A Weekend at Cresswell

We were invited up to Cresswell in Northumberland to join Tina's Sister over the weekend, staying in a caravan only 5 minutes drive from Cresswell Pond NWT. We had the pleasure of sleeping in the smallest beds ever invented,  but we coped.  As a reward we added 5 species to the year list of which 3 were firsts! This was totally unexpected but very welcome.

We visited 4 NWT sites whilst up there, Druridge Pools, East Chevington, Hauxley and Cresswell Pools. Cresswell though was by far the most productive and accounted for the 3 lifers. The nice thing was that they are all pretty close to Cresswell, so driving was kept to a minimum.

Druridge Pools
We paid 2 shortish visits here on Friday and Sunday, visiting a couple of hides. Wellies were essential as some of the paths were flooded. There was very little activity though, saw very few species, Mallard, Wigeon, Teal, a Heron and a couple of Snipe flying around.

East Chevington
Just one visit here on the Saturday, a lovely reserve, with quite a bit going on. However the hides are terrible!  They seem to be converted containers, opening the doors and windows makes a hell of a noise, its a wonder we saw anything with all the racket. They are also the most uncomfortable hides, the windows seem to be at the wrong height, just terrible. We were much better off leaving the hides and going up to the platforms on the track. It did mean though that you needed a scope to see anything. The best sightings here were Goldeneye, the briefest glimpse of a Merlin and a wonderful Short-eared Owl.

Hauxley
Again just one visit here on the Saturday, but it's a great reserve, with good hides and access down to the beach. We asked the warden as we arrived what was about and apart from what you'd expect he told us amongst all the Greylag was a single White-fronted Goose this would be a first for the year if we could find it.

We worked the hides on the northern side of the reserve, the south side was closed due to flooding. Here's a couple of pics from the hide looking at to sea.

Really love Tree Sparrows!

Rats! No you can't have any!

We then moved on to the last hide closest to all the geese. But they were all very inactive, with heads tucked away chilling out, so there was no way we were going to find a white front! That is until a noisy model aircraft being flown down on the beach came a bit close and got them all up, even then we didnt think we'd find it as they were all settling down pretty quickly. But after scanning hundreds of geese we found it!
I couldn't get a good photo before he tucked up again but for the record:

The top of it's white face can just be seen if you look closely!

Just a few others from Hauxley

Greylags on finals

Curlew touchdown

Coquet Island, went there in 2010 to see Roseate Tern

Cresswell Pond
The star of the weekend. We visited 5 times there was just so much going on. On the Friday we kicked off with lifers 1 and 2. The first was easy a Jack Snipe in front of the hide, he stayed in the same place the whole three days, only venturing out once when it was to dark to take a pic, so here's the best I could do:

The second was much more difficult, a Long-tailed Duck, unfortunately this was a scope job, so no photo, but made up none the less, he appeared on most visits, but was difficult to find amongst all the other waterfowl.

Apart from the Jack Snipe, I have never seen so many Snipe, I counted at least 30 at one time, but the board in the hide said 54! We spotted our 3rd lifer on Sunday; Golden Plover in the morning we found just the one, but on our second visit there were four.

We had some pretty mixed conditions ranging from glorious sunshine to mist and fog, both of which at times made photography tricky! But here's a few anyway! (There's some more in the gallery)

GSW!

Lapwing

Little Grebe with Lunch

Red Breasted Mergansers

Spot the Snipe

Golden Plover

Great Crested Grebe showing a paddle!

Curlew

Short Eared Owl fly-by

The mist rolling in

Heron in the fog!

Teal

Goldcrest on the path to the hide

Pink-footed in a field near Cresswell......

........ along with some Swans

Other than the reserves, we popped into Newbiggins on Sea for Tea and added Ringed Plover to the list, (until the fog rolled in  and we couldn't see a thing), Druridge Country Park for a Cuppa (Found out that a Slavonian Grebe was there, but after we'd left and didn't get chance to go back) and Cresswell Foreshore for an Ice Cream and Dolphins!

So the lists:
Druridge Pools:

Black-headed Gull, Buzzard, Carrion Crow, Coot, Gadwall, Great Crested Grebe, Grey Heron, Lapwing,  Magpie, Mallard, Moorhen, Snipe, Wigeon & Wren.

East Chevington:

Black-headed Gull, Blue Tit, Coot, Cormorant, Gadwall, Goldeneye, Great Black-backed Gull,
Great Crested Grebe, Kestrel, Long-tailed Tit, Mallard, Merlin, Moorhen, Mute Swan, Pochard,
Short-eared Owl, Shoveler, Teal, Tufted Duck & Wigeon.

Hauxley:

Bar-tailed Godwit, Blackbird, Blue Tit, Canada Goose, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Coal Tit, Coot.
Cormorant, Curlew, Eider, Gadwall, Goldfinch, Great Tit, Grey Heron, Greylag Goose, House Sparrow,
Lapwing, Little Grebe, Mallard, Moorhen, Oystercatcher, Pheasant, Pied Wagtail, Redshank,
Tree Sparrow, Tufted Duck, White-fronted Goose & Wigeon.

Cresswell Pond:

Barn Owl, Bar-tailed Godwit, Black-headed Gull, Canada Goose, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch,
Common Sandpiper, Coot, Curlew, Dunlin, Dunnock, Gadwall, Golden Plover, Goldeneye,
Great Crested Grebe, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Grey Heron, Grey Partridge, Greylag Goose,
Herring Gull, Jack Snipe, Jackdaw, Kestrel, Lapwing, Little Grebe, Long-tailed Duck, Magpie, Mallard,
Moorhen, Mute Swan, Pheasant, Pink-footed Goose (in nearby field), Pochard, Red-breasted Merganser,
Redshank, Robin, Rock Dove, Rook, Scaup, Short-eared Owl, Snipe, Starling, Stonechat, Teal,
Tree Sparrow, Tufted Duck, Turnstone, Wigeon & Woodpigeon.

Newbiggins:
Carrion Crow, Grey Wagtail, Herring Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Oystercatcher, Pied Wagtail, Ringed Plover, Starling, Turnstone & Woodpigeon.

Cresswell Foreshore:
Dolphins, Cormorant, Eider, Grey Heron, Oystercatcher & Redshank.

Planes, Birds and a Party (Or An Afternoon at Martin Mere)

Well after a very quiet August where we didn't get to do much wildlife watching and only clocked 42 species of birds for the whole month, September is looking better already, over a busy weekend, we have passed August and stand on 43! But out of those 1 is a lifer and we've had a first (observed) visit into our garden by a Great Spotted Woodpecker this morning! Brilliant.

So what have we been up to, firstly on Saturday it was off up to Cheshire for my Great Nephews joint 18th and 21st birthday party, hence the party of the title, a very merry time was had by all. But where do the planes come in the title........... you'll have to wait!

Back to the Saturday, it's always a joy going up to my sister in law's for many reasons, one of them being the birds. As I've probably mentioned in previous posts, she lives by the River Weaver, so gets a great variety of visitors to her feeders, (back window) and from the front window views over the river. Highlight on the feeders this weekend was a Nuthatch, brilliant to see them so close.

We had decided that as we were staying over and had never been to Martin Mere (and are members) that instead of heading home Sunday we would go and visit. We knew it wouldn't be spectacular as it can be fairly quiet this time of year, but as it happens it was. Here comes the planes bit, what we didn't know was that it was Southport Airshow, so from the Ron Barker hide we had birds and planes, the best of the heavy metal was the Vulcan!

So back to birds, we had a great afternoon in the Ron Baker hide, we just stayed in there as there was so much going on and chatted to a very nice like minded couple for the majority of the time in there.

The lifer for us were the Ruff, it would have been nice to see them in Summer plumage but a lifer none the less, beggars can't be choosers.

We had brilliant displays from the raptors: Buzzards, Kestrel and 3 Marsh Harriers (2 Female, 1 Male)

There were plenty of Greylag and Pink Footed Geese about:

We just love the noise of flocks of Geese coming in and can't wait to go to Norfolk in November to see them in their thousands!

Another plus were 3 Whooper Swans:

The only draw back was that the waders were staying well away from the hide and with the sun in our eyes and the hazy conditions it was tough to identify them for sure, we did confirm Dunlin, Black Tailed Godwit , Redshank and of course hundreds of Lapwing.
Apart from Mallard, the only confirmed Ducks were Teal and a solitary Shelduck flying past. We apparently missed the Kingfisher by minutes and it didn't come back, oh well will have to go to Upton or down Haden Hill Park. (On the Upton Note, anyone know if the Osprey is still about?)

So a lovely afternoon out:
Birds of a feather:
Black Headed Gull, Common Gull, Herring Gull,
Black Tailed Godwit, Ruff, Dunlin, Lapwing, Redshank, Grey Heron,
Coot, Moorhen,
Mallard, Teal, Shelduck,
Buzzard, Kestrel, Marsh Harrier,
Crow, Starling, Robin, Woodpigeon,
Swallow,
Cormorant, Whooper Swan,
Greylag, Pink Footed Goose.

Birds of Metal: (of Note)
Battle of Britain Memorial Flight (Lancaster, Hurricane & Spitfire)
Avro Vulcan B.2
Panavia Tornado GR4
Westland Lynx
plus many more

8 Days to Sri Lanka..............