East Stobswood

A microlight kept the birds in the air...

...they eventually settled beside the West pool

The Ross's Goose among P. F geese at East Chevington

It's been quite a productive birding weekend. On Friday on my way home from work a Short eared Owl was hunting over rough grassland between St Georges hospital and Howburn woods. As far as I can recall this is the first time I have seen a Short eared around Morpeth. Yesterday I had a walk along the beach at Warkworth and walked south to the pier and back along the dunes. Plenty of birds particularly waders in the gut but there were 3 Snow Buntings on the beach but they flew North. At East Stobswood the adult and juvenile Bewick's Swan flew in briefly and joined 2 Whooper Swans there.
Today I had a walk along the beach and dunes at East Chevington and from the dunes I could see the Ross's Goose with the Pink feets in fields West of the reserve. I got a better view of the Goose from the viewpoint overlooking the South pool but the birds were flighty. There are thousands of Pink feet viewable from here. There was about a thousand around the reserve but looking West you could see even more flying around. When I got to East Stobswood there was a large flock here but a microlight had put them all in the air. They eventually settled and they were all Pink feets and over 1300 of them. On the pools was a smaller flock of Canadas, Shelduck, 3 Ringed Plover and 2 Dunlin. The other pool on the other side of the road behind East Stobswood farm looked quiet in comparison but I never leave any stone unturned. There was a Heron, a Shelduck and 2 Herring Gulls on the pond, 2 Whooper swans in the field and a Hooded Crow just West of the shore of the pool. It flew around briefly and landed and began preening. This is the first sighting around here since the early nineties when Widdrington tip was still a tip!