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

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.