Two and a half months since my last post, mostly because with the longer daylight hours, I'm trying to bird when I can.
Instead of going through everything, I'll pick out the highlights:
White-wingers
During awful conditions on 08 Mar on a post-work seawatch, a brute of a 1w Glauc flew N, a patch tick at the time and a real reward for heading out in the conditions.
A sense of the conditions from the pic quality
Fast-forward to Sunday 24 Apr where I had most of the day to spend on the patch. Tonnes of Gulls of all sizes were moving N, in tricky backlit conditions. I picked up a really pale immature Glauc coming N off Seaton Point before it settled on the sea to my N in-line with the sun. I had to head off, and was soon gripped by Mark who ended up having 2 different Glaucs N and an 2cy Iceland milling around.
Glauc #1 for the day
I headed back in the afternoon, and with the tide out found it tricky to grill the northbound gulls in the haze, but did pickup a dark, heavily moulted 2cy Glauc sat on Longhoughton Steel, which promptly flew N - another new bird! I returned late evening and incredibly found 2 immature Icelands and another Glauc, this a much darker 2cy without the heavy moult.
Glauc #2...
...notice the extensive moult
Distant Iceland Gull #2, the smaller one
Pretty unprecidented stuff, and not reflected anywhere else to the north or south! Overall me and Mark think there were at least 4 Glaucs (probably 5) and 3 Icelands seen after comparing notes and pictures.
Ring Ouzel
The Boulmer area is great, but something it doesn't have a lot of is decent cover, so the chances of passerines dropping in and sticking are slim: this was demonstrated perfectly by the stunning male Ring Ouzel I had on 16 Apr. I'd done one round of Seaton Pt with nothing but a few Wheatears and Chiffs to show, and was heading back towards the carpark when a distinctive call alerted me to a Ring Ouzel dropping onto the top of the seaside hedge just north of the 'point'. I was straight away hounded by a couple of Mipits, and readjusted itself closer to me, allowing for some nice views, before shooting low across the field inland onto another hedge, before the same happened and it disappeared westwards.
Male Ring Ouzel...
...and gone
In total, this patch tick was present for no longer than a couple of minutes, so it definately shows how much must head straight inland for more cover and is missed.
Slav Grebe
I'd never seen a summer plumaged Slavonian Grebe before, and it wasn't really on my radar on the afternoon of 19 Mar: I picked up a grebe close in, and on initial views I thought Black-necked, but as it came closer I changed my mind. A nice bird to get, especially in full summer plumage, and it came on a day with my first Velvet Scoter, GN Diver and Chiffchaffs.
Great Northern Diver
Distant Velvet speeding north
Ropey phonescope but you get the idea
Other bits and pieces (in no order):
Snow Bunting - several singles seen over the past couple of months, possibly all the same bird and never stopping long enough to see on the deck.
Different days, the same bird?
Avocet - again several records, with a pair even dropping onto the village mere before it dried up.
Black Redstart - I'd put plenty of miles into looking for one of these during a national influx, all for a 10 second view of a female on top of one of the cottages that I never saw again. Worth it.
Female-type Black Redstart
Egyptian Goose - Spending a few hours around the Aln looking for Herons and Crakes, I picked up an Egyptian Goose flying north one evening, dropping down around Foxton Bends. A real hard one to get this far north.
They all count.
Blue-Headed Wagtail - a bit of a letdown of a vismig on 20 Apr (given what Ross had at Budle) was highlighted by a superb male Blue-headed Wagtail south, picked up in the scope low of oil seed rape.
Hooded Crow - One high N on the morning of 30 Apr was nice to get out of the way.
Pretty distant, and tricky to pickup in the scope nevermind the camera
'Limosa' Black-tailed Godwit? - Three Godwits on the pool by the cricket pitch on the Aln contained one much bigger, striking bird. I took some pics and sent it to some experts, but unfortunately despite looking the part grey females are just too tricky without a summer feather to be sure.
Owls - Thanks to some gen, I'm now just left needing Long-eared, which I'll have a search for around June.
A fly through Short-eared Owl on the Aln got lots of attention
There's been loads of other good stuff that I've either forgotten to put here or would just make the post too long. As of 30 Apr I sit on 157 for the 5km radius '#LocalBigYear' list, which is pretty good going I reckon, currently topping the Northumberland charts, though I'm sure I'll slip back as rarities get found at other sites.
The area, vast majority of time spent around Boulmer
It's been great fun, and adding in the Aln Estuary area has opened lots of windows for species I would otherwise struggle with. Given I got to 197 in 2020 in 8 months just at Boulmer, I'm optimistly now changing my target to 215 for the 5km radius.
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!
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...
