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!

Storm Arwen...

With the weather looking 'good' from early in the week, and a free Saturday, I plotted a day trip up to Boulmer for some seawatching. Monitoring Twitter on Friday evening to see just how bad the Storm was, I got up at 4am and set off from a fairly tranquil Lincoln. Just over 3 hrs later, and after a dodgey 5 miles around Leeds where the A1 turned to slush, I started the climb up towards Alnwick. It was here, about 20 mins from Boulmer, that I started seeing my first downed trees: things then escalated exponentially as I turned off the A1, with scenes reminiscent of those after a Hurricane. It took me half an hour to get to an apolocalyptic Seaton Pt, with 2 roads completely blocked and numerous flooded patches and downed trees.

On arrival, I was met with horizontal sleet, the strongest winds I've ever experienced and flying debris from the caravan site. Nevertheless, I knew there would be some shelter to be found, so donned the waterproofs and headed out with my gear for the day. 3 completely disintegrated caravans made for a scary scene, and the waves were considerably bigger than anything I've ever seen. After trying a few spots, I settled on the very Eastern tip of the point, on the sheltered side of the mound there - 'shelter' perhaps pushing it.

During one of the more palettable spells

Anyway, onto the birds. Viewing conditions were truly difficult, so I undoubtedly missed tonnes, but Long-tailed Ducks were both frequent and easy to pick up: more than I've ever seen and some great views of 49N, including flocks of 7 and 13. Ducks on a whole were the main group braving the conditions, with 236 Eider and 126 C Scoter the most numerous. Hiding in groups and passing in smaller numbers, I managed to pick up 11 Pintail, 15 Teal, 150 Wigeon, 2 RB Merg, 5 Velvets, a Shoveler and 4 Gadwall which were nice to see. 

Maybe my favourite pick from the day

One of the 4 Gadwall

Pintail 

With the weather system and increased records, Brunnich's Guillemot was on my mind, but despite grilling every Auk, none of them even remotely looked good, just one sum plum Guillie initially caught my eye. That being said, 15 Little Auk and a couple of Puffin, some fairly close in, were really nice and especially impressive given the conditions. 

Strange combination...

Mark arrived mid-morning, and whilst catching up I picked up a nice Black Guillemot, not too far out and only my 2nd on the patch. I managed to get some record shots, and tried to photograph as much as possible, mainly as practice for when the big one went past. When conditions momentarily improved and vis got better, I managed to pickup a couple of Sooties and a Manx going N - frustrating really as there was obviously more stuff moving out there, I just couldn't see it for the spray and showers.

Bigger stuff moving included 5 GND, 63 LB Brent and 21 Barnacles -  the Geese seemingly displaced from Lindersfarne alongside the impressive numbers of waders heading N along the tideline. Mark had picked up a Slav Grebe in the bay, which I had a quick look at, as they're pretty to catch up with on the patch.

An impression of the sea state

All sorts of stuff moving back N

Though it lacked the real bit of 'rare' I was looking for, the event in itself was definately worth the effort, and I drove back south through the snow in awe of nature. As expected, Sunday looks to have been the better day, with some great birds picked up in the area: Brunnich's is still missing from the Boulmer list though, but perhaps an opportunity for one on the next blow with so many around?