One in one out

I was out early with SH this morning who was heading for Fenham flats and Stag Rocks.
On the way up the fog was quite thick but at the coast the sun had burnt the worst of it away and visibility was ok.
At Fenham there were 28 Whooper Swans in the fields right of the hide and Brent Geese and Wigeon were on the water. In total 112 Pintail flew past the hide.

Before going to Stag we stopped at Budle Bay as the tide was out. 2 Shovoler were the only suprising duck swimming in the channel.
Plenty of Grey Plover and Barwits were feeding on the mud and there were 4 Roe Deer in the field behind the lay by, one of which was feeding from a pheasant feeder!
The huge Lapwing flock which is in the bay took to the air as they were attacked from a Merlin and a Peregrine!
I missed the Merlin because I was watching the Peregrine catch one of the Lapwing. It wrestled with it in mid air before somehow the Lapwing managed to escape.
The Peregrine took another few lazy swipes at it before heading off away from the bay.
Steve thought that it was a Juvenile and probably not an accomplished hunter and this is why it didn't finish the Lapwing off.

From Stag Rocks we could see a huge flock of 400+ Common Scoter on the sea with a few Guillemots and Razorbill around them.
Amongst the flock was a dusky looking Red Necked Grebe - Lifer, which dived for long periods of time before we could get good views.
Also 10 Red Throated Divers, 10 Long Tailed Duck, 4 Red Breasted Merganser and 6 Slavonian Grebes were on the sea.
18 Purple Sandpipers were on the rocks and Fulmar pairs were resting on the castle walls.

Instead of heading south straight away we stopped at Newton Pool, somewhere I hadn't been before.
On the way to the hide there were 5 Dark Bellied Brents in a flooded field. Nothing much was on the pool but we did get close up views of Goldeneye and Gadwall.

Out next stop was Hemscott Hill links were 22 Twite were on the wire next to the cow field.
We scanned through the large number of geese which were in the fields around Bell's Pond.
Canada and 8 Barnacle Geese were next to the pond whilst Greylags and 500+ Pink Footed Geese were scattered around the other fields. Eventually Steve picked out the Bean Goose which had more characteristics of the Tundra race.

We stopped quickly at Woodhorn flash south pool were 4 Greenland White fronted Geese were between the pool and the railway line.

Last stop was West Hartford were we tried to flush out a Jack Snipe but only managed 22 Common instead. 2 Short Eared Owls - Patch Tick, were flying around the field next to the new fire station and along with a few other patch ticks, two Goldcrest were in the trees opposite the fire station.

44- Short Eared Owl

45 - Meadow Pipit

46 - Pied Wagtail

47 - Goldcrest

48 - Lapwing

Also I have decided to remove the Hooded Merganser I saw at Saltholme in the summer from my life list after I found out about the reputation of Scaling Dam Reservoir, ( the site it was found at) and the fact that a male has now turned up at Saltholme.
This evidence put the females origins in serious doubt and I want a clean list.

Two Black: One Lifer, One County Tick

Back at home this weekend, something which is becoming more regular.
I went up north early yesterday with S.H with Stag Rocks our intended destination. We had a quick and optimistic check of Hulne Park for Hawfinch on the way up but we were soon told to leave as a hunt was taking place at the park.

Before going to Stag we checked Budle Bay where the tide was out. A flock of Pink Footed Geese flew over but no Snow Goose amongst them or in the bay but plenty of Barnacle Geese. A single Goldeneye was swimming in the channel and Dunlin and Golden Plover were amongst the groups of Lapwing.

We checked the sea at Stag Rocks from the lower car park first. 30+ Purple Sandpipers were on the beach 13 Shag were on the rocks. A pair of Slavonian Grebes were very close in and gave excellent views as they dived together.

Although we were seeing some good stuff there was no sign of the Black Guillemot as we scanned every bird on the water between the shore and the Farnes. Bob Dack , also in search of the BG soon arrived and it wasn’t long until Steve found the Guillemot almost as close in as the Slavs.
It was an almost white first winter bird which preened itself and flapped its wings before fishing in front of us. It was so near that we went onto the beach so that Steve could get some record shots. The Purple Sands were also nearly at touching distance as we moved across the rocks. The Black Guillemot was soon joined by the two Slave grebes which made for an impressive sight. I’m glad I got such views of a good county tick, it saves going on a November pelagic to the Farnes one year.

We then moved to the top of the bank next to the golf club and scanned the sea from there. 9 Red Throated Diver were on the sea along with a huge number of Cormorants. A line of 10 Long Tailed Duck were doing some nice synchronized diving but I was surprised to see no Scoter or any Gulls.

After looking in the area around the Red throats BD soon found a Black Throated Diver- Lifer, which I just saw in time as it dived and exposed its large white thigh patch. When it resurfaced it was joined by another Black throat and the pair dived along side each other. A Great Northern Diver was soon spotted near them and I could see the size difference and features between the three species of Diver.

Our luck ran out after leaving Stag Rocks as a check of Monks House Pool provided nothing and there were no Corn Buntings at East Fleetham, which was not surprising.
There was nothing of note at either Arcot or West Hartford but I did get my first look at a Sinensis Cormorant during a Cormorant count at Blyth Harbour.

A few Surprises

I went up north today with Steve Holliday, D McKeown and Grahame Bowman, Sorry if I got your name wrong Grahame.
We took a quick diversion to Newton Links car park on the way up to check for the ring ouzel.
We soon found it flying around the dunes near the Dung pile along with other thrushes.
It flew around the fence posts and then into a tree at Newton links farm.
Not a Lifer I was expecting to get until around April but still it got the day off to a good start.
On the way up we quickly checked East Fleetham for Corn Buntings, but there were only 9 Yellowhammer, 18 Skylark and 1 Tree Sparrow in amongst the House Sparrow flock.
Monks House Pool had 5 Whooper Swans and 2 Hares in the field behind.
Next we went to Stag Rocks where in about 45 minutes there were 30+ Eider, 30+ Common Scoter, 1 RB Merganser, 30 Purple Sandpiper, 1 Kittiwake, 5 Fulmar, 18 Long Tailed Duck, 5 Red Throated Diver, 21 Slavonian Grebe and my second lifer of the day, a Great Northern Diver.

We got the tide times wrong today so the tide was well in as we got to Budle Bay, but a quick stop at Warren Mill Produced a Dipper.
From Harper’s Heugh lay-by the 400+ Pale Bellied Brent Geese, 100+ Greylay Geese, 20 pink Footed Geese and 60+ Barnacle Geese were forced onto the fields from the rising tide.

It was a similar story at Fenham Flats where the tide had cleared everything away. 50 Pintail did fly west towards the causeway and we had a possible Little Egret near the causeway but it was too far away and hazy to confirm.

An unsuccessful Bittern twitch at Cresswell Pond was our next stop. 80% of the Pond was frozen and all the Wildfowl was pushed to the southwest corner. 4 Pintail, 3 Scaup, 3 RB Merganser, 6 Tufted Duck, 50+ Wigeon, 30+ Teal and 4 Moorhen were there. A Buzzard flew across the back of the pond near 27 Canada Geese and two Water Rail ran in front of the hide.

Half an hour at Blyth Harbour gave us good views of 2 Iceland Gull which looked different from the one I saw last week but were to distant for a decent photo.
The Harbour also had 34 Eider, 97 Cormorant, 13 Shag, 1 Rock Pipit and another surprise bird of the day, a Kingfisher which flew up the river, under the pier and around the harbour before landing on the railing near the Harbour Master’s office before flying out of sight.

After today my county year list is on a canny 104.