No (r)egrets

Myself and a mate of mine had planned to spend the day in sunny Teesside hoping to either find the Spoonbills that had flown north the previous evening or go and see them if they were relocated. It was a fairly early start (I am a student) so shortly after about 09.00 I received a text from my mate saying the birds had moved to Northumberland. My mate lives in Sunderland so I said I would pick him up and drive for the day. So off we headed to Druridge Pools where the birds had been reported on my mates pager.

As I arrived people were standing around outside and my hopes were dampened. I was in my usual "Woe, we are not going to see them" mood. I had never really had a good look at a Spoonbill before as the only ones I had ever seen were at Cley Marshes NWT reserve and they were asleep pretty much the whole time. On arriving at the budge screen on site I noted everyone looking purposely out of the right hand side of the platform. Thankfully there they were; 4 stunning Spoonbill. Also they weren't sleeping but feeding! We enjoyed watching the birds for about 30 mins until we had our fill and moved on. As always it was great to have a chat to some of the locals and expand our knowledge of birds and bird history in the Northumberland area.

 (Spoonbill - Andrew Kinghorn)

 (Spoonbill - Andrew Kinghorn)

As always best to change the video quality to HD to enjoy the video fully. When you put it on HD its pretty good footage the stuff I take, well at least I think it is. No Spielberg but there you go. 

 (Spoonbill - Andrew Kinghorn)

 (Spoonbill - Andrew Kinghorn)

Since we had thoroughly enjoyed the Spoonbills we headed off north and scoped over to Coquet Island and managed to see a fair few Roseate Terns aswell as our first Arctic Terns of the year. I also added Puffin to my year list as I hadn't seen any so far this year as I haven't really done any seawatching and haven't been out of Durham for most of the year. We also checked East Chevington NWT where we enjoyed excellent views of Sandwich Terns and a 2 Arctic Tern. A check of Cresswell produced 4 Avocets with one still on eggs thankfully; these birds are the most Northerly breeding Avocets in the UK at the moment. Lets hope Edinburgh gets them next.

 (Arctic Tern - Andrew Kinghorn)

 (Avocet- Andrew Kinghorn)

We then went home after an excellent days birding. Until next time, Foghorn out!