ARRIVAL AT NEWCASTLE CENTRAL TRAIN STATION - TRANSFER TO BELFORD WITH STOPS AT BIG WATERS COUNTRY PARK AND WOODLANDS NEAR LONG NANNY
WEATHER; cloudy with some sunny spells, high winds all day.
After arriving yesterday and staying overnight just north of Newcastle I spent the morning checking out a few parks and birding sites. The wind was awful, very strong and it ruined any kind of birding on offer. I managed to see a few nice species such as Hobby, a male Bullfinch, Yellowhammers, Common Whitethroat, Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff, Blackcap and plenty of other common species.
I collected my first group of seven at the Central Station at 2pm, they arrived on time and we were quickly heading to the North of Newcastle. Our first stop was at the Big Waters Nature Reserve near the airport. We found some shelter there and managed to find about 30 species of birds as well as some butterflies and Dragonflies.
Whooper Swan! What the devil is that bird doing in Northumberland in the middle of summer?
From the shore of the main lake we listed several species of ducks, such as Mallard, Teal, Tufted Duck as well as Coot, Moorhen and two species of grebes, Great Crested and Little Grebes. In with the Mute Swans we found a WHOOPER SWAN - wow! that species is not supposed to be there at this time of the year, perhaps its injured in some way? It looked to be healthy and feeding OK.
We also saw Oystercatcher, Lapwing, Grey Heron, Common Tern, Black-headed, Lesser Black-backed and Herring Gulls. Many Common Swifts were feeding over the lake as well as both Sand and House Martins. In the sheltered part of the woodlands we found little sun-traps where butterflies were on the wing, we saw Small White, Speckled Wood, Red Admiral and a Comma. A few Four-spotted Chasers were flying as well as lots of of Common Bluetail Damselflies.
Four-spotted Chaser
In the scrub we found a male Bullfinch, Blue and Great Tits, we heard Chiffchaff and some of the group saw a Blackcap. The best bird of the afternoon was seen as we drove off the site. A Grey Partrdige ran along the track in front of the bus, when it finally flew off it landed near a second bird.
As we drove further north along the A1, one of the group called out an owl, it was seen flying low over the fields and was identified as a Short-eared Owl.
We made an attempt to visit the Long Nannay Tern colony near Beadnell but the SAT NAV sent us the wrong way and we ran out of time. We did stop at a roadside woodland not far away and listed several species there, including, Long-tailed and Coal Tit, we heard Goldcrest and we also saw Blackcap, Blue and Great Tit again.
At dinner later in the evening we added three more species to our list. From the dinner table we watched Pied Wagtail, Goldfinches and a Common Whitethroat in the gardens, we also saw many House Martins that were nesting in the eaves of the building. We managed to see a total 46 species this afternoon.