Local Patch End of Year 2025

 As the end of 2025 approaches we always like to appraise how the birding has gone and for me that means, in particular, my local patch. As I have mentioned on more than one occasion, my patch is not a nature reserve. It has no large areas of fresh water, estuaries or scrapes. There is not a hide to be had. Other observers are thin on the ground, so combining this with working full time, a lot of the birds are self found on my daily dog walks. I miss a bit too when I am at work.

This year I have been using eBird to keep a list and in doing so I have input quite a few records for my 3 sq km area, see Map -

Whilst 2025 was just about average in the number of species recorded at 154, over the last 16 years on site ( record is 166 in 2019, lowest 136 in 2014) . Here are the rarity highlights with comments - 

White fronted Geese  - 6 stayed for a month Jan - Feb. Only the 3rd occurrence after birds in 2011 and 2023.

Great Crested Grebe 1 on the sea in August, like the geese only the 3rd occurrence after birds in 2011 and 2016. 9 years since I last recorded one here.

Red necked Grebe 1 on 26th October on a seawatch another 3rd record after birds in 2010 and 2019. Equals Great Crested Grebe in regularity here.

Glaucous Gull 1 2nd Winter in February seen twice. Yet another 3rd after singles in 2015 and 2018.

Osprey 1 flew N past our house early on 24th April, the 4th here. 

Bee-eater 1 south on 31st May a patch first at last. Pity it didnt linger for photos, it was seen twice in half an hour as it moved south.

Garden Warbler. This is what makes patch watching interesting. Despite being on the east coast these birds are hard to catch up with here. This one singing on the coast path and seen in spring was the first for 9 years. They were more or less annual for the first few years after we came here in 2009. Getting rarer.

Common Rosefinch. My second garden record, but not as good as the first one in 2010. In fact this one was a heard singing only record that departed before I could get eyes on it. 27th May.

Other notable species for the patch were Gadwall, Pintail, Long tailed Duck, Cuckoo, Water Rail, Grey Plover, Knot, Bar tailed Godwit,  Greenshank, Mediterranean Gull, Little Gull, Little Tern, Roseate Tern, Pomarine Skua, Long tailed Skua ( all 4 skuas), Little Egret, Marsh Harrier, Short eared Owl, Willow Tit, Yellow browed Warbler, Grasshopper Warbler, Spotted Flycatcher, Twite. 

Biggest misses include Sanderling, Common Sandpiper, Redstart, Red legged Partridge, Little Auk and Waxwing both the latter near annual. Its 5 years since my last Whinchat here though they have been seen by others occasionally.

So, here's to 2026, lets hope it brings something interesting...

Cold spells

 I once read how regular weather patterns can be. On a broad scale for example, here we get cold northerlies from April to May and mild southerlies in September and October. The exact opposite of what we would like to see.

Snow is a bit less predictable. 

Or is it? Since the millennium we have had some snow each year in November and December. 

30th December 2020. A dusting at midnight.

29th November 2021. The aftermath of Storm Arwen was cold. Above shows our snow covered bathroom lit by candle. No heating or hot water for 11 days.

14th December 2022. White on the flatter surfaces.

1st December 2023. Tricky driving as our roads are often last to be gritted.

20th November 2024. This is uncanny. Same date as this year below...

20th November 2025. 2 inches fell driving very difficult until later in the daty.

20th November 2025 being out here when the roads are difficult we have the coast to ourselves...

End of the Moth Season

 That's another year garden moth trapping over with the Robinson being retired into the shed. This is my 16th year trapping here. I've still got records to add to my MapMate database but I think all new species are in. 

Several new species arrived this year, something that always surprises me how new moths keep being added after all this time.

Caloptilia honoratella 1 , a First for Northumberland. Always good to get a county first.

Plutella porrectella 2, nice, unexpected too.

Coleophora alcyonipennella Clover Case-bearer 2 only 3 previous county records.

Palpita vitrealis 2 a great year for these in the county. Only 17 records.

Agriphila latistria 1 Only 14 records of this crambid.

Odontosia carmelita Scarce Prominent 1 One of my most wanted moths, a fine fresh one too.

Heliothis peltigera Bordered Straw 1 Everyone was catching these bar me, so was pleased with a nice fresh one. 

Dryobotodes eremita Brindled Green 1, less than 100 ever in the county all further south.

Mythimna vitellina Delicate 2 Only 25 records for the county.

Autumn almost over.

 October is now over with only a single post on the blog.

This might be because this may be one of the poorest autumns birding I can recall. Since August we have had a constant southerly or south westerly airflow. For us on the NE Coast that is about as bad as it can get.

Looking at some stats, Manx Shearwater for example. Not one in September. There was just no suitable seawatching conditions. Same goes for drift migrants. On my patch there have been no Redstarts, Whinchats or Pied Flys.

It shows, people think we have it made watching a patch on the east coast, but that is only if the weather is in our favour. Back in August I wondered if the steady S winds would ever change, and they didn't apart from a couple of very narrow sub standard windows of opportunity.

On 25th September a seawatch was largely quiet other than a few Dolphins a Wheatear and an in-off Short Eared Owl.

Above- Bottle nosed Dolphins and a Short eared Owl at Cullernose.

A brief twitch to Holy Island on 27th September while we were up that way had a nice Red breasted Flycatcher. The following day a Cetti's Warbler giving short snatches of song at Foxton Golf Course pond was a first for the Boulmer patch. The same morning a good count of 71 Redpolls flew S. It at least has been a good year for Redpolls with bird moving S on most days.

On 5th October a nice group of 7 Curlew Sandpipers dropped on to the Aln Estuary. 

On 20th around our village were 6 Little Gulls N, a Woodcock, 18 Crossbills and 9 Whooper Swans S while the glitch in the machine dropped a few Yellow browed Warblers on site with 3 at Craster with a late Willow Warbler and two Willow Tits.

Willow Tit

Willow Warbler 

Half a Yellow browed Warbler

And thats about it .

So, its no good wondering what could have been.

Winter is coming...

 

 

Migrants, but not birds...

 This autumn has been one of the worst I can remember for bird migration. 

We have had nothing much in the way of easterlies and no seawatching since August. This is largely due to the omnipresent southerly or south westerly winds since the last Bank Holiday. To give this some context, my last Manx or Sooty Shearwater was way back on 18th August. No shearwaters in September! Couldnt imagine it, but there it goes. 

I thought that with our hols being a bit earlier this year I would be home for the Yellow browed Warbler arrivals so have had the garden staked out every single day. Nothing. Not only no Yellow brows, but not a Redstart or Pied Fly and no thrushes either. I am hoping there is time yet, but I fear the high pressure stationed for weeks over the Scandinavian area might have allowed the migrants to move straight continental south so even if the wind does swing East there might not be much left for us to get.  

Time will tell.

So back to the post. These southerlies, have given us some nice weather at least, and off that, a few interesting moths too. Without fear of repeating myself, Northumberland is not good for migrant lepidoptera and North Northumberland VC68 is worst of all, so please don't compare these with catches in the south because it will seem trivial. Captions below...

Delicate - First for the garden and only the 25th County. 

Pearly Underwing -my 5th here.

Bordered Straw - my most wanted as everyone else seems to have had one, but this is my first. A stunner.

Dark Swordgrass -After some barren years, this year has seen an upsurge here with 11 so far. My last were 2 in 2021.

Palpita vitrealis. Well pleased to see one in Suffolk last year, so 2 in my garden this year is mindblowing! Only 17 county records.

Scarce Bordered Straw - only 5 prev records here since 2010 but 3 this year is the best showing so far.

Out of the Blue...

 September, as usual these days, has been dominated by southerly winds, that for us in Northumberland, aren't good for much. There has been no seawatching or decent migrant weather but it doesnt take a lot to shuffle the pack. Last week a short 2 day window of North then light East breezes, gave us an event that no one would have predicted under the conditions given.

Late Sunday morning last week Steve Egglestone posted a photo of a Pipit he had taken that morning at Trow Quarry, South Shields. We were all incredulous to see that it was a tiger striped Pechora! What? We havent had a Siberian blast yet this most sought after of Pipits made it through. I fancy it has come partially over the top on the north wind rather than from the east, but we can only speculate.

As I evaluated my twitching options in Morrisons at Alnwick at lunchtime, I pondered distance ( 90 miles round trip) how busy it might be and likelyhood of success. This equation came to 'You need to be in it to win it' so myself and John arrived at Trow Quarry bang on 3.30pm behind 50 other birders on site.

The prognosis wasnt good. Observers present for 3 hours only had flight glimpses from one area of long grass to another with an odd 5 seconds pause on a branch before dropping into the vegetation again. We soon became one of them. We had 5 short flight views. Once it was low and some stripes could be seen but it was essentially a quiet short tailed ground hugger that was beyond identification with these looks.  

As I watched the tight packed crowd surge from one end of the quarry to the other when the bird moved ( it wasnt flushed it just proved mobile), this was never going to work. After watching the bird's behaviour, I said to John one one of these jaunts the bird will drop down onto the bare ground below the trees rather than into a bank of metre high thistles as it seemed to prefer.

I decided to hang back from the crowd. I left my scope and tripod standing on the short turf so I could be more ready for the next flight when I planned to sit back and watch closely with bins rather than moving myself. Sure enough up it went, true to form then swooped up under a large sycamore. The crowD moved as one, I didnt, I just grilled the landing spot with bins. It was then I saw a quick flick of wings to the back of the tree, above some bare ground.

I looked back, my scope stood alone on the lawn while everyone else was now 30 yards away. I could see most were in a trance like state just following and gazing but not really looking. I lifted my bins again.

This time I couldnt believe my eyes. There, on the bare ground below the tree was a small nodding bird, striding around in the open. I called this info to the line up. As one, it seemed to kick each and everyone up the backside and soon I could hear camera shutters going off.

I grabbed my scope and became the tail end sheep in the pack. Through my scope great views were had of this tiny jungle/tundra dweller walking around like a....well it reminded me of Forest Wgtail in China or an Olive backed Pipit maybe. It then marched up right out on the the access track sloping up the hill. What a sight! I even let a couple of lads get a good scope view too...

I will add at this stage, several of my good Northumberland mates had already sickened and left the site maybe 15 minutes earlier! Sorry chaps....

Anyway after 10 mins it flew up again and went back to its old ways in the long grass, but not before everyone there got good views and the photos they wanted. Result.

I cant see it being beaten to Bird of the Year at this late stage... 

 

   

Royals and Oil...

 Our week away was into west Aberdeenshire, where we stayed in a tidy little cottage in Ordie, Royal Deeside. This is the first time we have been to this area, between Aboyne and Ballater but we were pleasantly surprised by it.

Whilst the area is a wooded, hilly or mountainous location, its not a particular wildlife hotspot, but when we are away we always see what we can find.

Over the week 55 bird species were seen within the 10km square. For us, the Red Kites, daily, from the house windows might have been the highlight as we still dont really get many in Northumberland. One short drive into Glen Muick SW of Ballater gave us nice views of two Golden Eagles, an adult and an immature squabbling over the hillside on and off for an hour.

Otherwise, sightings of Peregrine, Ravens, Dipper, Redpolls, Siskins and Crossbills and odd Spotted Flycatcher filled the days. The weather was pleasant enough with an occasional shower and heavier rain into the darkness but we could get out every day.

Early in our stay, nearby Balmoral was busy due to the King being in residence on his summer hols. The area is very affluent due to the Royal presence and that of Oil off Aberdeen too...

Red Kites, up to 4 were seen daily.

Golden Eagles, Glen Muick. 

The drive home was enlivened when I suddenly, about 10 miles away, remembered about the presence of a Marsh Sandpiper at Musselburgh for a week!

In we went and after a short walk we found the brick, Levenhall viewing screen over some small pools. The fw Marsh Sandpiper was on the very closest pool and was the very closest bird too! Fantastic views as it dashed about feeding like a hybrid Phalarope x Sewing Machine. This is only my second after one at Blacktoft Sands in July 2002, so I was well pleased to get it.

This is a great spot for migrant waders. In front of us with the Marsh Sand were  1 juc Spotted Redshank, 9+ Ruff, 8+ Curlew Sandpipers and 1 Wood Sandpiper .

Above - Marsh Sandpiper video, photo and Notes.