Little Egrets

Little Egret being harrassad by the local Magpies not keen to have this strange bird on their patch 

There have not been  many Little  Egrets around this year I have seen them at Alnmouth and Warkworth Gut  and only one on the River Blyth, where last year there was four which hung around for a month or so keeping up river though. Two Kingfishers around and a single Greenshank, with a few Bar-tailed Godwits  in with the large number of Redshank and lots of Curlew, and the strange sight of two pure white Doves living under the road bridge 

 Not the best photo as I have missed off the tip of the Bill but it does show pink to the underside which I believe is indicative of a Juvenile  so I wonder where this bird was born ?

The bird always distant and very wary so photos taken from range

 Good to hear the call of a Greenshank this one feeding well up river

Budle Bay/ Stag Rocks

Last week we had a run further up the coast to first Budle Bay  where there was a 100+ Teal several hundred Wigeon , masses  of  Redshank  a few Godwits , Dunlin & Knot with also a Greenshank , I think there has been a winter Greenshank here for the last few years , in the distance a very large flock of geese with Greylag , up to 100 White-fronted Geese, and about 30 or so Barnacles . The tide pushes across the flats fairly fast , I had spotted two Gulls with colour rings on , a Herring Gull with an orange ring from the scheme connected with the refuse tips , this flew off before I could read it , another a black headed Gull with a red ring not had many BHG so I tried to photo its colour ring  but the tide rose over it's leg before I could get a decent shot , pity as it looked interesting.

Pulled up at Stag Rocks and had a look for the Black Guillemot, MH & AC turned up and eventually Alan got on to it I got the briefest of views but it was not relocated , a few Slavonian Grebes  I noted up to 5, and 3 Red Necked grebe sightings from the area, up to 15 Long tailed Ducks , about 30 + Common Scoter but I only noted one Red throated Diver with a large movement of Gannets heading north up to 5 sightings of Harbour Porpoise of perhaps 3 individuals. Later as the tide began to recede 40+ Purple Sandpipers  dropped on the rocks . stopped at Monks House Pool only a couple of Pochard and a few Black headed Gulls , Seahouses  harbour only held 3 Goldeneye and 30 odd Gulls a few more Purple Sandpipers,but no Glaucous/Iceland.

 Black headed Gull with Colour ring but could not get the number

 A low flying helicopter but all the geese on alert before they all left with the incoming tide

 Slavonian Grebe moulting from Winter to Summer plumage

 Here with Common Scoter female

 With Common Scoter females and a Male on the right

Newbiggin,Cresswell,East Chevington.

26-7-2010

A run through o Newbiggin to check out the Med Gulls ,soon located some sitting on the rocks with one group of 5 another with colour ring and a Juvenile ,with a few others on the beach ,12 in total which is about average for what I see ,although reports of 25 have been made, a single Whinbrel over .

On to Cresswell I Greenshank, 1Copmmon Sandpiper,18Dunlin ,160 Lapwing & 2 Whimbrel over looking to settle but moving on.

East Chevington plenty of Terns but no Roseate, a smart Summer Little Gull, 1 Black Tailed Godwit,I Greenshank. Down on the beach mainly Common Terns , a few Sandwich and a single Roseate Tern adult, a Arctic Skua buzzed them and harried the Terns out at sea before heading off, again Whimbrel over with 4 calling high up.

Lots of Harebells out now.

I have put the photos in the wrong order you would think I would know how to do it by now

Juvenile Med Gull as it moves out

Juvenile Med Gull probably already a few weeks old.
Adult Med 3L47
Five Med Gulls in this group.

Druridge Pools & Newbiggin

I just spent the day as others did looking for the Raddes Warbler trapped and ringed yesterday at Druridge, it was reported as still showing today , and along with the Glossy Ibis still showing well it meant there was lots of people around even a trip bus parked on the road.
No sign of the bird by mid afternoon,the Ibis along the far shore, and a Greenshank beside the hide.
Another run to Newbiggin as the light was better to get some more shots of the Med Gulls , at least 12 birds today but oddly could not find the colour ringed birds , although the rings could just be out of sight
The wind picking up playing havoc with this bird .

And again some Med Gull shots ,one of my favourite birds, Newbiggin has certainly become the Northumberland hot spot for them , sadly I did not find any actual juveniles this year ,will have to stake out Newbiggin next year !!!!

St Mary's, Beehive, & Holywell

Mid morning message of two Lapland Buntings St Mary's ,so thats where I ended up , but no sign of them and little else there 10 Pinkfeet in a field to the west, no waders on the shore in the rising tide nothing in the willows etc: which was to be expected I suppose, Greenshank over ,flock of about 20 Goldfinch and a flock of about 15+ Linnets, only about 40 Golden Plover on the rocks.
Went to Holywell via the Beehive flash it used to pull in so much a couple of years ago, Greenshank here , and several Golden Plover dropped in briefly before they all took off, harried by Crows.
Holywell ,by now the clouds had gathered and the forecast rain fell, a huge number of Wood Pigeons her today, I estimated 2500-3000, birds ,one main flock over towards the obelisk and a large amount in the woods to the north of the pond , quite a few down at the shore of the far end mostly juveniles, Greenshank here also I suspect the same bird as before making only one and not three about, 200+ Black-headed''s easily the most numerous gull with only a few Common in with them and no Meds, a roost of gulls building up in the field to the west of the hide as in previous years

Semipalmated Sandpiper 27-8-09

Well Thursday saw me drive back to Cresswell , it's where it's all happening at the moment, so many waders in one small area it's fantastic, A Water Rail showed saeveral timeson the far right even stopping to bathe at one point, terrific number of waders around I did not count everything but some counts where, 200+ Dunlin , 46 Black Tailed Godwits, 35Knot, 4 Greenshank, 4 Curlew Sandpiper,5 Bar-tailed, 6 Ruff & a Wood Sandpiper. A Merlin paid a couple of visits also 2 Yellow Wagtails at the north end of the main pool, the hide again rather busy so I went up to Druridge but alas nothing around so after a short visit headed back to Cresswell, and got sat down near the small pool , but wih the constant trek of people looking for the Semi-P I gave up.


Later back at the hide it was much quieter, around 6 as I was scanning the reed edges and picked out what I thought was a small Crake at least I was sure it was not a Water Rail, it was just about to come more in the open when a Moorhen spooked it I picked it out in the background as it moved through the reeds, so sure that it was perhaps a Spotted Crake that I gave it another hour scanning and re scanning the edge , the presecne of a Heron would not help , but it was not seen again. This was the area between the red fish box and the large square post . When I got home a message of possibleWhite Winged Black Tern at Woodhorn south flash I often stop there on the way home and have a scan but not tonight


2 of the 4 Greenshanks

Wood Sandpiper

Migrant Hawker

I had not niticed the line of hairs or bristles before , but actually the book does illustrate it.

Migrant Hawker ....according to the book the facial suture ( between frons & clypeus) is not marked with a distinct black line..........not quite worked that out yet

Cresswell Butterflies 25-8-09

Tuesday was a much warmer day and a lot more Butterflies around one small area I stopped at on the way Cresswell had 25 Painted Ladies, 8 Peacock, 10 Wall Brown & a few Tortoiseshell, but no Hawkers which was what I was hoping for, ST's blog had many more Butterflies on this day.
Cresswell still had the Semi-P now settled on the pond with a fantastic showing of waders including 30 Black tailed Godwits, Wood Sandpiper & 3 Curlew Sandpiper, the hide getting rather busy now .

Roseates & Semipalmated Sandpiper 24-8-09

Monday the 24th saw me check out the Roseates before heading back up to Cresswell ,not sure how many Roseates here, but there was a few Juveniles ,I think Roseate Juveniles are very smart birds in the early days of fledging as are Sandwich tern, with that striking pattern.
Moved on to Cresswell the Semi-P had been reported but was not on view so I decided to walk the beach hoping to come across it , which I did it was at the pond outflow and even flew over to the side I was on but kept it's back to me , it then moved to the waters edge , I had to walk around the large long pool to refind it , from here the tide pushed the birds over to the pool , Wood Sandpiper at the North end and in the field 6 Yellow Wagtails increasing to 10 later in the afternoon also 3 Wheatear, and a Whinchat, also a steady movement of Swallows south for most of the afternoon.
The Semipalmated Sandpiper again from the hide along with a Wood Sandpiper, 30 Black-tailed Godwits,4 Bar-tailed , 2 Greenshank, 2 Ruff, 1 Green Sandpiper,1 Adult Curlew Sandpiper, 70 odd Dunlin, Redshanks & Lapwings, of which I again picked out the same colour ringed bird seen awhile ago but again just the left leg...................so if you see the other leg please let me know
Roseates on the rocks this one with a juvenile

some very low tides of late keeping the birds well out

Semi-P back on the pond, when asked where is the bird after they all flushed, I said it feeds in a small area either side of the old tyre ..........................where's the tyre was the next question !!!

I'll just have a quick nap !!!!!!!!!!

Another out of focus flight shot of the Semi-P

and with Sanderling on the beach

HAVE YOU SEEN THIS LAPWINGS RIGHT LEG.....PLEASE LET ME KNOW !!