Back in the north...

This weekend I'm back at home from UEA, so today me and my dad decided to have a full day's birding on the coast. We chose (perhaps wrongly!) not to start in the Druridge area, and instead head north to look for seabirds.

Stag Rocks was quiet with just a single Great Northern Diver offshore and then a Red-necked Grebe just before we left. Budle Bay and Fenham-le-Moor were both busy with birds although we couldn't find anything out of the ordinary.

We continued north, ending up at Cheswick. Here we quickly picked up the drake Black Scoter, while a single drake Long-tailed Duck and a group of six Velvet Scoters were nice to see.

On the way back home we called in at Cresswell Pond to take a look at the smart juvenile/1st-winter Long-billed Dowitcher found earlier in the day. We had decent scope views of the bird but unfortunately it didn't land on the mud in front of the hide. The pond had a good selection of other birds too including a Little Stint, 4 Long-tailed Ducks, 5 Scaup and 5 Ruff.

Tomorrow I'll be heading back to uni and I hope to round up any bird sightings I have while there on my blog soon...

Black Scoter

Distant Long-billed Dowitcher at Cresswell - please view at 1080p

Patch catch-up...

In between increasing amounts of schoolwork and editing photos from Fuerteventura, we have managed a few visits to the patch. Back at the beginning of March it was extremely quiet, except for a drake Green-winged Teal at Druridge Pools.

Last weekend things were slowly starting to pick up with a first-winter Glaucous Gull north through Druridge Pools being the highlight. An Egyptian Goose was also near Linton Pond.

Today, we headed out hoping to get some hirundines in the deteriorating weather conditions and East Chevington we were a bit surprised not to find any. However, at Druridge Bay Country Park there were at least 60 Sand Martin.

Another 10 Sand Martin were at Druridge Pools and we walked along the coal road to find the adult Bewick's Swan still among 62 Whoopers. As we watched the swan, we picked up a Great White Egret flying towards us from the west and it appeared to land on the shore of the main pool. We rushed back to the hide and at first there was no sign, but my dad picked it up in the SW corner. Unfortunately the views were pretty poor but it was nice to finally find one for ourselves!

A Velvet Scoter and Sandwich Tern were offshore.

Bewick's Swan

Great White Egret

Green-winged Teal

Snipe

A decent end to October...

It felt like quite a while since we'd last been on the patch, and when we set out there this morning we didn't have huge expectations. In the end we did have a decent day...

With good numbers of Crossbills being reported around the county, we decided to start at Druridge Bay Country Park, and it wasn't long before we got onto a group of Crossbills. The group numbered at least 35, although there was probably more and they were as mobile as usual.

We checked the dunes at Hadston for redpolls but with no sign we had a look at the sea. My dad picked up a Little Auk moving north, and 3 female Velvet Scoters were in with the Commons.

Chevington was our final call and I was pleased to pick up a couple of Bewick's Swans among the minimum of 27 Whoopers. These were our first in the county for over three and a half years so we were pretty happy! A Long-tailed Duck had also arrived on the pool with 2 Ruff and 4 Pintail.

Bewick's Swans - videograb hence the poor quality

Crossbills

An exciting seawatch...

Yesterday we spent around seven hours at Church Point, Newbiggin. My target for the day was Pomarine Skuas and we sat through thunderstorms and hail without success. We did manage a nice selection of birds including a Little Auk, Red-necked Grebe and Sooty Shearwater, as well as 4 Scaup among large numbers of wildfowl. Birds in off included a Short-eared Owl and Woodcock.

Feeling a little bit frustrated about the lack of Poms, we decided to head back out this morning, and almost immediately we realised we were in for a better day. 3 superb Pomarine Skuas flew north inside the first ten minutes along with several Little Auks.

Over the next five hours or so, we had another 2 Pomarine Skuas including one superb adult very close in, and at 11:10 I picked up a Leach's Petrel going north about half way out. This was a lifer for me and a bird I've been wanting to see for a long time! Great stuff!

Here's some selected counts 07:15-11:40...

1 Leach's Petrel
5 Pomarine Skuas
37 Little Auk
24 Velvet Scoter
11 Manx Shearwater
1 Sooty Shearwater
6 Great Northern Diver
1 Black-throated Diver
25 Long-tailed Duck
1 Great Skua

Pomarine Skua

More open day birding...

Yesterday we were at another university open day - this time in Edinburgh - and the fact we drove there meant that we could do some birding afterwards...

Musselburgh was our first port of call as we hoped to improve on our views of the White-winged Scoter from the spring. When we first arrived it wasn't looking great as no one on site had seen it, despite good conditions, though I did pick up a Red-necked Grebe in one of the Velvet flocks. We walked further east along the sea wall and eventually my dad located the drake American White-winged Scoter among some more Velvets. We watched the bird for quite a while, and it came closer and closer as time went on. By the time we left we had had some really good scope views.

We also estimated that there were 100+ Velvet Scoters offshore, as well as similar numbers of Red-breasted Mergansers including one very large group, and a single Arctic Skua flew west.

After finishing at Musselburgh we drove a short distance south down the A1 and arrived at Barns Ness. As we were driving down the approach road we saw a couple of birders scoping White Sands Quarry from the north side so joined them and were soon were onto the Buff-breasted Sandpiper on the south shore. The views were very distant but still distinctive.

The light was starting to go now, but we continued down towards the lighthouse and joined a small crowd admiring the first-winter Woodchat Shrike. It wasn't doing much this late on in the day, but at one point it did fly round and land right in front of me and my dad. A nice way to round off an excellent afternoon!

Woodchat Shrike

American White-winged Scoter with Velvet Scoters - video should be viewed at 1080p

Twitching Lothian...

Yesterday morning we set off on our first ever twitch to Scotland from home, hoping to catch up with the scoters at Musselburgh, Lothian...

The heavy rain and sleet on the drive up were a bit worrying, but thankfully it cleared as we crossed the border, and conditions at Musselburgh when we arrived weren't too bad. We walked east along the sea wall, and arrived at the twitch just as our target was found. The smart drake American White-winged Scoter was showing quite well with a group of Velvet Scoters, not far beyond the surf. It showed throughout our visit, although could be difficult to find in the rough seas, despite being quite close in. I opted for videos of it today due to the choppy water, so the below photos are nothing more than record videograbs!

Other birds off the sea wall include a drake Surf Scoter which gave a couple of nice flypasts, before settling on the sea, around 30 Velvet Scoters, 3 Slavonian Grebes and our first Sandwich Tern of the year.

We took quite an indirect route home! Calling in at Low Newton, the Grey Phalarope was showing nicely on the scrapes, while a first-winter Glaucous Gull was in the field next to Monks House Pool. Finally, at Druridge Pools, a Water Pipit was showing well along with 36 Black-tailed Godwits, 4 Pintail and 2 Red-breasted Mergansers.

American White-winged Scoter - video should be viewed in HD at 1080p

Grey Phalarope - video should be viewed in HD at 1080p

Glaucous Gull

Water Pipit - video should be viewed in HD at 1080p

The good run continues...

We were expecting a slightly quieter look at the patch on Saturday morning. However, once again the birding was better than expected...

With a bit of a north-easterly we decided to do a bit of seawatching from Hadston Carrs. We stayed about an hour but it proved very quiet. Moving south, Chevington was similar, although the Long-tailed Duck remained on the north pool. It had been joined by 7 Red-breasted Mergansers and another 5 Mergansers were on Ladyburn Lake. A short while later we had just been checking the geese when word came through of a White-billed Diver passing Whitburn.

With another sighting coming from Tynemouth shortly after, we rushed back to Hadston. When we arrived word had just come through of it passing Newbiggin and it had taken just 25 minutes to get between the two sites. So, when forty minutes went by and we still hadn't seen the bird, we thought we had missed out. However, we were really pleased when at 11:58 the White-billed Diver flew past nice and close inshore. A nice patch tick and our first Patchwork rarity of the year.

Other birds past Hadston on our second visit included 3 Velvet Scoters and 2 Ruff which were a bit unexpected. At Druridge, the number of Black-tailed Godwits had increased to 15, and a Water Pipit was giving good views even if it was a bit distant.

We finished the day at North Blyth, where 2 first-winter Iceland Gulls and a first-winter Glaucous Gull were showing across the river.

Iceland Gull

Northerlies deliver!

We set out to Newbiggin this morning with quite high hopes as the pressure charts for the previous night looked quite good. However, when we arrived it was a bit quiet with just a couple of Manx Shearwaters and Great Skuas going past. An hour and a half later we were even contemplating going somewhere else when we saw that a White-billed Diver had been seen passing Whitburn.

Over the next twenty minutes or so reports filtered in of a bird passing a number of sites in Tyneside. It was at around 10:57 that my dad picked up a diver coming north.

The bird was more distant than we were expecting, although the sun caught it and revealed the ivory yellow bill of my first ever White-billed Diver, and with its head and neck appearing all black, this bird was still in its summer plumage. We were really pleased to see it despite it being a lot further out than we had hoped for.

However, twenty minutes later I got onto two more divers going north and realised that alongside a Great Northern Diver was another White-billed Diver. This WBD was in winter plumage and was incredibly close in providing some awesome scope views and a great comparison to the Great Northern next to it.

It quietened down again after this although at 12:45 I picked up a European Storm Petrel about half way out, which was my first on a seawatch. The sea was relatively calm so some more good scope views were had.

Here's our full totals for 08:30-13:30...

2 White-billed Diver
1 European Storm Petrel
17 Goldeneye
7 Long-tailed Duck
6 Red-throated Diver
34 Common Scoter
2 Manx Shearwater
3 Great Northern Diver
11 Whooper Swan
3 Great Skua
3 Red-breasted Merganser
1 Arctic Tern
1 Goosander
5 Mallard
1 Velvet Scoter
9 Teal

The second White-billed Diver - © Chris Barlow

The best I could manage (White-billed on the left, Great Northern on the right)

Arctic Tern

Also a few other bits from the last week...

Two of three Velvet Scoter off Chevington.

Shore Lark and Snow Buntings at Chevington

Yellow-browed Warbler calling near Snab Point

Goose-fest 300...

We headed out the house this morning with the intention of seeing my 300th species for the county. Our target was the Richardson's Cackling Goose in Budle Bay although we weren't too hopeful on the way as we'd only heard negative news so far...

When we arrived the difficulty of the task was apparent immediately. There were a minimum of 5000 Barnacle Geese and 2000 Pink-footed Geese and they were all very distant from the Harper's Heugh viewpoint. Eventually though a Canada-type was picked up asleep on the estuary. 

Once it finally woke up it was hard to tell whether it was the Cackling or Todd's due to the extreme distance. However, this was made much easier when another birder picked up the Richardson's Cackling Goose in a much closer flock of Barnacles in one if the fields. It was quite distinctive when views were reasonable. Also at this point the Todd's Canada Goose woke up and walked around a bit.

Over the next hour or two the Cackling Goose returned to the bay before once again flying into the fields. My dad also picked up another Todd's Canada Goose in the bay feeding alongside a Greylag.

All photos and videos below were taken by S. Clifton and used here with permission. The videos should be viewed in HD...

Richardson's Cackling Goose - note how it is a similar size to the Barnacles, with a short neck, compact shape, square-looking head and a short bill.

The first Todd's Canada Goose - very distant on the mudflats, this was the smaller of the two Todd's though still noticebly bigger than the Barnacle. It's rear end was quite long, while it's neck appeared shorter than our 'native' Canadas. The breast also appeared quite dark. 

Todd's Canada Goose number two - the larger of the two birds, its shape looked more similar to our normal Canada Geese, although it was visibly smaller than the nearby Greylag. British Canadas are almost always larger than Greylags. 

And a video of each bird...

On the way home the Red-necked Phalarope at Druridge while a Slavonian Grebe and Velvet Scoter were off Chevington burn mouth. 

Sabine's Gull

After seeing some good reports from elsewhere on the coast we decided to head out for a bit of seawatching at Snab Point this afternoon. We stayed for about an hour and a half, with close Great and Arctic Skuas good to see, as was one of the Sooty Shearwaters being reasonably close inshore.

However the highlight came at 4:26pm when I got onto an interesting gull coming north. We quickly realised that it was a juvenile Sabine's Gull and I was able to take some record video of the bird as the slow flight and long range meant it was on view for a good few minutes.

Our totals for the 90 minutes included 3 Sooty and 3 Manx Shearwaters, 8 Great and 7 Arctic Skuas and a lone Pintail and male Velvet Scoter.

Highlights of two and a half hours at Newbiggin yesterday included 4 Sooties, 29 Manxies, 6 Velvet Scoters and 4 Taiga Bean Geese expertly identified by some of the other birders on site.

I've had to stablise the video which means it doesn't look as high quality as it should, although it is best viewed in HD by selecting 1080p on the youtube website or app.

Sabine's Gull

Decent...

We've had a couple of mornings out since returning from the Outer Hebrides. This morning a seawatch at Newbiggin was quiet with the highlights being a group of three Velvet Scoters and a dozen Manx Shearwaters.

On our way to Druridge Pools, a stop at the north end of Cresswell produced the adult White-rumped Sandpiper on the beach opposite. Upon reaching the Budge Fields, the number of Black-tailed Godwits had increased to 56.

There was a greater variety here on Monday, including a Spotted Redshank, 3 Green Sandpipers, a Wood Sandpiper and a juvenile Garganey.

Finally, at Hadston it felt a bit like autumn with a Redstart among a few phylloscs and Robins flitting around the hawthorns...

Redstart

White-rumped Sandpiper - not quite the kind of views we had a week ago on North Uist but still good to see!

Great Skua passing Newbiggin

Whitethroat

Sparrowhawk - briefly sat on a fence post just metres from the Budge Screen!

Decent start to April!

Headed out to the patch on Saturday, hoping to catch up with a few migrants and ended up having one of our best days of the year so far...

Up first was the north pool at Chevington, where it was quiet except for a single female Scaup and a few Sand Martin. However, a Bittern suddenly appeared flying into the SW corner where it sat for a few minutes, giving great scope views as it was dive-bombed by Black-headed Gulls. At the burn mouth 3 Velvet Scoters were still on the sea while 2 White Wagtails and a 30 Twite fed on the beach, a a male Marsh Harrier hunted the reeds.

Druridge Pools also provided a great selection of birds with the Great White Egret and Eurasian White-fronted Goose still around and a single Water Pipit showing well in front of the screen. New in was a smart drake Garganey, a singing Willow Warbler and a White Wagtail. A northwards passage of hirundines included our first two Swallows of the year and a dozen Sand Martins.

PWC 2017
Species: 118
Points: 155

Bittern - video best viewed in HD at 720p/1080p

Water Pipit - video best viewed in HD at 720p/1080p

Great White Egret - video best viewed in HD at 720p/1080p

A slightly scary looking Reed Bunting!

Spring underway...

Despite the cold, drizzly and dark weather yesterday morning, there were a few signs that spring is finally getting underway...

On arrival at Chevington the rain had forced 8 Sand Martins low over the pool. The Slavonian Grebe was still present on the pool along with 8 Scaup, but it seemed the Pacific Diver had finally moved off. A female Goosander had joined the 7 Red-breasted Mergansers and was my first of the year on the patch.

Whooper Swans were around in good numbers with 128 in the south pool and another 70 in a field just to the south-west. A walk down to the burn mouth produced 4 Shore Larks and a flyover Twite and Snow Bunting, while 3 Velvet Scoters were showing pretty well quite close offshore.

Other birds seen recently include 5 Avocets at Cresswell, several Chiffchaffs, 3 Scaup at Bothal Pond and a Short-eared Owl and 61 Whooper Swans at Longhirst Flash last weekend. My dad had a male Wheatear here this afternoon.

Shore Lark

Goosander with 3 Red-breasted Mergansers

Goosander

Velvet Scoter record shot!