In Good Company at the Feeding Station

26^th Jan.  Forecasts of strong northerly winds on Sunday has altered birding plans for the weekend, but today Sam and I decided to pay a visit ‘south of the border’ to Washington WWT which I haven’t visited in years.  On arrival and having passed through the formalities of ‘are you a member’ etc we made off in the direction of the hide.  Passing through Hawthorn Wood we found several Lesser Redpoll high in the trees, but because of poor light didn’t have the best of sightings.  Siskin and Goldcrest were amongst other species seen here.

Bullfinch

Bullfinch

We found the hide busy with photographers and more casual visitors, but found our seats and remained in them for over two hours during which I experienced the best feeding station visit that I can remember, even if changing conditions did mean I was a tad chilled by the time we left.  There can’t be many feeding station experiences which beat this one.  During our visit we counted twenty-four visiting species of bird and numbers of Grey Squirrel (come on they aren’t so bad).  I’ll list each species seen below, some of which were seen in good numbers.

Grey Squirrel

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Highlights for me were the Brambling, the Lesser and Mealy Redpoll which were allowing close up comparison, The large number of Bullfinches and the Bullfinch song so easily and so often overlooked (I’m sure it was by most folk in the hide), the pair of Great Spotted Woodpecker on a number of occasions seen together, the close up Treecreeper and the Sparrowhawk which left on this occasion without having caught prey.  It was also good to see so many visitors getting excited about and enjoying so much the bird sightings on offer, which in the main were of common birds.  Did all these people know what they were watching?  In some cases, possibly not all of the time, but this didn’t seem to matter.  The lady next to me identified her first Mealy Redpoll and I don’t think will forget that in a hurry.

Mealy (upper) and Lesser Redpoll showing contrast in size and colouring

Siskin

Goldfinch

We left the hide feeling very well rewarded and had a walk along by the river and the pool.  There wasn’t that much to see here with the most notable sighting being a Goosander.

Long Tailed Tit

Treecreeper

Treecreeper

We warmed up over a cup of tea, chocolate and coffee and walnut cake in the centre where most folk seemed to have headed for.  By the time we had checked out the books the temperature was really dipping and the light was fading fast, so our plans for moving on to Rainton Meadows were put aside and we headed for home where I listened to the commentary on the pathetic offerings of Newcastle dis-United and thought about our plans for a birding trip on Monday.

Brambling

Species list at the Feeding Station.

Pheasant, Sparrowhawk, Moorhen, Wood Pigeon, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Robin, Blackbird, Great Tit, Coal Tit, Blue Tit, Willow Tit, Long tailed Tit, Nuthatch, Treecreeper, Magpie, Chaffinch, Brambling, Lesser Redpoll, Mealy Redpoll, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Siskin, Bullfinch and Reed Bunting plus Grey Squirrel.

The observant will have noticed that I have treated the redpolls as separate species.  I’m sure I’m not alone in doing so when it comes to listing. :-)