Abi's final holiday before she goes to her new school in a few weeks, took us a long way up the A1, to within 30 miles of Scotland, to Beadnell Bay, Northumberland.
Not a bad journey once we got packed up and got Abi out of bed - kids!
Monday 15th August 2022.
I managed just a short 30 minutes birding outing on Monday to the coastline very near the caravan site.
The tide was good, just on the turn, going out and c100 Waders were flitting about the sand and seaweed, trying to avoid the waves as they hit the shore.
Birds included Dunlin, Ringed Plover, Sanderling, Curlew, Redshank and Oystercatcher.
A few Terns were calling but too distant to see in the gloomy weather.
Many Pied Wagtail feeding on the sand and a couple of Heron.
Eider Ducks were here and seemed to be catching Crabs with ease,
A few Cormorant and the 'usual' plethora of Gulls, mostly Black Headed Gulls.
Looked for Med Gull but failed to find one.
Also scanned the Sanderling for a Stint species but drew a blank there also.
A Sanderling was adorned with lots of 'jewellery' on it's legs.
Tuesday 16th August 2022
Tuesdays weather was grim to start off with, with near gale force winds and lots of fine drizzle.
Even so, once we got togged up, we had a really enjoyable walk to Seahouses along the sand as the wind blasted some drizzle into our faces.
At least with the sand being wet, the gale didn't blow it about!
Half way to Seahouses the wind persisted but the rain stopped making it quite pleasant.
Seahouses was very busy with tourists but we managed to find an American Grill type café
(not my 1st choice of place to eat) where the food was really good.
Abi demolished a massive chicken burger while I looked on hoping to be thrown a crumb.
We had a game of crazy golf here - which Abi somehow won (her scoring method is rather odd).
The same birds, more or less as yesterday (with a few Lapwing added) and another murky photo day!
On our way back along the beach, the wind was behind us, and Abi managed to fly a kite all the way back while I scanned the water.
A possible distant Whimbrel morphed back into a Curlew after calling!
Goosanders were in the harbour area.
Tuesday evening I ventured out onto the wild and windy nearby coastline to look at what might have been blown in - a few Turnstone were new.
Wednesday 17th August 2022.
A trip out to a mega busy Holy Island today.
The car park was nearly empty on our arrival, just as the tide went out, and we got a good parking spot near the entrance.
The ladies walked up to the 'castle' ,although it seemed to have been a house since 1930 odd, while I had a nosy about.
The sun was shining today, really pleasant for a walk.
The sun made the sea sparkle but put the birds into silhouette.
There were some large birds, probably Geese seen, but I could not ID them - might be Brent Geese.
A picture of light bellied Brent Geese was displayed in a building nearby.
Also, a solitary dark Pipit was way down in the rocks seen from the 'castle' walkway might well be a Rock Pipit.
A couple of Swifts were seen with many Swallow.
2 Fulmar flew past and a Seal or two popped up now and again.
Also in doubt is a potential Red Breasted Merganser - again the photo in the glare not being great.
2 Sandwich Tern were calling, again, very distant.
We bought some nice scran from the local shops, quiche and strawberries to have a picnic outside the motorhome.
We had plenty of time to picnic because...
On our return the car park was rammed and the motorhome was blocked in, some nice new Mini had parked on the exit 'lane'.
Thursday 18th August 2022.
Home today and a last 5 min look at the nearby coastline where the tide was again on the turn moving masses of seaweed back and fourth.
The usual birds here as previous and again, an Eider was munching on a crab.
As per usual taking 100's of photos take some looking at!!
I took lots of video, but I think they consume lots of Blogger space.. so here is a small pretty poor one:-
Monday:
Thursday:
No comments:
Post a Comment