Viz Mig - it's just a hobby!

Firstly, apologies for the lack of blog updates. There just aren't enough hours in the day and when it is still light in the evenings I would rather be out birding than sorting photos or writing blog posts, especially as most of my time these days is spent in front of the computer in my office.

Since my last post we had a holiday to Wales - a week in the Llyn AONB with an excursion to Anglesey for the Elegant Tern at Cemlyn Bay and two new damselflies. All in all, a great trip!

Back to Druridge, I've managed a few visits before and after work and the patch year-list is now on 146, a couple of decent seawatches and a few early migrants, like Cuckoo and Green Sandpiper, have pushed it up in July.

Common Tern feeding offshore in 'Golden Hour' light in July

Barn Owl - un-ringed second year female

Back to the here and now, on Friday I took a day off work and spent the morning on the patch. I did a bit of viz-migging from the high dune, it was reasonably quiet but I did scope the Little Owl at the preceptory. I had a wander down to the hides with the macro camera to look for bugs and beasts, where, bizarrely,  I bumped into a chap from Oxford whom I'd met at Icklesham back in 2011, where I'd spent a week ringing with him as a trainee. As we were chatting a small falcon flew fast, over the bund, spooked by seeing us, it banked around over the Budge fields and headed off in the direction from which it had come - Hobby! An adult. My first on the patch since 2015.

I scrambled up the bank to look out over the big pool but I had gone. Shortly after I was sat in the little hide with a chap called Harry and we saw the same bird come back over the Budge fields before again heading our over the big pool. I think it must've been hunting hunting dragonflies. Both views were brief but the grey upperparts, lighter plain tail, paler underparts and heavily streaked under-carriage with reddish buff 'trousers' all visible, but it was it's jizz that made us all call hobby before detail as noted. 

Common Field Grasshopper - pink form

New for the patch - Denticulate Leatherbug (Coriomeris denticulatus)

Comma Butterfly - not common on the patch

Roe Buck headed south across the Budge Fields

Yesterday, on arriving at the patch, just before 8am, I saw a few Swifts overhead, Janet sent me a message to say she had seen Swifts moving over the marina in Amble. Another viz-mig session I thought... The wind was stronger from west, which is good for viz-mig at Druridge as birds are 'pinched-in' to the middle of the bay, but also tough-going so I chose a lower spot, rather than the big dune.

Swift passage continued and by 9am I'd counted 109 going south with strong passage of hirrundines, mostly House Martins. This continued until after 10 am when it seemed to ease, in total I counted 245 Swifts south in two and a half hours.

One of over 245 Swifts that went south

A Hobby, presumably yesterday's bird, soared high on two occasions, between Druridge and East Chev and over towards Low Chibburn before drifting south. Scope-views was I all I had, but they were prolonged as it soared on the thermals. Two Merlins and two Sparrowhawks came through as did a juvenile Marsh Harrier  - it was almost like being in Tarifa (maybe not). Green Sandpiper (with a Snipe), Little Egret, four Black-tailed Godwits and 17 Meadow Pipits went south.

One of two Sparrowhawks

And it was gone... one of two Merlins

I went looking for Harebell Bee in the dunes afterwards with no joy but did see some other interesting critters. 

Dune Robberfly (Philonicus albiceps)

Small Copper Butterfly in the Dunes

Hoverfly Scaeva pyrastri

Early warblers and a late skua

With a band of rain passing through overnight and a brisk south-easterly I thought that this morning had potential for a few migrant passerines to be dropped in and I was partially right. So an early-ish start was required and I was down on the patch just before the sun came over dunes. It started quietly, I checked the plantation and the bushes around the entrance and their was little life - three Swifts flew south, could they be the last of the year? There was a strong southerly movement of Barn Swallows too.

I wandered up the road and when the sun hit the bushes, things livened up. The sheltered spot by the path the path to the hides was alive with warbler, mostly Willow Warblers with the odd Chiffhcaff and Whitethroat. These weren't all local birds although some were as the adult feeding two freshly-fledged young proved.  A few of the Willow Warblers were attempting a song, as was a Chiffchaff or two, I fancy these are males of the year, testing out their singing abilities.

A moulting chiffchaff

Willow Warbler

male Goldfinch

I estimated 52 Willow and about 20 Chiffchaff and a few Whitethroat and Blackcap - no Sedge again though. A lot of warblers but no scarcities. A Grey Wagtail flew south, a scarce patch bird normally only seen on viz-mig in the autumn. On the Budge fields, there were two Ruff still and a handful of Dunlin and Redshank. These two Mute Swans made a splash-landing scattering the waders. 

Splash landing

I popped back to the patch this evening, the light was awful for the Budge fields so, as the wind had swung easterly again, I had a look on the sea. It was fairly quiet to sea until I picked up an Arctic Skua, way out, it came closer until it was just over the beach, harrying a group of Sandwich Terns and allowing a few pics.

Spot the odd-one-out

 

 

Despite a few folk being around there were 45 Sanderling and 18 Ringed Plover on the beach. 

Meadow Pipit has been fishin'

Meadow Pipits don't eat fish - right? yes this is right

Wrong.

I was out for a walk at Druridge this morning and by the bridge over the Dunbar Burn I snapped away at Meadow Pipit on a post. I noticed two things - the bird looked wet, I presumed from being in the wet grass and it was carrying a big bit of food. It wasn't until I got home and looked at the photos on the camera and zoomed in that I realised the food item was a small fish and the bird was very wet because it had been fishing, presumably in the shallow bit of the Dunbar Burn.

Meadow Pipit with a fish!

A look through BWP and HBW showed no mention of Meadow Pipits taking fish - their are a few records of them wading though water to take larvae and other aquatic invertebrates but not fish. I am only presuming that the bird went on to eat the fish of course. The fish looks like a Stickleback.

Here is a heavily cropped shot

This shot shows how wet the bird was

I feel a note to BB coming on...

Or maybe not - an update.

Stewart Sexton has re-identified the fish as a moth. A moth masquerading as a fish. It is now my life's mission to find a meadow pipit catching fish. 

Other than fish moth-eating Meadow Pipits other highlights from this morning included a good number of Swifts still,  decent southerly Sand Martin passage, a juvenile Whinchat (first for two years on the patch) and a lot of warblers. I presumed the warblers were mostly locally reared birds as some, like these Whitethroats and Willow Warblers were still being fed by adults but the number and reports from other birders suggest this might have been more of a broad-front movement.

One of about 20 swifts feeding over the bushes

Juvenile Whitethroat waiting for its next feed

Willow Warbler

male Linnet

The Budge fields are drying out quickly and the Avocet family have relocated to the northern side of the fields to find water and the mud held only a flock of Dunlin.

Visits at the weekend were confined to early morning or late evening to avoid the crowds. On Sunday morning, Swallow passage was evident with about 60 birds south in 40 minutes. A Wood Sandpiper and juvenile Ruff were noteworthy on the Budge fields. A bird club trip led by Tim Dean were loitering in the dunes.

Eye-spy

On Saturday evening, I had been trying to pin down the tails of a colour-ringed Common Gull in the roost without success, the light was going when I made my way back over the dunes to see a flock of least 20 Little Egrets coming into roost in the Willows at the western end of the big pool. It was like being in La Janda in southern Spain apart from I wearing a thick coat and was still cold!

Return of the blog

After much consideration and even a debate on Twitter I have decided to start blogging on here again. I got out of the habit, became lazy and relied on social media which was quick and instant. I realised that I, even if nobody reads this,  I enjoy writing it and more importantly enjoy looking back at it.

So here goes...let's see how long it lasts.

Unbelievably, it's nearly the end of June, the longest day has been and gone and the nights will start to cut in soon. I've not been out birding much recently with big DIY projects, the garden and a work trip to Latvia.

Today, I decided to put some nets up. With Janet away on the Farne Islands and no trainees, it was just me, so I only had three nets up. It's always quiet at this time of year, but I had high hopes of juvenile warblers.

I was all set up by 05.30 and was soon catching birds. The most exciting bird, for me, was reed warbler - nothing unusual there? But, this was a 'control'  - meaning it had been ringed by someone other than us. We don't get many 'controls' so they're always interesting. The last controlled reed warbler we had came from Suffolk.

The controlled reed warbler

A male cuckoo was cuckooing all morning (a very rare occurrence at Druridge these days), at one point it was sat in the tree at the end of my net - never managed to catch it unfortunately.

Between checking the nets, I tried photographing swifts  -not easy, this is the best I got.

Swift 

I was also playing around with the iPhone. When I was in Riga, one of my hosts was showing the SloMo video thing on iPhone - he was getting some great results so I've been playing around with it.

This Scorpion fly was the best I got.

Here is a still

Scorpion fly Panorpa communi

I caught 17 new birds in total which isn't bad for June. Only one juvenile warbler - a chiffchaff, but I did get adult blackcaps and sedge warblers.

I also had a look at some plants and butterflies - there were lots of speckled woods, on the wing, with a couple of ringlets and skippers.

Ribwort Plantain Plantago lanceolata

Bloody Cranesbill Geranium sanguineum

Common Spotted Orchid - Dactylorhiza fuchsii

Well, there we go. Hopefully the first of many more blog posts from Druridge.

Blackcap - To Biarritz...and back!

I've got some really interesting news of a returning blackcap, but first a round-up of the weekend on the patch.

On Friday evening there, autumn wader passage was underway with a greenshank and ruff on the Budge fields, an avocet and a single black-tailed godwit were also present and an adult little egret was feeding.

Adult little egret feeding on Budge fields

A grasshopper warbler was 'reeling' from the umbellifers on the dune-back opposite the path to the Budge screen - it was still reeling today from 5am to midday!

Offshore, there were at least five roseate terns fishing, which isn't surprising given that there are over 100 pairs nesting on nearby Coquet Island. I also saw my first Arctic skua of the year, harrying the terns.

Red admiral

There are a lot more butterflies on the wing now that summer has arrived. Ringlet, small skipper, meadow brown, wall, red admiral, small tortoiseshell, speckled wood were all seen and,today, my first dark-green fritillaries of the year.

As it rained for much of yesterday morning, I put my patch-visit off until the evening. On the edge of the patch, between Bell's farm and the plantation, I stopped to watch some swift passage - a steady stream of these early migrants headed south. Whilst scanning them, a strikingly dark swallow flew past me. I watched it for while, it was male, but the underparts were much more chestnut/orange than any other barn swallow I've seen. It almost reminded me of the North American race, but it had a good, dark breast-band. It was certainly a striking bird, but I don't think it was anything other than a darker than average rustica.

A 'bog-standard' swallow taking a feather to line it's nest

On the Budge fields there were 28 black-tailed godwit and yesterdays ruff and a new ringed plover. A male marsh harrier flew in and started hunting over the Budge field, scattering some duck and lapwings.

male marsh harrier hunting over the Budge fields

Also of note were five large shoveler youngsters. I've seen this on previous years at Druridge, where a female shoveler will turn up late in the summer with well-grown young. I am not sure if these birds were capable of flight, but they were nearing adult size, so they probably were.

Today, I got up early and put some nets up to ring birds. I didn't catch much, I presume a lot of the warblers are sat tight on second broods. I caught 14 new birds, all but two of which were juveniles. I would have expected to have caught more young warblers (I caught two backcaps and a chiffchaff), I think the prolonged cold spring and erratic storms may have done for some first broods.

Between net-rounds I had a scan from the dunes and picked up a small falcon flying west. I automatically assumed it would be a kestrel, but when I put my bins on it I was surprised to see a fine adult hobby. It had a small bird of some species in its talons (maybe a sand martin, there were a lot of them), it continued west over the bushes and turned south with it's prey, maybe looking for somewhere suitable to deal with it?

So, to the story of the blackcap. I retrapped a female breeding blackcap today, which we ringed as a juvenile last year. This got me thinking about thinking about the blackcap that we ringed that ended up in France (read the story here http://ipinswildlifeblog.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/the-french-connection.html ) and whether it may have come back, so I checked our retraps for the year and it has!

Y540945 was ringed as a juvenile male on the 27th August by me and James Common, we caught it again on the 5th September. On 25th September it was caught by a ringer 1251km in Landes near Biarritz in France.

Looking at our retraps for this year I discovered that Y540945 has returned! I caught it on 9th June as breeding male. This is the first time we have ever had a long-distance migrant trapped elsewhere other than Druridge, return to our site. Isn't migration amazing!

130 greenshank
131 Arctic skua
132 hobby

Belated catch up from the weekend

I've been away, so here is a catch up from the weekend.

It was to windy to put any nets up for ringing at the weekend, but we did manage to ring a family party of four lapwing chicks on Friday evening. There were also at least 20 whimbrel on the fields.

I had a wander around the patch on Saturday afternoon, dodging the showers. There had obviously been an influx of swifts and most of the resident warblers were singing and a couple of yellow wagtails were noted.

On Sunday, it was still windy. There were a few wheatears about on the dunes and one or two were definitely of the greenland race. There is also a notable number of linnets around at Druridge this year, more than usual. Most of them aren't on territory yet, just roving about in a big flock. I had a walk up to the Preceptory, but found nothing unusual.

Tonight we ringed another four lapwing chicks, two from a brood of four (two evaded us) and another brood of two. There are still a a few birds sitting, so it is looking like a good year for lapwing on the Budge fields.

Lapwing chick

Most exciting tonight was a family party of shoveler, a pair and four tiny ducklings. Him and her were marching the tiny chicks across the fields to another pool. Shoveler breed most years at Druridge, one of the few places they breed in the County.

There was no sign of any spoonbill, garganey or wood sandpiper, all of which were reported today.

I've been down to Lincolnshire on a training course looking at the creation of coastal grazing marshes. I picked up some good ideas that I would like to see implemented at Druridge, time for a conversation with NWT!

Swift Exit

After a look around the plantation and bushes by the entrance to Druridge, having seen a chiffchaff, great-spotted woodpecker, goldcrests and Ian Douglas of note, I was chatting to Roger Foster when he said 'I've got a swift'

Any swift in October requires a grilling. Unfortunately this bird was already quite distant and was heading north. It did bank around, three or four times, even looking like it might head south once, but it didn't. I saw it briefly in the scope before we lost it as continued north.

We had nothing better than silhouetted views in very poor light against the sky. At times, when it banked, the wing-tips looked sharp and when it banked again they looked blunter. Pallid swift has to be a possibility at this time of year but we couldn't do anything with it at this distance and in this light. Pallid/common swifts can be tricky in Spain with stunning light against the hills.so this one will go int he notebook as 'Swift sp'

I had an hour on the big dune, scanning the skies - nothing.

Seemingly it, or another swift, was seen again mid-afternoon. I don't know who by.

There was a bit of vizmig today, with groups of skylarks going over, a few pied wags and meadow pipits and a flock of redpolls headed south. A steady stream of herring gulls also headed south. A peregrine put up the gulls and lapwings from the fields - my first of the year unbelievably.

I was back on the patch in the afternoon after three snow buntings were reported on the beach by the turning circle. They'd moved south a bit (thanks for the wave Neil) just beyond the blockhouse.

After been absent from Druridge for a few years, I've connected with snow bunting in the last three winters.

Snow Buntings

167 peregrine

168 snow bunting

More New Birds

A few species added to the Druridge patch list tonight.

I've been working all weekend so a late afternoon visit today was all I could manage. First bird of the visit was a swift flying north over the dunes.

The Budge fields are looking great for both passage and breeding waders at the moment. 13 black-tailed godwits were there this afternoon and there are at least 10 'sitting' lapwings - the best it's been for them for some years.

Blackcap, sedge warbler and water rail were also added to the patch list today, bringing the total species to 110 and the Patchwork challenge points total to 129.

106 swift
107 water rail
108 blackcap
109 sedge warbler
110 black-tailed godwit

Three year-ticks

A couple of hours birding the bushes at Druridge tonight from 1800. A text message told me of a whinchat near the entrance, I soon found it, perched on the fence. Whinchat is always a nice spring bonus. (Thanks for the text Dave).

A few wheatears were on the short grass by the road. Sedge warblers have finally arrived (how late?) with at least three singing males tonight. A third year-tick was expected, swift, I'd seen a few today on my travels up the coast so the six or more at Druridge tonight came as no surprise.

Other common migrants included blackcap, whitethroat and chiffchaff. On the beach there were five sanderling, four dunlin and three ringed plover.

After 48 hours of rain, both the Budge fields and the big pool are both brim full. The ditch that drains them was up to the bridge at the Budge screen and running at full-bore onto the beach. I fear most of the sitting lapwings will have been flooded out, hopefully they will re-lay.

If you are planning a visit to the pools this weekend, I would take your wellies.

Swift!

The first swift of the year is a notable date in any patch-workers notebook, as the last of the migrant breeders to arrive it marks a bit of a milestone in the ornitholigcal year. I saw my first swift of the year today and it was at Druridge.

It's arrival was overshadowed by another migrant this morning, a much scarcer spring bird on the coast - whinchat.

whinchat - record shot

Whinchats are hard to come by in the spring on the coast, much more obvious in the autumn, so this one was nice to see. In 2009, I failed to see whinchat at all at Druridge. A single white wag was the other notable passage visitor.

Two male blackcaps were vying for territory by the Budge screen and whitethroats were still singing strongly. I recorded 48 species at Druridge in three hours this morning, without a seawatch. I reckon with a seawatch I could have easily seen 55 species, over a third of the average yearly total!

The warmer conditions this morning may have been responsible for a hatch of cinnabar moths - they were everywhere!

Cinnabar moths - at it!

On the big pool, these two were making a racket.

little grebe

redshank in summer plumage

117 whinchat
118 swift

After the rain

After last nights heavy rain, I thought something might have dropped into Druridge, so I headed down there before work, nowt startling to be honest though I did get four year-ticks. Best of the bunch was single swift over (north), short-eared owl lifting from reed canary grass and my first common whitethroat of the year. Other notable birds were three lesser whitethroats, one house martin and five groppers

94 common whitethroat
95 swift
96 house martin
97 short-eared owl