A day of two halves

This morning I did my fourth CBC survey at Druridge, I am now in Mawgan Porth in Cornwall.

The CBC survey didn't throw up anything unusual, there are now three singing sedge warblers, all of yesterdays yellow wagtails have shot through except for one, there were a couple of white wagtails about and ten or so wheatears.

As I was about to leave, the birds on the Budge fields all got up.....



Sillhoueted female marsh harrier

As this came through, a female marsh harrier. It came from the north, flew over the heronry sending them up into the air then flew high overhead picking up height over the dunes, sending the shelducks into a panic.

So a quick turn around and courtesy of Southwest Air's direct flight to Newquay I am now on the North Cornwall coast and very nice it is too! I walked along the South West Coast path for six mile sor so this evening, a gloriously sunny evening with ravens cronking overhead and stonechats aplenty in the gorse, I got loads of great photo's but this hotel computer hasn't got any decent software on it and I left the laptop at home.


North Cornwall Coast - stunning eh?

I am down here until Friday (it's work - so not all fun), then back home overnight before heading back south for a weekend on the lash with the boys in London for the toon's last game of the season at QPR, so Druridge will be somewhat neglected until Monday at least!

A round up

I've had a very hectic weekend so much co that I am only getting around to updating the blog now. Yesterday I squeezed a visit to Druridge in between ringing at Gosforth park and going to see Ash at the Academy, who where excellent.

It was like proper spring at Gosforth Park with 2 or 3 grasshopper warblers reeling (we caught one), lots of sedge warblers and even a reed warbler.

Sedge warbler was back at Druridge yesterday and a fly over yellow wagtail was another year tick, six black-tailed godwits were on the Budge fields.

I called in for a couple of hours on my way back from work this evening too and I am pleased I did, at first it was looking very quiet indeed, these two black-wits at either end of the attractiveness scale didn't even bother to wake up!

I checked the sea and photographed some of the wheatears along the road, this first shot of a female looks like the Greenland race leucorhoa which always come through Druridge later than ours, the male might even be of this race too?

So by the time I got to the Budge Screen I hadn't seen much, as I was scanning a chap from Yorkshire came by, he thought he had seen a grebe from the little hide but wasn't sure, I picked up his bird which turned out to be a redhead smew!

arse on, but the only sharpish pic I got

redhead smew with tufted duck

A bit late for smew I was thinking, it'a been a good year for them in the County and particularly at Druridge. These photo's are digi-scoped record shots.

On the field between the Budge fields and the hamlet there were no less than 10 yellow wagtails! I think this could be a record number for the patch, I scanned through them all but could only find flavissimas...

I'm planning to my fourth CBC visit tomorrow morning, here's hoping for gropper!

110 yellow wagtail

111 sedge warbler

Still cold but migrants are on the move

It was still BALTIC at Druridge tonight, the wind had come back out of the east and it was cold. However, this afternoon, I was out and about in Stewarts patch with work and, in sheltered areas, it was nearly summer-like.

The wind had moved a bit into the south at lunchtime and this seemed to push a few migrants through, hirrundines were everywhere and there were loads of willow warblers, chiffchaffs and blackcaps singing in Howick Dene.

Back to Druridge, there had been a mini-influx of wheatears with 10-12 on the backsof the dunes and fences along the road, despite there being up to 12 yellow wagtails at Cresswell, I couldn't find one at Druridge. A white wagtail was on the beach and other than a big female sprawk flushing the teal of the Budge fields there was little else to report.

Countis interruptus

I bumped into Andy McLevy at Druridge, just as the rain began, before I set off to count the ducks for WeBS count day. I was just in the hide when he was on the phone "there's a black-headed wagtail at Cresswell"...So the count was interupted and I headed south to Cresswell Pond.

It was worth it, the bird was absolutely stunning and gave excellent views to the gathering twitch. I did take some digi-scoped records shots but they were awful, for some quality shots check out John Malloy's blog. I've not seen this race of yellow wagtail in Britain before, shame it hadn't been a mile or so north!

I believe there is discussion about the exact racial identity of this bird, please get it sorted out and let me know what you all decide before I write my bit for the NTBC bulletin.

Back to Druridge, the WeBS count threw up nothing as exciting, a house martin was the only year-tick and there were no interesting waders, even the five black-tailed godwits Andy had seen earlier had gone. I found a meadow pipit nest with three eggs in it soI shall be keeping an eye on that.

109 house martin

CBC Visit No. 3

This morning I did my third common bird census (CBC) visit to Druridge. It was a cold start but soon brightened up and got warmer, the strengthening westerly wind meant I had the best of the day.

It was pretty quiet though, with very few migrants about, three singing willow warblers were mapped quite soon into the visit. I was out on the old haul road when things got a little bit more exciting, firstly two whimbrel flew north calling, then I noticed a skylark chasing another bird, which turned out to be a lapland bunting. It was certainly not a species I was expecting in mid-April, I had to do a double take, thankfully it posed for piccies for a short while. I bet there aren't many lapland buntings seen in Northumberland this late.

male lapland bunting on the haul road

Another nice bonus was three black-tailed godwits on the Budge fields.

By the time I got the survey finished I met up with ADMc and Roger Foster (bemoaning the surrender of his pager), a couple of swallows and some sand martins were moving through, no house martins yet though, Andy also picked a very high buzzard overhead.

It was also interesting to see how many shelduck are about at the moment, six were on the grass when I arrived and few were out in the dunes later. A couple flew over 'laughing' at me on the haul road - they weren't watching a lap bunting though.

Tomorrow is WeBS day so I'll have to go back to Druridge - Damn!

108 black-tailed godwit

A pair of handcuffs and an electric drill

A very quick visit to Druridge after work, it was quite cold, the strengthening north-easterly making is feel even colder, maybe the cloud of volcanic ash that has grounded all of the planes today was blocking out the sun?

Highlight of the visit was a whimbrel flying north, calling, my first of 2010 - nice to here them back! I think of all the waders we see here regularly whimbrel have the best call.

Apart from the odd one, all of the wigeon have gone from Druridge now and have been for a couple of weeks, I happened to drive past Bradford Kaims pond near Bamburgh today and wigeon were the numerous duck there... There were eight on the sea this evening and five red-breasted mergansers.

Now, regular readers of this blog will know that Druridge attracts its fair share of odd characters, not just the birders, but all kinds of deviants and it is good to know that nothing changes. Driving out tonight, I noticed something in the bushes, closer inspection revealed it to be a pair of handcuffs! Worth a photo I thought, when I got closer, I noticed, in the same tree, there was an electric drill.....draw your own conclusions!

The moth trap in the garden is producing a few hebrew characters and little else, one moth from this morning remains unidentified.

107 whimbrel

zugunruhe

Zugunruhe......or pre-migration restlessness, a word much-used (some would say over-used) by a colleague of mine, is what I think these whooper swans were exhibiting tonight.

They flew in to Druridge form the south and landed on the Budge fields, when we got to the screen hide they were swimming in random circles and making strange grunting noises, when we got to the little hide they were flying of......to Iceland?....Who knows?

Nothing much else to report at Druridge tonight, a big female sparrowhawk rattled the waders on the Budge fields, there was still a great-crested grebe on the big pool and a little grebe was trilling.

Great-crested grebe

Drake mallard

At the big dune hollow there was one white wagtail and one pied and by the gate a huge pile of bags full of dog shit.

It's rant time!

Why?

Last Friday, I noticed one bag there - not an uncommon sight at Druridge, today there must be 15 bags of shit. So, because one lazy bastard leaves a bag of shit behind, it is OK for everyone else to dump theirs there too? I really do despair, why go to all of the bother of picking it up only to leave it behind, in a bag, which will take half a millennium to break down.

I really feel like staking the place out one morning and naming and shaming some of these morons! They probably wouldn't care though...Scum!

Last night we had the moth trap on for the first time:

Hebrew Character 4

Common Quaker 1