Windy, from the west

A strong south-westerly at Dru this morning, things didn't look promising. Checked the sea first, it was still there, oh and there was a drake scaup on it with some scoter and rtd's. A harbour porpoise was in it too. Then to the pools, a quick scan - it looked quiet, but everything comes to he who waits. First to appear was a greenshank, then 4 goldeneye, then two otters, then the kingfisher and I even managed to grab a photo of it.

Kingfisher - a mega rarity for the pools!

Despite the strong SW wind, I decided to check the bushes, there were a few redwings and blackbirds kicking about in the whitebeams and a few wrens and dunnock, little else of note. 69 greylag and 16 pink-foots flew south and 2 skylark appeared to come in off the sea. Off to pray for an easterly for the weekend.

A Sorte North of the Border

I walked from Berwick-upon-Tweed to St Abbs in Scotland, 14 miles or so, all in the name of work. Leaving Berwick at 10am, there were redwing and fieldfare all along the route til at least mid afternoon, either freshly arrived or coming in off the sea in small groups. Many fieldfare were lifted of the path whilst the redwing were gulping down berries in the bushes, there also appeared to be a lot of newly arrived starlings and the occasional blackbird, with skylarks passing overhead. At least two redwing had fallen victim to birds of prey, their freshly plucked remains on the path.

Snow Bunting

Also of note, in England, was a snow bunting just north of Berwick at Magdalene Fields. A short-eared owl attempted to come in off the sea here too, pushed backed on two occasions by jackdaws and carrion crows, we left it there. It was interesting to note the numbers of stonechat along the route, I wished I had counted them, but reckon on about 20 individuals along the 14 mile. A nice close raven honked at us near Eyemouth and the seals (fed on chips) in the harbour were the fattest I've ever seen!

Welcome to Scotland! Check out the flag nailed to the post

The scenery aint so bad though

I'm off to soak my feet!

Yellow Brow

A day off! Fantastic, but a huge post-football hangover meant I didn't get down to Dru as early as I would've hoped, did the WeBS count first, only a kingfisher of note. The dog otter was about too, but too distant for piccies.

Close up cormorant

I decided to check the bushes at the northern end of the patch. Were the band of trees narrows, there was a tit flock moving through and pishing it produced some coal, blue and great tits, a couple of cresties and a wren and then a yellow-browed warbler comes right to the front of the whitebeam - fantastic! It was only there briefly, but showed well (I saw it again later). I reckon that's my third for the patch, so a nice bird indeed. TAC came down to twitch it for his year-list which needed a boost after spending most of the year abroad! I checked the plantation and the entrance willows next, there were a few robins, wrens and cresties, a great-spot and a couple of blackcaps - not the firescrest I was hoping for though. It would have been a perfect day for ringing and we would've a good chance of catching the browed one, but JF has gone back to work - Sods Law!

On the sea, the RTD's now numbered 19! A couple of stonechats were in the bushes in the dunes and 3 mistle thrushes came in off the sea.

Ask any birder who gets down to the pools regularly and they will have a tale or two about some strange behaviour they have witnessed there (most of which will be distasteful, if not illegal!!) the place is like a magnet for freaks and weirdo's. Today's odd activity was a first for me though, - two women on the beach burning a wedding dress on a concrete tank block whilst drinking cider. This is a patch tick on my 'odd druridge behaviour' list.

On a positive note, there are more cows, still not enough and only on the southern field, but still, an improvement. It would take fifty cows, not 7, to make a mark on this veg. If the veg is high, which it has been since FMD year cos NWT haven't grazed the site, the waders don't breed in anywhere like the numbers they used to.

I was ringing with JF yesterday (Sunday) but rain stopped play. we caught a few birds though, including half of the goldfinch flock, nothing unusual though. We also had a greenshank on the budge and the kingfisher on the pool.

The Future's Orange!

I've been on the patch in the last few days, but haven't been able to update me blog because of drink related activity and work! Anyhoo, Thursday morning was ringing with JF before work, but by 1030 it was very bright and very breezy (from the west which is hopeless for ringing at Dru) and we had only caught about 8 birds (robins, wren, goldfinch, goldcrest, blue tit (evil little bastards), great tit) I love goldcrests, they are just soooo nice, this male had a proper punk do - check out how orange the crown is, you don't appreciate this seeing birds in the field.

Punk Goldcrest - check out the orange in the crown - mega!

A quick visit on Friday evening, nowt on the pools or the meadows of note but there were 16 red-throated divers offshore - a good count for dru.

Was working today in Seahouses, then called by to see TAC who was also at work doing a drop-in birdwatching session at Budle Bay, good chance to catch up with some folks, but little of interest ornithological. Called at Dru on the way home, JF was there, measuring up two new nets to catch tons of birds in tomorrow! yeahh....right!

We had a greenshank on the budge fields, nowt of note on the pools or the sea. I have been wonderin about the Ross's goose though, it's kinda hoverin in the edge of my list at the moment, why shouldn't it be a real bird? The bird at Hauxley four years ago still hasn't been assessed by the BOURC (and what about the hooded merganser at Woodhorn?) , if any of these are wild that one was. Why should we automatically assume wildfowl is escaped, most species of bird are kept in captivity by someone somewhere in the UK. I'll have a 'SOD IT' moment and it will go on the list I am sure.

Ringing

A brief ringing session with JF before work 0750-0930. A handful of robins, goldfinch, wren, chiffchaff (was singing then flew straight into the net) and a controlled blackcap. Maybe tomorrow we'll get a brown flycatcher?

Ringing.......and stuff

Ringing with Janet this morning again, a steady morning, nothing as exciting as an rb fly, but some nice birds including balckcap, siskins, gt spotted woodpecker, goldcrests and song thrush as well as the regulars.

Quite a few skeens of pink-footers going over.

On the way home, I couldn't resist twitching a very obliging grey phal at Cressswell Pond, the bird was only 3m from the road, I took this wothout the scope, again the guys with the flash cameras must have got some stunners.

A quick dodge down to Dru late afternoon, I met Brian Bulloughs, who pointed me in the direction of a migrant hawker dragonfly, I am just getting into dragonflies so this was nice to see on the patch. The black tern, pec sand, ruff and kingfisher were all still there, and the ross's goose, of unknown origin, which has been hanging around E. Chev flew over with a skeen of pink-footers. There was 6+ red-throated divers offshore and a harbour porpoise.

A patch tick!

I started the day with a seawatch down at Newbiggin, it was quieter than yesterday though, with only a couple of sooties, manxies and arctic skuas of note and the 'star' bird - a cracking blue fulmar about half way out, its a couple of years since I last saw one of these - I think they're great! Stef went off to look for passerines with Jimmy, predicting arctic warbler and a blyth's reed. At about 0920, I was packing up to go and see JF who I knew was ringing at Druridge when she called to say she had a red-breasted fly in the nets. I was off, made it to Dru in about 8 minutes, even though I knew Janet wouldn't release it til I got there. A cracking 1st winter, we checked the uppertail coverts to make sure it wasn't a 'taiga' (ta for the gen Tim!) but it wasn't. Still, a stunning patch tick, SS thought it may be the first record for Dru.

We also ringed coal tit, robin, blackbird, dunnock, goldcrest (4) and chaffinch (2). It was quieter than we expected and once the sun came out it died off so we packed up by 1300. Off to catch the second half of the Newcastle game (less said......) Still in the boozer, I get a text to say there's a Blyths reed warbler in THE HEDGE at Woodhorn, the magical hedge....so Stef's early morning prediction was bang on. A large twitch had assembled when I got there, with most of the county listers in evidence. The bird showed incredibly well, for blyth's reed, I have twitched at least four of these and failed to connect with any, even travelling to darkest Whitley Bay twice! It showed well I even managed a record shot, the guys with the flash camera kit must have got some stunning shots as the bird perched out in the afternoon sunshine.

I headed back to the patch for a quick look on the sea, there was a large scoter flock in amongst the breakers, which included at least five velvets, a couple of bonxies (1 very close in), an arctic skua and 7 little gulls (3 adults, four juv all together) was all else of note. There was nothing on the beach as there wasn't one.

The ruff and juv black tern were still on the big pool. A long, but very satisfying day in the field.