Openings

Day 1 of 2016 was a humble affair, with a couple of mild pottering in the afternoon. Pottering 1 saw a quick visit to the delights of Killingworth and the smaller portion of the lake. Our quest was simple - the redhead Smew, which has remained teasingly close to Cramlington with residencies at both the private Shasun pool and over at Big Waters.

Ascot was not productive Asio-wise, but a number of common year list padders sufficed.

Pottering 2 was later in the afternoon, with a jaunt to West Hartford; fine views of hunting Barn Owl were obtained.


Day 2 has weather-wise been a torrid affair, the birding somewhat better though.

QEII Park at Washington provided great views of a 2nd Winter Iceland Gull. No camera other than the iPhone, so I tried my hand at "digi-binning" with moderate success...

Pity the BHG wasn't the main photographic objective, however a record shot of the Iceland I guess....

With the smell of success from the comfort of the car, destination two was to be a similar mission - Widdrington providing Great Northern Diver from the driving seat.

My arrival at East Chevington was made somewhat better with a Lesser Redpoll on the trackside. The North Pool still had the Slavonian Grebe along with some more usual suspects - including a nice party of Red-Breasted Merganser.

Heading up the road to Druridge Bay Country Park provided the biggest surprise of the trip - rolling down the bank to the water sport car park I noticed a bulky bird hunted on the grass next to the gravel path. Stopping, winding down the passenger window I raised my bins to be confronted by a stinking Pomarine Skua! Bizarre!

With the "success" of the Iceland Gull digi-binning I set my self up to grab a record shot - only to find the bird had lifted.... No sign anywhere despite a good look round the pool / car parks...

Druridge Pools did not provide any Water Pipit, but in compensation 1 drake Pintail and a scabby drake moulting Scaup were noted.

Cresswell appeared Dowitcher-less, but there was a chance it was handled up somewhere out of view. A few Snipe, 1 Water Rail and hods of Wigeon / Teal.

At Snab a half hearted sea watch in the wind, rain and depleting light did not provide much out of the ordinary - 1 Gannet, Kittiwake, Fulmar and a few Guillemot. Newbiggin didn't produce anything either - not even a Mediterranean Gull! Sea was spectacular though....

Final stop, River Blyth - few waders added to the day list and not much else.

Home Birds

Back in 1987 I rushed up to Cresswell Pond with my Dad to twitch our first Little Egret. Quite an uncommon bird then. 

Now? They winter in our housing estate...

3 this morning...

Prior to this I was watching unco-operative Bohemian Waxwing at Blyth - Nine birds this morning feeding at the back of a fenced off paddock of sorts.

Yesterday evening was spent at West Hartford, watching the day disappear into night. Two Cormorant and 50 Lapwing were about to be the highlight until a Barn Owl appeared, hunting the fields. Delightful.

Round the doors.

Potter on the bike this morning was productive:

Great Grey Shrike still distant at West Hartford. Plus Stonechat and 60 Lapwing over.

On the Horton Burn an incredible 4 Little Egret together on the middle (park) section, plus one of the group (or another) near the old fire station.

Also on the burn, six Mallard, 1 Teal, 1 Grey Wagtail, 1 Moorhen and an obliging Kingfisher.

Great Grey Day

A bonus upon return from a brief Dublin 24hrs trip, with a phone call from Phil: Great Grey Shrike at West Hartford.

Jolly good it was too, albeit very distant.

My 2nd in Cramlington.

Cramlington action...

Caught up with Barn Owl at West Hartford this week after many failed attempts over the last two...

A greenshank on Thursday was good too - WH looks good for waders.

Saturday morning was call about seeing stuff others had found earlier - so I take no credit for the first Cramlington record of Common Scoter at Arcot, Shoveler and  Dunlin at Northumberlandia...

"L"easter Sunday

With the moderate success of Saturday I headed out round the doors early again today. Noticeably cooler early on, and stops at both West Hartford and Arcot were devoid of any interest.

Up the coast, Druridge was apparently garganey-less though there were plenty of shoveler...

East Chevington eventually yielded the summer plumage black-necked grebe, one of three species available, with little and perhaps six great-crested too. An immature male marsh harrier drifted through, but hoped for sandwich tern etc were elsewhere.

Cresswell pitstop on the way home enabled two avocet to be added to the Northumberland year-list.

Reports of 2 common crane flying north got me back out at 1230, and an optimistic attempt to pick them up over West Hartford was soon kicked out of me, though the temperature had increased a bit.

Late afternoon provided another opportunity to confirm that there wasn't a great deal to see or hear at both West Hartford and Arcot, with highlights being 10+ sand martin, ever increasing numbers of willow warbler and the prospect of booze back at home this evening...

Wits and Wood

Earlish morning saunter to West Hartford to pick up the two early morning black-tailed godwit (looking very Icelandic) backed up with a pair of gadwall, Canada geese, mixed group of h and lbb gulls.

At Arcot two grasshopper warbler, willows and chiff, blackcap, sand Martin, swallow gave a summery feel, while both great spotted (2) and male green woodpecker vocal and visual. 

Big (r)egrets

Some numpties in the fields of West Hartford curtailed an evening visit, so Arcot seemed a good bet for sand Martin - and indeed it was, with perhaps 20 hawking the pond.

A few pochard (no ferruginous!) and tufted duck were joined by 2 Canada geese, which, to their merit, managed to flush a hidden GREAT WHITE EGRET from the south west corner. The egret flew up and landed in the dead trees frequented by the early 2000s osprey and proceeded to survey the surrounds for a mere 10 - 12 minutes, sufficient time for STH & GM to arrive before it flew off north west.

No camera, just the phone, and a flat battery - incredibly frustrating as I'd just manged to line the iPhone camera to the fence-mounted binoculars with the egret in frame as the battery died! The picture above was just the phone shakely held!

My 3rd time finding this grand egret species in Cramlington...

1 to 2

Despite a lack of blog updates since January, local birding has continued into the first week of February, with essentially local ventures to atypical places.

Waxwing made an appearance on the estate on 22nd - a single on the Horton Burn. Very scarce so far this winter, so  a good patch year tick

February has started with signs of Spring - skylark back at West Hartford, Linnets too. The marsh has at least one jack snipe and water rail, along with another winter 13/14 scarcity a day or two ago - short-eard owl. Reports of a bittern are interesting but so far no connection.

Today saw a loop round Seghill for the european white-fronted goose that Gordon found this morning - associating with a large flock of grey-lags, some of which were wearing neck collars, of which I took no note of any details. At the links south of Blyth I again scanned the large pink-footed goose flock, and today, like Sunday, it was bean-less...

European White-fronted Goose - pink toned bill, large white band on tail tip

The reality of dark winter afternoons

After the madness of the Seahouses Ivory Gull fest, it's been a week of nightshift for me. Birding has been restricted to a daylight journey home from work today - with a female Merlin near Northumberlandia (Cramlington year tick) and a cycle later as dusk fell - West Hartford producing c20 teal, c30 lapwing and a smattering of pre roost gulls - bh, h and c.

The Horton Burn was traversed east to west on the way back and prove to be worthwhile with my first kingfisher of the winter near the middle bridge. 

Dusk

A mid afternoon vigil at West Hartford did not produce anything out of the ordinary, with a single stonechat being the highlight. Thrushes were represented by redwing, fieldfare and blackbird, while decent numbers of common, black-headed and herring gull frequented the hydrated flash. Most impressive were stock dove numbers with a couple of 10+ groups descending into the River Blyth bank side trees as darkness descended.

Owl-less tonight.

Great dull morning

Woke up with a bit of a cold developing this morning - sufficient excuse not to do any exercise (again), but not enough to prevent a potter birding.

The excitement began at home, with a garden rare - male chaffinch!

At Prestwick Carr the great grey shrike was distant, but appreciated for the 2013 year list - no camera other than the iPhone, so some practice record shots - the shrike was approximately 400 yards away, so I'm quite happy with the result:

The excitement didn't end there, with willow tit also at Prestwick Carr, and a call in to West Hartford produced my first ever little egret on the patch... happy days

Local chat

With the realisation that the coast would be chocca with charvas, I opted to cycle around Cramlingtons finer sights this afternoon - having missed the mornings marsh harrier at West Hartford it made sense to start there - no harrier nor sanderling / little stint, but compensation in the form of 4 whinchat and a single wheatear.

Onwards to Arcot and the belated addition of garganey to the bike list. Lots of teal, some mallard and a stack of coot too.

With the sun shingles it was then back home for ice cream. More later?

Booted off

News of the Booted Warbler at Hadston on Saturday came too late for me - experimenting with DIY had reached a point of no return...

Sunday commenced with another rapid response trip to West Hartford to collect the little stint that had dropped into say hello to the seemingly resident sanderling. Another great Cramlington year-tick.

Little Stint and Sanderling - an unlikely duo at West Hartford - picture through the scope...

With the biggy (smally?) in the bag, I headed up the coast - negative news already from Hadston, so I called into East Chevington for a decent couple of hours. The spotted crake resides, and at time has forays out into the open - chasing off snipe, redshank and teal while I was there.

A black tern dropped in and fed actively over the northern section of the north pool, while waders were complimented with spotted redshank and ruff.

Spot Shank - again through the scope

With the sun breaking through I headed to Hadston Carrs - no sign of the booted warbler, and a quick look to sea provided manx shearwater, gannet, arctic skua and hods of kittiwake.

Cresswell had greenshank, 2 spotted redshank, avocet and a ruff. Otherwise quiet.

Sprinter.

Tonight I RAN (yes, RAN) to see (twitch) a sanderling! Well done Gordon... A sanderling at West Hartford. 

Cramlington's first I think...

Good start

An early morning vista to West Hartford was not quite as expected - the flash looks great for waders yet there wasn't even an oystercatcher!

23 canada geese over and a single grey partridge appeared to be my lot until that few seconds of magic occurred...

A single female redstart (first at WH) on the sub station permitter fence. Bingo. Text sent to the other patchers... looked up and no further sign!

Maybe later?

Before and After

A lovely sunny day in the North-East, perfect for some household chores - a lawn to cut and a car to wash.

"Pre" all of that was spent at West Hartford, catching up with both Gordon and his previous evening find, a single ruff. Not had one at West Hartford for a few years, so good to see.

"Post" all of that was spent on the bike - heading down the coast on a journey that not only was in a head wind pretty much all the way, but also included a 100% puncture - no slowly decreasing tyre pressure, just straight to flat. Damn them hawthorn thorns!  The target of the journey was thankfully secured, with the intermittent singing marsh warbler at St Mary's Wetland. A good addition to the bike list.

On the cards

A decent couple of days bird wise, with Gordon's avocet collected late afternoon on Monday - West Hartford's third record, and second of 2013 - maybe a bird that will no longer be unexpected on the patch.

This afternoon after a brief visit to West Hartford I fell prey of the "twitch" urge and headed north for the cracking male red-backed shrike at East Chevington and then the not so great roosting spoonbill nearby at Hauxley.

On the cards? not exactly, although the camera travelled with me, the memory cards did not. So no pictures!

Pah!

How the mighty fall

Back in April 2004 West Hartford struck patch-gold, with a single Avocet on what was, the new flash.

Fast forward to 2013 and the lone record is something of a distant memory as West Hartford's apparently resident Liverbirder picks up not one but two.

A great patch record - and not the news that I wanted whilst in Newcastle procuring vinyl.

Three hours later and I'm there, somewhat short of breath as the cycle ride (had to take the bike for the list!) into the wind was an effort.

The 2 elegant waders spent their time in the middle / far side of the pool - so record shots with the mighty compact will suffice.

The cycle ride back home was easier, with the wind assisting the journey somewhat... stops at East Hartford produced 4 wheatear, and at the delightful place that is Boghouses, another - 5 is a good Cramlington total.

Picking up

Spring may have finally sprung, with Cramlington year-ticks accumulated this afternoon and evening:

Willow warbler in full orchestral song at West Hartford this afternoon - maybe 5+ singing, two sand martin and a belated addition of Jay too.

Later, to the East of West, three wheatear in the ploughed field behind the football pitch - Cramlington birders duly alerted, though PA had clearly left the mobile at home.

At Laverock, a minimum of 4 tree sparrow on the territory side of the patch and a few barn swallow too.

Chiffies abundant... it's finally starting to happen...