Northumberland 16-20 October 2021 - Not birding Northumberland

 Back "home" doing family stuff.

It is too easy to forget what a fantastic place Northumberland is for birding. Although not birding per  se a few minutes here and there produced a lot more birds than I often see back in Øygarden.

A few examples:

A five minute scan of Budle Bay at high tide gave a flock of 50 Shoveler skjeand, 670 Shelduck gravand, 4 Little Egret silkehegre along with hundreds of geese and other wildfowl and a nice selection of waders.

Twenty minutes in a hide at Creswell produced two Little Egrets silkehege, a Spotted Redshank sotsnipe, two Scaup bergand, 150 Lapwing vipe, 40 Golden Plover heilo and a few hundred duck of various species. 

Med Gulls svartehavsmåke along the prom at Newbiggin, actually seen from a bar:)

My local patches at Stag Rocks and Newbiggin have produced a seemingly endless string of rarities throughout the autumn including Bonarparte's Gull kanadahettemåke and Great Shearwater storlire to name just two of them.

A nice selection of waders in Seahouses harbour. Dunlin myrsnipe, Redshank rødstilk and Turnstone steivender

Just a few of the many hundred Sheldcuck gravand in Budle Bay. Lindisfarne castle in the background

Even in Budle it is not often I have seen 50 Shoveler skjeand, here just some of them