American Pipit...

 Yesterday Clive Saunders, a local birder, was pleased to find a Water Pipit near where he lives, on the beach. That was until he posted it on Twitter and comments said the bird was actually a Buff-bellied Pipit! You'll get a Water Pipit there one day Clive!

Unfortunately work Zoom meetings prevented me from leaving the back bedroom cell yesterday, but when the bird was relocated this morning I put my plan into action. It wasn't much of a plan really, clock off, drive 12 miles, see bird, drive back and clock on. Give or take, that just about sums it up. It was a bit like one of the Lord of the Rings trilogy except I wan't attacked on route and it went much more smoothly.

On the beach opposite Links Avenue, Amble a small crowd of independent visitors all happened to be exercising in one place whilst keeping a mostly socially acceptable distance apart. It just so happened that the Buff bellied Pipit was also present.

A first for Northumberland, it was not even on my radar, though with records on the rise, maybe it should have been. It was quite a subtly distinctive bird, being easily picked out from the neighbouring petrosus and littoralis Rock Pipits and one or two Meadow Pipits along the strand line. As with all pipits it was giving those to who field craft is an unknown entity, the run around. I was pleased with my scope views in nice sunshine and even managed a few record shots...  

Another excellent bird, only 12 miles from home, it was my 5th new Northumberland bird this year. 

A Wet Rossicus.

The forecast didnt look promising yesterday morning when I met with John at Alnmouth Cricket Club. It was calm and cold but heavily overcast. Drizzle was just trying to get through.

We had decided to check out the Coquet Estuary as we hadn't been for ages and there had been a lot of gulls in the mornings this week, as I was passing on my way to work. You would think they knew. This morning at the weir, it was high tide so the actual weir was totally submerged and there was only a lone Black headed Gull on the shore. One. On Friday there were 300 or more assorted gulls but not today. Highlight were two Foxes chasing each other on the far bank , 6 Roe Deer, 1 Little Grebe, 15 Mallard, 2 Goldeneye and 3 Herons. A Song Thrush was in full song, my first of the year and a portent of things to come.

We moved along to the Marina. Here we fared a little better with 94+ Curlew, 36 Knot, 14 Wigeon, 4 Teal, 2 Shelduck and a Snipe.

At Amble Harbour the slow theme continued. Even the local Med Gull wasn't on its usual rock. We did have 1 Purple Sandpiper, 8 Red throated Divers, 1 fem Red breasted Merganser, 18 Eider and 10+ Turnstone though.

After a stop for some snacks in Warkworth we headed up to Birling Carrs ( you might remember the posts on here about the Arctic Redpoll a few years ago? There.) The redpoll field had been ploughed recently so there was nothing here either. Then the rain started.

We decided to check the sea, getting wet in the process... viewing was good but we didn't do better than 15 Red throated Divers and 2 male Red breasted Mergansers,

Back at the car we noticed that the field to the north was stubble with some rape plants and Groundsel growing through. A few Reed Buntings were active along the track so we decided that we couldn't get more wet and to give it a blast.

As we wandered the stubble hoping for a Lap Bunting, we had a good flock of 40 - 50 Reed Buntings, 40 Meadow Pipits, 38+ Skylarks ( with one smaller one with them that we followed around but couldn't make it into anything other than a wet Skylark.)

As I climbed over the hill I flushed a single goose that flew towards me very closely. Head on it had an orange and black bill. I shouted to John that it could be Bean Goose and we watched as it circled giving us enough on it to confirm indeed a Tundra Bean!  The upperside was generally dark brown with a grey wash on the primary coverts but no pale grey forewing shown by Pink footed. The bill was longer and the bird seemed a bit larger. It began to call as it circled. I had no idea what Bean Goose called like, but noted that it was a deep nasal double or single 'ang-ang' and 'ack'. Not Pinkfoot either. As it left, John checked the call on his phone from Xeno-canto and sure enough the voices matched. A bona fide Tundra Bean Goose at close of play. A good record here.

Near by 4 Whooper Swans and 3 Bar-headed Geese just brightened things a bit more before it was time for home...

White- winged Intuition...

My drive to work takes me along some nice scenic Northumberland coastal spots. In particular I enjoy the short stretch between Warkworth and Amble where the road accompanies the River Coquet on its final leg to the sea. There are always birds to see, even from the moving car, a heron on the weir, or an egret fishing in the shallows maybe. Sometimes a few Black tailed Godwits are feeding right beside the road making an id possible from almost periphery views.

On Tuesday it was such a loose drive-by scan that made me notice quite a good gathering of Great black backed Gulls on the increasingly exposed sand bar as the tide receded. I wondered if I had time to pull in to the car park for a quick look? Now this is a very short bit of road for thinking so I was almost on top of the junction when I swung into the car park almost without braking.

Right, I have 10 mins to check the flock, so scope out, a 50mtr brisk walk to the watersports centre to view the estuary and start at the far left. GBB after GBB all nice and contrasty in the morning light, then after about 50 or so, bingo, a bright white apparition looms into view, floating down the old water channel at the back, a huge 3rd winter Glaucous Gull. It, has a long thick bill and a big head so is probably a male, and it slowly drifted onto the sand bar where it sat idly gazing around, having a drink and a bit of a preen. I watched it for a few minutes then continued my once only scan to the right just in case.

Nothing new jumped out so, after one more look at the Glauc, I packed up and left for work, smug in the knowledge that my intuition had been correct. With all the new Great black backs I would have been disappointed if there hadn't been a Glauc in there!

I had a more typical juv Glaucous Gull here just before New Year, but this almost white bird was very different. These days it is very uncommon to see anything other than juv Glaucous on our coast and I cant remember the last adult I've seen here?  Anyway, it is always pleasing to get a prile of white wingers before the end of January ( Med Gull, Iceland and Glaucous) . Lets hope one of the rarer ones might follow before spring...

[Note - I thought this bird was a 2nd winter but some hunting on the Internet shows that its pale iris makes it a 3rd winter.]

  

Turned out nice again...

A bit of a photo montage of this mornings visit to Amble with JWR...

Snow squalls coming in on a noreaster this morning...

We got caught in it....JWR sheltering his camera....

It soon cleared revealing a lovely day...

A party of Turnstones found a batch of edible crabs dumped on the shore and showed well in the morning sunshine...

  

A nice winters day....

The day started with heavy rain and a strong wind, but this soon eased to a calm day with patchy sunshine.

As the sun rose, almost our first bird of the day was a first winter Glaucous Gull flying into a group of Great black backed Gulls on the Coquet Estuary. It was a real lunker too, in flight equal to the Great black backs. It only stayed for about 15 minutes just giving us time to go back for the camera before it flew off north. It probably roosted on Coquet Island with the other gulls and came in to the fresh water to bath and drink. 

Also here were 3 Black tailed Godwits and the usual selection of waders. We checked up at the harbour to see if anything else had arrived but it was very quiet. The Eiders looked nice in the calm water, when not fighting for bread, so I took a few snaps. 

I like this one. It is a full frame, uncropped pic. 300mm with 1.4x converter f7.1 , 1/320, ISO800, as the bird steamed towards me.

While wandering the harbour, a Snow Bunting flew along the north pier and off north along the beach. 25 ish Whooper Swans were along the river in fields opposite the wier.

From here we checked the north side, old water area, where a nice Kingfisher gave us the runaround on the tiny trackside pool by flying off and returning later when we tried to get a photo. I think John did ok.

And that was that really apart from a few Long tailed Tits and me knocking my glasses off never to be seen again, a typical local winters day. We do alright here if we can get a nice day...

Rusty red and the mud hoppers.

My route to and from work drives right past a nice, medium sized, Northumberland estuary. Complete with mini mudflats and saltmarsh, the river Coquet at Amble is an excellent spot for migrating waders. Best of all, not having any hides, it hardly gets a look at by birders compared to the Druridge Bay reserves only a few miles south.

For me, this is its main attraction. You don't have to put up with 'birders' saying 'is the blackwit showing' or queues of cars waiting for the Barn owl to be papped a millionth time.

Right enough of that. Yesterday and this evening, on my way back from work I stopped for a quick scan of the mud for new arrivals. I've promised myself a White rumped Sand on here this year, even though its not strictly 'my' patch. I visit here with John regularly on a Sunday as he is doing a low key year list on the site. As he is busy elsewhere this week, I feel obliged to check the area on his behalf.

Last night there was a nice party of Dunlin, 40+ at least, all sporting neat black bellies and 11+ Common Sandpipers. Not earth shattering, for sure, but promising.

Tonight I only had about 20 minutes to spare, but straight away I could see the numbers had increased as the tide shuffled the birds backwards. Dunlin had upped to 80+ and a tidy Black tailed Godwit brightened things up. A very distant little wader scuttled through the Dunlin in a stint-like fashion so I left the car and walked a good 100 yards closer for a better look. No sign of anything resembling a stint, but Bingo! a lovely breeding plumaged Curlew Sandpiper stood heads above the Dunlin on the opposite shore. Occasionally the flock would lift and do a 'murmuration' around the edge before pitching in again. One stop had Common Sand, Curlew Sand, Dunlin, Redshank and Black tailed Godwit all in a line. Nice.

So, no sign of any peeps this evening but the one from arctic Russia was just as pleasing. Lets hope there are more nice waders over the coming weeks.