Saturday 24 January 2015

The p(o)int of the tail......

A tale of two halves..........our first visit to the coast this year (memo: must get out more often!) on a cold but bright day, took us to Stag Rocks and Bamburgh, usually a birdwatching Mecca. But where were the Purple Sands? or even the Turnstones? let alone the twinkling 'edge of the tide' dancer, the Sanderlings? A bracing walk to the Black Rocks and back was rewarded with one fly- past, a Great Northern Diver, but little else of note. No rafts of Scoter, no Long-tailed Ducks.....hey ho. not the usual delights of Bamburgh in Winter.
So we headed for Fenham-le-Moor on the turn of the tide, where the mudflats were 'busy- busy' with many Ringed Plovers, Dunlin, Redshank, Bar-tailed Godwits, and aerobatic displays of Knot. Further north the Shelducks seemed to line the horizon. As we waited  in the hide, a small party of light-bellied Brent Geese flew in to the shore, and we watched as the ducks on the tidal edge came ever closer, many Wigeon of course, but over a hundred beautiful, graceful Pintail. As a parting bonus, a few Grey Plover flew by revealing their tell-tale black 'armpits'. Not such a bad day out after all!

2 comments:

  1. Really helpful! We were entering long tailed duck on Birdtrack and they cavilled at Long tailed Duck at Bamburgh, saying it was out of season. We are inexperienced so are very relieved we've remembered correctly, given your expecting to see them there.

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  2. we were at Cheswick Sands today and saw several Long-tailed Ducks and a Black Throated Diver but no sign of the Black Scoter although it was seen earlier. Also Black Necked Grebe still at Seahouses

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