End of April update...

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.

Here's all the extra pics I like:

White Wag

The semi-resident PB Brent Goose

Wheatears

Some of over 1300 Common Gulls N one evening

Whimbrel, Redshank and Greenshank in the Aln

A fairly late Fieldfare enjoying the Sun

Early November stay - first half

With my current work schedule (complicated) and Covid, I had a period of just over a week where I'd be able to spend a lot of time on the patch birding. I had a few patch ticks in mind to target - things like Long-tailed Duck, Water Pipit, Woodcock, Jack Snipe and Snow Bunting, plus Fieldfare which I reckoned would be a banker.

Locked on to a Twite, too quick for me...

...and rest.

My first day out, the 2nd, was fairly quiet, though did bring my first Fieldfare as well as Chiffchaff, 13 Twite, GND and 82 Whoopers south. The 3rd was much better, again decent Whooper passage with 79 south, plus a late Greenland type Wheatear new in on the beach, another GND and patch ticks in the form of Snow Bunting in-off, a very late Garden Warbler and a heard only Moorhen from the layby at Seaton Point. 

Couldn't squeeze out a Bewick's

Small bird in a blue sky

Big, buff and bullish - Greenland material

The Garden Warbler was particularly interesting, having a very weird jizz, different looking bill, being quite a bit paler than normal, and seeming bigger too. The eastern race Woodwardi seems a decent bet given the date and features noted above, but it only showed twice despite further looking by myself and Mark -  glad I got some shots which reflect the slight weirdness of the bird. The 3 patch ticks added on the 3rd put me on 182 for the area.

Those tertials...

There had been huge numbers of Pinkfeet moving both north and south during the first few days, and with a bit of scanning the odd Barnacle could be picked out in the flocks. 8 Tundra Beans north early doors on the 4th at Whitburn caught my attention, but there's not a great track record for picking stuff up from further down the coast at Boulmer. The morning produced a couple more GND, Snow Bunt and more geese before I picked up 8 Goose sp going N just inland at 1055 from my position at the Steel. 

They immediately appeared darker and lacked the typical pale grey inner forewing of Pinkfoot, despite the light being good. They were slightly bigger and bulkier I felt, all fairly uniform in size and with fairly large heads on long, but substantial necks. They were already heading away N up the coast, so I rattled off some record shots, and watched for a while longer to get a look at the tails.

3rd bird from the right a Taiga imposter?

They banked briefly, showing a nice dark outer tail band and no white visible beyond, the back of the birds being the same dark brown of the as the flanks, again no hint of the grey expected on Pinkfoot. I then gave Stewart a call at Howick to see if he could pick them up, but unfortunately I think they had probably passed over him by the time he got out. I tracked them over Howick where they seemed to head slightly more inland. 

Having never had good flight views of Bean, I stuck them out as probables initially incase anyone else could get on them, and then continued birding hoping to do some research later. From my views, pics and subsequent trawling online I'm happy that at least 7 were Tundra Bean, although one particular bird in the photos seems to have a slimmer neck and head profile - maybe a Taiga, but probably within variation. A Little Egret south and Lapland Bunting at Seaton Point rounded off the day's birding.

A higher pressure system building up to the south and east on the 5th caught my eye, with the hope for some arrivals. It was a great day - 3400 Pinks S, a trickle of Thrushes and Starling in-off, 18 Whoopers, 4 Crossbill, 2 Snow Bunts, and best of all 3 patch ticks: a winter plumage Black Guillemot N mid distance, 2 Woodcock in-off and a very brief Water Pipit at Seaton Point which then flew N. The Woodcock were great, one coming past feet above my head in an evening watch on the Steel, whilst the Water Pipit (possibly a returning bird) flushed from rocks when I luckily got some shots. I never saw the Pipit again, expecting it to settle down with the fairly large Rock Pipit flock.

Distinctly un-Siberian, nice nonetheless

Redwing x Rockit

Nice white wedge in T5

The 2nd half of this stay requires another, bigger post, but certainly a very good first few days with a fair bit of quality given the conditions and how later in the autumn it was.