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Feeding time
Birdwatching is the one hobby that has persisted throughout most of my life. As a small child I think that even my own parents didn’t understand my string of obsessions; astronomy, fungi, mosses and liverworts (as a 5 year-old! what was I thinking of?), butterflies and birds, all the way through to my current crop of interests (a much healthier word than obsession, don’t you think?); cetaceans, moths, bonsai, haiku, photography, lichens, natural history in general and, of course, birdwatching. Northumberland is where I live and (mainly) where I work, birdwatching in all of my ‘spare’ time (and most of my work time as well), and the area allows me to indulge all of these passions, and more.
Within my birdwatching one thing has remained constant as well. As a young child I was obsessed with taking long cycle rides to find new areas to explore, but one of the real delights was watching the feeding station in our garden. Now I’m older and I have a, some might say unhealthy, obsession with seawatching and raptors. Those two activities have taught me the value of patience (and the equally important value of thermal underwear…) and they get me out of the house and to some wild and remote places. But, as entrancing as when I was only just tall enough to peer over the windowsill of our dining room, the feeding station is still a source of great pleasure. Yesterday I decided to try and count the Coal Tits that were visiting the feeders. I lost count round about the 15 mark. They were like a swarm around the apple tree, each one trying to displace another who had gained a space on one of the precious perches, allowing access to the food. There’s something in the seed mix that they don’t like though, and they often seem to concentrate on removing that from the feeder and throwing it to the ground. With half a dozen Great Tits, a few Chaffinches and four Bullfinches joining in we’re having to replenish supplies on a daily basis. What’s it going to be like once we get some real winter weather?
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A Golden Glow
Yesterday was a long birdwatching day on the southeast Northumberland coast. I drove across to Haltwhistle to collect Judith and Doug, and was impressed by the big flocks of Redwing and Fieldfare around their farm. Once on the coast we found a flock of Dark-bellied Brent Geese bathing in a pond newly-created by Sunday’s rain, watched a swarm of Goldfinches and Twite flying around the dunes and then enjoyed groups of Wigeon, Teal and Mallard as they drifted about on the pond. We were just about to move on when I noticed the Cormorants getting agitated and they all quickly departed. “Let’s give this another minute or two” was the right strategy as two otters appeared in the centre of the pool. One eventually swam by just a few metres from where we were sitting, allowing everyone to take in the graceful, sinuous twisting and turning as they hunted for fish.
Next was a journey along a stretch of the River Coquet. More Cormorants were busy decimating the fish population and one suddenly panicked and bolted across the river. There was a swirling pattern on the water, and something beneath the surface was leaving a very noticeable swim-line. Then it surfaced; a Grey Seal, away from it’s usual open water habitat. All the while this was happening we were all entranced by a young Peregrine as it persistently dived towards a bush full of Rooks. Every time it flushed them it separated one off from the flock and chased it, although never making a serious attempt to terminate the chase with a kill. Eventually it departed and the corvids settled into the riverside bushes, free from molestation.
Our final site for the day would, hopefully, produce some interesting birds going to roost. A family party of Whooper Swans flew in and a small group of Pintail were amongst all of the other wildfowl. Starlings arrived in big groups and swirled around overhead. Two Long-eared Owls were a real bonus; sitting on fence posts and staring straight at us with those piercing orange eyes. The grasses and the reeds around the edge of the pond were all lit by a sublime golden pink/orange glow and the moonrise above the dunes was simply stunning as a skein of Pink-footed Geese flew south.
Finally, I returned two very happy clients to Haltwhistle, where the monnlit night was filled with the calls of Redwing – a sound that epitomises the autumn.
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Out with a bang
We finished October with four events in three days. Thursday was our last Seal Safari for the regular season, although we’ve got exclusive trips on November 21st and December 5th (give us a call, places are filling quickly). The seals performed as well as they always do (one pair performing a bit too well…) but the fantastic finale to the day was a Peregrine hunting waders and wildfowl over the mudflats as the tide fell.
Then came a Druridge Bay mini-safari on Friday morning featuring a cast of several ducks, with many of the males now nearly out of eclipse plumage and into their breeding finery. As soon as I’d dropped Ann and Charles back at Newbiggin, I was on my way to Choppington Woods to supervise the bat box making that was part of a SENSE/FOCW Halloween event in the reserve. Do you realise how much faith you need in order to hold the back and sides of a bat box together…while a four year-old with a cheeky grin is braying the nails with a hammer that’s almost too heavy for her to lift? After a couple of near misses I returned home, with all digits intact, once it was dark. The South East Northumberland Sustainable Environment project has allowed the Friends of Choppington Woods to increase the number of events that we hold in the woods, and the ‘Wansbeck. You Decide’ funding is improving access dramatically.
Our final October event was a Halloween wildlife walk at Bamburgh. After a brief introduction to the wildlife that is active at dusk, we set off through Mortuary Woods. With myself and Sarah providing information about the wildlife, helped by the songs of Robins and calls of Blackbirds, Song Thrushes and Redwings, and Chris Calvert describing the history of the area around the castle, it was a great way to spend a moonlit evening. As we entered the castle grounds, heading towards the pumpkin soup and fresh bread that awaited us, Chris regaled the group with ghost stories about Bamburgh Castle. Then the bats appeared, flitting eeriely through the air in front of us they concluded the month by enchanting the whole group, as fireworks sparkled in the air between the castle and Seahouses.
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Quality hour
As I’m sure I’ve mentioned before, myself and Sarah have differing views about the best time of the day. Sarah’s favourite time is dawn, mine is the hour leading up to dusk.
On safari in Druridge Bay today, we’d had a really good day out. Having a client with tonsilitis meant that I had to do the majority of the talking throughout the day. Anyone who knows me will appreciate how difficult I found that 🙂 WIth a good selection of waders and wildfowl at every site we visited, there was something to see all of the time. Eventually my favourite hour arrived. Skeins of Greylag Geese flew in to join the Wigeon, Teal, Mallard and Gadwall that were already on the water, Golden Plover and Lapwing were calling excitedly amongst themselves and the Starlings were massing. Small flocks coalesced into larger flocks and the birds swirled in a dark writhing mass before plummeting into the reedbeds. By the time it was nearly dark, and the birds had stopped coming in, we’d counted nearly 10000 birds going to roost. It would have been spectacular in itself, but the backdrop to the birds sprinkled across the sky was a stunning Northumberland sunset. Fading from yellow to orange to pink, and with steel grey clouds providing a stark contrast, it was proof, if proof be needed, that birdwatching is never just about watching birds.
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Rooks and castles
After the excitement of finding a Sabine’s Gull yesterday, today was spent mainly at Alnwick Castle. After a private tour of the castle and grounds, and an excellent lunch, I headed back home to deal with all of today’s enquiries. As I drove down the A1, there were quite a few fields with large flocks of Rooks and Jackdaws. I’ve blogged about my love of corvid roosts previously, but they really are something special. Whether you’re watching the scattered lines of eerie black shapes as the birds return from their feeding areas, marvelling at a field full of silent birds (the pre-roost is truly extraordinary) or gazing at a mass of birds descending into the roost, it’s one of the great avian spectacles. Why not set yourself the task of finding a local roost and then try to observe all of the associated behaviour? You won’t regret it.
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Monday, monday
The one day of the week when we try to avoid leading tours. That gives me time to get up-to-date with all my office stuff, do any housework that needs doing and focus on any other business matters that may be about to arise.
Today I had our Landrover in the garage, getting an annoying whine from the idler pulley sorted out, That fixed, I was able to concentrate on office work; sending e-mails, making ‘phone calls and looking at our tour itinerary for 2010…and putting the fine detail to the plans for a group visit that we’re leading in May 2011. Domestic duties included hanging the washing on the line and that was when I noticed something very interesting; the flight calls of Skylarks. It took a few seconds to locate them but there they were, high overhead and flying south. At least 20 passed over in 2 minutes. Visible migration right over our garden. Now, can I justify sitting on the patio, beer in hand, for the rest of the day…all in the name of research?
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Stars and Stripes
It’s not often that we get to do a lot of birdwatching together but yesterday was an exception.
The late-breaking news on Thursday night about the Eastern Crowned Warbler in Trow Quarry, South Shields, was exciting but we couldn’t be sure when (or if) we would have a chance to go and see the biggest avian star of this autumn (at least the biggest so far…). The stumbling block was a hospital appointment at 08:50 on Friday. We could have gone into the deep south for dawn, and then travelled to the hospital after that, but we decided to wait and go once our other commitments were dealt with. Thankfully, the surgeon made a very quick decision (perhaps she knew how twitchy I was getting?) and we were free to join the crowds overlooking the trees in Trow Quarry. The bird appeared soon after we arrived and what a stunning bird it was. With a Yellow-browed Warbler for company, the differences between the two closely-related species were very obvious. As the crowd swelled, we departed…back into Northumberland and to Holy Island in search of more rare warblers. After the drive up the A1 we crossed the causeway, checked the bushes behind the car park for the Radde’s Warbler that had been there on Thursday (no luck though), then along the Crooked Lonnen for a Barred Warbler that had been seen yesterday morning (no luck there either, although one birder did his best…by misidentifying three consecutive Redwings!). A walk through the dune slack on the Snook revealed Alan Gilbertson, who had seen a Pallas’s Warbler a few minutes earlier. We settled into a gap in the dunes between two sets of trees, and I began to arrange my tripod and camera. Just at the point when the tripod head separated into it’s component parts, like a Manfrotto Meccano set, Sarah followed some movement in the tree behind my head and calmly announced “there it is”. Less than 20ft away and I was unable to get my camera on it. Never mind, we lifted our binoculars and took in the beauty of the ‘seven-striped sprite’. The ECW may have been the rarest bird we’ve seen this year, but there are very few birds that can rival Pallas’s Warbler in appearance.
This morning the forecast rain hadn’t arrived so we set out early, grabbing a bacon butty for sustenance, and headed to Druridge Bay. Checking a flock of tits and ‘crests, in the cold, wind and light drizzle, revealed the prize we were searching for; a Firecrest, one of those few birds that really can rival Pallas’s Warbler.
So, two days out birding together, a good haul of cracking birds…and a few thoughts for future blog topics have taken root in my mind as well.
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The Big One
It had to happen; after the promising weather of the last couple of days, there must surely be a mega rarity somewhere in NorthEast England. I spent yesterday on two tours. First, Druridge Bay where there were a lot of Goldcrests (contrasting with the species almost complete absence from the coast in recent weeks), Robins and Blackbirds. Clearly there had been a ‘fall’ of sorts; as the day wore on messages came through from Holy Island – Barred, Pallas’, Yellow-browed and Raddes Warblers had all arrived on the island. An exceptional day for warblers…but, for a couple of lucky photographers in South Shields, and a sharp-eyed internet surfer, it was about to get a whole lot better.
Imagine the scenario – you see a bird that you identify as a Chiffchaff, the photographer with you re-identifies it as a Yellow-browed Warbler and gets an excellent shot of the bird. He goes home and posts the images of his day on the internet. Then, and the following is an example of a growing trend, another birder looks at the image…and re-identifies the bird as an Eastern Crowned Warbler – a first for Britain and Ireland!! When the pager stated to mega-alert at 10pm last night I read the message in stunned silence and then suggested to Sarah a scenario similar to the one above, as an explanation for the late hour of the news. It’s a bird that wouldn’t be ‘on the radar’ of a huge number of birders (although it has been a topic of discussion on some cold days out on Church Point). Congratulations to Derek, Dougie Holden and Mark Newsome for a team effort that is going to have a lot of birders flocking (there’s a cliche that the press are going to be trotting out again shortly) to Trow Quarry.
With a hospital appointment early this morning, I won’t be with the crowd. Maybe later in the day? or, if the bird has departed, it’s encouragement to all birders to get out onto the coast and see what else the winds from the east have brought us.
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Great expectations
After two days of southeasterly winds and dismal, drizzly ‘grot’ the prospects for something special turning up today look good.
I spent yesterday in a series of meetings; first as Chair of Governors at our local First School, then a lunchtime networking event as Chair of the South East Northumberland Tourism Association and finally a meeting with Northumberland Tourism about the 2010 Outdoor Activities campaign. Through all of these meetings I could see the rain steadily flowing down the window panes, understanding what this could mean for local birders once the rain stops, bushes dripping with migrants and maybe the odd scarce or rare that that will set birders pulses racing. For the birds themselves it can’t be much fun; for every bird that struggles through the weather and makes landfall, hopefully surviving until the rain clears and it can feed before continuing it’s journey, how many fail to reach our shores, perishing in the brutal cold and swell of the North Sea?
A few birders were out though; as I drove from Newbiggin to Longhirst a car behind me was flashing it’s headlights. Who’s this clown? I thought, but I stopped anyway. It was none other than AT, fresh from a good soaking on Newbiggin Golf Course where he’d found a Firecrest and a Lapland Bunting. Both good birds, but what’s going to be there today as the day dawns and the cessation of poor weather brings those grounded migrants out into the open?
