As Ian's leg injury from Sunday's Woodcock hunt was still causing him some pain, a trip northwards was replaced with another trip south of the border. Our target bird would be a Long Billed Dowitcher, a lifer for both of us, at Cresswell Pond in Northumberland. With daylight in short supply at this time of year an early start would be required, so I arranged to meet Ian at 0715 in Perth at the railway station. We would still have around an hour or so before the sun came up so birds would probably be in short supply until we reached the Edinburgh city bypass.
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| Teal, Long Billed Dowitcher, Redshank |
As expected, Herring Gull was the only sighting in the dark as I walked to the railway station with my rather full backpack weighing around a quarter of my own body-weight on my back. Carrion Crow and a Roe Deer were noted before dawn and there were a number of Pink Footed Geese seen in flight around Dunbar. A brief stop at the Skateraw midden proved completely fruitless - the birds were still roosting it seemed. We crossed the border into England around 2 hours after we'd left Perth noting mostly similar species to those already seen. We reached Cresswell Pond around 1000. Lapwings, Golden Plover and Dunlin were all flushed by something unseen as we were getting organised and we hoped that the Dowitcher (which had been reported already) wasn't in amongst them and that if it was they would settle back down where we could scan through them from the hide.
There were plenty of birds around the pool with Redshank, Black Headed Gull, Wigeon and Teal among the more numerous. In addition there were at least 4 Ruff, a Turnstone, (or possibly 2), a Snipe, a Goldeneye and a few Moorhens. As I scanned through the birds around the rest of the pool to make sure we didn't miss out on anything else, the others in the hide hunted through the Redshanks for the
Long Billed Dowitcher. Ian managed to find it roosting alongside a few Redshanks near some Wigeon and Teal. I had a quick look through Ian's scope to get a fix on the bird to be able to re-find it with my own as well as grab a few record shots. Eventually the bird woke up and moved a little allowing a couple of non-roosting record shots.
With the time around 1145, Ian discovered a Green Winged Teal had been reported at Big Waters Nature Reserve on the outskirts of Newcastle, which actually turned out to be a bit closer than we thought, so we decided to try for it, as it would be a year-tick for us both. A couple of wrong turns added a few minutes to our journey but we found the park and Ian again managed to find the
Green Winged Teal asleep with a couple of Wigeon on the opposite side from the rest of the Teal after only a few minutes. A Scaup was also spotted before we headed back towards Cresswell and Druridge Pools to try for Greenland White Fronted Geese.
Time however was against us, so we scanned through a field of Pink Footed Geese from the car using our binoculars in rather poor light as a result of rain approaching, and drew a blank. Checking the few photos I took at home later I found there were actually at least 3 of the species in the group. Had we had time to set up the scopes we would have found the birds no problem, I'm sure, but we had done well to get the main target and the one that was close enough to try for. We headed for home as the weather worsened and arrived back in Perth just after 1700, having seen 54 species of bird (including a lifer and a year-tick - in bold) and 1 of mammal.
Species seen - Dundee to Scottish border - Herring Gull, Carrion Crow, Kestrel, Jackdaw, Pink Footed Goose, Starling, Woodpigeon, Sparrowhawk.
Mammals seen - Roe Deer.
English border to Cresswell - Jackdaw, Starling, Carrion Crow, Herring Gull, Woodpigeon, Blackbird, Rook, Curlew, Buzzard, Feral Pigeon, Pheasant, Black Headed Gull, Common Gull, Magpie, Cormorant, Grey Heron, Collared Dove.
Cresswell Pond - Lapwing, Canada Goose, Mallard, Blue Tit, Wren, Tree Sparrow, Teal, Wigeon, Greylag Goose, Redshank, Ruff, Snipe, Goldeneye, Golden Plover, Dunlin,
Long Billed Dowitcher, Turnstone, Oystercatcher, Moorhen, Meadow Pipit, Little Grebe.
Cresswell to/and Big Waters Nature Reserve - Kestrel, Pink Footed Goose, Pied Wagtail, Coot, Shoveler, Gadwall,
Green Winged Teal, Mute Swan, Tufted Duck, Scaup.
Big Waters to/and Druridge Pools to Perth - Redwing, Shelduck, Great Black Backed Gull, Dunnock, Mistle Thrush.
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| Pink Footed Goose |
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| Pink Footed Goose |
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| Curlew |
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| Lapwing, Golden Plover & Dunlin |
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| Dunlin |
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| Dunlin |
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| Snipe |
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| Teal, Lapwing, Golden Plover |
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| Teal, Lapwing, Golden Plover, Dunlin |
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| Lapwing, Golden Plover, Dunlin |
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| Golden Plover |
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| Wigeon, Teal, Redshank, Long Billed Dowitcher |
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| Teal, Long Billed Dowitcher, Wigeon, Redshank |
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| Teal, Long Billed Dowitcher, Wigeon, Redshank |
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| Teal, Long Billed Dowitcher, Redshank, Moorhen |
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| Teal, Long Billed Dowitcher, Redshank |
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| Teal, Long Billed Dowitcher, Redshnak |
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| Teal, Redshank, Long Billed Dowitcher |
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| Wigeon, Green Winged Teal |
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| Scaup |
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| Wigeon & Scaup |
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| Pink Footed Goose |
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| Pink Footed Goose & Greenland White Fronted Goose |
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| Pink Footed Goose & Greenland White Fronted Goose |
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| Pink Footed Goose & Greenland White Fronted Goose |
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| Wigeon |
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| Shoveler, Wigeon & Teal |
Species seen - Blackbird, Black Headed Gull, Blue Tit, Buzzard, Canada Goose, Carrion Crow, Collared Dove, Common Gull, Coot, Cormorant, Curlew, Dunlin, Dunnock, Gadwall, Golden Plover, Goldeneye, Great Black Backed Gull,
Green Winged Teal, Grey Heron, Greylag Goose, Herring Gull, Jackdaw, Kestrel, Lapwing, Little Grebe,
Long Billed Dowitcher, Magpie, Mallard, Meadow Pipit, Mistle Thrush, Moorhen, Mute Swan, Oystercatcher, Pheasant, Pied Wagtail, Pink Footed Goose, Redshank, Redwing, Feral Pigeon, Rook, Ruff, Scaup, Shelduck, Shoveler, Snipe, Sparrowhawk, Starling, Teal, Tree Sparrow, Tufted Duck, Turnstone, ((Greenland) White Fronted Goose) ,Wigeon, Woodpigeon, Wren.
Mammals seen - Roe Deer.
