Shorties

A brief seawatch from St Mary's Island this am resulted in only a Black throated Diver on the sea and a Merganser north , with some Purple sandpipers in the foreground . Walking back near the willows the Short Eared Owls where out and about  first one then another and briefly a third , hunting mainly over the wetland putting up Snipe first 6 then up to 20 , then ranging further  afield giving some cracking views  I rattled off numerous shots with varying results  so I have just put in lots for this post .

St Mary's Wildflowers

A very pleasant couple of hours at St Mary's Island this afternoon still a few Goldcrests  in the top end  and two wWillow/Chiffs  in the Willows with a Great Spotted Woodpecker , Stonechat , with a couple of Skeins of Pinkfeet heading South , but is was the Butterflies that where in dominance , I loosely counted 42 Speckled Wood , 10 Red Admiral , 6 Small Torts  2 Painted Ladies , and over 100+ Silver Y modtly on the flowers planted along the roadside not counting the hundreds of Bees and other insects . No sign of any Hawkers but plenty of Common Darter scattered all over 

Common Darters 

 When this sign was put up I doubt there was any Speckled Wood in the County

Silver Y

 Liked the sun on this one

 It was good enough to sit for several portraits

 60+ Pinkfeet head south in the clear sky

 Speckled Wood

 Golden Plover settle on the rocks as the tide recedes, with the Wildflowers in the foreground

Feas - Seawatching

Well like many I got caught up in the quest for Feas Petrel  first sighted past Flamborough  early morn of the 21st , I have never seawatched from there but I presume your looking down on everything and it has been a remarkable site for some fantastic movement . well at the time I did not give it much thought though  it was speculated that it could track North  at least somewhat , Hartlepool was mentioned  as the best hope , if it passes there we had a good chance well no word was put out , but for some reason there was a buzz that it would be worthwhile getting to the coast at a suitable point to try your luck , suitable point in this case was  more than just a look at the sea it would help if information was forthcomming of the birds progress , it would help if there where other experienced watchers . So MHp and I first decided to forego  the charms of Seaton Sluice and head to Newbiggin knowing there would be many observers set up ready ,but we also weighed up the possibility of going to St Mary's , I have seawatched from here more times than Newbiggin  and thought it would be easier to get onto the hoped for bird , so that's where we ended up by the Ladies toilet block only to find not a sole there , the tide was out and we wondered if everyone was on the island , having only seen one Sooty we packed up and headed for the Island , mild panic was just starting to creep in , why I don't know  but I did suddenly realize I wanted to see this bird , I mean I really did want to see this  bird I have put in many hours staring at the sea  and hoped this would be some sort of payback .
Well arriving at the hide you could see the shutters open I think it was a young lad "Dan " that let us in (thanks for that) he was on his own , what's going on I at least thought there would be a few people set up , perhaps it was the rising tide that put them off . Set up and viewing it takes a while to get your eye in , this happens at any site you go too there all different, some are high and your looking at more sea , some are low and you have swell or chop that even Gannets can disappear in ,   a few Sooty where evident ,I have lost the notes from the day so cant remember any totals for Sooty/ Manx or anything else . Well more observers joined us just enough  to fill the space and with the tide over the causeway we where committed , I was enjoying what was on offer but deep down thought we are not going to see this surely at some stage the bird is going to head out to sea  on a huge loop and be lost , a report of a  sighting from Cowbar  ?  then much  later Ryhope  the tension was starting to mount and we still had a long wait , next report was Whitburn which has a very good following of seawatchers  and I knew there would be plenty of observers there , the bird was reported as lingering in with Kittiwakes  great for those watching it , panic for us waiting along the coast , finally another report the bird had now moved North and out of sight . Now for the next hurdle the "Whitburn Triangle " many birds seen tracking north do not get picked up  further north  I think the run off from the Tyne pushes them further out beyond view from the coast.
Finally a report from Tynemouth it's still on the way . the game was now on  but it was going to be fairly short game you would have to get onto it quickly or it would soon pass and become only  history .
And then the clincher a call from observers at the loos it was just south of the Yellow Buoy , you could here the elated shouts in the background , I hurriedly moved to  scan and there as it sheared up I saw my first Feas  everyone got onto it with ease suddenly the silence ended   and you could feel the tension lift  as the bird seemed to sheer slowly up and down as it crossed our view point , I had expected it to be flying lower more like the passing Manx , meaning it  could have got hidden from view in the swell ,  I resisted the temptation to try and get a shot , I will leave that to the next one . What a fantastic bird , by far the best bird sighting I have seen in Northumberland .

Done a couple of  sessions this week
The 23rd saw about 350 Barnacle South  early eve
24th    76 Little Gull ,2 L T skua and a Juv Sabines from St Mary's  then continued from the Sluice
24th     174 little Gulls (one group of 52)  and the juv Sabines
spent an hour or two at Gosforth Park  and had a Bittern & 60 returned to the Sluice where Little Gull passage had ended for the day with only 3 picked up heading North

In search of JR.......again

Juvenile Med Gull AAJR


Had a quick look at Newbiggin the other week in the vain hope I could find JR, this was a Juvenile Mediterranean Gull Colour ringed AAJR  found at St Mary's Island way back in 2006(one of two ringed) I did catch up with at Newbiggin details in the above link , now it will be coming up to 8 years old so may not be around , I would be very interested if anyone has seen this bird .
I tried a vain search of my own blog to find the year I first saw the bird with no luck so good old GOOGLE came up with it in an instant when I put the search" Juvenile Mediterranean Gull colour ringed St Mary's Island July"
and in a nano second top of the list was the above post   !!!

Blyth to St Mary's

Another cycle ride last week I started off at Blyth Harbour (a Woodcock in off the sea ),a report of 3 Snow Buntings along the road in , no sign for me but when I got to the pier and looked along the beach a flock of birds lifted from the shore and headed to the dunes going back along I re- located them in the dunes before they headed back out onto the sands, not seen Snow Buntings this far down the shore usually they stay on the tideline I was sure there was a Shorelark in with them in the dunes but no sign when they where on the beach where I counted 19 , seems to have been a bit of an influx with numerous reports of un specified numbers . Stopped along the Links road the fields are attracting a large flock of Golden Plover , Starlings and Corvids with a small flock of Linnets and hopefully some Twite, single Dunlin and 4 Snipe in the mud. Continued on to St Mary's and down past the wetland a group of birders on site so nothing to see there again no sign of any Med  Gulls  so a peddle back along the coast  Golden Plover settled back in the field they will surely bring in a Peregrine over the Winter.

edit : in the early afternoon I had the bright idea to get my kayak and paddle along to see if I could get the Snow Buntings on my list alas too many dog walkers by now and no sign of them ,nor Sunday either

 Snow Buntings heading for the dunes

 And down on the shore

 I can only assume they are gritting

 Although here they look as if they are feeding

 They where not too approachable , I usually find the smaller the number the more settled they seem

 Stonrchat beside the farm and I notice its got a BTO ring I think it was 2011 I also had  a ringed bird here ,for that one I went back with the scope to try and get the ring number but it was not seen again , I will give this one a try

 Snipe soaking up the suns ray's

 Golden Plover,Lapwings, & Starlings take to the air

 Single Dunlin also present

 Looking over the harbour at Seaton Sluice for Kingfisher I noticed this on the pipe , what the hell is that I thought

 Zoomed in to reveal this, someone has gone to a bit of effort to make and hang this ?

 Looked over one of the screens at the wetland to see these a guy turns up with bins asking is it a rarity of some importance , no I said I think they are looking for the outflow , well I hope that's what's going on or I am party to suppression and I have no idea as to what !!!!!

Golden Plover settled back in the field which will no doubt also attract some Geese over the Winter