and put on here later in the week. This excursion meant I was doing my WeBS count at 8.30pm tonight, The Pectoral sandpiper is still on the Budge fields, with two greenshank, two ruff and a handful of snipe and redshank (someone had a wood sandpiper later which I didn't see). On the big pool, teal and wigeon are returning and two molting pochards were a rare sight. Two adult Med gulls were on the beach.

A bit of ringing

Well, the bloody weather forecasters got it wrong again.

With thoughts of ringing this weekend, I've been checking out the forecast for this weekend since Thursday and it was constantly changing. By Friday night it looked like Saturday would be the better morning for ringing, dull with light westerlies, so I left home at 5am to set some nets up. When I pulled out of our street the wind turbines on the horizon were moving too quickly for my liking and it was glorious sunshine.

And so it was... bright and breezy with the wind out of the west. The worst conditions to ring at Druridge. I persevered, but gave up by 9am having only caught 6 birds.

Today was supposed to be bright and breezy again, but the wind was to be stronger and move more southerly. I didn't wake up until 7.30am (it had been a late night) and looked out of the window - still calm and overcast... I was at Druridge and nets up by 8am.

Despite the late start, I caught 20+ birds, mostly juvenile warblers.

There were two highlights. The first was catching a whitethroat that we first caught in July 2014 as an adult female - so the bird was at least five years old. Not a record by any means - the BTO record longevity record is seven years and nine months, but it does man that this little bird, weighing only 13 grams had crossed the Sarah desert at least eight times.

Five year-old whitethroat

The second highlight was controlling ( this means catching a bird that has been ringed elsewhere) a reed warbler. We will have to wait to hear from BTO exactly where it was ringed. Reed warblers are a bit of a success story at Druridge. They started breeding in the little Phragmites reedbed in the south-east corner of the big pool about six years ago with one pair, before that they were a passage migrant.This year we have already ringed six breeding males and three females and today, our first juvenile of the year.

Controlled reed warbler

On Friday I popped down to the patch after work. Terns were feeding close into the shore including a handful of roseate terns, I even managed a photo of one of them.

Sandwich tern

Sandwich tern

Roseate tern

Offshore, a good flock of common scoter has built up in the bay, numbering up to a thousand. They were dispersed into several smaller groups on Friday, here are some of them...

Some of the 1000 common scoter in the bay at the moment

On the Budge fields there were two wood sandpipers, a little ringed plover and 15 black-tailed godwits. These waders were joined by a whooper swan on Saturday that has been knocking about on the bay. A water rail was calling from the corner of the big pool this morning and a few whimbrels were in the silage fields with the curlews

Ian Fisher and I have been checking the egrets and herons in the shelterbelt this year, we did our final check tonight but I'll write about the outcomes next time.

Blackcap - To Biarritz...and back!

I've got some really interesting news of a returning blackcap, but first a round-up of the weekend on the patch.

On Friday evening there, autumn wader passage was underway with a greenshank and ruff on the Budge fields, an avocet and a single black-tailed godwit were also present and an adult little egret was feeding.

Adult little egret feeding on Budge fields

A grasshopper warbler was 'reeling' from the umbellifers on the dune-back opposite the path to the Budge screen - it was still reeling today from 5am to midday!

Offshore, there were at least five roseate terns fishing, which isn't surprising given that there are over 100 pairs nesting on nearby Coquet Island. I also saw my first Arctic skua of the year, harrying the terns.

Red admiral

There are a lot more butterflies on the wing now that summer has arrived. Ringlet, small skipper, meadow brown, wall, red admiral, small tortoiseshell, speckled wood were all seen and,today, my first dark-green fritillaries of the year.

As it rained for much of yesterday morning, I put my patch-visit off until the evening. On the edge of the patch, between Bell's farm and the plantation, I stopped to watch some swift passage - a steady stream of these early migrants headed south. Whilst scanning them, a strikingly dark swallow flew past me. I watched it for while, it was male, but the underparts were much more chestnut/orange than any other barn swallow I've seen. It almost reminded me of the North American race, but it had a good, dark breast-band. It was certainly a striking bird, but I don't think it was anything other than a darker than average rustica.

A 'bog-standard' swallow taking a feather to line it's nest

On the Budge fields there were 28 black-tailed godwit and yesterdays ruff and a new ringed plover. A male marsh harrier flew in and started hunting over the Budge field, scattering some duck and lapwings.

male marsh harrier hunting over the Budge fields

Also of note were five large shoveler youngsters. I've seen this on previous years at Druridge, where a female shoveler will turn up late in the summer with well-grown young. I am not sure if these birds were capable of flight, but they were nearing adult size, so they probably were.

Today, I got up early and put some nets up to ring birds. I didn't catch much, I presume a lot of the warblers are sat tight on second broods. I caught 14 new birds, all but two of which were juveniles. I would have expected to have caught more young warblers (I caught two backcaps and a chiffchaff), I think the prolonged cold spring and erratic storms may have done for some first broods.

Between net-rounds I had a scan from the dunes and picked up a small falcon flying west. I automatically assumed it would be a kestrel, but when I put my bins on it I was surprised to see a fine adult hobby. It had a small bird of some species in its talons (maybe a sand martin, there were a lot of them), it continued west over the bushes and turned south with it's prey, maybe looking for somewhere suitable to deal with it?

So, to the story of the blackcap. I retrapped a female breeding blackcap today, which we ringed as a juvenile last year. This got me thinking about thinking about the blackcap that we ringed that ended up in France (read the story here http://ipinswildlifeblog.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/the-french-connection.html ) and whether it may have come back, so I checked our retraps for the year and it has!

Y540945 was ringed as a juvenile male on the 27th August by me and James Common, we caught it again on the 5th September. On 25th September it was caught by a ringer 1251km in Landes near Biarritz in France.

Looking at our retraps for this year I discovered that Y540945 has returned! I caught it on 9th June as breeding male. This is the first time we have ever had a long-distance migrant trapped elsewhere other than Druridge, return to our site. Isn't migration amazing!

130 greenshank
131 Arctic skua
132 hobby

Light nights

These long, light nights leave little time for updating my blog, so I apologise for the lack of activity lately.

I have also discovered another way to waste my valuable time - Flickr. I have started uploading photos from various trips on my new Flickr page - have a  look at https://flic.kr/s/aHske5c4fQ

As spring is over and autumn has yet to start, birding on the patch has been slow. I've tried a couple of sea-watches and managed to add roseate tern to the patch year list, but nothing else. With over 80 pairs on Coquet Island, it was just a matter of time.  There were two harbour porpoise in the bay tonight.

The Budge fields are still proving popular with black-tailed godwits, there were 28 there tonight. No other migrant waders were noted over the last week though. The two curlew chicks are still alive and well and getting bigger, their bills are lengthening too.

I saw a colour-ringed little egret on the big last weekend. You can see from the record-shot below that it has a yellow ring with a black 'T' on the left tibia and a red ring with a white 'F' on the left tibia. has anyone else seen this bird around?

I saw my first patch-grasshopper warbler of the year tonight, it was reeling in some umbellifers  on the edge of the dunes. This species seems to be a bit boom-and-bust at Druridge in recent years.

Evening birding

I love this time of year, when it is light enough to go out birding for a few hours after work. I got to Druridge at 7pm and left at 9.20pm and there was still plenty of light, by December it will have been dark for five hours at 9.20pm, now there's a sobering thought.

Anyhoo, birding was good tonight. I started with a look on the sea as the tide was high. A scan of the 500 or so scoters produced no oddities, a couple of roseate terns fed close in and on the sea were great-crested grebes, red-breasted mergansers and red-throated divers. Ringed plovers, dunlin and a handful of manx shearwaters were also on the move.

On the Budge fields, it started quiet, with two little egrets roosting on the edge of the shelterbelt,  a third flew in onto the fields and the two roosters joined it, soon to disappear amongst the rush. Soon after, three spoonbills came in from somewhere and settled down to feed. Waders came and went through the rushes including about 12 dunlin, a male ruff in moult, a black-tailed godwit and a handful of snipe.

A barn owl was hunting and then settled on a fencepost in front of the shelterbelt to rip apart a vole and a female marsh harrier flew north.

A very pleasant evening indeed!

Ringing, WeBS and Scoters

I've been away with work, neglecting the patch somewhat.

When I have been to Druridge, I've been keeping any eye on the scoter flock that is loitering in the Bay. My theory is that there is a regular turn-over of birds, last weeks c450 birds might not be there today amongst the 600+. The presence/absence of velvet scoters shows this. There were two flocks tonight, about 450-500 off the patch and about another 200 well north off the T junction at Hadston.

The scoter flock today

linnet

I had a little seawatch on Thursday evening as the northerly wind felt good. About 40 manx shearwaters moved through, two arctic skuas, three roseate terns and an adult med gull where the highlights. Three spoonbill and a little egret were still on the Budge fields.

On Saturday I was ringing. It was quiet, I only caught 16 new birds and five retraps, mostly juveniles.

Ringing totals were (retraps in brackets)

wren 1 (3)
blackcap 5 (1)
willow warbler 1
dunnock 1
magpie 1 (juvenile)
great tit 1
blue tit 1 (1)
chiffchaff 1
reed warbler 1
coal tit 2
chaffinch 1

A single spoonbill loitered on the Budge fields and a family of stonechats were in the bushes in the dunes. A quick evening visit produced a little ringed plover on the Budge fields with two ringed plover, three whimbrel and a single spoonbill.

One of three juvenile stonechat in the dunes

Today was WeBS count day. It's difficult to count birds on the Budge fields when the rush and grass cover is so high, but I did my best. There were very few waders compared to recent days - a single common sandpiper on the big pool was all of note. What was interesting was two female/juvenile goldeneye, I've been through my records and I've never had a July (or August for that matter) goldeneye at Druridge. A great-crested grebe was also of note.

great crested grebe in silvery light

common tern on the big pool

Offshore, there was a single velvet scoter with the scoter flock and at least three roseate terns.

Damp Start

The weather forecast for yesterday (Saturday) wasn't conclusive as to what it would actually do, so we took the decision to try and ring today rather than yesterday. 

So, I gave the England game a dodge and got up at 4.30am to light 'mizzle', I went back to bed with the alarm set for five. It was much brighter at 5am so I set off to put some nets up. No sooner where the first two nets up when the mizzly, drizzly, rain set in again.

Nets furled, we headed to the Budge screen and met up with James 'Tintin' Common who had walked down to ring with us. A single immature spoonbill mostly slept on the Budge fields was all of note. We headed up to the Oddie hide and ringed a brood of two swallows.

It brightened up by 8am so we un-furled the nets and put some more up. We didn't ring a lot of birds, but were kept going, catching 12 new birds, six retraps and the 'control' dunnock we have caught in previous weeks.

reed warbler

This reed warbler was probably today's highlight. We re-trapped another willow warbler that was ringed as fledgling last July, re-trapping warblers is always good. Four new sedge warblers was notable, it is a good year for this species at Druridge

Ringing totals (re-traps in brackets) were:

swallow 2 pullus

robin 3 (all fledglings)

sedge warbler 4 (2)

chaffinch 3

reed warbler 1

dunnock 1 (1 control)

willow warbler (1)

wren (1)

reed bunting (1)

After we packed up the ringing site, I had a half-hour seawatch, but recorded little of note. On Saturday afternoon I had half-an-hour seawatching and saw my first arctic skua and roseate terns of the year.

Butterflies today and yesterday included painted lady, speckled wood, large slipper, small tortoiseshell and wall.

large skipper on vipers bugloss

This interesting spider was my car wheel this morning

interesting spider

134 arctic skua

135 roseate tern

Tern Frenzy

This morning I headed to the dunes for a quick scan, the sea was miles away, a really low-tide. The beach profile at Druridge at the moment is a series offshore sand bars, which can trap water at low tide, leaving a tidal pool.

One of these pools, at the southern end of the patch, contained a family of folk, watching dozens of terns literally feeding among them. I ran back to my car, zoomed south and armed with the camera headed for the pool.

I spent the next hour, strides removed, down to my under-crackers, so I could get closer shots, in the pool photographing terns. I was hypothermic when I had filled my 16gb memory card. I tried to tweet, but my hands were shaking too much.

I've deleted tons of shots and played around with some of the better ones. Here they are.

Common tern

Common tern

Common tern

common terns eyeing up some food

Common terns

Like planes landing at Heathrow, a queue of terns waiting to feed

mixed terns

A colour-ringed bird. hopefully enough in this shot to trace it

Roseate tern - one of at least five

Another roseate tern

Sandwich tern action

I've got masses more shots, but I guess you're all bored with terns already? There were some arctic terns on the beach, but none feeding, only sandwich, common and rozzas. There are no photos of me in my pants you'll be sorry to hear.

HMS Severn was loitering in the bay today 

HMS Severn was in the bay today, I  think the crew may have been twitching roseate tern for their year lists.

Other news from the patch - I tried a ringing session on Thursday morning which was poor, Sundays little influx of birds has moved through leaving only local breeders. I only caught five birds from 0530-1130. Two robins, two sedge warblers and a wren - all juvenile birds.

Well, you can't say I didn't try

I've spent much of this weekend perched on the dunes at Druridge scanning the sea, trying to add a very special tern tot he patch list.

I have seen the bridled tern, that terned (geddit!) up on Inner Farne last Monday. I was on a 6am boat on Tuesday morning to see it. But as soon as it re-located to Druridge Bay, there was a really possibility that  I could get it on the patch.

Dave Elliott did. Jamming it from the dunes at Druridge. I've not been as lucky and despite over 15 hours of searching it has eluded me.

Looking for a single bird in miles of sea, on your own with no help, is always going to be tricky. I did see some nice birds whilst I searched for the rarity including; stacks of manx shearwaters, double figures of red-throated diver, four or five Arctic skuas, three drake velvet scoters (tonight), great-crested grebe, several roseate terns and also tonight, two adult summer plumaged little gulls flying north.

Also tonight a minke whale moved south through the bay (thanks to Dave Dack for the tip-off). The tern could still be around (last seen today at Cresswell Pond at 15:20) so there's still a chance.


We also did some ringing this morning. it was perfect ringing conditions this morning. Barely any wind and overcast for much of the morning. Ringing was dominated by juvenile warblers, which is great. We caught 27 new birds and three retraps which is excellent for July.

 Juvenile Warblers

Grasshopper Warbler

Sedge Warbler

Blackcap

Chiffchaff

Whitethroat

Adult Warblers

Reed Warbler

Sedge Warbler

 Not a warbler

Juvenile dunnock

Also of note this morning was a cuckoo and a grey wagtail flying south

131 Grey Wagtail