2019, Birding Begins Close to Home.

We've only begun
Before the risin' sun, we fly (Carpenters)

Jan 1st.  I don’t as a rule make resolutions, but once again I’ve decided to stray from character and unexpectedly make some.  First on the list is a determination to spend more time on patch whilst there is still time to enjoy it before the planners and builders move ever closer with their concrete and bricks.  Second, having talked at the end of 2018 about using all the senses whilst communing with nature, I’ve decided that I need to ensure that I am practicing what I preach and so brush up on this skill in 2019.  Third, I am to organise my book collection into some order and be more discerning in what I read and collect in future and this may include ditching a few books in the direction of a charitable organisation.  Incidentally my first read of the year is a book from the 1980s, Flight of the Storm Petrel by Ronald Lockley.  Mr Lockley began to study Storm Petrels on the island of Skokholm where he lived prior to World War Two.

My birding got off to a rather relaxed start on News Years Day with a garden watch.  I’d like to say that I found an exotic visitor on the feeders, but it wouldn’t be true, although I’m only too pleased that we have our House Sparrows back which seems to suggest that the killer domestic cats don’t always get their own way.  After lunch rather than a long walk around the patch I spent ninety minutes in the vicinity of the village.  Sadly, I found that that North Tyneside Council have decided to put wire fencing around much of what is a good area for wildlife in an attempt to keep walkers to linear pathways.  I spoke with someone who had walked in this area for over seventy years who seemed convinced the area was going to be built on.  I had a wonderful thought that perhaps the council are to make it into a wildlife reserve, then I reasoned that I was more likely to see pigs flying over the tree-tops!  Birding was fairly quiet, although I did come across a feeding party of birds which included Great Tit, Coal Tit, Blue Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Blackbird, Robin, Bullfinch, Chaffinch and Goldcrest.  On my return home I passed a flock of calling Goldfinch which seemed unusually loud in the quietness of the afternoon and I was pleased to find the regular Song Thrush in the garden.  As darkness crept in I had amassed a bird list of only twenty-three.  However, there were 364 days of the year left for me to build on this so I was far from concerned.

Jan 2^nd.  The temperature had dropped today, but it was still mild for the time of year and I decided upon another short walk, this time down to the lake.  An early surprise was a skein of Pink-footed Geese overhead.  The smaller of the lakes held Gadwall, now regulars to the lake and Shoveler also having become a regular.  A lone Grey Heron stood on the edge of the lakeside with the sports centre as background.  The south side of the large lake is fenced off because of site work but this has had no apparent effect upon bird numbers.  Mild weather has meant that at least one of the Great Crested Grebes has stayed on the lake and more than likely will only leave now if the lake ices up.  There were good numbers of Pochard and Goldeneye, but very few Goosanders of which I counted no male birds today.  Other regular birds were about in numbers and I added Pied Wagtail and Mistle Thrush to my list.  With two short walks I had now  amassed a list of forty-two, only three short of the total from a long walk around the patch on New Year’s Day 2018.  I now had to prepare for my father’s birthday, he reaches ninety-nine on 4^th January.  Now if I have inherited his healthy genes, you could still be reading my blog in thirty years’ time.  Now won’t that be nice?!

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Jan 6^th.  Today Sam and I planned to visit some sites within or at least on the boundary of North Tyneside, thus not straying to far from home.  We began at Northumberland Park hoping that we might find the Firecrest.  We failed with this one last year and failed again today, along with several other birders.  We felt we had given plenty of time to this task and during our stay we did have good sightings of some woodland birds including a pair of Nuthatch.  We heard Great Spotted Woodpecker and had a fleeting sighting of it.  Stock Doves were also seen.  There are worse places to watch the sun rising in the sky and studying Goldcrests!  I tend to be critical of North Tyneside Council, often with good cause in my view, but I’ll give credit where it is due and I have to say Northumberland Park is an excellent area and very well cared for.  Grey Squirrel was seen here along with Brown Rat.

Coal Tit

Next stop was the Fish Quay which was very quiet with nothing of note although plenty of Cormorants and the odd Turnstone was seen.  We soon moved on to Tynemouth where we had better luck with the Black Redstart which appeared as soon as we arrived and showed well, on one occasion next to a Grey Wagtail.  The Black Redstart was attracting several birders.  Rock Pipit was also seen and I enjoyed the peace and quite and the sound of the sea.  Common Scoter were seen at the entry to the Tyne.

Great Tit

St Marys Island was busy today and we were unable to find the Snow Buntings on this occasion.  I did add Teal and Wigeon that were on the wetland to my list and several waders including Lapwing, Ringed Plover, Dunlin, Turnstone, Sanderling, Redshank and Curlew.  Common Scoter were seen again and on this occasion the raft included a female Velvet Scoter identified by face pattern as the white wing was not showing.  Bird wise it was rather quiet here so we have several waders to catch up with and as the tide was high at Seaton Sluice we were unable for find our targets there either.

Our final stop was to be Gosforth Park Nature Reserve.  If there is one reason to be a member of the Natural History Society of Northumbria, the reserve is it.  Of course, there are several reasons and I’m very pleased to see the work that is being done by the society especially with young people.   As I think I have said before, there are other agencies that could learn from this.

Having entered the reserve, we spent some time at the feeding station where good sightings were had of numerous woodland birds including Nuthatch, Treecreeper and Great Spotted Woodpecker.  As we later walked around the reserve Jays and Siskin were heard and a Squirrel seen disappearing in the tree tops.  It was probably a Grey Squirrel, but I understand Red Squirrel has returned to the reserve after some long absence so we did try to identify this one with some certainty, but were unable to locate it.

Spot the Bittern!

As we arrived at the small hide I joked with a lady just leaving that she would no doubt have lots of photos of Bittern.  She casually said ‘oh it’s sitting in the reeds’.  I assumed she was joking and said, ‘oh yeah’.  We opened the hide door and decided not to bother entering as it was so packed, then we noticed that cameras and binoculars were being pointed so we got inside to find everyone watching a Bittern and it was perched high in the reeds.  Apologies to lady!  For at least the next hour we watched this Bittern as it turned and preened and showed its plumage off wonderfully.  This was a perfect example of how this bird relies upon camouflage to remain hidden and it took some folk quite sometime to find it.  In many ways this was a better sighting than seeing it out in the open.  Sam saw it swallow a feather and we are assuming this is done for the same reason/s that grebes swallow feathers (something I have written about in this blog the past).  After all, these species have a similar diet.  We’d come to the reserve with the Starling roost in mind, but that was soon forgotten once watching the Bittern and in any event we saw no Starlings.  This Bittern sighting will without doubt be one of my sightings of 2019 and the atmosphere had been added to with the calls of Green Woodpecker, Water Rail and Willow Tit.

Cormorants watch over pond as light fades.

I noted that everyone in the packed hide were keen to give their seats up to others so that they could have a good sighting and to point the bird out.  That’s how it ought to be, but sadly on a minority of occasions in the birding world some are never so keen to share, which is their loss as sharing is one of the real signs of a true birder/naturalist.  One lady I am pleased to say saw her first ever Bittern encouraged to keep looking by me, which makes me feel warm inside.  There was an amusing minute or two as everyone searched the dark hide for a young man’s camera cap.  He eventually found it in his pocket.  Everyone said, ‘don’t worry we’ve all done that’.  I’m not sure if I have! Ha ha

We called into the Ridley hide but nothing was going to beat the Bittern although it was a nice way to wind down as the light began to fade, and in fact we did find a Little Egret in the trees. 

So, my year list now moves onto seventy and I’ve ‘Only Just Begun’.  Today was one of those special days and we met some nice people along the way, and the Bittern was one of those special sightings.  Great Day.

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