March marches on

Lockdown continues and March marches on towards April. I should've been on holiday in Fife this week, we had a cottage booked in Pittenween for a week... I've still got three days off work this week so will trudge around the 5km patch looking for early migrants - Chiffchaffs are already back in decent numbers.

Whilst the Chiffchaffs are arriving, the Whooper Swans are leaving. The spectacle of hundreds of Whoopers heading north was seen across the region over the weekend and continued through to today. I didn't see hundreds at Druridge but as Janet and I walked along the beach, a herd of 88 moved north just offshore, 30 odd of them ditched into the sea whilst the rest continued their migration north.

Whoopers landing on the sea

Other signs of Spring were welcome. Meadow Pipits are back, parachuting in the dunes Goldfinches fed on Willow catkins and Elf Cups have emerged. Grey Herons were busy in the heronry - they'll be on eggs now.

'Parachuting' Meadow Pipit

Male Goldfinch feeding on Willow catkins

Elf Cups

Winter was still evident however. There's still 300 or so Wigeon on the Budge fields and 400 Pink-footed Geese were in fields near the coal road. 

Drake Wigeon  - one of abut 300 still on the Budge fields

On Sunday evening I did an hours seawatch from 5pm-6pm and it felt like winter, the wind was icy cold. No real signs of spring offshore - I had hoped for a Sandwich Tern, Puffin or even a passing Sand Martin. Lesser Black-backed Gulls, Gannets and a few Kittiwakes flew past and 17 Red-throated Divers were on the sea. Gulls were still coming in to roost at dusk, Black-headed now outnumbering Common Gulls by about 7 to 5. 

Passing Herring Gull

As I left at dusk, 13 Whoopers flew north. They might be the last Whoopers I see until the Autumn. 

Last of the Whoopers headed north?

Been a while

 With lockdown restrictions still in place, visits to my patch have been much less frequent than  I would like. I'm still getting out on-foot-from home in my 5km patch though.

In the few visits I have made to the patch, I've mostly been working on net-ride maintenance ahead of the ringing season and I did the march WeBS count last weekend, both of which are permitted activities.

On 5th March Janet and I had a wander around the patch, an early Chiffchaff  was by the timber screen, it wasn't singing but was calling almost constantly and hasn't been seen since. We also had 140 Twite in the dunes and a few singing Skylarks.

Early Chiffchaff

On 7th March I did a quick evening seawatch in a brisk NW wind. I had one each of Great Northern and Black-throated Divers on the sea with a good count of 37 red-throated Divers. When I left, over 1100 common and black-headed gulls were on the sea and more were streaming in from the west.

Last Saturday, there was report of two Ruddy Shelduck north of Hemscotthill Farm so we called by on our way to the shops - to find three of them with 45+ Shelducks. A brief stop on the patch boundary got them on my patch year list too. 

Janet and I had a late walk around the patch on Saturday evening, it was a lovely sunny evening, so some of photos came out okay. When we left as dusk approached we estimated over 1100 Common Gulls on the sea. 

Drake Wigeon over

Curlew

Drake Mallard

Common Gull

One of 1100+ Common gull

On Sunday I did the WeBS Count. There was plenty to count so it took me a while, Wigeon numbers are still really high (322), as they have been all winter and, as has been the case through the winter, Teal numbers remained lower (43). 35 Shovelers on the Budge Fields was a good count. 12 Grey Herons were looking dapper in their breeding plumage. Waders included four Ruff, a single Black-tailed Godwit, five dunlin and 35 Curlew. A few Lapwings were displaying and an obvious pair of Oystercatchers were sat tight.

On the big pools there was a flock of 106 Canada Geese with a single Barnacle Goose. A Great-crested Grebe appeared to be on its own.

Digi-scoped Barnie

I was asked recently to do a 'virtual' talk for the Natural History Society Of Northumbria about patch-watching at Druridge. I had to record it on Zoom and submit to them. Despite spending half of my life these days on Zoom/Teams etc I much prefer to talk to a live audience. I recorded it in a hurry to meet a deadline and I'm not happy with it really, but here is a link to it. 

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

Late February update

There hasn't been a blog update for a while for two reasons; firstly, I've not managed to get down to the patch very much and secondly, there hasn't bee much to report when I have been there. As storm after storm have chased each other across the Atlantic bringing bands of heavy rain and gale force winds it hasn't been conducive to birding.

Recent highlights have included three, sometimes four Eurasian white-fronted geese, which seem to be hanging around with the Canada geese or the feral greylags. 

The week before last a drake (American) green-winged teal was reported from the Budge fields, I tried a couple of times to see it but without luck, it may well have been there but Storm Dennis was lashing the reserve and the teal were all cowering behind rushes for shelter. ADMc also found a female Garganey - seemingly only the second winter record for the County!

Last Sunday I was down on the patch for dusk. An impressive arrival of (mainly) common gulls came in from the west and settled on the sea, the tide was well in. By the time I left, I (conservatively) estimated 2500 had gathered on the sea or on the beach.

On Thursday afternoon I went up to Chibburn Mouth to see if the beach is going to be suitable for fencing for terns this year - it has potential. On my way north I counted about 82 twite in the dunes amongst the cattle to the north of the turning circle.

Some of the 82 twite in the dunes

I returned by the beach as the sun dipped behind the dunes. Black-headed gulls and passing red-breasted mergansers entertained me on my way. 

Drake red-breasted merganser headed north

At the mouth of the Dunbar Burn, the water has taken a northerly route, cutting away at the face of the dune and making progress along the beach impossible without wellies or a diversion to the cycleway bridge. I opted to use the concrete blocks as giant stepping stones, which could have been disastrous with a tonne of camera around my neck.

Giant stepping stones

On the 'other side' a passerine was scouring the edge of the water for food - bins on it - a snow bunting! I sat on a bit of concrete and waited for the bird to make it's way along the shore from the shadows into the late evening sunshine and it duly obliged.

In the shadows

Beautiful 'golden-hour' light on the snow bunt

My presence didn't phase the snow bunting and I took dozens of shots and could've taken more but frostbite had set in. Back into the dunes, the sun had dropped as had the temperature, 2 degrees, feeling colder in the stiffening wind. I was freezing after spending half an hour with the snow bunting but the cold didn't deter two brave girls who were in the sea  - in bikinis! Nutters.

Nutters!

Things got stranger as I headed for the Budge fields, with what appeared to be a scantily-clad girl in some kind of glamour shoot... It's a strange place Druridge. 

Wigeon in flight as dusk

Yankee teal

There's been good numbers of teal at Druridge since I got back from Taiwan and I've been scanning through them for green-winged teal.

I was working at home on Tuesday when a message came through to say that Andy McLevy had found a green-winger on the Budge fields - A lunchtime twitch was in order and I saw the bird.

It was still there today, making it onto my WeBS list - but we only saw it briefly from the south facing hide and too far for photos and then it disappeared into the flock of 406 regular Eurasian teals.

As well as a good teal count there were over 260 wigeon, 130 curlew and 15 grey heron and a single black-tailed godwit. A pair of oystercatchers were new for the year.

Green-winged teal occur, on average evry three years or so at Druridge. Some of them stay for a long time whlist others are day-birds and they're off. At the minute, the American  green-winged teal Anas carolinensis is considered as seperate species to 'our' teal by the IOC but not by eBird who mainly follow Clements taxonomy. So it could easily get 'lumped' again...

In the meantime it's on my list

This will probably be the highest duck count of the year as numbers will start to decrease soon as birds begin to head north.

First ringing session

Finally there are enough leaves on the trees and bushes at Druridge to attempt a ringing session, with light winds and cloud first thing on Sunday morning the weather was ideal. The forecast said the wind would ease further throughout the day and become more cloudy - of course it did the opposite.

It was a good first session though with only three nets up. I caught a good number of warblers including grasshopper, reed and sedge along with willow, whitethroat and blackcap. I had some interesting retraps including a willow warbler first ringed in 2014, a blackcap ringed as an adult in 2013, a blackcap ringed as a juvenile in 2013 and a whitethroat, also from 2013.

A great white egret was found on the Budge fields on Friday morning by Time Dean, I saw it then and saw it again flying north over the big pond as I was ringing. A drake garganey was also on the Budge fields along with a three ruff, two of which had 'ruffs' and smart male yellow wag.

The warm weather had brought a few butterflies out - speckled wood were the most common and I saw my first orange-tip of the year.

This family of Canada geese goslings kept me amused for a while.

At least one of us can manage to stay awake

Pied wagtail

Still a few wigeon about - Mrs wigeon

Mr Wigeon

Belated WeBS count

I skidded my way to Druridge to do my WeBS count today, a couple of days late, but Sunday was pretty much a write-off (it was my birthday on Saturday) and the weather was too grim yesterday.

I didn't get down to the patch until 11ish, I was hoping the sun might have melted the ice on the roads, but they were still like a skating rink, so I mostly drove to Druridge sideways.

Black ice on the road at Druridge

The Budge fields were frozen solid, the only birds were two crows and eight snipe (which also might have been frozen as they didn't move).

On my way to the Oddie hide, I was treated to a fantastic ermine stoat scampering along the track, it was there again when I walked back later, this time with a vole in its mouth.

There wasn't much to count on the big pool, 109 wigeon were grazing in the adjacent filed with 174 lapwings. The teal were trickier to count, as they were hunkered into the vegetation round the edge of the pool.

The highlight was pair of displaying goldeneyes, the cold obviously not effecting them!

Displaying pair

These two shots show the head-shape nicely

The mute swans were keeping their heads warm

Tufted duck

As I left the hide, I glanced up, above the door, and spotted this field vole on the beam. It was alive, but didn't look like it had long for the world.

poorly-looking field vole

Before heading home, I had half an hour look on the sea. There was a lunatic surfing! OK, I know the sea temperature doesn't vary hugely, but he was out of the water on his board most of the time...mental!

On the sea I counted six red-throated divers, 4 red-breasted mergansers and there were three sanderling on the beach.

There were about 400 pink-footed geese in the field in front of the cottages, I scanned them all and could only see pinkies.

Last ringing session

Today was the last ringing session for the year at Druridge, with no leaves left on the trees, it was time to pack up and close down the site for the winter.

To be honest, I thought last week might have been the last week and it would've been if I'd had more time to take in the poles last Sunday. I am pleased as I didn't though, as today was very worthwhile, with variety being the name of the game, catching 59 birds of 15 different species.

We ringed six species of finch including three bullfinch, which are scarce at Druridge, nine siskin and six lesser redpolls.

You can't beat a bit of bully on a Sunday!

One of six lesser redpolls 

 We also caught a very late chiffchaff.

chiffchaff

All packed up and ready to go

There were lots of pink-feet moving south this morning and this afternoon a well-marked barn owl was hunting the dunes.

Yesterday, I did my WeBS count, a week late, but better late than never I suppose. Wigeon numbers are picking up with 55 present along with 61 teal. Also of note was a single black-tailed godwit on the Budge fields and on the big pool, a great-crested grebe and a drake red-breasted merganser.

WeBS Count

Today was WeBS count day and it through up a couple of surprises.

The first surprise was a black-tailed godwit amongst the curlews, a further scan revealed a second blackwit. Black-tailed godwits are really uncommon at Druridge in winter. The only other winter record in my database was on 2nd January 2012.

Wildfowl numbers on the Budge fields are picking up with 152 wigeon, 43 teal and 13 shoveler. Lapwing numbered 237 and curlew 46.

On the big pool, the common scoter (female/first winter type) reported on Birdguides during the week was still present. A first record of this species for the inland WeBS count.

common scoter on the big pool - it never raised its head for a better photo.

I popped back to Druridge at dusk. The starling murmuration at East Chevington was visible with the naked eye. It's a pretty impressive site, numbering thousands of birds. The birds finally went into roost just before 4pm, so if you get the chance, head up there for about 3.30 for some great views.

WeBS Count

Today was WeBS count day and the WeBS count was about all I could manage. The wind from the south was biting and sleet threatened, it was grim!

The Budge fields were full of birds and they were flighty, so counting was tricky.

plenty of birds on the Budge fields

The top five were:

Wigeon 226
Lapwing 145
Curlew 118
Teal 114
Greylag 54

Highlights were the two long-staying long-tailed ducks and three pintail. Snipe was the only addition to the year list. It was sleeting hard when i finished the count, I was freezing, so I packed in and went to the Country Barn for some sustenance. 

I managed a brief check of Druridge on Friday evening after work, the evenings are getting lighter and there was still some visibility at half-past-five. Two barn owls were hunting around the dunes and song thrush was addition to the list. This takes the patch list to 64 and the Patchwork Challenge to 68 points.

One of the two barn owls hunting in the dunes

curlews silhouetted at dusk

62 song thrush
63 barn owl
64 snipe