Winter and the land is down to the bare bones, on a good day the warmth of the sun replaced by a sharpness in the air. I spent the first day of this particular winter alone, bar the dog, walking in Northumberland uplands, the silence of the season only broken by the occasional rattle of a Wren.
The last month of Autumn was mild so a day total of five European Stonechats found on moorland and clear-fell was perhaps not so surprising. Other passerines included Goldcrest and a couple of Coal Tits at one site. Bird of the day was a male Hen Harrier that moved purposefully out of the morning sun across a wide stretch of open moorland. A small unseasonal flock of Northern Lapwings (86) broke up the empty sky near Elsdon.
A brief respite from work on 2nd produced a small flock of Fieldfare and Redwing moving through hedges to the north of home.
Shorter days and the imminence of Christmas and the attention it requires often means I bird in short snatches of the day. The 3rd was just such a day, an hour west of Morpeth whilst waiting for one of the local shop-owners to make a late start produced a single Hawfinch in the Hornbeams at Abbey Mill, the first seen there for 6-7 days as far as I can tell. At the other end of the day a search for pre-roost gulls at Widdrington Moor Lake turned up a hunting juvenile Merlin dancing around the occasional phragmites stands and lakeside vegetation in the hope of flushing passerines to prey on. Occasionally it perched up on one of the plastic tree shelters affording an opportunity to grab a distant picture from the car, albeit in poor light.
A brief foray to the coast on 7th via the Woodhorn Long-tailed Duck produced nine Snow Buntings and 4 Velvet Scoter at North Blyth. Jonny Farooqui’s Todd’s Canada Goose just a few clicks up the road at Hadston lured me in on 11th and was conveniently close to the road.
There were large numbers of gulls using the stubble and dropping into surrounding lakes so another shufty around the area on 14th produced 9 Mediterranean Gulls at Widdrington Moor Lake and 2 at Maiden’s Hall Lake along with a drake Pintail at the former site.
The latter half of the month as ever dominated by family and Christmas commitments, I managed an hour at North Shields to see both the juvenile and 2nd-winter Iceland Gulls on 16th. The following day I headed north for quiet walk from Boulmer to Howick, briefly caught up with the wintering Hooded Crow at Howick and saw the wintering colour-ringed littoralis Rock Pipit I wrote about in my previous post.
A post-Christmas walk in the Allenheads area on 28th produced a single drake Black Grouse at Green Hill (569m asl) and Dipper along the East Allen as well as a Water Vole that narrowly avoided the attentions of my dog Bubo as it furtled in waterside vegetation.
Sunshine on 29th drew me back to Newbiggin where good numbers of common waders fed and roosted at Beacon Point and a 1st-winter cairii-morph male Black Redstart had been hanging about for a day or two.
I’ve also been clarting about with trying to record some ‘noc mig’ or nocturnal migration/bird calls this month. It’s been reasonably productive with 10 species including Moorhen, Tawny Owl and Little Owl so far, the Moorhen the first around the garden in several years was presumably just wandering in the wood beside the garden. I’m using an Audiomoth device which has the advantage of being inexpensive and relatively easy to use. The quality isn’t as good as setting up with parabolic reflector and external micro phone etc but it’ll do me.
Alan Tilmouth 