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

Ringing at the Avenue - 16th October 2011

The weather was just right this morning, so I went out with the Sorby Breck Ringing Group to ring at the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust's Avenue Wetlands in Chesterfield. We opened up four nest and although the birds were quite slow at first, by the end of the session at 12pm, 34 birds had been caught and ringed.

New birds for me were Willow Tit (1), Goldcrest (4) and a beautiful female Yellowhammer. 

Goldcrest

The most exciting element of the morning's ringing however, was the fact that I was able to correctly age a Blue Tit for the first time and that I actually got the wing length on one of the retrapped birds correct as well. Practise makes perfect as they say!

In between net rounds we had plenty of time to listen out for the other birds on site and recorded 18 species including dozens of fly over Redwings, my first Fieldfares of the winter, a yaffling Green Woodpecker, 1 Kestrel, 1 Sparrowhawk, 2 Jays, 4 Skylarks and Pied Wagtail.

Linacre - 15th October 2011

Today's visit was very busy with three jobs to get done: the WeBS walk, clearing out of the tit boxes and the installation of 2 new owl boxes. Luckily we had a super bunch of regulars along and extra help in the form of not one, but two DCC rangers, Jim and Jackie. Thanks alot to everyone.

First up were the new owl boxes. We already have 1 on site, but this was used by Mandarin Ducks this year (see here), so we decided another 2, located in other areas of woods might be used by the Tawny Owls we know are on site. Jim, who has much more knowledge about owl boxes than me, came along and put them up for us. Hopefully in February or March next year I'll be able to report our first eggs and young. Just as we were walking away from the first box we actually saw a Tawny Owl perched in a tree being mobbed!

Owl box

Next up was the annual tit box cleaning session. We do this at this time of the year because the resident birds have all finished breding, so there's no fear of disturbance. Removing the left over nesting materials and any dead chicks or eggs also means that the boxes will be in the best condition for the new season next year. Evidence that this year had been a good one for Blue and Great Tits came with the discovery of just 3 unhatched eggs and no dead young. Our only nesting attempt by the Pied Flycatchers ended in disaster when the female bird disappeared, presumably dead, after laying 3 eggs. These obviously did not hatch and they were removed and destroyed today.

Nestbox maintenance

Last up today was the monthly WeBS walk. Given all the other activities this month's walk wasn't quite as thorough as previous month's, however, we did still manage a new site record with an amazing 80 Canda Geese (plus the hybrid) on the top reservoir!! I must admit to having mixed feelings about this record. Although it's great to have such high numbers, I do fear they could take over as they have done in so many other sites. Let's keep watching and see what happens.

Apart from the geese we had another excellent sighting with 3 Great-crested Grebes present and our highest ever count of Teal with 6 (2 males and 4 females). Given the low water levels at the moment, they may stay around for the winter? Again, let's wait and see.

26 Black-headed Gulls were also on site along with 31 Tufted Ducks, 6 Moorhens, 3 Coots, 8 Mandarins (a massive under estimate I'm sure!), 60+ Mallards, 1 Little Grebe, 2 Cormorants, 1 Grey Heron which was heard, 1 Grey Wagtail and 2 Pied Wagtails.

Whilst checking the boxes we recorded the usual woodland birds (Tits, Treecreeper, Nuthatch, Great-spotted Woodpecker, Goldfinch, Goldcrest, Mistle Thrush, Blackbird, Jackdaw, Crow) as well as 4 Common Buzzards over the top reservoir, the first Redwings of the winter a single Red Admiral and one Speckled Wood buttefly. All in all an amazing morning!