Winter Finches and Year List Additions. 22nd February 2019

After the unasked for Noah's Ark breakfast at the Moorcock Inn we revisited Langdon Beck for another look at the Black Grouse. The beautiful sunny day on the hills was replaced by a mist in the valleys. By the time we arrived just after 09:00 the Blackcock's had finished their lekking activities for the morning already and were quietly feeding in the grassy fields opposite the Langdon Beck Hotel. We counted 22 of them, more than we'd seen the evening before. They were far too distant though for any meaningful photographs so we moved on, driving over the moorland road as far as a small stream where we could turn around. No sign of any Dippers on the water, possibly they're not back in the area yet, but we did encounter our first Curlew of the year on the drive back to the Blackcock's which were still stood idly on the grassy field so nothing new to see. 

Blackcock's doing nothing much

Curlew

Widdybank Fell is the name of a vast area of moorland to the south of Langdon Beck. The road into it runs for about three miles and ends at the huge Cow Green reservoir. On this misty morning it certainly was a bleak place indeed, just miles and miles of heather extending in every direction and seemingly pretty empty. We spotted a Raven by the turning area and there were a few Red Grouse, also new for the year, in the area but precious little else. As we drove out I spotted a female Merlin charging along one of the ridges. In level flight there isn't much else that moves quite as quickly as a Merlin on the hunt and they are always a joy to see. But as usual, this Merlin just kept going and disappeared over the ridge leaving me yet again without a single image of this species.

Red Grouse (the real Moorcock)

We returned to the Langdon Beck area, the Black Grouse were still doing very little so drove northwards over the moorland road which had been vastly upgraded since our last visit twenty odd years ago. Traffic was light though and when we spotted some Red Grouse close to the road, I was able to stop and take some photos. Not that it was worth doing because of the mist but you've got to try. The males (the proper Moorcock's) were obviously trying their best to impress the females and were engaging in display flights and many "get back, get back" calls were uttered. I parked safely and braved the chill to take some flight shots. Higher up the hill the mist subsided and I tried my luck with a few more Grouse but willing subjects as they were I just didn't do them justice. It was noticeable that although us birders hate the practice of "muirburn" (the burning of heather) the Red Grouse actually cherish the burnt areas and defend them as territory.

After getting the brief view of a Willow Tit while looking for the Pallas's Warbler the day before, I thought we should try to get a decent view of one. The Wildfowl and Wetland's Trust reserve at Washington is a renowned place to see them since they regularly use a feeding station set up there. In recent days there had also been reports of Mealy Redpoll, the bigger and greyer Continental cousin of our Lesser Redpoll, using the same feeders so hopefully we'd get some good views of them too. Mealy, or Common, Redpoll are very scarce further south and I've never seen one in Oxon. What I'd forgotten was the fact that it was school half-term so when we pulled into the car park we struggled to find a space! It was very busy indeed and today was Puddle Splashing day so there were young families everywhere. Far from ideal for a bit of quiet birdwatching but it'd had taken us over an hour to get there so we stuck with it and queued up to get in.

On the walk through to the feeding station we paused to look at some of the captive wildfowl and particularly the rather handsome Smew and Mandarin Ducks. Like all WWT centres the captive collections are extensive and provide fantastic photography opportunities but at the end of the day they are "plastic", bling wearing, uncountable birds so it doesn't do to spend too much time admiring them.

female Mandarin

male Mandarin 

male Smew

female Smew

The hide at the feeding station was absolutely manic! Rammed full of onesie and welly wearing small people excited by the prospect of jumping around in puddles. Fortunately the big splash was due to start so after a few minutes we were left alone in the hide with just a couple of other birders. Decked out in front of the hide was one of the best feeding station setups I've seen with a multitude of different feeders containing various types of food spread out all the way across the front of the hide and all surrounded by woodland. There were birds everywhere and they were continually coming and going from and to the trees. I had to sit still and take it all in before singling out any individual birds to watch and to photograph. The feeders and adjoining trees were also very close and any frames taken hardly needed to be cropped, always a bonus since sharper images are obtained. The sun had also put it's best hat on so there were no excuses (for once). 

But first I counted up what I could see. The most striking birds were around half a dozen Bullfinches, both males and females. Bullfinch are normally shy birds and difficult to approach but here they boldly perched in full view and commandeered the feeders. I try not to waste time taking photos of birds "on feeders" preferring to wait until they choose a more natural perch (photo snobbery!). The Bullfinches obliged frequently but never posed for long before they returned to the feeders. However some of the shots I obtained were as good as any I've ever captured.

male Bullfinch

female Bullfinch

The Bullfinches were joined by some Lesser Redpolls, although there were no Mealy's evident. I'm a big fan of Redpolls of all descriptions, they are beautiful little finches, Lesser Redpoll being not much larger than a Blue Tit. The Redpoll were more difficult to get in full view though, they preferred to rest in more cover, so I was quite happy to take a few frames of them actually at the feeders. Siskins, another of our smaller finch species were also present but appeared much more reluctant to visit the feeders and were most often seen picking up scraps off the floor.

Lesser Redpoll

female & male Siskin

The ground under the feeders was a living and forever transient throng of birds. Mostly Chaffinches along with greedy Wood Pigeons, Moorhens and Pheasants. Mixed in with those were several Brambling, to my mind one of our most beautiful finches. For now the Brambling were staying largely out of reach of my lens on the floor but I did snap a young male when it flew up into one of the trees.

Suet had been pressed into the crevices of a couple of sawn off trees right in front of our seat at the hide windows. This was attracting some Great Spotted Woodpeckers and best of all a Treecreeper. You had to be quick to capture the Treecreeper though, it was in and out in a flash since it was scared off by just about everything else.

female Great Spotted Woodpecker

male Great Spotted Woodpecker

Treecreeper

I had been watching some more Lesser Redpoll at a niger seed feeder when at last its larger relative, a Mealy appeared. When seen together the Mealy was clearly a size bigger and a much colder grey colour. I spent a bit of time studying the Redpolls and reckoned that there were at least 5 Mealy's and up to 10 Lesser's visiting the feeders. Some were males with lovely pink flushed breast feathers. The "red poll", the red head feathers that give the Redpoll its name, is much richer and brighter on the Mealy than on the Lesser and the overall colouration is greyish rather than buff. I had to accept images of all of the Redpoll taken at the feeders since when they flew off, they did so deep into the trees.

Lesser Redpoll

Mealy Redpoll

Having had my fill of most of the bird species on offer, I had counted no fewer than 23, I concentrated on my favourites, namely the Redpolls and the Bramblings. Luckily both Lesser and Mealy Redpoll perched on a branch that lay close to the feeder allowing me to get some more natural shots. One of the Mealy's also had a penchant for hanging on acrobatically to one of the feeders.

Lesser Redpoll

Mealy Redpoll

Mealy Redpoll

I had to laugh when editing my photos later to discover this pair of shots below of a Goldfinch and Mealy Redpoll that were sharing a feeder. Seemingly the best of buddies until one of them appeared to do something unsavoury. I swear you could see the respective bills wrinkling in disgust!

"Was that you?!"

Now it was time to concentrate on the Brambling. I counted at least 7 of these at the banquet. Some were satisfied at picking up dropped offerings from the ground, others preferred the loose food enclosed within a cage protected table. On their approach to the table the Brambling would navigate their way through the branches of a spindly bush and one male bird in particular offered up some cracking poses. It's been a terrific winter for seeing these northern finches in the UK and we've found them just about everywhere we've been over the last few months.

male Brambling

female Brambling

We'd been in the hide for a little over an hour and time was pressing, we didn't want to get trapped in the Friday afternoon rush, so at half past midday we made tracks. The last bird I photographed was a Nuthatch, again at the feeder since they were another species that scarpered deep into the woods once fed.

Nuthatch

Sadly we hadn't seen a Willow Tit although other hide goers assured us that they visit regularly. Maybe another time. I stopped to admire some Ferruginous Ducks in the captive ponds. We've seen a few Ferruginous Ducks before, including one on Otmoor, but most records of wild birds are met with scepticism of their validity since so many are kept in collections around the world.

Ferruginous Duck

Back in the car the Sat Nav very helpfully negotiated us away from the busy A1 and along the A19 and through the Tyne tunnel. This saved us quite a bit of time but unfortunately I didn't realise that it required a toll to be paid. And furthermore all of the booths were automated and we didn't have any coins! Panic!! After much reversing and annoying of fellow motorists (bloody tourists I could hear them shout) we thankfully remembered that we carry some coins in readiness for car parking in the glove box. We had just enough to pay the £1.70 and were on our way again. Phew!

Our next destination was to the Druridge Pools on the coast. We'd visited this fine little reserve last year where we'd seen a Glossy Ibis among others, including a fine Merlin that scorched past my nose, but I had stupidly left my camera with Mrs Caley so had missed my chance of a decent shot or two.  This time we were hoping to see a Green-winged Teal, the American counterpart of our own Eurasian Teal but a separate species in its own right. The latest sighting of the transatlantic duck had come from the "Little" Hide that overlooked one of the pools. We joined a couple of other birders in the rudimentary structure and asked of they had seen the bird but were met with a negative reply. I scanned around and almost instantly spotted the drake Green-winged Teal and at reasonably close quarters. It was displaying along with half a dozen of its European cousins and was showing really well, totally at odds with the previous reports that reckoned it was elusive! 

drake Green-winged Teal (top centre) and Eurasian Teal

drake Green-winged Teal (left)

A couple of other birders arrived and the resident couple noisily pointed out the duck and proudly claimed that they had found it themselves. The cheek! Time to leave already, hides are really not my bag especially when the noise levels go up and a hide bore (not me, no way!) takes over. The Teal was our 120th species for the year and at Cresswell Pond just along the coast we soon added a fine male Red-breasted Merganser too. There were Tree Sparrows in the car park bushes there too, another species that we seem to be seeing a lot this year.

drake Red-breasted Merganser

On our way to the Waren House Hotel, our home for the night, we dropped into the Stag Rocks within view of the famous and magnificent Bamburgh Castle. This had been a sought out destination last February on our route northwards to Scotland and was worthy of a repeat visit. It was getting dark by the time we got there so this was a quick recce since we'd return in the morning but in just half an hour we added Eider, Common Scoter, Oystercatcher, Turnstone and my most wanted, Purple Sandpiper to the year list which now stood at 126.

Eider

Purple Sandpiper, Turnstone & Oystercatcher

The Waren House Hotel offered everything that the Moorcock Inn didn't. The food was delicious and our room (actually a suite!) was enormous and extremely comfortable. The staff couldn't help you enough and it's definitely a place we'd choose to stay at again, unlike the Moorcock.