September 30 2012

Commitments and work meant that I missed all of the action through the week; no sea watching or falls of migrants for me.

So when I saw that the Arctic Warbler was still on Holy Island yesterday, I took a chance today and went. The weather forecast wasn’t good, but I still went!

The wind was nearly a westerly gale and most of the migrants had cleared out. I did see Whinchat, Brambling, Siskin, Chiffchaff and Goldcrest, but no sign of the target or the Wryneck.

On the way off, a Peregrine was on the usual spot

Just as I got to the A1, I got a call from David, who had been on the island with his dad; Long-billed Dowitcher at Cresswell.

Events and circumstances have, in the past, conspired to keep me from seeing Long-billed Dowitcher in Northumberland, so I went into twitch mode!

A short time later…

the list moves on!

Also at Cresswell, the Bonxie terrorising everything

and Greenshank, Little Stint, Merlin (with prey), Peregrine and a Sparrowhawk.

The finder, Andy, was still present as were Alan, Roger and Steve, just. I was followed into the hide by the Liverbirder and later Ian and then John arrived. By this time the hide was rather full so I left them to it.

September 16 2012

This morning I drove up to Cresswell with no plan and that was as far as I got!

After an hour or so it started raining and when that stopped, the wind started to get a bit blowy.

At Cresswell the Bonxie was still around. It’s spent the week dining on Coot!

a Grey Heron showed nicely in front of the hide

A phone call to Andy from Alan revealed a Pectoral Sandpiper back down the road at Lynemouth Flash, so we had a quick look at that. It was too far off for pictures though. I go back to Cresswell and try to find an interesting wader that Alan had with some Dunlin. It went AWOL before he had a good look at it!

I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, so I gave the beach a try, just in case…

Plenty of Gannets

and at least 14 Red-throated Divers

and the Red Arrows (for the 2nd time today). The display was at the finish line of the Great North Run. I was standing nearly 19 miles from there!

But nothing unusual at all!

September 9 2012

After a month of almost solid work, it was good to be able to get out and have a mooch about.

First stop, Lynemouth Flash, where there was no sign of the reported Curlew Sandpiper. I did have an evening in the Bay during that month of work and I saw a Curlew Sand and Spotted Redshank here, so not too bothered that there was no sign today.

Next up, Cresswell, where I managed to stop Mike from getting recordings of Yellow Wagtail. There were at least three on show.

So I leave here and on a whim called into Druridge. One of the first things I noticed was this pony…

…it was well and truly stuck. I called IPIN to see if he had a number to call. He hadn’t and he was in Tarifa, Spain. And when I told him why I was calling, he told me where the pony was. It was in the same place as he had seen it on Tuesday. He just thought it was doing stupid horsey things. So I wandered over to see if I could help it, and saw this…

It looked very sorry for itself, but as I approached it lifted it’s head and started to paw at the ground, but it was well and truly stuck! (poor picture from the phone)

I called at the farm, and although it’s not their land or animal, they go and break the fence and the beast is free, after at least six days stuck.

After getting some phone numbers from Ian, I called a guy from the Wildlife Trust. He told me that someone checks them every other day, and that he himself had been there on Thursday, and that all of the ponies were stood up, in the same place. Well, yeah, one was stood in the same place, ‘cause it was stuck. I’m not a big fan of horses, but this poor bugger must have been suffering.

While waiting for the pony to be released, two skeins of Pink-footed Geese flew over, my first of the autumn.

So I head back to Cresswell, where in the hide a good ole chunter was had with Andy, Bob and Roger and Sylvia. There is a Garganey on show, and a Bonxie, that we see catch, kill (by drowning) and eat a Coot!

I don’t think I have signed up for anymore foreign travel just yet, but we did discuss the up and coming two trips!!!