Spring in to Birding with a Quality Day

25^th April.  Spurred on perhaps by noticing some good records of late on the records board at the Rising Sun Country Park, Sam and I decided to begin our day in North Tyneside before moving north along the coast to Druridge.  The evening before, Sam’s presentation at the country park concerning conservation success stories had been well received.  Our presentations are to be repeated, but not before we have re-worked them over the winter months.

We soon picked up the calls of numerous Chiffchaff and Willow Warblers and eventually had sightings of singing Blackcaps and Common Whitethroats, although the hedge renowned for warblers was today very quiet.  A surprise was the large number of Greenfinch seen and heard in the area, hopefully a species o the rise again.  A flock of Goldfinch was also seen.  Three species of grebe were soon added to our day list Great Crested Grebe, Little Grebe and good sightings of a pair of their rarer cousin which had been on our target list.  Also seen well lit by the sunlight were both Red Crested Pochard and a very unexpected Ruddy Duck.  With the sunshine, birdsong and decent sightings we stayed in North Tyneside a little longer than expected.  Swallows and a couple of House Martins flew over the water and Long tailed Tits were seen.  We eventually left for Druridge Bay, more specifically the café at Cresswell for lunch before visiting Cresswell Pond.  Hopefully some areas for wildlife will remain in North Tyneside in the long term despite the Council’s steely determination to cover the whole area in brick, concrete and tarmac!

Spoonbill

As we approached the pond, passing Tree Sparrows along the way, it was good to see the water low and the sun still above us, and even better to see such a good selection of species which led to one of our better days at this site.  Red breasted Mergansers were on the pond, but what caught the eye were the waders in eye catching plumage.  The list here was Oystercatcher, Avocets mainly at the north end of the pond and numbering twenty-two, Lapwing, a single Knot, Dunlin perhaps twenty-thirty, a single Common Sandpiper, Redshank, Black tailed Godwit six, Curlew, Ruff six and best of all a flock of Whimbrel which flew in as we watched.  I got my eye on a Whimbrel and we soon realised that the whole flock of thirty-two were in fact all Whimbrel.  The most either of us have seen at one time.  It was good to hear the occasional call from them, one of those calls that to my mind spells true wilderness.  The call of an Arctic Tern was also heard overhead, but the bird wasn’t seen.

A Common Buzzard was seen in the far distance to the north of the pond and from the hide Sam counted twenty plus Wheatears, Pied and White Wagtail in the fields at the far end of the pond.  At least some of Wheatears were seen more clearly by us as we moved north, as were the Avocets.

Spoonbill

Our next stop was Druridge Pools where before we entered the hide we heard Sedge Warblers and briefly saw Stonechat.  Reed Bunting was seen at some point.  The first birds seen from the hide were two Little Egrets and a Spoonbill.  On this occasion we were watching a very active Spoonbill!  We were reminded of one of our best ever birding days which we had spent on the Little Hortobagy in Hungary where we had watched Spoonbills.  The Spoonbill grabbed our attention so much it was a while before we saw the Garganey!  Other birds on the pools included a pair of Pintail, Shelduck, Mallard, Gadwall, Shoveler, Wigeon, Teal and Tufted Duck.  A single Whimbrel was seen here too.  Sand Martins were seen as we moved between hides.

Channel Yellow Wagtail

We had looked at the area near Bell’s Pond hoping for Yellow Wagtail.  This is usually a good area for this species, but we found none today.  It wasn’t long before we found two at Druridge Pools.  As the sun shone on these birds I was once again reminded just how stunning this species is and we were pleased to point them out to a fellow birder for which this species was a lifer.  I got my eye on a third Yellow Wagtail on the edge of the pool and Sam instantly recognised it as a Channel Yellow Wagtail.  We watched this bird at length as it bathed in the pool.  A Meadow Pipit was seen nearby.  A pair of Great Crested Grebe was seen on the northerly pool, but there was nothing else of note there.

Channel Yellow Wagtail

Having spoken to some birders who had come down via Hauxley Reserve and told us they had seen little in that area, which didn’t all together surprise me, we decided not to bother going any further north but instead to take a quick look over the sea as our time had passed very quickly.  Eider Ducks were seen, and we also picked up Sandwich, Arctic and Common Terns.  We made off for home soon after.

In the evening when I wrote up our species day list I was surprised but pleased to find the list totalled eighty-one species.  It had seemed to me one of those special days that occur from time to time and it made up for the fact that I haven’t been very active on the birding front in recent weeks.  It had been a relaxed day and a quality day and so difficult to pick out a ‘sighting of the day’ but on reflection I think for me it has to be that flock of Whimbrel.

Small White and Tortoiseshell Butterflies added to the day.

A Tale of Two Feathers

I’ve been quite neglectful of the blog recently and thought I ought to get something written.  In part my neglect has been down to the fact I’m involved in leading a series of presentations at the Rising Sun Country Park which are aimed at people new to bird watching including some of the wardens who had shown interest.  The images that I’m using are in the main provided by Samuel Hood, so it is a joint effort and in fact Sam is leading the next with what promises to be a very interesting presentation.  If it is all a success, and folk seem to be enjoying it up to now, the whole thing may be repeated, and I understand we have a few names listed of interested parties who were unable to get a place this time around.  Another reason for my absence from the blog is simply lack of birding recently.

I’ve for some time now been thinking of putting a talk together concerning feathers, a very interesting and fascinating subject in my view, but I’ve yet to get around to doing this.  I did in my opening presentation last week include some information on feathers and it is one of the links I keep going throughout the talks.  I was able to include some information on the avian relationship to dinosaurs, another fascinating subject in its self.  I had a selection of feathers at hand of course, and two had special stories behind them.

The first tale/feather involved a trip taken many years ago to the Cairngorm area of Scotland.  This was and, although I haven’t been up there for some time, remains a favourite area of mine, not least because of some of the speciality birds of the area.  The real pleasure the trips provided was often getting out before sunrise with the son of a friend of mine, Lee who I still occasionally bird with.  We’d begin about 5.00am and often not see another person until afternoon.  On one of these early mornings we were determined to find ourselves a Capercaillie by walking the tracks of Abernethy Forest.  We did find a female Capercaillie and did have a short sighting as it flew into the forest.  We never did find a male and it was some years after that I saw my first wild Capercaillie males at the viewing site at Loch Garten.  The search was never the less always exciting and did bring other rewards.  We passed by a very large black feather, and yes, I should have known its significance!  The following day we decided to leave early in the morning once again, but this time we visited one of my favourite walking areas around Loch an Eilein (Loch of the Island) in Rothiemurchus Forest.  We almost always found Crested Tits and Crossbills in this area and on at least one occasion watched an Osprey fish here.  The island was one of the last refuges of Osprey prior to extinction in Scotland and they haven’t returned to this nest site.  The nest was a target for egg collectors and there are several stories about this.  We looked in at the small building which at the time held a few natural curiosities and found a feather exactly the same as the one we had seen the previous day.  It was a Capercaillie feather, and no I certainly don’t have that one!

It was raining the next morning and we had planned a later start anyway, but instead of getting a few hours extra sleep we got going again about 5.00am and set off to find the feather we had passed by.  For some reason the walk seemed much longer, and I began to think we were going to be out of luck, but we did find it and it found a new home with Lee.  Lee has since passed it on to Sam.  I’m happy to say I’ve since had close encounters with male Capercaillies and occasionally with the feather.

The second tale/feather relates to a more recent find, this time the adventure was in Finland.  Sam and I had starts as early as 4.00am o this trip but I don’t recall this particular morning being such an early start, but it did involve a rather difficult walk through forest to a Great Grey Owl nest.  Finding the Great Grey Owl on the nest is one of my best ever wildlife experiences.  We were lucky enough to have as our leaders Killian Mullarney and Dick Forsman.  Dick had become aware of Sam’s keenness so was always at pains to point things out and give an explanation, so it was good that he was at hand when Sam came across this particular feather.  It was found not far from the Great Grey Owls nest and turned out to be from a Goshawk.  Dick explained the pattern on the feather showed that it was from the Russian stock and quite different from what would be found on a British or Western European bird.  Another participant claimed that she had seen the feather first, but as she had shown no inclination to pick it up, if she thought Sam was going to pass it over to her she soon found out that that was not to be!  The feather remains a prize possession of Sam’s.

Happily, these two feathers and several others seemed to capture the attention and imagination of the participants last week.