A grand day out

It seems ages since I last went for a wander up the coast, something I used to do very regularly at this time of year before the pandemic.  I started at Boulmer and walked north from the village along the beach as the tide was coming in.  The weather was sunny and calm with a flat calm sea.  It is a great place to see waders and here are some of those I came across.

First bar-tailed godwits.  These have been in the news in the past week after one was tracked flying 8108 miles non-stop from Alaska to Australia in 239 hours (almost 10 days) at an average speed of 34mph.  The bird was heading for New Zealand but had to divert over 1000 miles to Australia after encountering headwinds, which makes me wonder how it knew Australia was there.  The godwits I saw are winter visitors from Siberia.

I saw and heard lots of redshanks who know just how deep they can go without getting their feathers wet.

These two spent several minutes fighting but it was difficult to see what it was all about as there was plenty of space for both of them.

Other waders were ringed plovers,

knots,

sanderlings,

dunlins (not a great photo but in for completeness),

turnstones,

and purple sandpipers.

The curlews stayed on the shore as long as possible but were eventually driven into nearby fields by the rising tide.

This is an oystercatcher with a knot and a godwit.

Ducks on the sea were eiders,

wigeons,

and mallards.

One very surprising sighting (to me at least) was little grebe fishing in the sea.  Other birds on the shore or close by included grey herons, carrion crows, rock pipits, pied wagtails, wrens, robins, linnets and house sparrows, some of which I may go back to photograph another time.  Oh, and plenty of seagulls!

Out and about in October

I twice went to the coast in October looking for goldcrests but didn't see one.  Then last week I heard one in the garden. The first camera I grabbed has only a 300mm lens so the photos are a bit heavily cropped but they are not too bad. This is the first goldcrest I have seen here for almost 20 years but I expect they are here more often and I don't notice. I had forgotten they have such bright orange feet.

When I was at the coast at least I saw a few gulls.  Gulls are not always easy even though I went on a gull ID course last winter.  This one is easy - a great black-backed gull (I hope).

And a herring gull.

And a first winter herring gull (I hope).

This is a bit of an experiment.  I made a panorama of redshanks at St Marys.  It looks OK on my computer but I don't know how it will come out on the blog.  Click on the photo to enlarge it and see if it worth looking at.

In Gosforth Nature Reserve I met a young roe deer fawn, now in her dark winter coat.  She was curious but not alarmed, even though I was fairly close.

I always find flight shots very difficult but at least this heron, also in the nature reserve, is nearly in focus.

Back in the garden the wasps, bees and hoverflies were enjoying the Kniphofia caulescens.

October was mostly wet and windy, starting with Storm Alex and ending with Storm Aiden.  The charts don't show wind but confirm the cloudy wet weather.

Early in the month was the UK's wettest single day on record.  And this Met Office chart confirms that it rained almost every day, which was what it felt like.

The reimposed lockdown will have an impact on all our activities but I'll try to get some photos for November, even if only in the garden.  During the first lockdown there was so much see that I was posting every two days.  Now I'll try to keep up once a week.

Bird of the week - Redshank

The redshank is usually very wary and is easily disturbed.  Before you can get anywhere near it flies away with a loud alarm call.  So it was a surprise that this one let me get close enough to take a few photos.  Perhaps it didn't see me well with the sun behind me.  Or perhaps it was perplexed by the sight of an old man crawling through the rocks towards it.  When I first saw it it looked like this, both pictures quite heavily cropped.

I managed to get a bit closer for these photos.

Redshanks are more usually seen at a distance, poking about in mud or in rock pools.

Here is another bird that let me get a bit closer.  The very bright sun made its legs look a bit more orange.

The redshank is Tringa totanus.  It seems a bit strange that the redshank and greenshank are so named but their cousin the greater yellowlegs is not the greater yellowshank (or yellowleg).  It might be because the last is an American bird and was named there.

Redshank numbers are declining - due mainly to loss of habitat, as is usually the case.  They nest in upland or wet areas of the British Isles and winter on the coasts.  The UK breeding population is around 24,000 breeding pairs and is boosted by wintering birds from Scandinavia.

Thomas Bewick knew the redshank - this is his engraving for A History of British Birds (1832).  I'm not sure where the name Red-legged horseman comes from but the French name for redshank is Chevalier gambette.  Other traditional English names include ebb cock, sentinel of the marshes and watchdog of the marshes.

You can watch a BTO video on identifying redshanks, greenshanks and spotted redshanks here.  And listen to the BBC Radio 4 Tweet of the Day on redshank here.