Durham, 5th April

What a brilliant spring day this turned out to be - nothing out of this world bird wise, but a beautiful day spent pottering around with family in the sunny wooded edges of Durham city. In the morning we took a rather convoluted journey down town via some woods where we enjoyed nuthatch, willow tit, great-spotted woodpecker, and great close up views of a couple of roe deer, that made Claire's day too. After lunch we had a few hours in the sun in the garden, allowing me to catch up with the comma that Dad had seen there a few days before - a garden tick and my first ever in Durham, I think.

 After a while it was time to head out to one of my favourite spots - and one of my first ever patches, I guess, Brasside pond. Brasside delivered the expected wildfowl, and a few less expected wildfowl in the form of 2 goldeneye and this group of 7 whooper swans. 

There was also a flock over 130 curlew in the back fields, calling willow tit, my first singing blackcap of the year, and a pair of displaying great crested grebes, that kept Claire and I entertained for a good half an hour at least.

Weardale, 4th April

After a Thursday drive down the road, and a Friday spent enjoying the kittiwake colony (and some of the shops too, I guess, in Newcastle), it was nice to get out into the countryside on the Saturday. Weardale was chosen, as it offers an opportunity to visit the Black Bull in Frosterly - but it also offered an opportunities to catch up with a white-tailed eagle (ringed as a pulli on Mull) that had been wondering around the area, as well as a great grey shrike that had done the decent thing and decided to stay in one place, in Stanhope.

We missed out on the eagle, which was hardly surprising as we gave it very little effort, but enjoyed good views of the great grey shrike, which is great as I see great grey shrikes much less frequently than I see white tailed eagles. What was noteworthy though were the number of birders that were up there looking - easily more on the durham moors than I'd see during a week on Ouessant. It was easter weekend I guess, and I reckon WTE must have been a welcome addition to many a Durham list.

There were other bits and bobs around of course, too. Lots of waders up on their breeding grounds making all of the right noises, and of course plenty of grouse. Red grouse were everywhere, and there were 9 black grouse feeding in fields near the Langdon Beck lek site. A red kite drifted over the moors here too, which was lovely, but as it passed I enjoyed wondering how I might have reacted to such a sighting had it been at a time when I was making more frequent visits to the area, maybe 25 years ago now!

There was also this rather attractive meadow pipit - I see warm 'whistleri' looking meadow pipits frequently in April on the Aberdeenshire coast, but they've never looked as good as this!

three come at once...

Having waited for over a week at the end of March for a new bird for the Patch Year List, it was with some relief that the floodgates opened a little on the 2nd. It started off with a flyby bar-tailed godwit in the morning, and ended nicely with a puffin and a sandwich tern lingering in Nigg Bay in the afternoon. It's possible that the floodgates were about to open, but then I went to Durham and got ill for a week so I guess I'll never know!

Late March

After the excitement of genuine migrants like littoralis rock pipits I was expecting big things for the end of the month. In reality though, it was a bit of a damp squib. No wheatears or other spring migrants were on show, apart from a couple of chiffchaffs around the sewage works. A female type stonechat on the north bank felt a little bit migranty one morning but in all likelihood could well have been the female from the south bank area having a bit of a wander. At least the redwing that was briefly at the battery one lunchtime was a mover. And really, that was it for the rest of March. All a little disappointing!