Gone the heady days of autumn, the dregs of the year and darkest day awaits. I’m sure I’m not alone in dreading the season of sparkly lights and plastic blow-up lawn santas. Crisp cold spells however can produce some interesting bird movements… Friday 2nd Suzanne and I decided to combine some walking with a browseContinue reading “December 2022”
Author Archives: Alan Tilmouth
November 2022
November rocked. That’s it, that’s the vibe. Sixteen days in the field helped ward off those early winter blues, some interesting weather ensured that there was always something to lift the spirits locally. As I walked along the narrow grass strip between the horse paddocks and ash lagoon fence on 1st almost the first birdContinue reading “November 2022”
October 2022
I skirted around a few sites in my 10km loop to the east and north on 4th. Bothal Pond held a single 1st-winter Greater Scaup and 77 Pink-feet flew south. The ringed adult Hooded Crow was around Ellington Wind Farm again whilst 200 Pink-feet were in fields at North Linton Farm. One of the adultContinue reading “October 2022”
August/September 2022
Early August took me and two of the offspring out of the UK on a grand low carbon train adventure through Brussels, Hamburg, Copenhagen, Stockholm and Uppsala before retracing our steps back via Berlin. Ostensibly a family holiday and opportunity to acquaint my twin teens with independent travel by rail at the same time asContinue reading “August/September 2022”
June/July 2022
The first half of June was exceptionally quiet for me on the birding front, a couple of Newbiggin seawatches that produced two Arctic Skuas on 7th and then a summer-plumaged Black Guillemot on the sea on 14th was as good as it got. The latter was the first I’ve had on the sea here andContinue reading “June/July 2022”
April/May 2022
April kicked off on the beach at Newbiggin with a couple of Black Redstarts on the old war defences just north of the point. Further up the beach five littoralis Rock Pipits on the wrack on south side of Beacon Point and a count of 106 Sanderling on the beach. Highlights over the next fewContinue reading “April/May 2022”
Colour-ringed Cormorant
Short note on a 2cy colour-ringed Cormorant, sinensis race, originally ringed 28th May 2021 at Hale Duck Decoy in Cheshire. An orange ring ‘027’ on left leg. Seen 29 April 2022 at Woodhorn Flashes by Alan Priest, I noted it again at Castle Island on 23rd June 2022.
February/March
Late winter/early Spring can be a fascinating period in the right weather. Writing this 3 months later so the post is just a repository for some of the better sightings in the period. February – A Barn Owl in darkness on 2nd at St Leonard’s, Morpeth was the only bird of note in the firstContinue reading “February/March”
January 2022
Fresh start, clean slate, new lists, optimism, despite working for my 13th consecutive New Year’s Day, all of the aforementioned are bouncing around my head from the moment dawn breaks. There’s never much actual birding on 1st for me, whatever scraps I happen to notice during periodic glances out the office window and the lastContinue reading “January 2022”
December 2021
Evening has fallenThe swans are singingThe last of Sundays bells is ringingThe wind in the trees is sighingAnd old england is dying Possibly the month I like least in any year, too much to do, not enough daylight to do it in, too many competing needs from too many people and too much darkness (metaphoricallyContinue reading “December 2021”
Alan Tilmouth 