Christmas Holidays

Just like every holiday I get, the majority of it was spent birding. This year, I was heading up to Northumberland with my Aunt after Christmas, but first, I took a few days out locally.

The first was to a lake in the Colne Valley that I had never been to before, Denham Quarry Pit, near Broadwater. It also gave me the chance to view Savay Lake, a private lake that can be seen from the canal path, and try and catch up with the Red-Breasted Merganser I had missed a few days earlier, but had been just a couple hundred yards from.

The canal itself, predictably, did not hold many birds, but it wasn't long before I was watching a smart male Goosander on Savay Lake.

When I reached Denham Quarry Pit, there were even more Goosanders, a total of nine - but no Red-Breasted Merganser. However, while walking up the channel between two pits, I noticed it on a different lake to the Goosanders, and quite distant, although it drifted closer for good views.

Later, when I walked back down the path, it had flown over to the other pit and was now resting with the Goosanders, where it showed even closer.

Red-Breasted Merganser with Goosanders

A couple of days later, I made the long journey up to Northumberland, where I would be combining a few hours birding with hospital visits (to a sick relative) each day, with the short daylight hours unfortunately reducing time.

However, on the first day I made it to Druridge Bay, where I first visited Widrington Moor Lake nearby, that had been holding a Smew for a few days. We pulled up by the side of the road and I got out with the scope, but the conditions were terrible, with heavy wing blowing in my face meaning the scope couldn't stay stable.

I went inside as it was impossible to identify distant birds in the wind, and set up the scope in the car instead (it wasn't easy to do!), and scanned the closer areas of the lake, where it wasn't long before I noticed the redhead Smew drifting around with a Goldeneye.

 I was lucky that it decided to hang around the closest part of the lake, as that meant I had better views. There was also a flock of Wigeon and a very distant flock of Pink-Footed Geese. Next stop was Druridge Pools, where I didn't actually view the pools, but focused on seawatching, as I found a sheltered spot behind the dunes.

It was a great seawatch, with dozens of birds to check through, including very good numbers of Red-Throated Divers, which were almost everywhere I looked, and a few Red-Breasted Mergansers. It wasn't long before I picked up a different diver flying through, the head pattern showing it clearly wasn't a Red-Throated, and it eventually landed, displaying that it was a lifer for me - a Black-Throated Diver.

A Great Northern Diver also put in a brief appearance, and a flock of Common Scoter drifted in to view.

As I was heading back to the hospital, a flock of Swans flew in, calling and flying close by, displaying the fact they were Whooper Swans. There was also a few Tree Sparrows in the dunes, with a Linnet flock, which was one of the few times that I have seen them in a truly natural setting.

The next day, unfortunately, I fell ill, and a long walk producing nothing except the realisation I was going the wrong way meant the day wasn't the best. However, a look for the recent Taiga Bean Geese was successful, although they were distant and hard to track down in the light, annoying because others seemed to get pin-sharp images of the birds at close range. It was a lifer, but I will look for better views in the future.

Goldeneye

A morning visit to Stag Rocks was OK, but a frustrating diver which looked like one of the two non Red-Throated species only showed for about a second each time I got onto it, with very long periods of it not reappearing. There were also a few Long-Tailed Ducks on the sea, and a large flock of Purple Sandpipers on the rocks.

The following day, there wasn't much of a variety but I went to look for wintering birds in Beadnell Bay, where I walked from the village, instead of the other side of the bay, which I had mistakenly done the previous day. On the sea there was a large flock of Eider, and in the burn running through to the sea, there were a lot of gulls, which I checked in hope for a white-winged, without success.

After scanning the saltmarsh for Shore Larks which weren't present, I walked along the beach and put up a couple of medium-sized birds feeding in the dunes. They flew over the dunes and in the direction of the saltmarsh. After walking back here to check it, I noticed a lot of birders and photographers watching the area the birds had flown from, and was informed that two Shorelarks were feeding there now.

I had good views through the scope of the birds feeding, which turned out to be one of the final birds of the trip. 

The next event was the London young birders meet-up, with Samuel, Kabir, Arjun, Calum, Ben and Dante. Once again meeting at Rainham, it was good to catch up with everyone and meet Dante for the first time.

In the morning, we visited the riverside by the tip, where we checked through the gulls, with Dante obviously the one to pick out a smart first-winter Caspian Gull, although it didn't stay for too long. A Water Pipit flew past, calling, and Stonechats and Rock and Meadow Pipits showed well.

Water Pipit (but taken a few days later at London WWT)

Walking back, Dante picked out a second-winter Yellow-Legged Gull, with other birds including large flocks of Stock Doves and Lapwings.

We then walked around the reserve, where we met up with Ben, and didn't see too much except winter ducks and a Ruff, with a few other wader species such as Snipe and Redshank. There were also a few Pintail.

My last birding trip was to the Thames, which I timed badly - the tide was too far in for gulls on the river. So I headed to the Wetland Centre, where some of the gulls go when the tide is in. There were many gulls, but nothing of note.

I spent quite a long time watching an adult gull that I though looked like a good Caspian candidate. It had a dark eye, a very white head and breast, very thin, greenish bill, the legs were clearly longer and thinner than the Herring Gull's next to it and were not as flesh-coloured.

Dark-eyed Herring Gull

I received confirmation that it was a Herring Gull, and I can now see many problems with it, such as short wings, round head and the fact it was quite small.

However, over the next few weeks I plan to visit the Thames much more often to work on gull identification, as I have been spending a lot of hours on the Gull Research Organisation website recently.