Widdrington & Ulgham

With work getting in the way of things at the moment I have been out a couple of times over the last week. Last Sunday I was at Druridge bay CP and the dunes to Hauxley point. Despite the promising Northerlies the sea was disappointing and the only birds of note were 6 Whooper swans flying South.
On Thursday it was my turn at Ulgham meadows and woodland LNR to do some tidying up. The river Lyne was full and murky so a Kingfisher beside the road bridge next to the B1337 was a good sighting. At the highest point at Ulgham grange is an area called Tute hill. From here you get nice views towards Druridge bay and the stubble fields along this narrow road is always worth a stop. There was large flocks of Skylark here and smaller numbers of Yellowhammer and Tree Sparrow but there was a nice flock of 40 Linnets...something of a rarity these days. With the close proximity of the coast and the slightly elevated position these fields could pull in something like a Lapland Bunting so I'll have to keep stopping by. I'm sure it was these fields where ADMc saw a Crane earlier this year.

A small part of the Goldfinch flock at Widdrington tip

The foot and mouth plantation

Pink feets heading South

At Ulgham hundreds of insects on Ivy...I'm sure Dean knows what they are!

Yesterday morning I was back at Widdrington tip. Only 2 Snipe but lots of Skylark, Goldfinches 80+ and Redpolls 30+ and Grey Partridges this time (10). The more recently planted woodland where they buried the foot and mouth cattle is looking good and this was full of small flocks of birds. This is the highest point and visual migration can be good from here. There were 143 Pink footed geese flying South.