Saturday’s pelagic was an interesting trip, particularly as a strengthening southeasterly stared to ruffle the sea slightly…waking up on Sunday morning to a cloudy, misty gloom only reinforced my thoughts from the day before that there would be good birds to be found on the Northumberland coast.

Where to go? Tide times weren’t helpful for Holy Island so we headed to Low Newton…and an excellent lunch at The Ship. A wander down to Newton Pool produced a juvenile Marsh Harrier and, although the weather was deteriorating, I had a gut feeling about High Newton and the Long Nanny. Sure enough, we were only 50m from the car park when 2 agitated Linnets attracted our attention and there, skulking in some rank vegetation, was a juvenile Red-backed Shrike! A couple of ‘phone calls to spread the news and we continued our walk. Whinchat and at least four Wheatears suggested the possibility of even more migrants…then the heaven’s opened and, for the second time in two weeks, I discovered that one of my waterproof jackets isn’t anymore. Who cares? we found an excellent bird and can’t wait for the autumn to arrive properly.