Grim day

It's Sunday, it's wet, windy and cold.

I'll not be heading to the patch today. A great day to catch up with things though, I've written my article for next weeks Northumberland Gazette, which is about Starlings and I've finally finished my trip report for our Georgia trip last April.

It was a great trip and I know some Northumberland birders are heading out there this spring so hopefully it will be useful. You can read it here 

Janet and I had walk around the patch yesterday but it was quiet.

There were up to a thousand pink-footed geese in the fields south of Druridge farm with a handful of curlew and starlings.

In the dunes north of the bushes there was mixed flock of goldfinches and linnets numbering 25 of each.

One budge fields a drake pintail had joined the teal and wigeon but there were no waders.

Pied Wagtail on the beach

Back on the patch

Back on the patch today for my first visit of the year after a two-week birding trip to Taiwan.

Taiwan was interesting and it's not a place many birders get to so we were working somewhat blind but managed to see all but two of the expected endemic species.

It was good to be back on the patch on a cold and crisp sunny morning. I only had time for a quick wander around but added 31 species to the year list. The bushes were quiet as expected, a couple of coal tits were interesting as they are usually an autumn species.

Coal tit

All of the ducks were on the big pool as the Budge fields were frozen solid and there were plenty of them - I'll have a better idea of numbers on Sunday when I do the WeBS count but there were plenty of wigeon and teal.

Drake tufted duck

Pair of Mallards

I wandered up to the north end of the patch and onto the beach along the Dunbar Burn channel where I flushed a jack snipe - it shot out as I approached the end of the channel where there is some wrack accumulated which I presume it was feeding on. 

I didn't see jack snipe last year on the patch. This has happened to me so often, I go a whole year without seeing a species and then see it on my first visit of the next year... Bullfinch, greenfinch. yellowhammer and peregrine are all on that list.

This teal was feeding just beyond where the jack snipe came up from, it stayed put as I walked by, must be plenty of feeding among the rotting weed.

Teal feeding amongst wrack in the Dunbar Burn channel

In the dunes to the north, there was a flock of least 80 twite with a handful of chaffinches, goldfinches and reed buntings.

Reed bunting

End of another year

Well, I'll not make it back to the patch again this year, so it's time to reflect on a very average 2018 at Druridge.

On the birding front it's been relatively quiet year after an amazing 2017 which saw no fewer than eight new species added to the patch list, no new species were added in 2018 - the first year that's ever happened.

A half decent seawatch which added red-necked grebe, little auk and grey plover to the list made up for an otherwise uneventful autumn. With no easterlies until late November, there were no falls of migrants to speak of and very little passage which meant more common passage migrants like redstart, pied and spotted flycatcher and whinchat weren't recorded.

Other passerine species missing from the 2018 list include yellowhammer, bullfinch, greenfinch, snow bunting, and tree pipit (usually seen on viz mig). It was quite a good year for waders with only temminck's stint and jack snipe missing from the likely candidate list.

We've ringed less birds than any previous year this year as well. The 'beast from the east' storm in April did for many of the resident passerines, completely wiping out wrens with no pairs recorded this year. We had very few chances to ring in the autumn because of the weather. We did manage to ring some storm petrels on the beach and had the nice surprise of a Leach's petrel too.

The winter has been unseasonably mild again, with temperatures in the mid-teens on some days. This has meant species usually associated with cold weather haven't been recorded, like yellowhammer and red-legged partridge.

The patch bird list for 2018 was 167, which is an average total based on the last few years but well behind the 174 totals from 2107 and 2016.

It'll be late January before I'm back on the patch so Happy New Year to you all and thanks for reading.

Here's some photos from the last few days of the year.

Cormorant in flight

A group of whooper swans in flight over the patch

Carrion crow

Mute swan taking off from the big pool

Absentee

I've bit a bit of an absentee from the patch recently. With birding limited to weekends and weekends taken up with football and chores it doesn't leave any time for birding. That alongside a knackered computer has meant little activitiy on the blog I'm afraid.

In late November I spent a bit of time in the dunes north of the 'Druridge bushes' which themselves are looking more like twigs after the cattle destroyed them last March. These dunes are part of the farm and are used for over-wintering cattle and as such, are full of all sorts of seed-baring plants which I must try to identify when they are in flower next year ( I recognise mugwort and burdock). The patch boundary is the northern end of the first fenced and farmed dune. Technically these are 'Chibburn Links' rather than 'Druridge Links'.

One of these plants has a small, hard, round seed and the finches, reed buntings and tree sparrows love them - I had flocks of 50+ twite, 100 goldfinch, 40+ reed bunting, 50+ chaffinch and 50+ tree sparrows and a handful of linnet.

Twite

Some of the reed buntings with the small round seeds

Tree Sparrows and chaffinch

As well as the finches, buntings and tree sparrows, these dunes have attracted a lot of grey partridges - My top count was 54 in three coveys with a single covey numbering 28! There is something like in there. I still haven't seen a red-leg this year though...

Grey partridges

The only time I've been back on the patch since was last weekend when a White-billed Diver had been reported just off from the Dunbar Burn - being a full patch tick for me, I was there as soon as it was reported but had no luck. It was reproted again after we left but not by anyone that I know.

We did see a single drake velvet scoter, a dozen red-throated divers and a fly-by adult med gull.

Stormies to Ireland and the Faroes

We only caught two storm petrels in 2017, both on the same night  - 12th/13th August.

We've heard from the BTO that both of them been cauught again this summer - 100% return!

The first one we heard about was caught 328 days later at Copeland Bird Observatory, off the coast of Northern Ireland on 7th July - a direct distance of 260km.

The second control was a bit more exciting, our first from outside the UK. The first bird we caught last August was ringed by Sasha, a trainee ringer and it was caught again 363 days later on 10th August at Fleygarheyggjarnir, Dalur, on the island of Sandoy, one of the Faroe Island - 780km away


You can read about the night we ringed them here 

Much of the science behind bird ringing lies in the ring being found again, whether read by another ringer who has caught the bird, read in the field (for bigger birds) or found on a dead bird. Only a small percentage of the birds we ring are cuaght or found again, most of them are caught again by us in the same place, some are 'controlled' away from our site.

By precentage (of birds ringed) we've have had more revoveries of storm petrel than any other species we catch. This means they are good species to target for study as they generate valuable data.

Long day on the patch

Last night, the forecast for today was rain - all day.

So this morning, we didn't set an alarm, when we got up it wasn't raining and it was calm. The forecast still predicted showers, but we headed down to Druridge and put some nets up, you've got to make the most of any chance in the autumn. Whilst we sorting the nets, the sky was full of pink-footed geese - easily 6000 passed over. A small flock of about eight brambling flew south and a yellow-browed warbler called form the bushes by the car

There were a few showers, but they didn't really come to much, we furled a couple of nets early on but continued ringing with three nets up for the whole day. It was worth the effort, as we caught 60 birds in total of 14 different species.

Of note was a flock of lesser redpolls - we caught 10 in total, all within an hour, I think they were just passing through.

Lesser redpoll - a nice pink male

We caught a very late willow warbler (rare beyond September at Druridge), two chiffchaffs and five blackcaps. One of the blackcaps was female that we first caught in the spring as breeding female, she must've nee ready for the off as she had built up a large amount of fat (migratory birds build up fat ahead of migration).

Late willow warbler

male blackcap

female blackcap

Despite the huge arrival of thrushes yesterday, they must've all gone straight inland as we only caught two song thrush and redwing today - one of the song thrushes was a retrap, Tom Cadwallender and I caught it in October last year as first-year bird. I wonder where it's been since?

Redwing

Also of note was a magpie - Not everyone's favourite species and some it will probably end up in the farmers larsen trap. It was a first-year bird and only the second we've ever caught at Druridge. Despite they're reputation amongst 'country folk' they are incredibly intelligent and very beautiful birds.

Magpie - only the second one we've caught at Druridge

Bizarrely, we also caught our first wren of the year today. Last year we caught more wrens than any other species, but the 'beast from the east' wiped them out and there were no breeding bird at Druridge this year. The five we caught today will be post-breeding dispersers from elsewhere.

wren - first of the year!

Today was also WeBS count day. As the Budge fields are still pretty-much dry it didn't take too long and there wasn't much of note.

As I was packing up the nets at about 4pm, the skies cleared and the sun came out. I stopped by the plantation and birded until nearly 6pm. Most of that time was spent trying to get detail on a grey-looking phylosc in the sycamores. It was really tricky to get decent views, but it was a chiffchaff, very grey/off-white below and grey above apart from green in the wings - it looked like a Siberian chiff,  it eventually called and gave its ID away as just that. I only managed a very poor, arse-end photo.

Two walks

The weather wasn't suitable for ringing at the weekend, which is probably just as well as the bushes seemed to be devoid of birds. It looks as though there might be a hint of an easterly wind by Sunday.

So on both Saturday and Sunday I walked the full length of the patch.

On Saturday there were some signs of autum. Skylarks were almost constantly overhead and when I checked the plantation I found coal tits and goldcrests - both autumn species on the patch and in the dunes to the north there were five or six dunnocks with at least ten reed buntings feeding in the weedy patches.

Coal Tit

Coal Tit

 A single whooper swan flew north as I headed for  the beach and my return to the car. Offshore,  a black-throated diver flew north, quite close in, close enough for photos. There were a few red-breasted merganser close in shore and this guillemot was very close, even for a photo. I think this is the first guillie I've photographed on the patch.

Guillemot

On Sunday I did the same route but in the afternoon, once the rain had cleared, and as a result it felt quieter than Saturday. As I walked north I heard the 'yick-yick' of a great-spotted woodpecker, it was flying over the dunes from the sea as soon as it cleared the dunes, it dived straight into the nearest bushes out of sight and probably to rest, as it is highly likely it had just crossed the North Sea from Scandinavia.

On reaching the dunes at the north of the patch, where the reed buntings were still feeding in the weedy bits, I headed for the beach, which was empty  - of birds and people until I got to the southern end where this common gull was on it's own and a single carrion crow was mooching about.

Common Gull

Carrion Crow

Offshore,  I got onto a raptor high and quite far out, maybe 300 meters or more, it was a peregine and was just circling - someone suggested it could have chased a bird out to sea and it was waiting to pounce when the bird returned to land.

Magpie - Another species I don't often photograph