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....

Long Nanny & Low Newton, 26th April 2008

"......IN OFF THE RED !!"...... as Alan Partridge would say !!

Funny things patch ticks, you don't get one for months then two come along at once !!

Hot on the heels of the recent garganey comes this....

......Back of the net !!

In stark contrast to last Saturday, today felt like spring had actually arrived.... Every clump seemed to have a willow warbler singing and hirundines seemed to be moving through in decent numbers too....

I started off by heading to the Nanny, here a mental Merlin was chasing a rook !!

Just in case you are wondering this is what the back of a merlins head looks like....It perched for just a few seconds at long distance, I nearly didn't bother.....

The merlin entertained for a few minutes before heading inland..... along the track to the Nanny were 3 wheatears, and for once this one didn't seem too bothered by a camera.....

Poser.....

As I scanned the inland side of the Nanny from the footbridge I picked up 4 shelduck, 2 curlew a redshank and ...... eh ...... wait a minute....... LRP !! This little beauty was on the far side of the Nanny, then it flew over the dunes towards the area where the short-toed lark used to live.... I headed round there but couldn't relocate it, finding only 2 ringies and another wheatear...

I headed to the beach and started walking back towards Newton....... along the beach were 51 sanderling, some coming into sum plum.... A scan of the bay produced 4 red throated divers all in summer plumage and a single common scoter...

As I walked back along the beach a couple of groups of hirundines flew north, mainly swallows but also a few sand martins and a house martin.... A yellow wag flew over calling and appeared to land towards the Nanny, but I couldn't be arsed to walk all the way back over there to see if it was a blue headed job !

Next I headed towards Low Newton and Newton Pool.... Here there were 2 yellow wags in the flood field, but not a lot else of note.....

Yellow wag....

At the pool 2 sedge warblers were singing (my first this year), and willow warblers were in abundance ... Once again the pool itself was dead quiet tho with....

2 mute swans
2 teal
4 mallard
2 tufted duck
2 snipe
1 little grebe

Next I flogged the scrub in hope of a ring ouzel.... or maybe that subalp or hoopoe I dream about ! The result...... nuffin ! Newton haven had 2 red throated divers and just 1 goldeneye, and a walk along the beach at Low Newton produced a common sand, a purple sand and 2 white wagtails with the pieds......

......a bit of grey rumpage !

Finally a quick sqizz at the tin church produced another sedge warbler and another flyover yellow wag....... All in all a good day, felt like stuff was happening which is all I need to keep me going......

Football Hole, Newton Point & Newton Pool, 19th April 2008

Today was just desperate !!

Up early and I spent 4 hours floggin the coast in anticipation of some eastern blown migrants, perhaps a nice ring ouzel, or a whinchat...... or maybe something a bit rarer..... who knows....

What did Newton have in store for me ?........ NAFF ALL !!!

Yep.... I religiously flogged every patch of cover along this stretch, my massive migrant haul comprised of 1 swallow, 2 willow warblers and chiffchaff !!

Not very inspiring, so I headed to the pool to see what I could pull out of the bag.... here the sum total of birds on the pool was.....

2 teal
4 mallard
5 gadwall
1 goldeneye
1 mute swan
1 black headed gull
2 moorhens

Whats going on ??!!

Things were so bad I took a picture of a moorhen !!

desperate.......

Maybe Newton Point could save the day...........

Mmmmmm...... maybe not...... 5 sandwich terns, 3 red throated divers and the bird of the day......

a distant flyby great northern diver.....

I went home and got the bike out instead.....

Pallas's.....

After news of a singing pallas's warbler in Newcastle over the weekend, I thought I'd give it a go if it was still there today....

Sure enough it was there this morning...... so after work I headed over with MK to have a gander.....

On arrival I met a couple of guys who had been there for a few hours and not seen it, they said it hadn't been seen since 10am..... It didn't sound hopeful but we headed over to where MK had seen the bird on Saturday afternoon and within 15 minutes the pallas's was performing beautifully right in front of us !!

I watched it for a couple of minutes at close range doing that lemon rumped hovering bizness, then it flew into a large bare tree where I thought there maybe an opportunity to try and digiscope it !! OK digiscoping a pallas's... yeah I know, I must be mental !!

Anyway... I was quite confident I may actually get some snaps when this willow warbler comes barreling over and gives the pallas's a proper kickin !! The pallas's nips off into hiding and the willow warbler just puffs out its chest and sings........ and sings !!

Pallas's bully !!..... This could have been a nice pallas's pic.....honest !

As I never got a photo of the pallas's in the end, I stole this pic from the web instead so you can see what what little stunners they are.........

Pallas's warbler held by Father Jack... FECK, ARSE..... GIRLS! !!

At least we saw it for a couple of minutes anyway.......a little belter !! We waited around for another hour but never saw it again....

High Newton & Low Newton, 12th April 2008

The first ringing session of the year !!

Pretty quiet really, but what it lacked in quantity it made up for in quality.....

Did about 30 birds, including 2 chiffchaffs, 4 yellowhammers, pied wagtail, reed bunting and various finches etc....

New arrival....

Also retrapped a blackbird and a robin ringed as juvs last summer....

I packed up ringing after lunch and headed down to the pool to see if I could find Barry's firecrest from yesterday.... it was not to be, only bird of note here was 1 house martin with a group of sand martins. Teal seem to have pushed off from here too and the pool was deathly quiet with just a couple of teal, 2 tufted ducks and 1 goldeneye....

At Newton Haven there were 7 common scoter and 3 goldeneye, along the beach here were 6 barwits with the other usual waders....

Along towards Newton Point were 2 wheatears and one red throated diver.....

Wheatear....

On the walk back to High Newton a Barn Owl was quartering the fields and roadside giving ace views... right over my head at one stage !!

Low Newton & Newton Point, 11th April 2008

Dipped..... AGAIN.... BOLLOX !!

Yes once again I raced over to Newton this afternoon after a call from local birder Barry. He'd found a firecrest at Newton Pool...... Firecrest on the patch isn't to be sniffed at, and it also gave me an excuse to get some mist nets set up for some ringing the following morning....

I arrived and met Barry, but he'd not seen the firecrest for some time, it had flown into the wardens garden. Luckily I have permission to enter this garden, so confident it would be lurking in Mike's undergrowth somewhere I headed straight in.....

After an hour and a half of grilling the whole area I came up with a nowt ! Once again Newton had dealt me a dip.... I don't think I'm gonna bother twitching Newton again...... yeah right, who am I kiddin !!

I've seen 3 firecrests at Newton in the past so I wasn't too gutted, but I'd like to have made it 4 !! Firecrest is one of my favourite UK birds, always a great day when you see one of them.... ah well, it could have been worse, could've been a bluethroat or something.......

Anyway.... thanks for the call Barry....

I consoled myself with a couple of singing chiffs, 7 sand martins and 2 swallows, my first hirundines of the spring....

Along towards the point a male wheatear continued the usual routine by refusing to let me photograph it in true "Newton wheatear" fashion.....

"Arrrrggghhhh a camera......thats it I'm off....."

Long Nanny & Low Newton, 5th April 2008

I should have listened to the sensible side of my brain this morning and stayed in bed !

But no..... instead I headed out to Long Nanny this morning, battled gale force winds, sleet and hail.... and for what ? Nuffin !! The only birds of note were 2 wheatears on the saltmarsh, and I only managed 1 single crap photo before they both decided they didn't like me and flew right over the other side of the Nanny.... TYPICAL !!

Windswept wheatear....... A truly shite picture !!

What is it with me and wheatears ? Whenever I reach for the camera they always bugger right off....

Still.. these were my first wheatears at Newton this year, so worth the walk I reckon...

At Football Hole there was a stunning summer plumaged red-throated diver and 4 common scoter...... On the beach at Low Newton was a large gathering of waders which included 39 purple sandpipers.....

Finally, round at the Newton Pool there was nowt ! Well..... I could bore you with single figure counts of wigeon and shoveler.... but I won't bother !! 29 pinkfeet dropped in but soon moved on again.... no sign of yesterdays garganey.....

Tomorrow I'm listening to the sensible side.....

Newton Pool & Newton Point, 4th April 2008

AT LAST !!! PATCH TICK !!!!

ABOUT BLEEDIN TIME TOO !!!

Garganey (male & female), Newton Flood

I seem to have an expert ability at repelling certain birds..... as a result I've managed to successfully dip garganey at Newton on a good number of occasions over the years ! This species is virtually annual here but I always seem to arrive just before or after the event......

Today my luck changed.... I watched these two for 20 minutes or so, but when I returned about an hour later they had gone.... could be lurking on Newton Pool somewhere tho.....

A strange day today.... migration was visible but it was north westerlies and it just felt a bit weird.... for the first time ever I had a common buzzard fly in off the sea at Newton Point, then on 3 different occasions I had rock pipits flying north way out over the sea, and finally I had a chiffchaff flying north along the beach at Newton !! All very strange.....

Here's another mystery diver.... whats this ? The answer is at the end of this post.....

I started today at Newton Point where the skylarks were in full song with a lot of territorial battling going on.....

Skylark at Newton Point

In Football Hole there was a large flock of the usual waders including 23 purple sandpipers. On the sea here were 3 goldeneye and 1 common scoter, a great northern diver flew north. At Newton Point a quick seawatch produced a lot of northward bound auks and a few kittewakes and gannets.

Shag at Newton Point

At Low Newton 11 common scoters were in Newton Haven, and along the shore a large gathering of waders included 3 barwits and a handful of purple sandpipers.....

Next I moved on to check the flood pool which is vanishing fast...... I started scanning through the ducks here and soon came across the 2 garganey, also here were 7 shoveler, 5 wigeon and just 1 redshank.... also a good number of meadow pipits in this field....

Next... on to Newton Pool and more summer migrants ! 2 chiffchaffs were giving it full beans in the willows !!

On the pool a number of little grebes were getting territorial too......

This is what it must feel like to be in a tiny dingy when there's a fuggin great tanker steaming towards you.....

On the pool where 7 goldeneye, 2 tufted ducks and a number of greylag geese..... these greylags were joined for a short period by a flock of 12 pinkfeet which included 1 barnacle.....

Pinkfoot

Barnie....

Oh..... and here's that mystery diver which was also on Newton Pool.....

Common scrot

IT'S HERE !!

Unfortunately I couldn't make it out to Newton last weekend, so I probably missed the first of those long awaited spring migrants.....

....But this week we've had a run of spring migrants on some of my work sites instead, these have included singing wheatear, ring ouzel and chiffchaff..... and flyover osprey and sand martins......

So..... Its official spring is here !!

..... Mmmmm................. then again the weather forecast for the weekend looks shite.....