By 7:30 am the pager had indeed confirmed that the Scoter was still present. I dropped Rachel at her Scot Cheer competition at the SECC for 8:30 am. Since the competition lasts for about 12 hours there was plenty of time for me and Louise to do Northumberland.
By 11am we were in Bamburgh and suprisingly for me found the site no problem at all. Just like the directions said "follow the Wynding north from Bamburgh to the car park at the end". From a Scotsman's point of view, the added bonus was that the car park was FREE, which isn't always the case in Northumberland. A few Swallows, I had already seen one in East Lothian from the A1 on the way down and Sand Martins were flitting up the coast and the Farnes looked an absolute picture if a tad hazy in the distance.
A long line of Scoter was present. However, the direction of pointing telescopes of the other assembled twitchers gave significant clue as to where to look and I am on the bird very quickly. It is surprisingly, obvious even at a distance, the orange knob on the bill reminds me of my bathtime rubber duck. I get Louise on the bird, well it is surely daft to come all that way and not take a peek, even if you are not in the least interested, and even if you are momentarily distracted from "Me and You at Six" on the ipod.
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| Extreme Right Hand Bird |
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| Part of a raft of Common Scoter |
This represents, the 2nd record for England and despite it being a Saturday there are relatively few people present. Ofcourse, there was a drake on and off in Wales for several years in a row not all that long ago so certainly 'southern twitchers' will have seen this already presumably.
We stroll off down the beach in the direction of Bamburgh Castle and I scan Inner Farne in the hope of Puffins, but it is too hazy to pick any out. A few Fulmars are notable. Bamburgh Castle sits majestically on the shoreline so like all tourists I take a photo:
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| Super Woman in Northumberland- Ipod at the ready |
Back at the car park, the Scoter continues to be on show but the added bonus is 2 Puffins, Guillemot and a brief Harbour Porpoise.
After our fill of Scoter we devour a 99 and head off towards Beadnell. A Blackcap, being one of the earliest migrants is singing but I am still missing Willow Warbler that I have seen reported. I have usually seen or heard these by mid April surely. The wooden tern shack is still closed, presumably because there are no terns yet. Well at least no Arctic or Little. There are however, lots of Sandwich Tern "keeracking" up and down the shore. At the point we see a group of waders on the rocks including c3 Purple Sandpiper, Turnstone and Grey Plover.
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| Grey Plover - still in winter plumage |
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| Time to get arty with the waves ! |
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| More Wave Action |
A while back, I stumbled upon a birding blog covering this area...... called "Newton Stringer" from memory. The author I seemed to remember talking about a "coastal pond" that I am assuming is where I saw a Garganey reported from yesterday. So me & Louise started to look for this mythical pond. I don't think we found it, we did find some tidal creeks with lots of Curlew and Shelduck on them and on the Links we did find Wheatear:
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| Wheatear |
It was now about 3:30 and my very unappetising sandwiches had not been touched............... nor were they likely to be with several good quality fish & chip outlets in Seahouses. We were indeed getting a little peckish and so it was a fish supper to finish via the Eiders in Seahouses Harbour:
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| Confiding Drake Eider in Seahouses Harbour |
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