Sad demise of a Long-eared Owl

I started my Saturday bird watch in the dark this week, having dropped our son at the Central Station at 5 am.

A Barn Owl was hunting around Hemscott Hill.

I took a trip past Widdrington Lake in the hope of an owl, but did not expect the sad site that greeted me just before the turbine building. A Long-eared Owl, clearly hit by something and very battered. Sad end to a beautiful bird.

Spring? It's still like Winter!

Despite the dark sky that covered Cramlington this morning, I decided to set out for my usual coastal bird watch. It remained dull and wet all day, but there were a few interesting birds around. No sign of Pink Feet, I think they must have departed.

Snab Point, Cresswell – A low tide, rough sea and strong, cold wind, with no waders in evidence. There were two Fulmars flying around the cliff face, seemingly oblivious of the weather.

Druridge Pools –  A male Kestrel hovered over the entrance.

I avoided the Budge Screen. It looked as though thigh waders were needed. The Water Pipit has eluded me seven times this year and I will probably have to wait yet another year at least before I add this elusive bird to my list.

From the middle hide there were good views of around 20 Blackwits. No sign of the reported Garganey, but plenty of duck activity from Shovellers, Wigeons, Mallards, Teals and a smart pair of Pintails. Lots of Redshanks and Curlews around.

The main lake held lots of Tufties, a few Goldeneyes and Mallards, two pairs of Great Crested Grebes and a pair of Red Breasted Mergansers.

In the distance to the north, I could see 13 Whooper Swans grazing busily.

Widdrington Lake – No sign of divers today.

East Chevington – Two Swallows probably regretted the decision to move north as they quartered the north pool. The usual mixture of ducks on the north pool, with the addition of a drake Pochard and the long staying male Long-tailed Duck. Two Little Grebes on view.

There was a very large flock of Black-headed Gulls, I looked for Mediterranean Gull, but none present. There were plenty of Lesser and a few Great Black-backs.

Cresswell Pond – On my return trip I checked the north extension and scoped the main pond. Very little on view.

Birds on Northumberland coast. 3rd Feb 2018

The forecast of rain today turned out to be intermittent drizzle and a gradual drop in temperature.

As I passed the fields near Lynemouth, I was momentarily excited by a large, pale, distant, gull shape; but it turned out to be Larus plasticbagus.

Snab Point, Cresswell – The tide was on its way in when I stopped briefly on the out-trip along my usual coastal route. A few Oystercatchers and Redshanks were the only waders. There were two Fulmars flying around the cliff face.

Druridge Pools – As I passed the field before the reserve entrance, I noticed a large flock of Pink-feet, so I viewed them from my usual vantage point and counted around 800. The light was not good for distinguishing pinkish from orangish, but they all looked pink-foot sized and shape.

Widdrington Lake – Two Great Northern Divers are still resident. No geese, but plenty of Black-headed and Herring Gulls. A mixture of Mallards, Wigeons, Teal and Tufties were present along with two or three pairs of Goldeneye.

East Chevington – The usual mixture of ducks on the north pool, with the addition of two Pochards and the long staying male Long-tailed Duck. Only one Little Grebe on view. A single Red-breasted Merganser did a double flypast, but there were none of the usual females in evidence.

From the viewpoint over the south pond, 43 Whooper Swans were in the field beyond the pond.

There were at least two pairs of Bullfinches attracted by emerging buds and a Sprawk shot over the road as I left.

Druridge Pools – A short trip to the middle hide revealed only two Black-wits; but there were about 100 Curlews and around 40 Redshanks. A single Pintail drake had been seen, but it eluded me. A Little Egret was resting beyond the Budge Screen.

The large pond was rather quiet, with no sign of Gadwalls; usually a safe bet. A drake Goldeneye was getting very frisky and displaying enthusiastically in front of a seemingly unimpressed female.

Cresswell Pond – On my return trip I checked the north extension and there were lots of Lapwings, Dunlins and Redshanks. On this occasion I gave the main pond hide a miss.

Snab Point (again) – The tide had risen and there must have been a shoal of fish just beyond the rocks, as I counted at least 12 Red-throated Divers and 5 Porpoises. A few Guillemots also hung around.

On the rocks I saw my first Purple Sandpipers of the year, only two, along with Turnstones, Oystercatchers and Redshanks. A small flock of Eiders were the only other birds on the sea nearby.

I don't Bee lieve it!

This morning I set off reasonably early with the intention of covering as much of my usual patch as possible.

Snab Point, Cresswell – The tide was receding. Apart from a large flock of Black-Headed Gulls arguing on the tides edge, it was rather quiet. Only a few Redshanks and no sight of the large number of Turnstones and the single Purple Sandpiper that entertained me on Saturday. Apart from a few gulls, the sea was also quiet, so I moved on.

Cresswell Pond – The water is very high and there is little prospect of the level falling until the sand bar on the beach outflow is cleared, so I decided to give the hide a miss. I parked by the roadside near the north extension, but there was nothing to see in the slowly improving light.

Druridge Pools – I went straight to the middle hide and joined an early riser, who informed me that the Phalarope had not been seen since Monday. After about half an hour of duck watching and hoping for a Phalarope return, a little before 08.22 to be precise, a bird flew in from the field to the west; darting and dashing as it approached – Bee-eater!! A first for my hide mate. If I had been asked to draw up a list of 100 birds I could have seen today, Bee-eater would not even have qualified for the ‘in your dreams’ end of the list.

Gradually others joined us in the hide and word soon spread. We saw the Bee-eater several times, until I moved on at 10.30. Just as I was about to leave, a female Marsh Harrier flew south, with a quick circuit of the west side of the budge field. It showed a distinctive point of brown intruding into its cream forehead, unlike the bird reported later in this blog.

Ducks on Budge Field included Teal, Mallard, Wigeon, Shoveller, Pochard, Tufties and Gadwall. There were at least three Black-tailed Godwits, at least twenty Curlews, a few Snipe, Coots and Moorhens and a single Heron. Two Little Egrets flew over.

During my two-and-a-half-hour stay, there were several flocks of Pink-feet, mainly flying south. One flock of about four hundred and the others were no more than fifty to a hundred in each. Probably around one thousand geese in all. A family group of Whoopers passed by heading north.

A quick visit to the large pond hide revealed a passing Sprawk, several Little Grebes and the same range of ducks as on Budge Field, plus Goldeneye.

Togston Beach – I hoped to see some tweets on the move, so chose to look at the bushes near the beach opposite Low Hauxley. No sign of any thrushes; plenty of Sea Buckthorn berries await their assault. It was very quiet for birds, probably something to do with someone hammering in the hide and a few passing dogs barking.

East Chevington – Scanning the north lake from Northumberland’s noisiest hide, I quickly found one male Pintail along with five females or juveniles. One Whooper only today. A lot of the usual ducks and at least ten Little Grebes were present. A good number of Great Black- backed Gulls, lots of Black-heads and Herring, plus a few Common Gulls.

Again, just as I was about to leave, a female Marsh Harrier, this one with cream forehead intact, spent twenty minutes quartering the reeds on both sides of the hide. I didn’t see it catch anything, but it did go to ground for around five minutes at one point.

Cresswell Pond (again) – On my return trip I checked again from the roadside and could see a female Long-tailed Duck. Other than that, the pond seemed quiet.

Red-Necked Phalarope

Today I joined the many taking advantage of the Phalarope's generosity in staying until the weekend. Poor light and distance meant only a record shot.

It was interesting to see the Phalarope following the Shovellers as they disturbed the mud and water with their dabbling. It was feeding at a rate of around one peck a second for a long time and it seemed to be catching a lot of food. Perhaps, if it thinks it's on to a good thing, it will stick around.

This was my third RNP. The first in non breeding plumage. The first two were a pair on a small temporary pond near Boat O Garten in 1981; the skid marks from my braking are probably still on the road.

Whoopercalifragilisticexpialidocious

This morning I followed my usual route up the coast via Cresswell. I decided to call first at Druridge Bay Country Park and view East Chevington north pond from the hide where the Pacific Diver has been seen most recently. This was my first time in this hide which, although having a restricted view to the west, is well worth adding to my regular visit list.

On the way, a field between High Chibburn Farm and Widdrington held over four hundred Fieldfares and a few, possibly six, Redwings.

There was no sign of pacifica from the north hide at East Chevington, but there were plenty of other birds of interest.

There were four male and five female ducks showing strong Scaup characteristics. Given the poor light and that they were distant, I will leave other sage minds to decide whether they are or not. Having recently been looking at hybrid ducks, the mind boggles at the possible permutations for Scaup, Pochard, Tuftie. They looked convincing Scaup to me, especially when a more slightly built female Tuftie swam alongside.

A pair of Pheasants plundered the grain under the feeders, which attracted two Blue Tits, and singles of Goldfinch and Reed Bunting. Meanwhile, a Water Rail screeched occasionally from the dense reed.

Everywhere you looked there were Goldeneyes; a few displaying enthusiastically. There was a smattering of Tufties, Teals, Gadwalls and Mallards, a pair of Red Breasted Mergansers, quite a few Mute Swans and a few Coots. Little Grebes were more evident from their calls than from sightings.

A small bird attracted my attention. Dark cap, white cheeks, dark back and light sides; diving frequently. A lovely non-breeding plumage Slavonian Grebe.

There were at least four Chiffchaffs calling in the country park.

I returned to view Cresswell Pond from the roadside to the north. The eighteen Whooper Swans that arrived last week were still there. On the north pool, there were seventy-five Dunlins, four Avocets, one Ruff, four Ringed Plovers and around ten Redshanks. There was an occasional fly-by of four Turnstones and regular visits from very active and noisy Oystercatchers.

As I returned towards home, a flock of Whoopers flew north over the River Lyne, so I turned around in pursuit. As I hoped, they joined the others at Cresswell Pond and swelled the flock to thirty-nine.

The forecast was cloudy but fine at first, followed by rain. Got that back-to-front, didn’t they?

Out for a lark

I finally managed to make time to see the Shore Larks at East Chevington today. Seed has been distributed near to the dunes and the Twites enjoyed the feast.

One day I will have my new(ish) lens and a sunny day with interesting birds. Today it was overcast, so it was ISO 1000 and 1200. I took a large number of poor record shots and a few of these are below.

There were the usual 7 Shore Larks. They were rather twitchy because of the number of dog walkers, but they came quite close twice in the hour that I watched.

Trying to count a Twite flock is a considerable challenge. You start at one end and half way through the ones you have counted fly to the end of those yet to be counted. I got to 103 today.

The Sanderlings, 23 in all, were mostly busy on the tideline, but occasionally joined the Twites.

A couple of Skylarks joined the throng and one had a brief song flight. 

Along the track several Robins and one Blackbird were singing.

There was not at lot out to sea; I saw one Red Throated Diver.