Long Nanny & Low Newton, 21st Feb 2009

Another Saturday hangover meant I only managed a couple of hours at Newton again today..... really gotta cut down on all that, spent the day feeling rather spaced out to be honest !!..... Ahhhh feck it, I'm sure when the spring eventually arrives (....I mean proper spring not just the odd singing skylark...) then I'll get motivated and start to behave......

I started today at the shit heap to see if the ring ouzel was still present..... It was.... all those other thrushes and finches seem to have vanished tho.... only a grey wag on the shit pit today......

Grey wag....

I headed off to the Long Nanny.... the walk was quiet with just a couple of stonechats and 1 large flock of approximately 70 curlew on the saltmarsh by the bridge.....

At the Long Nanny saltmarsh there were 2 snow buntings......

Snow bunting male....


2nd snow bunting, also a male.....

The amount of white in the greater coverts and black blotches in the mantle point to this being a male, but having just checked Svensson it seems the mainly white primary coverts are the real clincher.... winter females can be similar looking but often duller with less white in the wing generally, and normally dark primary coverts or only very little white....

Nice...

Also 4 twite on the saltmarsh today......

1 of 4...

On the shore a large gathering of gulls was grilled (twice !), nothing out of the ordinary to report...... the ringed plovers are getting all territorial, but a flock of 44 winter plumaged dunlin were just huddled on the shore looking cold and pissed off !

Offshore in Beadnell Bay the highlight was 3 long-tailed ducks including one stonking male ! Also here was a flock of wigeon, 13 common scoter, 34 goldeneye and 2 red throats....

Wigeon flock on the sea

There was a little light left so I headed to Low Newton, a quick dash round and not a lot to report here... 33 teal, 12 moorhens, 2 redshank and 19 lapwings on the flooded field. On the shore there was 8 barwits with the other usual waders, and a female scaup offshore.....

CORN BUNTINGS !!!

That got your attention !!......Look at these fat barley birds !!

Don't see these every day...

Yesterday I had the pleasure of spending the day with one of my work colleagues Hywel in Aberdeenshire.... I was there to learn more about the work he is doing to help corn buntings in his region.

We drove around many sites and looked at the how the various measures the farmers have put in place were performing.... Hywel gave me chapter and verse on corn bunting conservation and it soon became apparent that the decline of the fat barley bird is a lot more complex than people think !

Anyway we looked at a number of things that can be done as "emergency measures" to try and help this species......

Extensive stubbles from low input spring barley

Low inputs means more weeds within the crop, better insect food and better nesting habitat compared to many "modern" cleaner crops...

Unharvested cereal crop

Basically a wholly sacrificial crop to provide safe nesting habitat and plentiful food in the winter months. This site was amazing lifting with birds, obviously delivering the goods...

Wild bird cover crop

This is sacrificial seed bearing crop sown to provide winter food for farmland birds, this example is particularly heavy with a mixture of cereals to provide for a range of buntings.... over 100 reed buntings in here !

All in all a very inspiring day, good to see these measures in place and the data gathered by hywel on these sites shows that it appears to be working. Obviously it all costs money so the key is finding willing farmers who will take agri-environment payments to provide this kind of management on their land...... already a few doing this in Northumberland.

Also managed to have lunch at Fraserburgh harbour, and while I was eating my custard tart this flew over.......

Whitefronts at Low Newton

I was intrigued by a report of 5 Euro whitefronts from Low Newton today..... Yesterday I had 4 Euros and a Greenland here..... or so I thought ?

Now I am no goose expert, in fact I have been guilty of calling geese VERY BORING in the past...(.....and with that attitude its no wonder I am no goose expert !).......but this report made me wonder if there was something about whitefronts I was unaware of, maybe I had missed something ?

The fact is, the single bird I saw yesterday was dark looking and even through the murk I could see a fair sized orange bill ! So, I assumed it was a Greenland bird ? The other 4 birds had pink bills and paler greyer underparts....... Is there something else I should know ? Is my Greenland bird really a Euro bird in disguise ? Is there such a thing as the 6 bird theory ?...... Am I going a bit bonkers ?

Anyway here's some pics..... mind you they're pretty shit record shots !! The bird I'm talking about is the fuzzy blob in the middle of the bottom 2 pics !!

3 Euros and a pinkfoot....

Greenland whitefront.... or so I thought ?

Non birding day..... well sort of...

I took today off birding to work on the R6.... plenty of winter work to do on her.... plenty of oily bike bits scattered all over the garage too.... bike heaven !! Its stripped down for the winter, cleaning her up, just had the wheels powder coated, new sticky rubber fitted ready for the summer, and new wavy brake discs and sintered pads !...... Probably means nowt to all you birders, but its exciting for me !!

Anyway took an hour off bike tinkering to do some shopping..... on my return I was just turning into my street when I noticed a couple of waxwings in some tall trees, I pulled to an abrupt halt to watch them flycatching ! Not sure exactly what flies they were catching tho ??

Just enough time for a couple of quick snaps before they buggered off.....

Waxwing with a healthy purple glow from my leica loan scope..... wish they'd hurry up and get mine fixed.......

Long Nanny & Low Newton, 14th Feb 2009

ARRRGGHHHHH...... NO NO NO !!!...... GRIPPED........AGAIN !!!

I got some second hand news today of 6 lapland buntings at the Long Nanny last week....

BOLLOX BOLLOX BOLLOX BOLLOX !!!

.....So of course I spent the morning flogging all around the Nanny on a fruitless lap bunt hunt.....Why do I always repel these little blighters ?

OK, they're lap bunts and not mega rare, but I've tried for ages to get one of these on the patch..... and I feel pretty hacked off that this news wasn't released at the time...... I would certainly have made an effort to see them..... If I find anything worthwhile I always try to put news out so others can enjoy the birds too........ Its a shame some people don't bother putting news out until its too late......

Anyway that's enough of my moaning.........

On my way to the Nannny a quick peek into the shit heap confirmed the ring ouzel is still there....

Then down to the Nanny where there was a nice adult winter med gull...

Spot the med.....

If you can see it then you need your eyes testing..... It flew off just as I was pressing the button.... it was sat between those two common gulls in the middle !!

Talking of common gulls.... aren't common gulls BRILLIANT !! Seem to be a lot of these on the move at the mo, they're showing the whole range of plumage too.....

Adult winter bird with a full streaky dark hood......

And here's a sum plum version.... very clean

At the Long Nanny 2 twite flew over calling, and a female merlin was floating around the saltmarsh. In Beadnell Bay there were 19 common scoter, 3 red throated divers and 13 goldeneye.....

Perhaps of greatest note today was the large numbers of Pinkfeet on the move..... I witnessed 8 flocks totalling approximately 870 birds, the largest group was 440..... all seemed to be heading north....

Down at Low Newton a flock of approximately 90 pinkfeet made brief stop off with the greylags, dropping in for about 10 minutes before moving off again....... amongst this flock was a Greenland whitefront.....

Some particularly crap pics of a Greenland whitefront....

The 4 European whitefronts were still present too, and also 15 whooper swans....

Whoopers....

On Low Newton flood there were 2 gadwall and 51 teal....... around the edge of the pool a large flock of meadow pipits was grilled for that elusive water pipit..... which remained elusive.... ie non existent !! Gotta try tho haven't you......

Round at Newton Pool there were 9 goldeneye and 43 teal, and on Newton beach a large flock of waders included 80+ each of sanderling and dunlin, also 13 purple sandpipers....

Clockwork toys.....

I finished off the afternoon checking the fields at High Newton....... a mixed flock of 150 odd thrushes included fieldfares, redwings, song thrushes and 1 mistle thrush..... even better was a nice flock of yellowhammers...... 39 to be precise ! With these there was also 3 reed bunts, 2 skylarks, and a few chaffinches.....

The winter wheat fields had large numbers of lapwing and golden plover scattered all over them, some of the goldies were showing nice black bellies too......

Low Newton

DOUBLE GRIPPED !!

As if one wasn't enough......

A couple of mates from Lancashire saw my last post and kindly sent me these (taken at the weekend).... its currently residing in the bushes near my old flat on the banks of Stocks Reservoir !

Hawfinch in a hawthorn....eating haws !!.... Doing exactly what it says on the tin !!

Seen some good birds around that flat.... great grey shrike, osprey, med gull, hobby, crossbills, whooper swans..... never hawfinch tho !! Thanks to Margaret and Gav for the pics.....

OH MY GOD...... I'M GRIPPED !!!

I had a nice e-mail today from Ian, a local who lives at High Newton...... He sent me these pics from his garden !!

In the words of Victor Meldrew.... "...... I DON'T BELIEVE IT !!!!"

Now before you get too excited, these were taken one autumn a few years ago....... even so.... what a stonker !!..... I would LOVE to see one of these on the patch, it would be a patch tick, and a superb one at that.....

Ian's e-mail reads..... "I think it must have been blown in from the east somewhere as the day it arrived it was bedraggled wet and hungry"....... and he went on "..... it was very tame and not shy" !!

ARRRGGGHHHHHH !!!.......I've just turned green with envy !!

Anyway, many thanks for the e-mail Ian, a superb bird to get in High Newton, and an amazing garden visitor.....

Newton Links & Low Newton, 11th Feb 2009

I managed to drop into Newton today, a quick 5 minutes to see if the ring ouzel was still about...... it was, and showing well again, also a few other thrushes and a buzzard....

More thrushes around the shit heap !

A little while later I got a call from TD to let me know there were some European whitefronts at Low Newton...... A quick u-turn and I was back at Newton watching these beauties !! Thanks Tim !!

Whitefronts....

Funnily enough, over the last couple of days I've had a few conversations with mates where I have banged on about how boring geese are.... think I've even described them as dross !!..... Well I have to eat my words now and say these whitefronts were really nice...... great birds in fact !!

Newton Links, 8th Feb 2009

A flying visit to High Newton today to check if the ring ouzel was still about..... It certainly was, and showing better today.....

Showing well.....

Also there was a decent number of song thrushes and blackbirds, 2 mistle thrushes, 1 redwing, 1 fieldfare, 30+ chaffinches, 3 mipits and 1 skylark......... nice........

Long Nanny, Newton Point & Low Newton, 7th Feb 2009

Its nice not to worry about getting up at stupid o'clock in the mornings to go ringing or birding...... It's that time of year when I get very lazy..... the weather is flippin freezin, there's a general feeling that there's nowt new to see, and birding motivation is often low......

Last night I downed a load of booze and took the "Tomorrow I'll get up when I wake up" approach !! ........ As a result I found myself walking round Newton at about lunchtime with a stormin hangover..... so when a male ring ouzel hopped across the path in front of me I had to rub my eyes quite hard just to be sure I wasn't having some sort of flashback !

BLIMEY !!!

So....I started today by heading towards the Long Nanny.... I always check the cattle feeding area in the dunes for that elusive lapland bunting...... one day it'll happen you know !..... This area has both hay and a big pile of what looks like chicken shit..... over the last few weeks its held good numbers of finches and thrushes feeding here......

Today it was busier than I've seen it all winter, and while I was scanning the chaffinches for that brambling........ or arctic redpoll (...in my dreams !!) I was very surprised to see a stonkin male ring ouzel come hopping over the shit heap !! It took one look at me and buggered off in true flighty ring ouzel fashion..... I stood there for 20 minutes in a blizzard before it re-appeared and I got a couple of rather crappy distant record pics....

This is my first ever winter ring ouzel in the UK, they're usually in Morocco about now. You do get wintering birds in the UK but its not common. At Newton ring ouzels are a scarce passage birds in the autumn and they seem rare in the spring.

Around the shit heap there was also 4 mistle thrushes, 10+ blackbirds, 7 song thrushes, 1 fieldfare, 17 chaffinches, 9 goldfinches, 1 skylark and 2 mipits......

Shit heap thrushes.....

Onwards to the Long Nanny, here there was a red-breasted merganser on the burn, and 1 very lonely looking twite on the saltmarsh.....

Snow inland from the Long Nanny...

A scan of Beadnell Bay didn't produce a lot so I wandered back to the car park. The ring ouzel had moved onto the horse paddocks near the farm.....

In the paddocks....

Next I went to Newton Point, nothing here except a howling northerly !! In Newton Haven there were 19 goldeneye and a red-throated diver, and on the beach a nice gathering of waders included 100+ dunlin, 50+ sanderling, 70+ ringed plover, 11 purple sandpipers and a grey plover.....

Moody skies over Low Newton

Light was going, so I did a quick dash to Newton Pool, here there was 1 gadwall, 8 goldeneye and about 40 teal..... but no stringy green wingers !!

Finally as I left Low Newton a barn owl gave great views on the roadside fence as it munched down a small brown hairy thing !

Sunset over the flood at Low Newton