Our Lindisfarne Safari yesterday started with very promising weather; arriving at our Church Point rendezvous the cloud was starting to break and this was combined with spectacular waves rolling into Newbiggin Bay and crashing against the breakwaters. As we travelled up the coast things started to look bleaker – a flat, dull, overcast layer of cloud settled in and, by the time we reached the Holy Island causeway, the first drops of rain started to fall. We had found a large flock of birds along a hedgerow on the way; 50 or 60 Tree Sparrows and a good handful of Yellowhammers and Reed Buntings. If there’s anyone left who still thinks that the birds we have in Britain are dull then they should have been with us yesterday and seen a Tree Sparrow sitting alongside males of the other two species.
Scanning the mudflats at the causeway there was an obvious lack of birds. Curlew, Redshank and Bar-tailed Godwit did eventually wander by but it was clear that local knowledge was really going to come into play if we were to find the flocks of waders and wildfowl that the Lindisfarne NNR is famous for. Second location and a few more birds…then, third time lucky as 100’s and 100’s of Knot probed their way across the mud in front of us, godwits, plovers, Dunlin and hordes of Wigeon and Pale-bellied brent Goose were soon spotted and we all mused on just how hard life must be for these birds.
It was time to have a look at that crashing sea and, after adding Purple Sandpiper and Sanderling to the day list, we enjoyed excellent views of Common and Velvet Scoter, Long-tailed Duck, Eider and Slavonian Grebe.
The day had one last surprise for us as well; a Barn Owl that flew across in front of the Landrover in Lesbury village before weaving its way up somebody’s driveway and between the houses. Syd was almost speechless as he hadn’t seen one in the wild for nearly 20 years. There really couldn’t have been a better ending to the day.