Saturday 21 November 2020

November northerlies and an American

 Just coming off working nights on the 18th, I woke up to a few messages on the Rare and Scarce chat, one of which relating to a probable Water Pipit Clive Saunders had seen near Amble that morning. Immediately something felt wrong, so I went straight to Clive's Twitter to see if he had posted more shots. Indeed, just minutes before he had, and although seeming to show darkish lores and legs, features that are better for Water I reckoned, the bird had an overall jizz of Buff-bellied. I messaged a couple of people asking what they thought, and that just on the quite dark colouration reckoned the initial shots could be better for Japonicus. It came up on Birdguides minutes later as American Buff-bellied Pipit, so obviously others had had similar thoughts, and yeah, after some actual research was a much better fit for Rubescens. I certainly didn't have chance to get down that afternoon so waited to see if it would stick.

Conditions on the 19th looked ideal for a seawatch - northerlies blowing from quite a way into the arctic, albeit not for long and not all that strongly along the coastline. Nevertheless, after missing a couple of alarms I was out by 0815 and joined Mark for a socially distanced watch, with few highlights. Quite a surprise was the lack of any Little Auks, and although numbers of seabirds moving had evidently increased, it was nothing to stop me from scheduling in an afternoon visit for the ABBP. Before that though, I did get a patch tick in the form of 2 female Long-tailed Ducks which flew north mid-distance (190), and Whooper flocks totalling 62 south alongside probably 3 GND, 1N 2S, were decent fill-ins late morning.

One of the features of the watch that really kept me interested were the numbers of gulls feeding along the breakers, mostly small (Black-headed and Common) but with a few large ones thrown in, and several Mediterranean and a single 1w Little. I couldn't pick out anything better though, Bonaparte's being the main one I was checking for, and so around 1ish headed off to look for the pipit at Amble. It didn't take long for me to arrive and get on the bird, which was feeding at close range amongst the seaweed displaced high up the beach by the recent tides. It was a really nice bird, the plumage tones combining to produce something quite unlike any Rock, Water or Meadow. It fed quite happily along the strandline, the buffness coming out much more in reality than the initial photos suggested. Just as I was about to leave, it flew up and over the dunes, returning later I believe, but it did allow me to hear and record it's very distinctive call - will hopefully come in useful at Boulmer one day!





I may or may not have slept in again on the 20th, so scrambled down to Boulmer to see what was around at 10am. There were even more gulls than previous, feeding along the entire coastline amongst the crashing breakers. It was also much colder in the breezy southerlies than the northerlies of the day before, something I was feeling having expected rain instead of cold. Over feeling sorry for myself, I walked along the beach below the pub, trying to find the weird wagtail in order to get a recording, whilst scanning the gulls. Fairly quickly on one of my scans, an off-white gull, appearing slightly larger than the Commons rose up over a breaker briefly - obviously not the in-your-face white off a Med, I was happy it was an Iceland, but waited for better views. Sure enough it continued to show intermittently whilst dodging waves, with the black bill and paleness continuing down into the secondaries noted - Glaucous never really came into mind it was so textbook. 

One of the best gulls for sure, and the best age

After a while I lost it, noted a couple of Fieldfare come in-off, got a look and recording of the weird Wagtail and continued along to the Steel where I could see even more gulls. I picked up the Iceland again on the north side of the Steel, amongst a large flock of probably 4-500 Herring and GBB, a real spectacle. I knew Mark was on his way down for a look, so found myself a sheltered spot and began checking the other gulls: just as he arrived, I picked out a monster 1w Caspian Gull, initially hesitating to check is wasn't a GBB, I got him on both that and the Iceland fairly quickly. I'd thought about trekking across the Steel to get closer views, but was put off by quite liking having functioning ankles: after a bit of encouragement from Mark however, we both headed out all our kit in hand.



It was a good decision, with nice, albeit brief (due to the towering waves breaking every 5 or so seconds) views had of both the Casp and Iceland, and with maybe the same 1w Little as yesterday, as well as Kittiwake and at least 6 Med Gull, I realised we were on 9 gull species! Despite a fair bit of trying, mostly for LBB, we couldn't find a tenth. A quick check of Seaton Point was as expected, quiet, with the Red-legged Partridge there still eluding my patch list, so I returned to the Steel for a check of the gulls, with nothing of interest seen.

Smaller, but I know who'd win in a fight

Love the intricate patterning on the tail


Star of the show? Maybe not this time


Snouty

Overall, a great feeding spectacle, with numbers of gulls far exceeding anything I've had at Boulmer before. The Iceland was a patch tick (191), and the 5th I've had this year, whilst the Caspian was the 3rd and best looking I've had on the patch, a real classic. Obviously gulls aren't everyone's cup of tea, Caspians and Yellow-legged even more so, but I do wonder how many Casps are getting missed further north than Boulmer and even the county as a whole. 

Two of my gettable targets down for the patch list in 2 days, it means that on 191, my realistic target of 195 is very much achievable, with 200 still being possible in theory. Treecreeper, Nuthatch and Red-legged Partridge (if they play ball) should be relative bankers if I spend some time around Howick Burn and the Seaton Point layby, and either of Scaup or Glauc would put me on 195. Reaching 200 is going to require a beast from the east style winter I feel, with Waxwing and a few geese/swans up for grabs - maybe there's 1 more rarity still to be had? All to play for either way...


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