…the sea’s starting to thaw.
It was our pleasure today to take award-winning photojournalist Lee Karen Stow on a tour of the north Northumberland coast. It really was so cold that along the Holy Island causeway there were extraordinary ice formations where the incoming tide had frozen. Patches of snow amongst the Spartina were an unexpected sight as well. As the tide approached, the wading birds were all frantically feeding and allowed a very close approach. Pale-bellied Brent Geese moved along the shoreline in rippling waves and Wigeon, Teal, Red-breasted Merganser and Pintail were all part of the wildfowl throng. Common and Velvet Scoters were alongside Slavonian Grebe and Common Eider on the sea, and Oystercatchers, Grey Plovers, Turnstones and Purple Sandpipers were gathering on the rocks as the tide lapped up. After a warming lunch of soup and a sandwich we headed south, looking for flocks of birds, gathering together for the night. Pink-footed Geese and Whooper Swans were feeding in roadside fields and a mixed flock of Whooper and Mute Swans made a precarious landing on the frozen pool at East Chevington. Further south, at Cresswell, waders flocked together in the middle of the frozen pond and ducks hid amongst the reeds. A mass of Wood Pigeons swirled overhead, and as we headed north again towards Alnwick a corvid roost of Jackdaws and Rooks was gathering. Amazingly, as the birds assemble in a pre-roost on the ground, all is silent, but as they move off towards their night time tree-top roosts they chatter loudly, no doubt informing each other of the day’s adventures. As night drew in we all thought of warming mugs of tea and coffee, warm slippers and a good night’s sleep.