Sandwich Tern and Sand Martin both went north past the Obs this morning but I'm still waiting for the Obs first Wheatear. It was a canny sea watch but nothing special was going on so i was out scanning for migrants, sadly i left before the rain so maybe tomorrow. I saw my first Sand Martin flying above the guys working on the construction of the new Sand Martin nesting bank, hurry up it was saying...
The National Trust team do a great job at Whitburn and in August (date to be confirmed) Jason will be doing a ringing demonstration for members of Durham Bird Club.
This is what i saw in order of appearance
Wednesday 29th March SW2 06.30-10.00 6/8 drizzle at times
Cormorant 11n 15s
Common Gull 5n 20s
Fulmar 144n 8s
Gannet 17n
Black h Gull 2n 12s
Goosander 1n
Grey Heron 1s
Eider 5n 7s
Red th Diver 6n 1s
Puffin 1s
Sandwich Tern 1n
Shag 6n
Alba Wagtail 3s
Red br Merganser 1n
Shelduck 2n
Velvet Scoter 3n
Turnstone 4s
Common Scoter 1n
Lapwing 3s
Sand Martin 1n
Great Northern Diver and a Peregrine went south at Whitburn Obs early morning. I've not had much to blog about for a few days so today is a bit of a summary as well as today's birds
Saint Mark managed his 100th species on his patch at Whitburn on Sunday, this Mute Swan went south then north again as well as landing on the sea in front of the Obs. Its a scarce bird from here with Whooper being the common Swan
Mark also found our now resident Yellowhammer another very scarce bird only my third in five years. Yesterday i sat hoping for the fog to clear but had to give in eventually and the only bird that showed well was the Hammer, video later in the blog
Tuesday 28th March 06.40-10.15 SE2-3 8/8 some mist
Common Scoter 2n
Cormorant 12n 23s
Common Gull 6n 89s
Fulmar 22n 8s
Guillemot 205s
Razorbill 1n 16s
Curlew 69s
Redshank 2s
Black h Gull 1n 3s
Peregrine 1s mucky sub ad
Great Northern Diver 1s winter plumage bird
Red br Merganser 1n
Eider 5n 7s
Turnstone 31s
Red th Diver 4n 4s
Gannet 2n 1s
Shelduck 1s
Alba Wagtail 1n 2s
Goldcrest 2 in off
Yellowhammer 1 still outside the Obs singing this is yesterdays video in the fog
Iceland Gull went north at Whitburn Obs on this mornings sea watch but little else of note. The mass surge of birds from a couple of days ago has gone and both Marks joined me for a leisurely Saturday sea watch. Star bird was a Yellowhammer that Saint Mark found in the hedge by the Obs, a true Mega, well done Mark
This is what we saw in order of appearance
Saturday 25th March 05.55-09.45 W1 1/8
Cormorant 18n 22s
Porpoise 2s
Fulmar 32n
Common Gull 74n 27s
Eider 5n 14s
Meadow Pipit 35 in off
Chiffchaff 1
Redshank 8s
Common Scoter 16n 2s
Wigeon 1n
Alba Wagtail 8 in off
Black h Gull 2n 29s
Red th Diver 2n 1s
Goosander 3n
Grey Wagtail 1s
Greylag Goose 1n 1s
Goldcrest 2
White Wagtail 1s
Tufted Duck 1n
Skylark 1s
Iceland Gull 1n 2cy
Gannet 1s
Yellowhammer 1
Storm Petrel, Long tailed Duck and 3 Blue Fulmar passed Whitburn Obs by 10.30 this morning. As yesterday i was watching on a close line sheltering behind the north shutters, brrrr. Many birds were passing close in going north, both Kittiwake and Fulmar numbers were up.I picked up on a Storm Petrel coming north close inshore, never heard of a Stormie this early before and it was quickly lost in the troughs. Plenty of quality birds on show today but the big one probably got away. Pink Floyd called a Diver coming north it was at a nice distance and i said it was a large Diver but it was already north of me when i got on the bill and it was ivory, it was held open in flight so its angle wasn't easy to see i needed more time. I put out the news in the hope someone further north could nail it.
Another bird of note today was a very large Accipiter that went north low in front of the Obs, biggest Sparrowhawk? I've ever seen. Oh well just one of those days and great fun.
This is what we saw in order of appearance
Thursday 23rd March 06.05-10.30 E3 7/8
Fulmar 443n 13S
Kittiwake 1105n 2S
Gannet 101n 9s
Curlew 1n
Common Scoter 38n 1s
Storm Petrel 1n -6.40
Blue Fulmar 3n (1xL, 2xD)
Red th Diver 3n 5s
Cormorant 9n 1s
Shag 7n 1s
Sandwich Tern 1n 1s
Shelduck 10n
Scaup 1n dr
Alba Wagtail 2n
Dunlin 3n
Tufted Duck 3n
SEOwl 1n (thanks to a call from Saint Mark)
Red br Merganser 1n
Black h Gull 9n 4s
Eider 16n 6s
Sparrowhawk? 1n the video is a different bird from the Obs
LBBGull 3n
Goosander 2n
Carrion Crow 21n
Wigeon 2n
Peregrine 1n
Large Diver sp 1n 09.47
Long tailed Duck 1n
3 Whooper Swans, 3 Velvet Scoter, and a Blue Fulmar went north at Whitburn Obs by 10.30 this morning. I was welcomed to the Obs by a strong cold easterly and rain so partially hid behind the north shutter to start my sea watch. I was hoping for my first Sandwich Tern as predicted by Magic Mark and i was not disappointed as two went north during the watch. Its is a welcome return as the daily Tern movement keeps me going when nowt else is passing and i probably see more Sandwich Terns than any other sea watcher in the North East. Stoney was in the house and between the two of us we managed a few good birds. Sadly he left just before the star bird went north, a cracking Blue Fulmar close inshore Diana Dors would have been proud of these DD's
This is what we saw in order of appearance
17 Whooper Swans went north at Whitburn Obs this morning binging this months passage to 348 beating last years record count of 337 in March. Even Saint Mark managed to see them from his house which is more than he saw from 7 hours of sea watching in the Obs this weekend. The other feature of the morning was the 'chiswick' call of Pied Wagtails passing as for the second day running they arrived in off with Pipits
This is what i saw in order of appearance
Monday 20th March 06.05-09.30 SW2-3 6/8
Grey Partridge 1 calling
Cormorant 8n 4s
Black h Gull 27n 168s
Common Gull 29n 59s
Redshank 17s
Turnstone 27s
Eider 7n 1s
Gannet 6n 3s
Common Scoter 7n 36s
Red th Diver 2n 1s
Curlew 1s
Chiffchaff 1 calling
Porpoise 2s
Whooper Swan 17n 07.42
Meadow Pipit 73 in off
Pied Wagtail 18 in off (all of the birds i could see well were Pied though some could be White)
Iceland Gull was seen off Whitburn Obs today for the second day running, a 3cy bird but little else on a quiet day. When we have all the eastern facing shutters open in the Obs we refer to it as 'full flaps', today we had the north facing shutter open as well as Foss had rang to say the Iceland Gull was flying our way. It did arrive eventually though that is not the reason why we were 'full flaps'. Saint Mark has only seen two Whooper Swans this month mainly due to work (not recommended), whilst i have seen 307 due to not working (highly recommended) so we were giving him every possible chance of seeing Swans. In addition the Obs has logged 331 Whoopers so far this March only 6 behind the 2016 record March passage of 337.....Did he get any Whoopers...
This is what we saw in order of appearance
Sunday 19th March 06.10-09.30 SW2 cloud 6/8
Common Gull 16n 8s
Gannet 18n 9s
Black h Gull 10n 147s
Red th Diver 7n 3s
Turnstone 54s
Ringed Plover 4s
Shag 3n 1s
Cormorant 7n 26s
Teal 1s
Eider 4n 12s
Shelduck 1n
Porpoise 1n 2s
Meadow Pipit 20 in off
Pied Wagtail 15 in off
Common Scoter 5n 2s
Greylag Goose 1n
Chiffchaff 1
Wigeon 1n
Velvet Scoter 1s
Iceland Gull 1s 3cy
