As usual my trip back hoe was largely a whirlwind of family visits. However, I did get to spend a bit of time on my old stretch of coastline at Bamburgh along with some other incidental stuff.
Two things really struck me: the first was the extent of damage caused by the storms experienced there since November / December. Very many, if not most, houses had damage to their roof with tiles or slates missing and in some cases even more. The trees too had suffered greatly with whole woods decimated. Lots of old growth trees were down - no doubt there will be a shortage of nesting sites this year.
The second thing was the sheer number of people out on the beaches. Bamburgh beach is fantastic and it should be no surprise that it is popular. Parking was difficult and this was still February! In addition to the dog walkers there were large numbers of photographers too - even (or especially) early in the morning as they took pictures of the sunrise behind the castle. In short I am amazed that the waders can survive there - scant regard for roosting flocks was shown during my early morning high tide visits.
Hundreds of Pinkfeet kortnbbgås were seen pretty much all over - both in the Creswell / Drurudge Bay area further south and over Seahouses, Bamburgh and Budle. Several hundred fed in fields near the latter site on 25 February.
Buzzards musvåk too were widespread - a far cry from my formative years there when this species would have caused some excitement. Mostly seen from the car whilst driving from place to place but I did manage to snap a photo of one near Wooler.
Although I did no birding as such at Seahouses the local Eiders ærfugl there were as usual entertaining, comming to feed from the hand and squabble over food. At low tide the harbour was filled with Ringed Plover sandlo and Dunlin myrsnipe.
I managed to do a couple of wader counts along the shore at Stag Rocks - the same stretch I covered in the mid 1980s to early 90's. Although it was lovely to see all the waders the numbers for some species (most notably Redshank rødstilk and Turnstone steinvender) were well down from what was normal a few decades ago.
The sea was relatively quiet with just a single Slavonian Grebe horndykker, a lone Long-tailed Duck havelle and only three Common Scoter svartand. Fulmars havhest showing well here as usual.
A bonus bird at Bamburgh on 24.02 was a Barn Owl tårnugle - long time since I have seen one of those!
I drove past Budle Bay a couple of times and stopped briefly at the "white railings". Once again good numbers of Shoveler skjeand present with approximately 45 seen feeding in the shallows on the rising tide.
Monkshouse pools between Seahouses and Bamburgh also got a quick look on the few occasions I passed it. A few hundred Lapwing vipe, at least 800 Golden Plover heilo, eight Gadwall snadderand, 16 Shoveler skjeand were among the sightings here.
The only other walk was a short stretch of the North Shore near the Snook on Holy Island on 25.02. Highlight was a flyover male Snow Bunting snøspurv, also at least eight Stonechat svartstrupe, six Reed Bunting sivspurv, a Pied Wagtail svartryggerle, 10 Rock Pipit skjærpiplerke and a couple of Skylark sanglerke.
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