Grey then Black

East Chevington

Hadston

WW

Grey Plover

Ruff

A morning visit to Lindisfarne on Monday. Highlights Pied Flycatchers, Redstarts, Spotted Flycatchers, Goldcrests, Whinchats and Lesser Whitethroat.

Today a lot of the bay covered with little reward (other than the waders at Hauxley) until I came across this rather splendid Juvenile Black Tern at East Chevington.

ToB and R-fF

Tuesday Highlight 

Druridge Pools

Wednesday

Tour of Britain passes my house. Mum visiting, as she's a bit of a cycling fan (watching not participating).

Once the road cleared we headed for Druridge in search of Otter and Butterflies. We managed only two Wall Brown.

"I'll just check Cresswell" I said. Boy am I glad I didn't head home!

Car screeches to a halt. Bird on wire. I looked through binoculars and the conversation went something like:

"Good News I've found a rare bird, Bad News we have to wait here for thirty minutes until someone else gets here to see it."

Mum was abandoned in the car to read a book on her techy tablet thing whilst I rang RBA and various local birders. (I've only got 5 on my phone, and since I no longer use twitter, that was it.) Mum was subjected to listening to conversations that involved various expletives.

Mum reminded me to ring ST (I forgot ... oops ... my best mate). His reply was brilliant but I can't repeat it here.

First to arrive was FG who asked what I had seen ... to which he replied he'd seen it earlier flying over Hemscott Hill (I was a tad disappointed that I hadn't found it, but Hey Ho people were on the way.)

Poor Mum then had to listen to the excitable chatter from visiting locals (County Tick for most of them!). Once the crowd reached 10ish I felt I could leave. Sadly the bird disappeared shortly after and some of my birding friends hadn't made it. Thinking about its feather moult and its constant feeding I didn't expect it to go far. I was delighted it was back next day and I hope everyone caught up with it. 

Amazing Bird!

Haydon Bridge

1st KoM stage

Fontburn Reservoir

Friday

Druridge again for Butterflies

Tomorrow (Saturday) could be a good migrant spotting day so I'll try and get to the coast at some stage. 

A tip off from BB had me heading to Cresswell to see Yellow-browed Warbler, Firecrest, Pied Flycatcher and Redstart.

Hoping for a good find today (Monday 14th)

Mostly Insects

Painted Lady (East Chevington)

Following my 22 Brent Geese flying North at Newbiggin yesterday (05/092015) a single Brent flew from the North Pool this morning.

Hawker Sp?

Thanks to JA for the location of these Black Darters. These are amazing to watch but the photos don't do them justice.

Amazingly I had seen none of the above until a couple of quad bikers rode through the place I was was watching?

Nearby a large patch of Scabious was awash with Bees and Butterflies

Good also to meet local birder Alan on his local patch.

Oh, and the local Shark remains stranded in the Power Station Lagoon.

High Tides and Blustery N. Westerlies

An influx of Wheatears always good to see and they keep the hopes of finding something a little different. Pied Wagtails and the reappearance of Rock Pipits were the best I found along the strand line.

Plenty of these sadly none of the short-tailed variety (or the adult spotty form  ... like the one at South Shields).

High tides changed the appearance of the Ponteland pool (Hauxley).

This bird I believe was ringed in Scotland but I'm waiting to find out more details.

Today I received detail of the Sandwich Tern in the background. Photographed 15th July 2015 at East Chevington.

The Sandwich Tern you photographed RED KAN was ringed (DK38951) at Ynyslas National Nature Reserve, Ceredigion, West Wales on 25th August 2013 as an adult. It was one of the first handful of birds ringed as part of a colour-ringing project to study tern passage through the estuary. The previous year we caught nearly 100 but since registering the scheme we have been unable to repeat that initial success. No terns breed anywhere near the site so all birds are passing through and the numbers present, and how long they stay, vary greatly from one year to the next. Catching is also dependent on calm weather, high tides and good tern passage all coinciding! So far this year we have managed to colour-ring another 28 birds but the numbers have been low and the weather unhelpful. Results from the first ten or so birds have been encouraging so hopefully we will get a few more sightings now from these new additions. 

Good Birding :-)

Hauxley has been my morning focus and has proved very rewarding. The water levels in the reserve are at their best but apart from the cliques no access is possible except for the Ponteland Hide. 

Some moulting birds look amazing (above)

some not s good (below).

DD sent me a text about a Wryneck at Newbiggin. I found a Spotted Flycatcher.

Monday 24th August

Good numbers of migrants reported but few on my patch. TF and JF were having a great day on Holy Island.  

This duck initially had me thinking RC Pochard. The bill especially was not right. Then the flanks were Gadwall-like. I finally googled  the Saltholme bird from a few years back and the picture was a good match. Probably Gadwall X Tufted Duck ... hybrid.

One way to get supper, I went to the Chippy!

A sudden afternoon fall of Pied Flycathers, Wheatears and Whinchats made me end ST a text. He went out and found a Wryneck at Cambois **** .

Tuesday afternoon when all the migrant news subsided I headed around the overgrown south end of East Chevington. My target bird was RBS, I thought the small pines would be a likely holding area. Well the birding fortunes were with me because no RBS but a Wryneck flew from the ground into some Meadowsweet and out of sight.

Bank Holiday Weekend (My Favourite ... NOT) An early visit to the Ponteland hide, very enjoyable. However the Great North Bike Ride meant I headed back home to avoid the event. As the bikers pass my house I patiently waited for the crowds to reduce then headed out. I planned to walk the south pool route but retreated when I saw a couple (with dog) fighting their way through the jungle. Heading back North I noticed the Whitehroats were nervous and with reason ... this beauty was on top of the hawthorn.

Pentatoma rufipes

Red-legged Shieldbug landed beside me and distracted me temporarily.

Sadly this bird didn't stick around and was gone by 5:30 (Found at about 1:30.).