Uni/Patchwork

Moved into Northumbria Uni on Friday, and as feared, my birding has becoming fairly reduced, but after news of missing an absolute mega in the cemetery yesterday (WOOD WARBLER!!), I couldn't resist a trip down this afternoon for the Red-Breasted Flycatcher. Thankfully it hung around for me and became my 265th Northumberland bird, and more importantly, a new bird for the patch! Juvenile Curlew Sandpiper and 2 Garden Warblers also around today.

Curlew Sandpiper

Waders, and a PATCH TICK!

It's been a wader week with Little Stints and Curlew Sandpiper at Cresswell on Wednesday, then a mental patch twitch on Friday morning, a LITTLE STINT AT ST. MARY'S! Huge patch tick! While we were there, we picked up another one with the original bird! 2 LITTLE STINTS ON PATCH! Superb!

 Curlew Sandpiper from Cresswell

 Patch Little Stint!

Ruff from Cresswell Pond

County Casp!

Okay I've neglected my blog for the last few months, but I have to post, it's a Northumberland Caspian Gull! LOOK!

Past Week!

A few highlights from the last week, the obvious one being the Crag Martin at Flamborough on Friday, absolutely quality! Watched it for about 10 minutes before drifting south with a Swallow, however it returned and was seen up until Sunday morning! No photos unfortunately, but here are a few photos from Bempton Cliffs: 

 Classic Gannets!

On Monday, I returned to the patch, and found SPP and DH looking over the wetland, little did I know they were looking at an absolute mega for St. Mary's. There was a PAIR OF COOTS on the wetland!! I was also told they were mating, which could suggest the first ever breeding record of Coot at St. Mary's! I also got 4 White Wagtails, 30+ Sandwich Terns, a Grey Plover and 3 Bar-Tailed Godwits flew north.

MEGA!

Then yesterday, I went back down and heard my first Gropper of the year! Possibly my favourite song of all time, and it showed wonderfully!

  Grasshopper Warbler

White Wagtail

Ferruginous Duck!!

Panic hit me on Sunday afternoon as a report of a probable Ferruginous Duck came through from Gosforth Park, and after confirmation this morning, I had a trip along there this afternoon, and connected within minutes! Showed well from the Pyle Hide for 20 minutes before flying onto the smaller pond.

 Ferruginous Duck

Firecrest from St. Mary's last week!

I blame Gary for this...

I found myself lying in the South Bay at St. Mary's yesterday afternoon studying every single pipit on the beach, after regularly reading about Gary's pipits at Newton. Fascinating stuff, and as Paul M said, "nothing like a bit of 'littoralis' action in Mid-March!". I managed to get 2 'littoralis' Rock Pipits, 3 Rock Pipits and a Meadow Pipit on the seaweed all at 10ft range. Here are some photos:

 One of Two 'Scandinavian' Rock Pipits. Note the overall light (peachy) colouring, strong supercilium and much whiter outer tail feathers.

 A nice 'normal' Rock Pipit!

Smart Meadow Pipit showing as well.

Decent Weekend

Saturday saw me and a few mates twitching the wintering Hoopoe in Dumfries. We didn't see it in 4 hours in summary! However we did get a drake Smew and Slav Grebe on Loch Soulseat. Just before we left, another mate of mine rang me to inform me that the unringed adult Red-Breasted Goose was showing at Loaningfoot with Barnacles again, and after considering a twitch of this bird last weekend, we soon left the Hoopoe site to look for it. After about an hour of looking from West Preston Farm, we finally picked it up in the flock, mega! It was a superb bird and one that I'd been looking forward to seeing for a long time!

Red-Breasted Goose (Copyright - Andrew Kinghorn) 

Then Sunday had me up at East Chevington after some Redpolls! 2 Mealies showed well on the feeders at the top end, and the Red-Necked Grebe was still present.

 Comparison between Mealy (Right) and Lesser (left)

 Mealy Redpoll

Lesser Redpoll