After four years of guiding visiting birdwatchers around some of the stunning habitat that we have in Northumberland, one thing we’ve learned above all else is that hardly any two people hear, or see, things the same as each other.
As I drove to Rothbury, to collect Bill, Kate, Gerry and Ieva, I was wondering what the day would bring. I knew what the weather would be like; clear blue skies, glorious sunshine, maybe a cool breeze on the coast. What had me gripped though, was what a group of clients from the US would find most entrancing about Northumberland’s wildlife.
As the day progressed I found myself seeing and hearing some of our regular species as if for the first time. With clients who were already familiar with some of our birds, but unfamiliar with others, we paid an incredible deal of attention to Tree Sparrows, Little Grebes, Shovelers, Shelducks and the other birds that we see on most, if not all, of our Druridge Bay trips. As each new species was observed, a field guide was produced to check relevant ID features (always a good approach if dealing with an unfamiliar bird). A Willow Warbler perched obligingly in full view just a few metres away, singing his descending silvery cadence, two Reed Warblers delivered their metronomic chuntering from adjacent reedbeds, Avocets dozed in the bright, warm sunshine, strings of Gannets flew northwards into the stiffening headwind, Puffins swirled around Coquet Island, Eiders bobbed about on the swell and a Turnstone, respendently white-headed on it’s northward journey to the breeding grounds, played Sanderling-like with the onrushing tide. As Kate demonstrated some excellent field ability, picking out a distant Roseate Tern, a Stonechat grabbed our attention. Starkly black and white, with a rich orange breast, as he flitted away from us along the fenceline he flashed a white rump and big white wingbars. Almost certainly a Siberian Stonechat, he evaded all of Ieva’s attempts to photograph his striking rump and then vanished across the fields in pursuit of a Meadow Pipit.
Bird of the day? I’ll leave that one to Bill “For me, it has to be Sedge Warbler“