Mid-February Update

Now a few weeks into February and with new home in Longhoughton as of a couple of weeks ago, I've been able to get out birding a bit locally, and rack up 107 for the #LocalBigYear list. The list itself is linked on the RHS of the blog on BUBO, but the main highlights since the last post have been a possible Todd's Canada Goose and an adult Caspian Gull. detailed below. There's also already been two additions that I didn't get at Boulmer in 2020: Coot and Dipper.

The 'Goose'...

I'd seen a few Geese flying around the Aln Estuary area from Seaton Point, and fancied finding a White-front or something amongst any flock at this time of year, so tried a spot I'd seen others try before at the 'Foxton bend.' There's a small layby which you have to reverse into, but it offers a decent view of the estuary, albeit distant. There was a large flock of feral geese, probably 120 birds in total, a mix of of Canada, Greylags, a couple of Pinks and a Bar-headed Goose on my first visit: right at the death I picked up a smaller Canada-type with the Greylags, which also seemed to be darker and differently shaped.

Note the off-white chinstrap, more sloping forehead, thinner neck and much darker colouration.

I did a fair bit of research over the next few days and the next couple of visits offered better views and side by side with the feral Canadas. Distinctly smaller, about the size of the Greylags, much darker and with a different profile, it sticks out in all lights. I've never seen any of the Lesser Canada Geese, but from research so far think if anything it best fits Interior, or Todd's: there is though the possibility of a strange runt feral Canada. I'll hope it doesn't stay too long, but it's nice to have found something in the flock, though I'd appreciate a White-front.

A bit of a chamelion, but consistantly sticks out from the Canadas.

Caspian Gull...

On the morning of 13 Feb, I had an hour free, so stood in the shelter of a caravan at Seaton Point, mainly grilling southbound Gulls presumably coming out of roost to feed. Regular flocks were coming past, my strategy being to scope them coming in well north to look for any obvious white-wingers and then bin them when closer to check for anything less obvious. A flock of 10 birds came round the point and one of the adult Herring-types immediately struck me as interesting - an obviously darker mantle, clean white head and small dark eye, all obvious even at considerable range initally: on their own these features are common, there's tonnes of darker mantled Argentatus around, lots of Argenteus are getting clean heads already and the odd Herring has smaller dark eyes. I got the camera ready, had another look through teh scope to confirm the features when close, noting a lemony, fairly long but substantial bill, and more dark in the outer primaries.

Left hand bird.

I rattled off lots of shots of the flock, unfortunately the light wasn't great being early morning and cloudy though. I was happy from the flight views I'd had it was a Casp, they're really distinctive once you've seen a few, the facial expression especially. I'd say it's a male on it's size (obviously bigger than the Herrings) and bill structure.

2nd adult from the left here

It's been fairly quiet overall, expected given the time of year, but hopefully some northerly in the forecast over the next week will bring some arctic gulls down.

It's been a while...

 Almost a year to the day since my last post, and it's fair to say that a lot's happened in the last year; getting married, moving, 4 months in the Falklands and general 'busyness' has meant that a regular birding pattern hasn't been possible. That said, I've seen some great birds in that time, and I'll try and do a Falklands recap at some point. For now, I'm still living in Lincs, although hopefully I'll be back in Northumberland permanently in the near future.

A Leopard Seal wouldn't look too out of place on a Northumberland beach right now

A morning visit to the patch on the 5th of November was my first in around 5 months, but provided my 2nd tick of the year after five Scaup in May: a Red-legged Partridge. I'd tried all autumn last year to find one in the fields around Seaton Point to no avail as I pushed for 200, and here was one just sat right out on my first visit in months! In terms of actual quality however, the Grey Phalarope I picked up going N along the breakers, before heading out and landing on the sea was a much nicer find. It was nice that Ben who I was just catching up with could get onto it too, and a pod of Bottlenose Dolphins even went through our scope views as we strained our eyes to the speck sat on the surface. 5 Great Northern Divers N were a good passage, and 16 Whoopers S over our heads were a reminder I was in for my 3rd straight winter. Oh, and I stopped in for the Wilson's Phalarope which made for a nice double.

In-off, my first of the autumn

Stunning

One of my 3 weeks of leave was spent in Tenerife on the NW coast at Puerto de le Cruz: definately not a birding holiday, more a chilled few days catching up on some vitamin D, but there were some bits to see. The specialities like Canary, Canary Islands Chiffchaff and African Blue Tit were common around the town, with Barbar Falcon seen on a few occassions too. Having a balcony close to the sea, I spent a few early mornings and evenings looking that way, and despite not seeing the hoped for Bulwer's Petrel or Barolo Shear (did see a distant possible), the hundreds of Cory's were nice, and two 2w Audouin's Gulls were probably decent for the Island. Other bits seen included Sardinian Warbler, Blackcap, YLG and LBB, some distant Tern sp, Little Egret, Whimbrel, a very large Whale and Common and Bottlenose Dolphins. A nice break.

Canary Islands Chiffchaff:
 They have a wide range of calls that really don't sound like Chiffs

African Blue Tit

Returning up to Boulmer for a couple of days on 15th/16th, I was hoping for some left over migrants after hints of easterlies on the weekend. It was evident from early on that other than the odd thrush, little had arrived, so I got on the mound at Seaton Point and started a vismig/seawatch. A few groups of Siskin were heading south, a Little Auk went the same way just beyond the breakers, and a rather late Sooty quite bizarrely headed N in fairly mundane conditions. A few raptors were terrorizing the finches and waders, first a Merlin zipping across the fields and then a pair of Peregrines working high over the village: whilst watching them, I picked up a fairly high Hirundine, always worth a look this late on. I was fairly certain it was a Sand Martin from early on, but as it was effectively over the village, I headed closer to be sure, losing it in the process. Thankfully it zipped past me around half an hour later, as it's probably the latest ever in the county.

With reports of the Bonaparte's Gull still being present at Stag Rocks, I decided to head up that way for the afternoon, more to get an idea for how hard I need to be grillilng Black-headed Gulls on seawatches to find one. On arrival a few birders were present and hadn't seen it, so I set about scanning the gulls present distantly offshore. Three Little Gulls were picked up, as were three of Long-tailed Ducks and a nice close Black Guillemot, but it took a good 20 minutes before I picked up a very distant gull with a striking pale underwing feeding towards the Farnes. Getting some of the others on it, it was nice to get a feel for the flight style (lighter, and quicker wingbeats) and the key plumage features, even at extreme range. Eventually it came a little closer and the greyish hindneck could be made out fairly easily, although unfortunately it never came onto the rocks. I picked up a distant Little Auk which pitched onto the sea, and then continued watching the gull in the fading light: it definately gave me confidence that I probably wouldn't be missing one on seawatches etc.

Very distinctive, even at range

Tuesday morning was even stiller, and starting at Seaton Point again, I noted a large number of Herring and Great-Black Backed Gulls heading south. I'd seen there had been lots moving the day before too, but had wanted to check for migrants, however with little promise on land, I headed straight for a seaside vantage point. A fishing boat was present not too far offshore, and some gulls were taking an interest on their was past: after a few scans of the sea, I turned to see a large group had formed, so started to look through them, quickly picking up a striking tail band amongst the throng. I've found a fair few Casps now offshore, and the neat black tail-band is often is the first thing I pickup amongst a large group of mixed Gulls: Herring are quick generally duller and more diffuse in that department, the white not as pure and the black not as dark, whilst GBBs have a less deep and more broken band, often with black sparse black spots creating a double band effect. 

1w Caspian in the two above and the below, note the deep, black tail band

Anyway, the good-looking tail band indeed did belong to a Caspian Gull, a 1w which bore a striking resemblance to the one from last November which was a big male. It had an equally striking pale underwing and head, and was generally just a really textbook bird. Incredibly, whilst trying to get some phonescoped video of that bird, another tail and underwing combination caught my eye: on getting it in the scope, I was met with the greyer mantle and brilliant white underwing and head of a classic 2w Caspian Gull! I watched this bird in flight for a couple of minutes to make sure I was aging it correctly but the amount of grey in the mantle was always going to belong to a 2w bird. I never saw it land, and it left with a group of Herring into the bay with the other still sat on the sea. My 4th and 5th Casps around Boulmer, and with another juv that I should have nailed, it might already be the best site in the county for them in terms of records? It's not often I've had large numbers of gulls offshore, and they seem to be present fairly regularly among these flocks and they're always increasing on the continent - I'll be trying for double figures next year if I can get to the patch enough.

Spot the 2w Casp!
(Top Left)

The Gull movement continued, with an adult Iceland Gull south on it's own, mid-distance. It was a fairly plump looking individual, and it had discernably quicker wingbeats to the 100s of Herring I'd had past that morning. Also past were a Little Auk S, 4 Velvet Scoter N, 5 Whoopers S and a Little Egret N, whilst a couple of Med Gulls brought me to 8 gull species for the day, and 13 in the last week!

147 Siskin flew S, with 3 Redpoll in tow

I'm never sure when I'll next be up at Boulmer, but I'm on 197 for the patch - who knows, a visit coinciding with a big arctic blow and I might reach 200 as there seems to be good birds on every visit at the moment. A Brunnich's sat next to the Little Grebes would do nicely! 

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...

Early November second half...Caspian and Dusky

The second half of my stay stay started fairly quietly, with the 6th producing a Velvet N, 17 Crossbill S, 21 Whoopers and a Marsh Harrier. 

Don't get Twite back home - cracking things

The 7th was better, with 84 Eider N, 3 Lapland Bunting S and a few more thrushes in. Best though was a 2w Caspian I picked up fairly distantly offshore amongst gulls around a fishing boat. Initially unsure whether it was a 1w or 2w, I picked it up on the clean rump contrasting with the black tail band, pale underwing and overall long-winged jizz. It eventually came closer and landed on the Steel a way off, allowing the age to be confirmed and other features secured such as covert and tertial patterns, long legs and slopping head/parallel sides bill with negligible gonies angle. It flew south and Mark caught up with it loafing off Seaton Point. The 2nd confirmed one I've had, definitely different to the one in September on structure.

Won't find any Herrings with a tail and underwing like that...

...nice shawl and bill too...

...and very long-winged! 

(Plus look at the window and greater covert pattern)

The conditions for the 8th looked the best of my stay. Fog, maybe rain and SE winds all pointed to an arrival. From first thing an arrival of sorts was apparent with thrushes, mainly Blackbirds passing over unseen in the fog at Seaton Point. More Woodcock were new in, I had 3 throughout the day, but Mark had 5 on the Steel alone and I joined him for a while waiting for things to come in. There were quite a few ducks moving N, but lots were probably missed in the fog. Although more thrushes were arriving throughout the morning, there seemed be a lack of anything else until I a found a 1w male Black Redstart on the undercliff halfway between the Steel and Boulmer.

Smart bird in typical setting

Dodging me, runners and dogs

It showed well, but I wanted to press on back to Seaton Point to see if anything else had arrived. A pale redpoll, probably Mealy dropped in briefly along the coast but soon carried on inland. The first few bushes at Seaton Point revealed nothing new from the morning, but at the south end of the mound I found a distinctly pale Chiffchaff, which after initially a bit of a run around showed well and proved to be a rather smart Siberian, albeit silent. Only my 2nd ever, and first at Boulmer, it was a really nice bird, very pale underparts, all black bill and legs, rather pale diffuse super and green-grey upper parts. It remained silent but showed down to a few feet in the fog, often feeding on the ground - a real treat. 

First views - paaaaale

Probably the closest of any Chiffchaff I've ever had

Mark's comment on this pic - "the most spherical bird I've ever seen"

A Lap Bunt flew over, probably in-off as I was watching the Chiffchaff, and whilst walking around the point trying to find a Dusky Warbler (there'd been an arrival of 6 at Spurn alone) I flushed a silent Jack Snipe from the path, a patch tick (number 187). Otherwise there didn't seem to be too much in other than Blackbirds, so I went back for seconds of the Chiffchaff, where I was joined late on by Mark.

The 9th again looked like there might be some arrivals, and in fact, starting out at the Steel there were more thrushes, again mostly Blackbirds coming in off, some dropping in. The rain early on in the morning gave the most pronounced movement, but it was clear birds were coming in all day, my ability to see and hear them dependant on the density of fog at the time. Ducks were also moving in good numbers, with counts of 340 Wigeon, 83 Eider, 9 Shoveler, 50 Teal, 6 DB Brents all N, plus a BT Diver that way too. I also picked up 3 Slavonian Grebes fairly close offshore sat on the sea, and eventually joined by a group of up to 8 Goldeneye, were only my 2nd patch record. Pom Skuas, 2N 1S were my first for a while, one juv showing quite well chasing Herring Gulls.

Straight from the phone

I headed down to Seaton Point to look for the anything new in there and the Chiffchaff again. There was no sign of the latter so I began a more concerted check of the caravan site than the day before, as there were very few people around. Blackbirds were everywhere still, as were Song Thrush, but there were seemingly no new in crests or warblers.

At about 1pm, I was walking up the central track on the south side of the caravan side when a small bird flew into a hawthorn briefly, before zipping across behind a caravan. For the split second I got on it, it looked like a small Phyllosc, and did I hear a tack or was I imaging it? I scrambled up the hill to see if I could locate the bird, and waited for 5 minutes. There was no sign, so I put it behind me, probably a Wren, and continued up the path. 30 seconds later, another couple of tacks? I turned and listened intently, only Wrens could be seen and heard, was I going mad? I continued along to the eastern end of Seaton Point, before routing back west along the beach. I then had the choice of whether to continue along the sand or go back along the already beaten path and look again for the possible Dusky...

Nearing where I thought I heard tacks last, a small dark bird flushed across the path in a small hawthorn - on raising my bins I was met with a dark bird flicking around to reveal a striking super...Dusky Warbler! It flicked along into some bracken where it began 'tutting' away, so I decided to grab my recorder out of my pocket in order to have something to go back to. It wasn't still for long and I had to run across the bracken/hawthorn covered mounds to keep up with it. After being sure I'd recorded some calls, I put the news out, locally first to gauge opinion on whether it would be appropriate given the current situation to put it out wider. After being reassured, I stuck it on the the Northumberland group with a pin, by which time I had completely lost the bird.

I knew Mark was on his way, so set back about trying to find it again. Luckily I did so when it flushed from the side of the path seconds before Mark arrived, after some waiting the bird again flitted from bracken sea to hawthorn, mostly just giving flight views and calls. John joined myself and Mark later in the evening and also managed a short view, but it really was a tricky bird to pin down, the only pic I managed being an awful flight shot. I've joint found one before at Spurn, but it was nice to find one on my patch and add to the Boulmer area list again - now 248 we believe!

Poor quality, but you get the idea

Still present the next morning, I finally managed to get a shot when it flew into the bottom of a hawthorn for a couple of seconds after I had followed it for around 30 mins through the bracken. Stewart Sexton said he was going to come down for it during his lunch break, so I headed off to check other areas with the intention of helping him look later. A couple of Lapland Bunting seemed fairly settled around the field near the mound, flushing out a few times but always returning. Thrushes had definitely thinned out though, so I went back a bit earlier than expected to look for the Dusky with some other birders. When Stewart arrived we again found it fairly quickly, but for the most part it only showed in flight, once however flicking around nicely for probably 5 seconds in a hawthorn, allowing me to get some better shots and Stewart to get a view good enough to produce the amazing sketch/painting seen below.

The typical panicky bin-raising view - would my camera make it?

Finally!

Mid flick 

Stunning from Stewart

http://boulmerbirder.blogspot.com/

The day also brought a couple of Velvets N and 2 Bonxie south, plus a rather cheeky patch tick Hooded Crow which I picked up in flight over Howick from the clifftops south of the burn, before it landed on the TV aerial of Seahouses Farm. The bird has been around since the Summer, so I was glad to catch up with it, albeit it extreme distance. 

Fogged up, a Lap Bunt nonetheless

There ended my early November stay, 11 patch ticks which was way more than I thought, plus several nice finds. 189 in just under 7 months for me at Boulmer is it seems a new year record for anyone on any patch in the county - I'm fairly pleased with that! (Thanks to Stewart for doing some digging)

The target now has to be 195, I think 200 will be too much of a stretch, but who knows! I still have a few 'easy' things: LT Duck, Treecreeper, Nuthatch, and then when you tally in white-winged Gulls, a couple more geese/swans, scarcities or rarities and maybe a cold snap, you never know I guess. Will be nice to get past 190, I never thought that would be on the cards back in September when I was eeking out birds trying to reach 160.