Thursday’s rain wasn’t the best weather to get the most from a guided day’s birdwatching in Northumberland but John had travelled a long way and wasn’t to be put off. Hailing from Vancouver in Canada and over for a two week ‘big’ family reunion John was no stranger to birding in the UK with an English wife and numerous previous trips.
John had sent me his English List and asked me to fill in some gaps so I had built an itinerary that would do just that. With the rain set in for the day we agreed that some of the target species that would need time on foot were best left to another day.
Luckily as ever Northumberland came to the rescue as there is just no shortage of birds to see whatever the weather. Just five minutes from his luxury accommodation high in the Coquet Valley I was able to add John’s first lifer of the day as we enjoyed super views of a Dipper sat millimetres above a swollen river.
Despite the rain the rich purple of one of Northumberland’s heather moors provided our next stop, a juvenile Whinchat sat out the rain high on the heather just yards from the car.
The coast brought no respite but the shelter of some of Northumberland Wildlife Trust’s various hide incarnations brought plenty of birds. A short seawatch produced lots of Gannet, Kittiwake and Sandwich Terns as well as a Great Skua albeit one a little blurred by the mist. The scrub between us and the hide erupted in activity as the rain eased and John added Tree Sparrow to his life list along with good views of some commoner passerines such as Chaffinch and Dunnock.
Further down the coast we spent time watching bathing terns and gulls, an ideal opportunity to discuss the subtle beauty of Lesser Black-backed Gulls. Standing out amongst the Lapwing a single Common Snipe was well received.
Juvenile Spotted Redshanks
Our next two stops provided a plethora of passage waders with two juvenile Spotted Redshanks, a group of summer plumaged Knot arriving from the northwest, Common Sandpiper, 2 Whimbrels, 2 juvenile Ruff and some smart looking Golden Plover still hanging onto the remnants of summer.