Dean, you can book at the harbour in Amble. That's where you sail from too. It's fairly cheap if I remember but I'm not sure if you can pre-book.

Thank you gentlemen.

Richard. Here's a few suggestions:

Stag Rock, Bamburgh. It's a good sea watching place with many of the birds surprisingly close in. You can park up on the road right in front of it. From there you can also walk along the dunes right around to estuary where you can view various waders, etc.

Druridge Bay NR, Hauxley NR, both near Amble: Both of these nature reserves are quite close to each other and have all the usual facilities you'd expect to find. Several small and large pools with comfortable hides.

Just a couple of suggestions for you. I'm sure others will give you other suggestions.

Good luck.

Just to add what a fantastic time we had. Martin was excellent company and we had plenty of laughs as well as great birding.

I would recommend Martin as a guide to anyone considering a guide for the Northumberland area. He has an amazing memory. Even remembering the name of somone we meet who had been on 1 of his trips last year when we met him in Kielder.

Doxford Hall is an amazing hotel and spa although it is very exensive.
The food is amazing and very rich. The service is outstanding and the staff very friendly.
Nuthatch are nesting in the grounds and the views are fantastic.

Hi nick, I too love it along that coast line and try to go once in spring and again in October, my in laws live right on the front at tynemouth and it has never failed to produce! We had a little visit in February too where a short walk from their place, I was able to find both Iceland and glaucaus gulls as well as purple sandpipers. October was fantastic and I managed a handful of life ticks! A self found yellow browed warbler yards from the house by priors park. A red flanked bluetail at Whitburn was fantastic! Long tailed duck further up the coast on a boat trip to farne isles, a Richards pipit on farne isles (which was good for a 1 hour landing), a turtle dove in land at big waters and a rough legged buzzard on the journey home! Loads of other great birds up and down the coast total for the week was 98! Next trip is may on my way back from fair isle!

Just back from a short family break in Bamburgh. Managed to get a good bit of birding in too.

Couldn't have hoped for better accommodation really as our cottage was literally a hundred yards from Stag Rock which is one of the best sea watching spots on this coastline. In fact, the whole coast around here was alive with birds.

The drive up was fairly uneventful with only the odd Buzzard on show but just after Newcastle I spotted a large raptor soaring near to the roadside above some trees. As I got closer I noticed it was displaying and going through roller coaster style swoops. Now alongside it was obvious it was a Goshawk and I slowed down to get probably the best views I've had yet of this bird.

The excitement didn't end there either as when I pulled up at the cottage there was a nice mixed flock of Twite and Linnet on the telephone wires behind our cottage. Not a bad start with two good birds already ticked.

The next morning I got up early to take advantage of the peace and quiet and have a mooch to see what was on show. The dunes were alive with singing
Stonechat and Linnet. On the sea there were plenty of small flocks of Eider. A few rafts of Common Scoter were also present along with the occasional fly past Shag. The rocks had the usual gatherings of Oystercatcher, Turnstone and the odd Redshank but the best here were the twenty or so Purple Sandpiper that seemed to populate this bit of shoreline.

Further along the shore I was treated to extremely close views of Fulmar as they zipped past my head whilst prospecting a distant cliff face.

The next day produced much the same as above but with the extra delights of two Slavonian Grebes just off shore and also seventeen White Fronted Geese flying over the sea. One or two Red Throated Diver also put in an appearance
along with good numbers of Kittiwake passing through.

A visit to Holy Island later in the day produced good views of dark bellied Brent Geese and also Rock Pipits around the castle.

This morning I went on a small wild goose chase to hunt for the previous days sighting of a Ross's Goose just up the road. Unfortunately the bird had gone but I did locate good numbers of White Fronted, Greylag and Barnacle Geese in the fields nearby.

In a nutshell this is one of my favourite birding areas and having been up here twice before it has never failed to throw up good birds. Previous visits have given me Long Tailed Duck, Black Throated Diver and even a Little Auk that I rescued on the beach after a big storm. Can't wait to go back again.

Total for the trip was 65 species. I've posted a few photos on my flickr page if anyone's interested too.

-- Edited by Nick Isherwood on Monday 12th of March 2012 09:50:49 PM

wow! I've never even heard of a crossbilled duck!!!

John Baber and I finally found the time today to get ourselves up to the North East to Hauxley Nature Reserve to have a look at the long staying Greater Yellowlegs.

Leaving home at 05.30 we arrived at around 09.00 when we heard that the bird was showing from the Tern hide where, shortly after arrival we had close range views for about an hour. (see National Mega sightings thread).

We had heard that a Little Auk had been seen earlier so we headed for the sea-watching hide in an attempt to add a new bird to John's list. No joy on that one but we did have good views of Eider and Gannet on a now raging sea and a nice little flock of Tree Sparrows on the feeders. The wind by now was really blowing a hooley so we started thinking about heading away.

We called in at Druridge Bay Country Park where we ate our lunch and watched Scaup, and Red-breasted Merganser on the pool.

Arrived home at 16.30 after a long but satisfying day despite the eventual appalling weather.

An early 4.30am start from home with Jason Atkinson took us to Hauxley Nature Reserve for the reported Greater Yellowlegs.

On arrival, shortly after dawn, we were told that the bird had been seen a few minutes earlier, but no sign since.

After a search of the general area from the Wader Hide with other birders, suddenly news came through that the bird had been relocated at nearby Druridge Bay Country Park.

After a quick dash, we arrived at Druridge Bay where the bird was soon located and gave us fabulous views, even coming onto the lakeside grass on a couple of occasions giving us a good chance to study the main ID features of this rare wader. A lifer for both of us!

Also of note were Scaup, Red-breasted Merganser and a flock of Eurasian White-fronted Geese.

Next stop was Holy Island where we arrived an hour or so later and had fantastic views of the male Eastern Black Redstart on the beach to the North of the island. The bird was pretty flighty but still treated those present to cracking views as it made it's way up and down the beach landing on the rocks and vegetation.

A great day out and Jason managed to get some great photos of both birds too, which no doubt he will put on his website.

A leucistic female House Sparrow was amongst House Sparrows on grass approaching the priory on Holy Island yesterday.

Unfortunately not a first for England Mike, not that it detracts from an excellent and educational bird

Friday, April 15th

The drake Black Scoter was showing well when we arrived this morning, in company with a raft of about 140 Common Scoter, some 600 yds offshore, thankfully in flat calm conditions. (None of us were quite sure as to whether or not this is a "first" for England, though it was for the 3 of us).
It is easy to assume that Manchester birders will all have seen the long staying N. Wales bird, however in case anyone is interested, just head north for Bamburgh.

Leaving the village north, and hugging the castle walls via a right turn into the Wynding (the name of a street), then after 1 kilometre, park in the layby on the coast side with excellent views seaward. With the castle filling the view to the south and Stag Rocks several hundred yards north, look out towards the obvious island and the Scoter pack is generally between you and the island.
There are of course drake Common Scoters in the pack and when facing directly at you they do show relatively speaking quite a lot of yellow on the upper mandible, but when you pick up the Black Scoter it has more extensive "egg yolk" yellow on the more swollen upper mandible, and is best appreciated on a "side on " view.

-Good Luck to whoever makes the trip.

I've just returned from a week's holiday in Northumberland. Lovely autumn weather in a beautiful, relatively unspoilt and under-visited part of the country. Of course when holidaying with others one can't be too selfish and I most generously made sure that not all of the time was spent bird watching. A full 2 minutes and 25 seconds were spent ogling some castle, a whirlwind tour of some stately home was conducted at breakneck speed, a sustained sprint around the grounds of Alnwick Castle and Gardens quickly took in all it had to offer and with a trolley dash around the local Spar I'm sure that this will have been more than enough to keep those with sightseeing and shopaholic tendencies happy!

I know there is another excellent thread on this forum about the rarities in this general area but I enjoyed spending time watching some of the commoner species that either I never get to see in GM or watching species that I can sometimes see in GM but with far greater numbers here. My accommodation was less than 1 mile from Budle Bay which is on the south-eastern edge of Lindisfarne National Nature Reserve (NNR). What a really brilliant location this is to watch birds from. I spent many hours here watching and enjoying the activities of the 1000's of birds, on either rising or falling tides. For those visiting, at the south-eastern end of the bay near Waren Mill the road runs alongside the bay and there is an extensive area for cars to pull into and to be able to watch from and get really good views of birds close at hand there. A notice board here detailing selected peak bird counts for September for Lindisfarne NNR showed Light-bellied Brent Geese 2,200; Pink-footed Goose 1,194; Shelduck 880; Wigeon 6,200; Eider 697; Oystercatcher 1,132; Knot 4,330; Dunlin 3,840 and Curlew 1,025. Read 'em and weep! Spend a bit of time here and it makes you realise the skills required and how demanding a challenge it is to be a WeBS bird counter here!

On all visits last week (16/10 - 22/10) there were 100's if not occasionally 1000's of some species - namely Wigeon, Teal, Lapwing, Curlew, Redshank, Dunlin, Shelduck, Herring Gull, Black-headed Gull. Other isolated counts included a flock of c700 Common Gull descending onto the mudflats on a receding tide on 17th and c1200 airborne Golden Plover on 22nd. Small numbers of Red-breasted Merganser and Eider were present in the water channels on most visits. Brilliant close up views in exceptionally good light of Bar-tailed Godwit (not really counted by me properly but probably into 3 figures) and Grey Plover (usually best seen at lower tide levels) seen everyday but with max of 3 on 22nd. 1 Greenshank on 20th and with 2 present on 21st. A Little Egret on most days and 4 Whooper Swans (2 adults and 2 juveniles) on 21st. Very small numbers of Pink-footed Goose and Brent Goose were around Budle Bay itself. Although there were 1000's of Brent Geese on the tidal flats near Holy Island and skeins of pink-feet were a fairly regular flyover sighting. Peregrine and Sparrowhawk were regularly seen throughout the area during the week, including over Budle Bay itself - given the numbers, possibly a mix of resident and migrant birds? Peregrine over the mudflats was a daily sight - when over the bay it was a real spectacle to watch many of the other birds in the air. Buzzard and Kestrel were also seen.

Incidentally, a book that I found really useful in the field this week whilst watching birds in flight was "Flight Identification of European Seabirds" by Blomdahl, Breife and Holmstrom. Some excellent photo shots of how we might see birds in the field, includes many groups of species (but not waders unfortunately!) of seabirds and is accompanied by well set out short, succinct and readable paragraphs on what to look out for. Possibly not everyones "cup of tea" this book but one I really like and I'm pleased to say I have now "christened" my copy, which is now well-fingered, with a water stained front cover and grains of sand in-between some of the pages. Well, isn't that what all field guides should end up like!

2 Sanderling were on a sandy beach between Bamburgh and Seahouses on 19th. Rock Pipits were seen in most suitable locations. A pair of Stonechats were near Bamburgh Castle on 17th. Also spent a bit of time around Beadnell, which is on the same stretch of coastland several miles south-east of Budle Bay. At high tide roost here on 20th on a rocky outcrop behind the art deco type house on the seafront in the middle of the village held 9 Turnstone, 8 Purple Sandpiper, 3 Knot and 2 Redshank. A follow up visit to the same location on 22nd found the high tide roost to be even larger and more varied with 1 Curlew, 17 Purple Sandpiper, 57 Turnstone, 38 Oystercatcher, 6 Knot, 9 Bar-tailed Godwit, 12 Redshank and 2 Dunlin. On this date a flock of c40 Lapwings appeared to fly in off the sea and 2 immediately landed on the rocky spit and appeared to be, rather dangerously, looking for food on the edge of the swirling tidal splash zone. Very hungry migrants? Also on this latter date spent a cracking hour and a half watching, in good light and fairly close at hand, a good sized flock of c120 Eider foraging for food in Beadnell Bay. Amongst the flock there were also 3 Shags, 4 Long-tailed Ducks, 1 female Common Scoter, 5+ Red-breasted Mergansers and 4 Goldeneye. This loose flock was accompanied by a small number of Black-headed Gulls resting on the water, which appeared to be trying to steal food off the Goldeneyes but they didn't seem to try it on with any of the other species! Male Eiders - what can you say - surely the most beautiful bird in Britain? I could (and did!) watch them for hours.

Certainly would recommend this general area for all birders, as it has something of interest for all different levels of experience.


Cheers,


Bill.

Two hours spent at Cresswell Pond yesterday afternoon got me 4 (poss 5) new ticks (proving that there was a good side to me having to drive all night to pick my parents up after they finally managed to get a flight back from Spain).

6 yellow wagtail
1 "Channel" wagtail
2 white wagtail
2 sandwich tern
1 jack snipe (even managed to get photos too!!!)

Plus:
Shelduck
1 Wigeon
F red breated merganser
Tufties
Curlew
Redshank
Meadow Pipt
Reed bunting
1m 2f goldeneye
3 herons chasing each other
Approx 10 pairs gadwall