Sheffield Ringing - 29th October 2011

Spent a few hours at a private site in Sheffield with the ringers from the Sorby Breck Ringing Group this morning. Despite a reasonable forecast, when we got there the wind had already picked up which meant the nets were billowing and the birds were keeping their distance. Having said this we did manage a reasonable total of 24 birds and included a new species for me: Lesser Redpoll.

The redpoll were the last birds in the nets today, and we had 3; 1 adult male, 1 juvenile male and 1 adult female. Here's a picture of the male and female adults. Note the extensive red feathering on the male bird, lovely!

Lesser Redpoll

Other birds ringed this morning were: Blue Tit, Great Tit, Coal Tit, Long-tailed Tit, Goldfinch, Chaffinch, Tree Sparrow and House Sparrow.

Other birds seen flying over were: Redwing, Fieldfare, Woodpigeon, Magpie, Crow and Jackdaw.

In addition to the birds I managed to age and sex a Great Tit correctly (juvenile male) and  Ray, my trainer, said he thought it was time for me to apply for my trainee license- hurrah!! When this arrives I'll be able to get even more hands on and begin to ring the birds as well as checking any recaptured birds: recaps. Can't wait!!

Bamburgh and Seahouses - 24th October 2011

Our last day in Northumberland was unfortunately very windy, which meant that the birding was quite difficult to put it nicely! Despite the winds, however, we mananged a quick trip to Stag Rocks at Bamburgh and a look around the harbour at Seahouses.

Stag Rocks is one of my favourite places because, during the winter months, views of Purple Sandpiper are almost guaranteed. Today we managed to find a group of approximately 15 feeding with Turnstones and Oystercatchers. There were also a few Common, Black-headed Gulls, an adult Gannet and a late tern species. I managed to get a few photos of the tern, which had a short, black beak. When I checked Collins, it showed adult winter plumaged Common, Arctic and Roseate Tern all with black beaks, so I can't identify it with 100% accuracy. Any ideas?

Tern species

After about half an hour, we drove down to Seahouses, had some chips(!) and then scanned the harbour for anything blown in by the strong winds. Unfortunately nothing extraordinary was present, but we did see a raft of 10 Eider Duck, a Rock Pipit, Starling, several more Turnstones a Shag, 4 fly past Barnacle Geese (real ones most likely from Svalbard!),and Herring, Great Black-backed and Black-headed Gulls.

Great Black-backed Gulls and a juvenile Herring Gull.



Alnmouth Harbour - 23rd October 2011

After a lovely afternoon visiting Alnwick and Alnwick Gardens with the family, we dropped into Alnmouth for a quick look at the harbour and estuary area. As the time was getting on (4.00pm) there were several gull species roosting with 100+ Common Gull, 200+ Herring Gull and dozens of Black-headed Gulls loafing about on the sands.

In addition 1 Bar-tailed Godwit, 30 Lapwing, Oystercatcher, Redshank and a very close Curlew were feeding. A large, female Sparrowhawk also flew low overhead.

Curlew

Cresswell Pond - 23rd October 2011

I got up early this morning and drove down to visit Cresswell Pond, a Northumberland Wildlife Trust reserve at the south end of Druridge Bay, Northumberland. Two hours later I had notched up a respectable 37 species including a stunning "cream crown" Marsh Harrier hunting over the reedbeds, a summer plumaged Bar-tailed Godwit and a small flock of 14 Red-breasted Mergansers.

Red-breasted Merganser

Bar-tailed Godwit

Other birds of note were: a winter plumaged Spotted Redshank, 2 large skeins of Pink-footed Geese which flew over, half a dozen Tree Sparrows in the hedges by the hide and two Common Snipe feeding in the reeds- lovely!

St Mary's Island - 22nd October 2011

Following a morning visit to Warkworth Beach we had a drive down the coast and popped into St Mary's Island in Whitley Bay for a couple of hours. As always, good numbers of waders were around, as well as another Red-throated Diver and a male Common Scoter heading south.

First up were the 50+ Curlew that were feeding in fields by the entrance. After parking up I walked down to the coast where at least 500 Golden Plover were roosting, along with hundreds of Starlings, dozens of Lapwings, Oystercatchers and several Herring, Common Great Black-backed and Black-headed Gulls.

Golden Plover and Oystercatcher

Walking down onto the causeway we soon spotted several Dunlin, Redshank, 2 Ringed Plover, Sanderling, Turnstone and 2 winter plumaged Bar-tailed Godwit.

Bar-tailed Godwit

Linacre - 25th October 2011 9 Wigeon and 4 playful Wagtails!

After a few days away in Northumberland I returned to Linacre this afternoon for a couple of hours. Despite the warm, settled weather, the reservoirs were pretty quiet and I enjoyed my first Wigeon since November 2008 (9 on the middle reservoir). Hopefully with the water levels much lower at the moment they should hang around for a while. Here's an awful picture of 4 of them!

4 Wigeon

As well as the Wigeon there were also 4 very playful Pied Wagtails flitting around the water tower on the top reservoir, 1 Teal and 2 skeins of approximately 150 Pink-footed Geese which flew over east.

Pied Wagtail

The woods were quite quiet with just Siskin of note, however the water held good numbers of the common waterbirds: Mallard (101), Tufted Duck (25), Grey Wagtail (2), Coot (10), Moorhen (7 adults and 2 juveniles), Cormorant (1), Black-headed Gull (39), Little Grebe (2), Great-crested Grebe (3 - 2 winter plumaged adults and a stripey headed juvenile), Canada Goose (54) and Mandarin (63).

On the way out I stopped to scan the fields by the main entrance and spotted 3 Stock Doves feeding along with approximately 50 Carrion Crows and 30 Starlings.

Warkworth Beach - 22nd October 2011

With the start of half term holidays I travelled up to Northumberland with my wife and daughter to catch up with our son and do abit of birding. We stopped in a lovely little house in the village of Warkworth just by the River Coquet.

The first day we were there we spent the morning on Warkworth Beach.

Warkworth Beach

 As we walked from the village along the river we recorded our first birds with Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Wren, Robin, Jackdaw, Collared Dove, Woodpigeon, Rook and Crows seen. A Grey Heron, several Redshank and a single Greenshank were also seen from the bridge feeding on the banks of the river.

Walking up to the beach we passed through an area of marsh where several more Redshank and another Greenshank were recorded, as were 1 Grey Plover, 3 Curlew, a Meadow Pipit, Starling and a Pheasant.

The beach itself was gorgeous and as we walked along towards Amble we saw half a dozen Sanderling feeding along the sea edge. Scanning the sea we also spotted a couple of winter plumaged Red-throated Diver and 4 Common Scoter.

Red-throated Diver