Druridge Bay Sites : 2nd July 2014

After our boat trip yesterday had failed to give us close views of Roseate Terns we thought we would try our luck at a few of the sites along the coast. We started out at Hauxley Nature Reserve

Hauxley Nature Reserve

We parked up in the car park and took the left path that goes round the outside of the lake. Eventually you come to a raised bit of land with a bench where you can get a good view of the lake and the island. The dominant species was Goose, with lots of Canada and Greylag Geese. On the island there were obviously lots of breeding birds including Shelduck, Oystercatchers and Lapwing. There were very large numbers of Black-headed Gulls and their young everywhere on the site. A nice find was a couple of Egyptian Geese. There were numerous Herons here which was a bit of a feature of everywhere we went this day. A single Dunlin was present and a smattering of Redshank. A Snipe was hiding at the edge of the foliage and an unusual site was some Wigeon looking very different to usual with a whitish stripe coming over their heads. There were a few Tufted Ducks and a Little Grebes. In the air were Swallows and Sand Martins.

We continued on to the Tern Hide where we were hoping that we might see Roseate Terns which allegedly come to wash in the fresh-water pools or just loaf around. We met a number of volunteer bird ringers from the Northumberland Wildlife Trust in the hide where they were based for a species count. As we sat there one of them came in with a juvenile Robin and showed it to us as he weighed and ringed. It. I got into conversation with one of these volunteers and he said that if we came back around 5pm we would have a better chance of seeing Roseate Terns – the general view was, though, IF you are lucky.

Be that as it may we thought that we should give it a try later. We returned along the path and went to the first of the hides along the other side of the lake but it was pretty quiet there and we didn’t really see anything we had not already seen at the other hides.

We returned to the car park and by this time the reception hut was open so we popped in for a look. There we ran into a chap who we had met at the Tern Hide about half an hour previously and he informed us – much to our angst – that just after we left the hide a Red-breasted Goose had swum in along the channel from the sea ! To say I was gutted was a bit of an understatement but from what he said the chances of me catching sight of it were a bit slim as it was tending to go into the reeds and back out again rather randomly. This bird had apparently been around for a bit and there was even a photo on the wall of the reception cabin. DOH ! Anyway we decided that it was a long walk back so by the time we got there an hour would have elapsed since it was last seen. Perhaps, foolishly, we thought that we might get sight of it later when we returned to try to catch a Roseate Tern late afternoon.

Part of our reason for not going back was that we had a lot od sites we wanted to check out since it was our first time in the area and there are a lot of allegedly good sites along Druridge Bay.

Druridge Bay Country Park and East Chevington Nature Reserve

Our next port of call was just a couple of miles south on the coastal road to Druridge Bay Country Park. This is really a water sports kind of a place and not really for birding. It has a single large lake and a small cafe and visitor centre. We parked up and had a cup of tea but we decided there wasn’t much point in being there. We tried another car park that gave us a bit of a different view but that was pretty dull as well, so, instead, we drove back up the road to the main road and took the next turn down to East Chevington Nature Reserve. You can get there on foot from Druridge Bay Country Park but with limited time we drove round instead and saved ourselves a bit of time. As you come down the path you pass a few gaps in the raised hedgerow on your left hand side. We weren’t really sure if these were viewing platforms or not but it seemed likely they were because there was a car parked at each.

We parked up at the end of the lane and took a walk along a path looking for the pools of water that are supposed to be there. It didn’t take long before we got lovely views of a Stonechat and there were Pied Wagtails everywhere. As far as we could gather, the ponds had largely reverted to reed beds. This meant that we got good views of Sedge Warbler and Reed Bunting but we just couldn’t find the water anywhere. Eventually we came to a bridge that crosses a small stream that empties out into the sea. Presumably in winter there is a lot more water here but at the moment it just seemed to be marsh. As if to confirm this I turned around and saw a Marsh Harrier flying to my left and we watched it briefly before it disappeared behind some trees.

We saw a small incline and thought we would go up it to get a better view of the lay of the land and when we got there we discovered that we were just at the back of some dunes so we walked over the ridge and there was the sea with lots of Terns and gulls flying about. We met two chaps – one seemed to be a local recorder – who were doing a bit of surveying. They pointed out to us a flock of Common Scoter out at sea and through the scope we soon found this to be quite a big flock – some 500 or so. On the beach there was a cordoned off section where some Ringed Plovers were nesting and, as we scanned the beach, we discovered quite a few more patrolling the waters edge. Somewhat surreally there was a dead Puffin leaning back on some seaweed and it had been stranded in a most macabre posture.

We said out thanks and goodbyes and headed back to take up their advice to look for the nesting Marsh Harriers. Apparently this was the great attraction of the gaps in the hedges. There were four or five young as well as the parents in the general area so we walked back to the car which was parked near there. As we did so we saw some Goldfinches. On the lane we parked the car just as someone was leaving and they advised us that just across the water – for here there was some water – and some birds on it – was a Marsh Harrier, perched in the trees. We got onto it immediately and watched it for quite a while before we decided that we weren’t going to see any young birds flying. Instead we drove back up the lane and further down the road to our next site at Druridge Pools. This turned out to be even less impressive as the pools here seemed to be totally dried out and we drove the length of the site without really seeing anything. We abandoned the idea and instead took the coastal road back down to Cresswell Pond which had a good reputation for birds.

Cresswell Pond

We found some parking on the left just at the point on the pond where a small bridge bisects the pool. We walked down through a field a short distance to the edge of the water. There were very many Sand Martins and Swallows swooping over the pond and there were Redshank and a single Dunlin again. Lots of Mute Swans were floating about and there were a few Tufted Ducks as well. Pied Wagtails patrolled the edges and a few Starling flew about. In the sky there were a few Sandwich Terns to be seen and, as usual, no shortage of Grey Herons. This actually turned out to be one of the better sites of the afternoon and we spent a bit of time looking at a single Avocet there.

We were getting a bit thirsty and needed a comfort break so we headed further down the road to the village of Cresswell where we found the Drift Cafe a most wonderful cafe with a huge library of birding books, some of which were for sael. These were no bog standard books however as the husband of the husband and wife team that ran the cafe was also a very keen birder. Fancy a four volume bound set of Britsh Birds from its start ? Well you could buy it here for £120. Other multi-volume bird books were pricier than this with some at £400. Not your average cafe then ! The tea and scones were good and we spent quite a while looking at the birds on their feeders.

As we had come down the coast road we noticed a path that lead to a hide on the edge of Cresswell Pond that we had seen from our position and there was some parking space there so we parked up headed for the lane that leads down to the hide. As we did so we saw a small group of juvenile Swallows standing in a bunch in the middle of a dirt road where they were being fed periodically by their returning parents. Why on the road I don’t know but I have seen this behaviour before.

Down at the hide it was very much the same as before but here we could see more Avocets and among the many Black-headed Gulls there was a single Mediterranean Gull. We stayed for a while and chatted to some people there but the afternoon was wearing on and we wanted to go back to Hauxley where we had started the day – just to try again for Roseate Terns.

We got back there around half past four but there was no sight of anything apart from Common Terns. Neither was the Red-breasted Goose to be seen ! Oh well. All in all we had had a great day visiting the whole Druridge Bay area and we got the feeling that this could be a great winter site as well. We headed off to the hotel a little disappointed with the lack of Roseate Tern or Red-breasted Goose but it was hard not to feel that we had a grand day of birding experiencing some new sites and seeing some good birds, anyway !

Bird Sightings : Hauxley Nature Reserve

Species	Count
Greylag Goose	16
Canada Goose	30
Egyptian Goose	2
Common Shelduck	30
Eurasian Wigeon	20
Tufted Duck	8
Common Pheasant	1
Little Grebe	2
Grey Heron	8
Eurasian Common Moorhen	2
Common Coot	2
Northern Lapwing	30
Ringed Plover	1
Little Ringed Plover	1
Eurasian Oystercatcher	20
Common Redshank	8
Dunlin	1
Common Snipe	1
Black-headed Gull	30
Common Tern	6
Eurasian Magpie	4
Eurasian Jackdaw	6
Collared Sand Martin	20
Barn Swallow	16
Great Tit	2
Common Starling	8
Chaffinch	2

Bird Sightings : Druridge Bay Country Park and East Chevington Nature Reserve

Species	Count
Mute Swan	4
Common Scoter	500
Common Pheasant	1
Great Crested Grebe	2
Great Cormorant	8
Grey Heron	4
Eurasian Marsh Harrier	2
Common Kestrel	1
Common Coot	1
Northern Lapwing	12
Ringed Plover	6
Eurasian Oystercatcher	6
Black-headed Gull	8
Great Black-backed Gull	2
Common Tern	4
Atlantic Puffin	1
Carrion Crow	4
Barn Swallow	10
Sedge Warbler	2
Common Stonechat	1
Pied Wagtail	4
Reed Bunting	1
European Goldfinch	2
Common Linnet	8

Bird Sightings : Cresswell Pond

Species	Count
Mute Swan	12
Common Shelduck	4
Mallard	8
Tufted Duck	8
Grey Heron	4
Northern Lapwing	10
Eurasian Oystercatcher	4
Pied Avocet	8
Common Redshank	4
Dunlin	1
Black-headed Gull	8
Mediterranean Gull	1
Sandwich Tern	8
Collared Sand Martin	20
Barn Swallow	12
Common Starling	12
Pied Wagtail	4
European Goldfinch	6
House Sparrow	2

Druridge Bay Sites : 2nd July 2014