Male STONECHAT
The coast of Northumberland has some nice attractive walks and Bedenelle Bay with its combination of long sandy beaches and rocky breaks inbetween, is very picturesque. Although it doesn't have the rugged cliffs of other parts of the coast there was more of a refined beauty to the place. Its also a good place for birdwatching and I saw a lot decent spots including a new (sub)species.
A lame KITTIWAKE on the beach, hurt or avian flu, who knows? I'm always unsure what to do with them as wild birds carry lots of diseases.
I took the bus to Beadnelle, north of the Bay, got lost and eventually found my way south. The beach of the Bay spreads out long here to distant rocks. As it was busy with people nothing much showed for a long while. The only bird I did find was quite disconcerting, a KITTIWAKE on the sand, a bird that couldn't fly, and was obviously in distress. As it was a wild bird, I didn't want to touch it, but it may have had avian flu, which has decimated the bird colonies of the coast here. I made my way along the beach, until I hit a river channel, cutting the beach in half and I moved into the dunes to cross it. The dunes were full of colour, the rich purple of BLOODY CRANESBILL, and the delicate blues of the HAREBELL. There were many STONECHATS among the dunes, with a decent number of young ones meaning that it seems there was a successful breeding season for them, always such characterful birds, they are always happy to perch at the top of some bush. On the other side of the river, laid my target, the TERN colony that resides there.
The dunes were a riot of colour, the delicate HAREBELL providing a delicate blue.
A small reserve, owned by the National Trust looks over a TERN colony, just off the beach. There was a target bird I was after, an AMERICAN BLACK TERN which had spent a large chunk of the summer here, associating with the other tern species. Surprisingly it was very easy to find, resting with the ARCTIC TERNS on the beach. It was much smaller than the arctic's with a fully black body, but was moulting so had white around its face. Black terns have always been a favourite species of mine, when I used to birdwatch at the local Tring Reservoirs, they were always the spring migrant I wanted to see the most. The American variety is only a subspecies, but will be what they call an armchair tick, as in the future it may be declared a species in its own right. This was my first record of this subspecies, and a delightful one to have.
ARCTIC TERN, there was a large colony of them at Beadnelle Bay
The ARCTIC TERN colony seemed to be going strong, nesting in the marram grass just behind the beach. A dedicated team of six rangers looked after them, mainly on naughty dog patrol, as although the colony is roped off, it can still be fairly easily entered, by unwitting beach goers. This quiet part of the beach was a good spot for sand loving WADERS, with over forty SANDERLING, and good numbers of DUNLIN and RINGED PLOVER, not having to worry about any disturbance.
Embleton Bay, with the runs of Dunstanburgh Castle in the background
I walked down until I hit the south side of the Bay, and the village of Low-Newton-by-the-Sea, and moved inland to a little wetland, just below. By a shallow flood in a field a pair of AVOCETS were busy guarding a brood of four nearly grown youngsters, while a YELLOW WAGTAIL fed on the muddy edges, nowadays a difficult bird to find. Further down, a hide overlooked Newton Lings, a small lake, but nothing was of interest. Walking south of the hide, there was an extensive wetland, overgrown with masses of MEADOWSWEET, fields the colour of rotten teeth, interspersed with the odd purple of PURPLE LOOSESTRIFE.
Newton Lings wetlands were overgrown with creamy MEADOWSWEET, PURPLE LOOSESTRIFE, and ROSEBAY WILLOWHERB on the higher ground at the back
I hit Embleton Bay, another large stretch of beach, sand flowing all the way to the remains of Dunstanburgh Castle on the far horizon. From here I went inland, following the path to Embleton to catch the bus there. The large fields had recently been harvested, the barley sorted into bails. It was whilst walking along one of the footpaths that I flushed a GREY PARTRIDGE, another bird that used to be a quintessential bird of the countryside, that is now so very, very rare.
Harvest time in the interior
My last birdwatching walk of my holiday in Northumbria, and a lovely one exploring some beautiful countryside. One of the things I love with birdwatching is that it gives the excuse to visit these places that are so off the beaten track, places that feel so virgin, that feel like I am the first to ever walk them. I shall miss this area of the country, as I don't know when I will be back next, but I know I shall have many good memories of Northumbria.
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