Friday 10 December 2021

An overhead Banana-bill

After Storm Arwen, another decent looking system from the north pushed through on 1st/2nd December, and with a couple of days off, I headed up to my Boulmer room late on the night of the 2nd. I expected it to be quiet, with the main possibility in my eyes being some weary Auks heading back north after the system. 

Friday morning was fairly chilly, with a moderate SWerly, and it was evident from quite early on that it wasn't going to be vintage, but I set up to watch from Seaton Point. That being said, there was a fair bit of variety to be had, with quite a few divers blogging, a few geese and some overland movement. The sea was nice and flat, and allowed me to pick up 2 GC Grebe amongst the Red-throats, as well as scrutinize all the Auks, though just one distant bird that flew towards Alnmouth caught my eye. Several obvious Common Guillemots still in summer-plummage were hanging around, as were a few Puffins. A Black-throated Diver flew S with an RTD, and then at 10:45 a Twitter message from Mark Newsome gave warning of a Juv White-billed Diver flying my way.



Checking the timetable made by Ross Ahmed, it looked like it would take ~75 minutes, and so I waited. Positive news from Whitley Bay suggested it was motoring. Naturally, I was weighting my time looking south, and making regular scans with the bins just incase it was high. It had flown past Whitburn with a Brent in tow, nice and easy I thought. At 11:35, something made me look up from my scope, and as I did a the sight of a diver low over my head greeted me. It was massive, and on raising my bins an ivory bill shone from the front end. Swinging my camera round and changing settings (I was expecting it to be low from the Whitley pics) I rattled off a tonne of shots, before pausing to notice a second large diver that had actually gone behind me. It looked no smaller, but was always flying directly away, and I wanted more views of the White-billed. They rounded Longhouton Steel and I put the news out, hoping someone would catch up with them, and ID the second bird. Alas, they weren't seen to the north.


Almost pre-historic looking.

The first, uncropped photo

Full list from Friday:
  • White-billed Diver - juv N overhead
  • Large Diver sp - 1N with the above
  • Black-throated Diver - 1 S with RTD
  • RTD 94N, 16S
  • Great-crested Grebe - 2 on the Sea off Seaton Point, fairly scarce here
  • Little Grebe 5
  • Whooper Swan 2S
  • Barnacle Goose 1N
  • PB Brent Goose 2N
  • DB Brent Goose 1N - probably the Whitburn bird, but 2hrs late
  • Pinkfeet - several flocks, both N and S
  • Velvet Scoter 1N
  • Red-breasted Merganser 2N
  • Puffin 2N
  • Mediterranean Gull 1ad
  • Siskin 3S



A great day, and looking up to see the Diver is something I'll never forget. Some time was spent at high tide at dusk checking the gulls feeding on the beach: some nice Common Gull variation, but nothing that really stood out like the bird I had last year at Amble.


A particularly slender looking individual

Saturday was extremely quiet. A single GND, a Long-tailed Duck and the odd duck moving were the highlights, and I ended up heading back down the A1 early. Can't complain about the trip as a whole though, and every visit since coming back from the Falklands has had a Northumberland description species so far!

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