Saturday was an awful day with heavy rain/sleet and feeling very cold for most of the day, it felt more like January than May.
The forecast was for the rain to clear late afternoon, which it did. Janet and I headed to the patch to see if anything had dropped in. When we arrived it was still cold and damp but within half an hour, the wind moved into the south and the temperature increased by about seven degrees, it was almost as if someone had turned the heating up.
The rain hadn't dropped nay passerines in, a few swifts moved through though. We walked along the beach and 12 Sanderling flew north in nice breeding plumage. Whimbrel called overhead but nothing like Mark Eaton's incredible count of 120 or more at dusk the day before.
A few more breeding birds have young now. Some of the Canada and Greylag Geese have goslings, a Moorhen attended to four recently hatched young and there were five Lapwing youngsters in field northwest of the coal road.
A couple of mammal photos for a change.
European Rabbit on the Budge fields
Roe deer bouncing through the Teasels
This morning felt much more spring-like. A warmish sou'westerly bringing the temperature up nicely, enough to entice some insects out at last. There were lots of Hawthorn flies out along the path to the hide and some other bits and bobs.
Drinker Moth caterpillar
Common Carder Bee
Noon Fly
Gorse Shieldbug
Gooden's Nomad Bee
This hoverfly wasn't on the path to the hides, but along the edge of the Dunbar Burn on Common Scurvy Grass - Platycheirus clypeatus agg which is new for the patch
A Garganey pair on the Budge fields still and a few Dunlin and 11 Whimbrel lifted off the fields and headed north, leaving a single bird behind. A single Wheatear was the only migrant passerine on the Budge fields.
Wheatear
Off they go - six of the Whimbrel
A very vocal Sedge Warbler by the path to the hides as attracted the attention of the Toggers.
In full flow - signing male Sedge Warbler
This evening I had an uneventful look on the sea. No new terns were added to the list. A few Gannets and six summer-plumaged Red-throated Divers were on the sea.
Garganeys have been giving me the run-around this week.
Up to four, but most often a pair, have been reported from the Budge fields most days. I go and look them in the evening after work and can't find them. That changed tonight and I finally got lucky, only just mind. Two minutes we arrived in the hide, after only just getting onto the female, the pair flew off north, over the hide, presumably to East Chevington.
The real highlight was a stunning Spotted Redshank though, in full breeding plumage. My first 'Spotshank' since September 2019 and the first black one since the spring of the same year. Breeding-plumaged Spotty Redshanks are always a highlight of the spring.
The weather has been cold and I've not seen any other new species since the weekend and I don't think numbers of warblers has increased since then. Swift was reported again today - I haven't even seen a House Martin yet.
Waders have been few too, 12 Whimbrel pitched in at dusk on Monday and Avocet numbers vary from four to 20 and Ruff seem to come and go.
Here are some hoverflies and a bee from last Sunday.
Female Eristalis pertinax
Melanostoma mellinum (male)
Male Helophilus pendulus
Male Eristalis sp
Female Eristalis pertinax
Record shot of Marsham's Nomad Bee - Nomada marshamella - a new bee for me for the patch
Spring is coming to Druridge, but slowly. A prolonged spell of wintery weather with very cold, frosty nights and cold but dry days seems to have held things up a bit and newly arrived migrant birds seem thin on the ground.
Willow Warblers and Blackcaps arrived on Patch earlier in the week, both species were singing from the bushes on my morning walk on Thursday. A White Wagtail was on the Budge fields too.
Skylark in full song
On Friday, a 'Blue-headed' Wagtail was reported from the Budge fields in the afternoon. I called by on my way home from work, there was no sign of the Blue-headed Wagtail but a bright 'bog-standard' Yellow Wagtail was nice and new for the year as was a single Whimbrel, flying north, calling.
Four Ruff, 19 Black-tailed Godwit, 15 Snipe and 21 Curlew were on the Budge fields.
On Saturday morning I went looking for Wheatears and Ring Ouzels, no luck with either or with any other new arrivals for that matter. Still some wintering birds though, including 45 Twite - including eight high in the tree tops by the Budge Screen, signing - most odd!
'I hear them singing on the wire' - Male Barn Swallow
Most of Friday's Black-tailed Godwits had moved on, leaving just three, there were five each of Ruff and Avocet. A Grasshopper Warbler called briefly whilst I was chatting to ADMc.
Offshore winter met summer again with 19 Red-throated Divers still on the sea and six Sandwich Terns feeding.
No visits to the patch today - I was getting a needle stuck in my arm so that Bill Gates can track my every move.
I've done a bit of this and a bit of that this week - seawatching, ringing and looking for wee beasties.
On Monday evening I had a look on the sea - lots of terns feeding now with Roseate Terns being particularly noticeable - given that there are at least 129 pairs on Coquet Island that makes perfect sense. From my vantage point in the dunes I can also look the other way and from there I saw three different barn owls successfully hunting for food for their growing broods, one or more probably two cuckoos in the dunes and a short-eared owl. The latter has been reported between the Pools and Chevington and is now keeping the 'toggers' happy. If felt autumnal - the gull roost on the beach is starting to pick up and I had my first Great Black-backs of the autumn.
On Wednesday morning I got up at 04.30 and set some nets up to ring. I had to get back for work by mid-morning so only put up four nets. The catch was mostly warblers - a mixture of adults and juveniles. I did catch a juvenile Coal Tit, Coal Tits are normally birds of autumn and winter here but I know that they have bred in the plantation this year. A good breeding record.
I caught 37 birds including retraps, warbler numbers were:
Cuckoos, short-eared owl and barn owls were still about.
Between net rounds I tried to photograph some digger wasps on the fence posts
Digger wasp Crabro cribrarius - A male, you can make out the enlarged plates on the forelegs
Last night I had half an hour looking for hovers and bugs before the light went and an hours seawatch. Two Cory's shearwater had been tracked up the Yorkshire coast yesterday but hadn't been seen north of Seaham, still worth a look I thought. Highlights were:
Manx Shearwater - 30, all north in groups of up to 10 Arctic Skua - one roaming around harrying terns Whimbrel - 1 north
Curlew - 2 'in-off'
Common Scoter - a raft of about 750 birds off Chibburn Links
Distant arctic skua
black-headed gull
The 'toggers' were out in force for the cuckoo and short-eared owl.
I hate the tick and run culture of birding, but sometimes, needs must!
News broke this morning of a cattle egret amongst the ponies on the Budge fields at Druridge which had allegedly been found by Dave Elliott. Janet and I were in Alnwick meeting friends over coffee in Barter books when I heard about it but as soon as we could, we headed south. It was mistake to take the A1 as the bank holiday traffic had already slowed to a stop at Felton, frustration grew but we eventually made it to the patch. The egret had moved onto the field north of the pool amongst the cattle (who would've thought?) and was viewed at a distance from the turning circle. The views were satisfactory though and the bird showed well and the sunshine made the orangey colours (of the bird coming into breeding plumage) on the crown and back stand out well. Not prepared for birding, I had no cameras on me so there's no pics...
Family commitments meant I couldn't hang about, but a great bird to catch up with on the patch, if not totally unexpected. Cattle egret takes my patch list to 249 and the overall patch list to 269.
I tried a seawatch yesterday evening from 16:45 for an hour. It was quite with a couple of manx shearwaters going north, eight sandwich terns, a couple of whimbrel and nine common scoter of note.
On (or over) the Budge fields I noted all three common hirrundines and my first swifts of the year, with about half-a-dozen over the pools on the fields. Four species of raptor were also noted - kestrel (remarkably my first on the patch this year), sparrowhawk (big female over the pools), buzzard and marsh harrier - a female hunting on the Budge fields.
This rather fine lapwing caught the light outside the little hide.
Life has been pretty hectic lately, so much so I haven't been able to update my blog. Since the last post I finally caught up with a patch RING OUZEL on Saturday . The bird had been reported two days earlier by a visiting birder in the dunes to the north , I had two brief chances to look for it on the Thursday but couldn't find it. After another couple of hours on the Friday I finally found it in what remains of the Druridge bushes (the cows have hammered them lately). No photos unfortunately as it was a skulker.
On 10th April a spoonbill arrived and was joined later by a second bird.
Since then I have been visiting the patch whenever I get a second. As I was away to Jersey for a long weekend last week, Saturday brought a flurry of year ticks. First off was this reeling grasshopper warbler - so much for being a skulking species, this one hadn't read the rulebook, it's been singing from this fence for three days!
It was amazing to watch at close hand, it's entire body vibrating when it was reeling.
Next up was a drake green-winged teal on the Budge fields. This bird had been around for a day or two, so it was nice to catch up with it - mind it took some finding! Other highlights on the Budge fields were three to four ruff, an amazing 28 whimbrel - which flew off when the cows arrived, a stunning brick-red bar-tailed godwit and a few blackwits. Also new for the year was sedge warbler, little owl and common tern.
Little Owl
On Sunday I had a quick around through the dunes to the north looking for migrants - it was very windy but a count of 15-20 wheatear in the grazed dunes was impressive.
One of the wheatears
This poor hedgehog must have investigated the pipe socket that is by the turning circle and drowned itself or decided it couldn't face a bank holiday weekend at Druridge and did itself in.
Suicide?
Today the wind was a bit lighter but still out of the east making it feel cold. I headed for the Budge screen and bumped into Peter Williams of Patchwork Challenge fame. Peter picked out the wood sandpiper that arrived yesterday. Also of note were at least five ruff, two of which were starting to look a bit dapper, a handful of blackwit and a single dunlin. No sign of the green-winger.
I mentioned cows earlier - four have arrived on the Budge fields and the timing couldn't be better for the breeding and passage waders so 'Well done' to NWT. (seemingly, according to the local farmer they had been released last week but had escaped - anyway it is good to see them.
One of the 'Druridge four'
I've got another couple of busy weeks ahead of me but hopefully I'll find time for a visit to the patch.
On Saturday I went down to Villa Park to cheer on the Toon to what should have been a straightforward three-points. Nothing is straightforward with Toon and we came home with a draw, which probably means Championship football next season. I should've stayed at home and gone birding on the patch.
Since my last blog post, I have had a couple of quick visits to the patch, adding a handful of summer migrants to the year-list including common tern, arctic tern, house martin, puffin and swift.
I had an evening visit to the patch today to do the WeBS count having spent the morning checking nestboxes. Wintering duck have all but gone with only two teal and four wigeon. The highlight from the WeBS count was 12 whimbrel on the Budge fields and a great-crested grebe still hanging around the big pool.
No lapwing chicks to report yet, but there are plenty of birds sitting on eggs, I guess the winter conditions we had for the best-part of two weeks put them back a bit. There is also an oystercatcher on eggs - a very rare breeder at Druridge.
Sedge warbler was the only new bird for the year - and there were plenty of them, at least five singing males between the Budge screen and the Oddie hide.
Offshore there were plenty of terns and 12 red-throated divers in a range of plumages including some in full-breeding garb.
There were two mallard brood on the big pool, one of two and another of six.
This weekend brought a change in the weather, something more resembling the spring-like conditions we should be expecting. That-said there were some vicious hail storms coming through until this evening.
Leading up until Sunday, conditions were decidedly wintery and not conducive to birding or I am sure, for our newly arrived migrants, a bit of a shock!
Snow storm approaching
The conditions, alongside an important football match to attend meant little time for birding the patch, although the Bank Holiday Monday gave me an opportunity today. The two visits that I did manage brought a little flurry of species that were new for the year. Yesterday I saw fulmar, sandwich tern, ringed plover and grasshopper warbler (one reeling by the path to the hides last night) and today brought whimbrel (several flying over and eight coming in to land ahead of a hail storm), goosander and whitethroat.
There was a pair of red-breasted merganser on the big pool. Sadly the goosander was distant and in direct sunshine.
Red-breasted merganser pair
Drake red-breasted merganser having a stretch
This white wagtail was on the Budge fields - apologies for the heavily cropped pic.
White wagtail - apologies for the heavily cropped pic
Finally, we had interesting news of a ringing recovery this week. A first-winter male siskin that we caught at Druridge on 16th November 2014, our last ringing session of that year, was caught by ringers in Warsop in Nottinghamshire on April 9th. A distance of 228 kilometres.
What is going on with the weather this Summer? Even the forecasters can't get a thing right.
Last night, I checked all of my usual sources of weather information and it all looked good for putting some nets up this morning. Based on this research I got up at 4.30 and headed to Druridge and got some nets up, no wind, hazy sunshine and the weather forecast still saying no rain. First net round done and it starts to rain... light but persistent. Nets furled.
A quick check of the Rain Alarm app showed rain heading our way for a considerable time...Nets down.
I did manage to catch some juvenile willow warblers and adult sedge warbler, willow warblers and a whitethtoat. The sedge warbler was quite fat, looking like it was on its way south.
Back at home drying me and the nets, I got a message from Jonathon to say he was watching a green sandpiper from the little hide. I do like a green sandpiper and it is a species that can be missed at Druridge so I headed down for a gander. It was wandering around the mud in front of the hide with a common sandpiper, an adult dunlin in summer plumage was lurking in the wings.
On Thursday evening I had a 45 minute seawatch, the highlight of which was a single sooty shearwater heading north about half-way-out. Other totals - 42 manx shearwater, two arctic skuas, one goosander, two Med gulls and 15 common scoter north.
On Friday evening there was a common sandpiper and a yellow wagtail on the Budge fields and a whimbrel flew south, calling. Offshore, four arctic skuas, including a stunning pale-phase bird with huge white flashes in the wings, were loitering in the bay, parasitising terns. A few red-throated divers have returned and are still looking smart in their summer garb.
A quick visit to the patch last night to check the Budge fields for waders and garganey with no luck on the latter.
There were a few waders on the mud. There were either four or five ruff, including a new orangey-brown individual (which was on the fields to the south this morning), two dunlin and black-tailed godwit. A whimbrel flew in as I was leaving, but seemingly over 100 whimbrels dropped in after 8pm.
Also of note were four pintail, two drakes and ducks, a pair of little egrets and white wagtail.
Another quick visit this morning produced my first yellow wagtail of the year, a nice bright male which was at on a fence only three posts from a kestrel. On the dunes, there were a few wheatears and this cheeky chap popped his head up before scampering off.
On Saturday afternoon I had the choice - go to St James' Park and watch the Toon or go out birding. My patience with the regime at SJP is all but worn out, so at the last minute I abandoned my plans to catch the bus and went birding instead.
The birders I met at Druridge were very surprised to see me there I think. It proved to be a profitable visit to the patch - quite the opposite to a visit to SJP!
I stopped at the southern end of the patch to scan for hooded crow that had been reported the previous day. There were lots of carrion crows and jackdaws but no hoody to be seen. All of my Druridge 'hoodies' have been seen in mid-April. A couple of wheatears in the dunes were my first for the year though, so not all lost.
Next I headed for the Budge screen, where a wood sandpiper had been reported. A male blackcap was singing in the bushes on the way to the screen. As I scanned the mud, I picked out three nice, summer-plumaged'islandica' race black-tailed godwits and there were at least five ruff, including the striking black and white bird. Six whimbrel dropped in with some curlew.
A little egret flew in towards the Budge screen and began to feed, so I took some video of it ( click the 'turn on HD thingy for better resolution)
On Thursday night we attempted to ring storm petrels for the very first time at Druridge. Having finally got the right sound equipment, some good Mp3 calls and some new poles (big thanks to Paul Stewart) we were just waiting for the right weather.
So, the weather was good, but the tides not weren't as good with low water at 01.30, but we gave it a go and were successful, catching seven birds in total.
One of seven storm petrels caught overnight
It was still quite light until 11.30, so all of the birds were caught between midnight and half past one. We caught the last one as we were about to take the nets down, so could well have caught more if we had been prepare to stay up longer, even though the sea was a mile away by this time.
One of the birds was already ringed, so it will be interesting to find out where it has come from. We will certainly be having some more attempts if the weather is good.
We had a wander around the patch in the evening before ringing. Two spoonbills were back on the Budge fields and there were at least two little egrets, but there weren't many waders - about ten snipe, four dunlin and one whimbrel.
grey heron the Budge fields
There is a decent number of yellow wagtails both on the Budge fields and around the edge of the big pool. The stonechat pair near the concrete blockhouse have successfully fledged another three young, I make that three broods for that pair this year.
Offshore the common scoter flock numbered about 350.
If I was a migrant wader, I would like the look of the Budge fields at the moment, the vegetation is a bit high, but they'll do.
They were certainly popular with lapwings this morning, there was at least 300 of them. There was also about eight dunlin, one common sandpiper, two ringed plover, one little ringed plover and at least 30 snipe.
On the big pool, there were snipe, three common sandpipers and three whimbrel in front of the hide. Also on the big pool, a pair of great-crested grebes have set up nest, it seems very late, maybe they have failed elsewhere. There were also four pochard, my first of the year.
whimbrel
common sandpipers
snipe
I caught up with Paul Stewart on the big dune, we saw three little egrets on the Budge fields and very little offshore, an Arctic skua being all of note. Whilst we were chatting, I got a call to say that Bob Dack was watching a curlew sandpiper from the Budge screen. We headed down there and were soon watching a spanking curlew sandpiper, moulting out of summer plumage, still showing plenty of red on the underside.
weird fog this weekend at Druridge
I had a quick look offshore this evening but the light wasn't good as a light fog came and went. The sunset was nice though.
