{"id":656,"date":"2010-08-16T14:32:51","date_gmt":"2010-08-16T14:32:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/?p=656"},"modified":"2012-02-15T19:49:30","modified_gmt":"2012-02-15T19:49:30","slug":"when-the-north-wind-blows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/birdwatching\/when-the-north-wind-blows","title":{"rendered":"When the north wind blows"},"content":{"rendered":"

We had a couple of disappointments at the end of last week, both due to the weather.\u00a0 First we had to\u00a0postpone our Farne Deeps Pelagic and then I was booked on a trip to the Dogger Bank, which also fell victim to the strong northerlies.\u00a0 Both trips have been rescheduled though so, fingers crossed, they will happen eventually.\u00a0 We’ve got a few places available for the Farne Deeps<\/a> on September 3rd, although most of our original participants quickly arranged days off work when I gave them the new date, so call us on 01670 827465 to reserve your place on this groundbreaking trip.<\/p>\n

With Friday morning clear in my diary I managed a\u00a0spot of\u00a0seawatching<\/a>; that most esoteric form of birdwatching.\u00a0 Then we had a couple of nights in Whitby, followed by a visit to Chesterfield for a Christening, and then home again late last night.\u00a0 While we were away there was a missed call on my mobile; Alan Tilmouth wondering if we’d be interested in a trip across to the Longstone if Saturday’s Thrush Nightingale<\/em><\/strong> had remained there overnight.\u00a0 As it was it hadn’t, and we were away anyway.\u00a0 Then, last night came the news of a Booted\/Sykes’s Warbler<\/em><\/strong> at Hadston Links.\u00a0 With a frantic two weeks ahead of us, I had to work hard to convince myself that I had the time to go and see the bird \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

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Booted\/Sykes's Warbler, Hadston Links, Northumberland 16\/08\/2010<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

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Booted\/Sykes's Warbler, Hadston Links, Northumberland 16\/08\/2010<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Now these two species\u00a0are a tricky pair to separate and, despite information put out by various bird information services earlier today, I know that the ID isn’t considered to be cut and dried.\u00a0 For what it’s worth, I’ll stick my neck out and say that, on balance, I’m leaning towards Booted Warbler<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 The real problem though is that in some images it looks very much like a Booted Warbler<\/em><\/strong>, in some it\u00a0looks like\u00a0Sykes’s<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 In real life it was just as perplexing, apparently morphing from one to the other.\u00a0 Is it a Booted Warbler<\/em><\/strong>, fluffing itself up against the cold (the opinion I expressed to another local blogger after I saw the bird this morning), or a Sykes’s Warbler<\/em><\/strong> that occasionally looks sleeker than expected?<\/p>\n

Another remarkable warbler earned\u00a0a local birder, and occasional Northern Experience Pelagic<\/a> participant, a major honour this month.\u00a0 Dougie Holden, the finder of the Trow Quarry Eastern Crowned Warbler<\/em><\/strong>, won the Carl Zeiss Award, which is presented for the photograph or set of photographs considered to have been the most instructive during BBRC’s assessment of rarities over the previous year.<\/p>\n

As if all these rare warblers weren’t enough to be going on with, I went into the kitchen this morning only to find Sarah staring intently through her binoculars.\u00a0 Wood Warbler<\/em><\/strong> is an extraordinary bird for a southeast Northumberland garden, but there it was.\u00a0 Neither of us had that down as the next addition to the garden list but, as with most of the really good birds on our list, it’s no surprise that Sarah found it \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We had a couple of disappointments at the end of last week, both due to the weather.\u00a0 First we had to\u00a0postpone our Farne Deeps Pelagic and then I was booked on a trip to the Dogger Bank, which also fell victim to the strong northerlies.\u00a0 Both trips have been rescheduled though so, fingers crossed, they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5],"tags":[823,352,348,353,354,347,349,825,328,322,351,350,355,260],"class_list":["post-656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birdwatching","category-northumberland","tag-birdwatching","tag-booted-warbler","tag-dogger-bank","tag-dougie-holden","tag-eastern-crowned-warbler","tag-farne-deeps","tag-longstone","tag-northumberland","tag-pelagic","tag-seawatching","tag-sykess-warbler","tag-thrush-nightingale","tag-trow-quarry","tag-wood-warbler"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=656"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":663,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656\/revisions\/663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}