Football Hole & Newton Pool, 10th May 2008

I started off today with a bit of early morning ringing........... up at 4am..... URGHHHH...... I love ringing but I do really struggle with the early mornings !! ...... Its usually worth it tho.....

A nice spread of species, with the highlights being 3 swallows and a returning blackcap that I ringed last summer...... of interest I also caught a returning sedge warbler last weekend too....

I find it fascinating that these little birds have made such an amazing journey and returned to exactly the same spot a year later to breed.......

Highlight......

After ringing I did my usual stroll along the coast..... the weather was nice and as a result I found myself trying to avoid people !!..... just a bit of sun and Newton gets packed, and its often with the second home, spotless shiny urban 4x4 lot.... mmmmmm........don't get me started !!

Anyway I know its a very selfish attitude but I wish they'd all piss off !!

So......I headed to football hole first.... here there were 4 whimbrel, 3 purple sandpipers and the turnstones that I always take for granted.... however the turnstone are all coming into summer plumage and looking absolutely stunning.... awesome birds !!

Of course I checked the bluethroat bushes....... and of course there was nuffin there........ AGAIN !! Same old story...... a nice pair of reed bunts tho and snipe was booted up from the stream there....

Next I went the pool......... Yesterdays wheatear was still present along the track, but the pool was dead quiet again, same old teal and tufties... where is that black tern or little gull tho ?

In the scrub around the pool 2 lesser whitethroats were singing, and a grasshopper warbler was reeling away.....

On the track back to Newton I stopped to look at this stonechat.... It looked like a UK race bird with the usual orange breast extending over much of its underparts (just a bit of a white belly), but it had a very obvious white rump and a fairly broad white neck patch too...... Assume its just a UK race bird at the extreme end of the "white bits" range..... ??

White bits......

Newton Pool, 9th May 2008

A flying visit to Newton Pool this evening....

Not a Huge amount to report, but a grey heron was showing off in front of the hide...

Show off....

On the pool were the usual suspects with the 2 regular teal (male & female) and 4 tufted ducks (2 males & 2 females)....

On the walk back to the car a large flock of hirundines were gathering and perching on the ground and low thistle stalks in the flood field.... these were mainly swallows, but a couple of sand martins and a house martin too.... they looked a bit strange sat in a field !

A bit strange......

Along the track to the hide a big northern wheatear was kickin about, assume it was a Greenland job...

Greenland job....

In the hills...., 6th May 2008

I was working on a site up in the hills today.....

A cracking day and lots of the typical upland stuff.... all the usual waders (checked the golden plover areas for dotterel, but no luck) , black grouse, wheatears and ring ouzel feeding young......

Rouzel....

What a great day for soaring raptors too...... however, I saw zero raptors, just a couple of pairs of buzzards and some kestrels in the lower areas.... Some reasonable habitat and plenty of food, so where are the harriers, peregrines etc.... ?

Long Nanny, 5th May 2007

Life is sweeeet !!

I spent this morning blatting up the coast on my bike..... the weather was fine, the roads smooth, the corners sweeping and the speed.... well I don't want to incriminate myself too much..... suffice to say I love watching the cars shrink rapidly in my mirrors !! I did a swift flyby of both Ipins and Boulmer Birders patch and ended up at Newton.....

Then I took a long walk along the beach with a beautiful woman !! A beautiful woman who let me go birding whilst on our walk !!

...... I didn't really see too much but that doesn't matter.....

It was high tide and the saltmarsh was more flooded than I've seen it for a long time....

A bit soggy......

On the saltmarsh were 4 wheatears, a stunning male white wagtail and a good count of 19 shelducks..... My first arctic tern of the season was on the beach, and a scan of the sea here produced a nice sum plum female long tailed duck hanging out with eiders...... Finally, on the walk back to Newton Links 3 whimbrel flew north calling......

A fast bike...... a beautiful woman....... and a long tailed duck......... What a great day !!

Football Hole, Newton Point and Newton Pool, 4th May 2008

Had a kick around Newton this afternoon after deciding to chill in bed and give the morning downpours a miss.....

Mmmmmm.......that sounded convincing !!...... The truth.... the alcohol consumption of last night caught up we me a bit this morning and as a result I couldn't be arsed to get up early for anything or anyone.....

I started today by heading to football hole, the bluethroat bushes here held a couple of reed buntings, and as usual no bluethroats..... or anything else vaguely interesting for that matter !!

I've heard so many tales of bluethroats and other rares from here, and I flog it religiously and never see anything..... EVER !! These legendary bushes have had scores of bluethroats, subalpine warbler, rosefinch, red backed shrike, barred warbler, yellow brow.... to name but a few...... and the best thing I've ever seen here is a whinchat.

Talking of whinchats.........

Belter !!

So.... nothing to report from Football Hole.... AGAIN !!

Newton Point was a bit better.... 2 Whinchats (male & female) were the stars of the show, they were feeding in the tussocky grassland at the point...... and a flyover yellow wagtail heading north gave me some hope too....

At the point itself a whimbrel did a good job of hiding amongst the roosting oycs.....

Invisible....... ish

With not a lot else to keep me at the point I decided to head down to the pool.... The flood was devoid of birds except for one lonely looking female teal. When I opened the flaps in the hide and grilled Newton Pool I came up with a grand total of 2 mute swans !!

After 20 minutes of watching I managed to increase the count by 1 moorhen, 2 coots and 3 black-headed gulls !! Totally dead today....... Where are those little gulls and black terns I was hoping for ?

I kept myself amused by grilling the big flock of hirundines in vain hope that I might jam in on a red rump or something even better..... My mind wondered off and I started thinking about alpine swifts...... then pacific swifts........ then needletails.....

.......FUGGIN ELL !! WHAT PLANET AM I FROM ?!!

The boredom was broken by a group of 5 kittewakes that dropped in to bathe......

NOT little gulls.......

I left the hide having seen naff all, next I grilled the dunes behind the hide where I also saw naff all..... Then it started pissing down again, MARVELOUS !!

I went home....... and drank lots..... and now I'm writing this.......

Long Nanny & Newton Pool, 3rd May 2008

FUGGIN MENTAL !!!

I had a bizarre experience today, just walking down the track to the pool and I see this dear old lady walking her dog, as I approach I can see she's bending over picking up a big turd.... I say "good morning" and "thank you" for cleaning up after her dog, I wish others would follow this example.... Her response was.... "oh its not my dogs, but it gives us all a bad name doesn't it, I thought I'd better clean it up....."

This lady was cleaning up someone elses dog shit !! Now either she is a pillar of society or mentalist, or both !! Whatever I was dead impressed, her actions restored my faith in doggy people... Well done Mrs turd collector and thank you !!

I started today with a bit of ringing... The warblers are here !!

Lesserthroat

Sedgie

wilwa

1st summer male blackcap.... This bird still showed some brown fringes to the black crown feathers, also an obvious worn brown alula feather and very worn tail feathers indicating 1st summer

Adult male male blackcap, by contrast has a jet black cap and more uniform wing feathers, also rounder fresher tail feathers

Female blackcap

While ringing a greenshank flew over the site calling....

I packed up ringing about lunchtime and took a walk to the Long Nanny.... pretty quiet here, well apart from the summer knobheads at Beadnell with their speedboats and jetskis, I wish they'd fuck off down to Druridge bay with all the other dickheads.... No offence Ipin !!.......

..... just 1 wheatear, 3 whimbrel and little tern is back...... A few waders on the shore comprised of the usual ringies, 16 sanderling (2 in rusty sum plum) and 4 dunlin all in sum plum......offshore a lone common scoter was bobbin about....

They're back !!!..... well this one bird is back anyway....

I decided to finish off by dropping into Newton Pool, all the usual stuff here...

2 teal
6 tufted ducks
2 little grebes

etc, etc.....

In the scrub behind the hide a grasshopper warbler was reeling, a lesser whitethroat was singing from the wardens garden, and 3 whimbrel flew over calling....

I stopped to scan the flooded field on the way back to the car, it was empty when I arrived so I thought I'd give it a scan again... it was still empty, but I caught a large bird out of the corner of my eye to the left, I turned and locked on to a stunning male marsh harrier !! This appeared to have come over dunes, then over the wardens house towards the pool, it floated around over the pool for 2 or 3 minutes getting mobbed by everything before heading off inland.....

RESULT !! I've seen a few marsh harriers here before but not for a couple of years now....

Newton Point & Low Newton, 27th April 2008

After over indulging in way too much red wine last night I failed to get up early this morning for ringing..... I decided to have a couple of hours at Newton this afternoon instead.... when my head had stopped thumpin !!

On arrival it was very murky......

"Where am I ?.... "
"You are in the village...."

Football Hole.....More fog !!

Mmmmm.... Maybe a day like to this could give me that ring ouzel I've been hoping for.....

So.... I flogged the coast heading first to Football Hole, then Newton Point, then down to Low Newton and the Dunes around the pool.....

Nothing too spectacular to report... a couple of wheatears at the point and one down the track to the pool..... Two white wags were still on the beach at Low Newton and 1 yellow wag at the pool.... a whimbrel flew past the point calling but I couldn't see it, it sounded dead close but the fog was too dense.....

A grounded skylark at Newton Point still singing through the fog......

On arriving at the pool I opened the flaps in the hide expecting the usual little grebe and mute swan...... I started scanning the back of the pool and then........... BINGO !!

Patch tick revisited.... or revisiting most likely.....

I was just dropping into a state of... "nowt new to see today... " when this fella livened me up and got me motivated to keep on floggin the area.... So I kicked around the scrub towards the golf course..... no sign of that Hoopoe, subalp or wryneck I day-dream about, but the walk was worth while as I saw my first whitethroat and grasshopper warblers of the year.... also 2 whimbrels flying north calling.....

This whole area around the pool is now alive with singing willow warblers, sedge warblers, linnets and reed buntings........ spring is here !!

Reed bunt...... some more grey rumpage....