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WINTER SOLSTICE IVORY

Ivory Gull incoming!

THE BIGGEST INFLUX OF IVORY GULLS TO THE NORTH SEA IN MY LIFETIME included one at Patrington Haven, just upstream along the Humber shore from Spurn Point in East Yorkshire. Turned up by a local birder doing his WEBS count, it was first found feeding on dead fish by the pumping station. It is ironic that the huge recent winter storm surge, which brought it here, also provided some food for it in the form of freshwater fish killed by the inundation of the Winestead drain by seawater. Birders have since topped up this supply of course!

The Ivory Gull was present from first light but only visited the pumping station three more times over the course of the day and each time rather fleetingly. I love birding the Humber shore, with its big skies and the mighty river itself, six miles wide at this point. Mumurations of Red Knot swirled over the silver water, many hundreds of golden plovers passed overhead and the air was filled with the calls of curlews and geese, which included c.50 Dark-bellied Brent Geese in several small flocks. At one point three Peregrines drifted east together, towards Spurn followed soon afterwards by a Merlin, zipping across the saltmarsh. However, it was the rare high Arctic gull that lit up the shortest day of the year - it is nice to think that the evenings will be a little lighter starting tomorrow!

Ivory Gull, Patrington Haven

Brent Geese flying along the Humber shore at Spurn

Ivory Gull watchers at Patrington Haven

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BLEAK MIDWINTER PENDLE

Farmer Richard Hartley feeds his Swaledale sheep

SNOW BUNTINGS ARE ALWAYS A DELIGHT TO SEE ON PENDLE and this morning's walk with summit regular Martin Naylor produced two including a nice male on the Downham Slope. We didn't walk as far as the second stile so there may have been more and we found a lot of droppings in the dotterel area southwest of the trig point so they have obviously been roaming widely. In fact I heard one over the top of the landslide as I was walking back down. Other birds were few today but included eight golden plovers, a Common Kestrel and several Red Grouse. It was disturbing to hear from the farmer that a recent development is that of night-time sheep poaching, for meat. The one million dogs off their leads are the least of their problems at the moment. I finished earlier than usual today as the mist rolled in from the west.

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NORTH NORTHUMBERLAND

Purple Sandpiper at Stag Rocks, Bamburgh

ALTHOUGH THE IVORY GULLS HAD DEPARTED THE AREA Rocket and I still had an enjoyable morning hanging around in North Northumberland in the hope that they might return, with around 20 Purple Sandpipers at Stag Rocks, Bamburgh and nine Pale-bellied Brent Geese feeding on the shore in front of Monk's House the highlights. A Long-tailed Duck flew south offshore along with several Red-throated Divers and some hundreds of scoters were in three distant rafts on Skate Road. A Common Stonechat in the dunes by Monk's House and a Peregrine hunting starlings south of Beadnell on the way back south livened up the day. Even Serenity searched the Farne Islands in the hope of relocating the gulls to no avail, however, the mild 11 degrees Celsius probably did not help. Despite the disappointment it is always special to return to one of the most scenic corners of England and a place where I used to go for picnics and play on the beach as a child. I am hoping that we will have another chance of ivory this winter!

Bamburgh Castle from Stag Rocks

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RIBBLE ESTUARY BAIKAL TEAL

Baikal Teal, with Eurasian Wigeon, on Crossens Marsh at the mouth of the Ribble Estuary

THE BAIKAL TEAL AT CROSSENS OUTER MARSH IS CAUSING A LOT OF EXCITEMENT at the moment and thanks to the previous British records there will not be much debate about its origin. It is associating with the thousands of Eurasian Wigeon in the Marshside area at the moment and looks 'wild' enough for now. We said 'as long as it does not stay until June and start begging for bread!'. It has an odd face pattern with a white vertical stripe on the face but this is apparently within the known range for this bird. Also here were: Great Egret (one miles away on Banks Marsh); Little Egrets that no-one raises their binos to; small numbers of Ruff, Black-tailed Godwits; hundreds of golden plovers and lapwings and a peregrine that spread panic amongst the flocks as it zoomed across Marshside. The Long-tailed Duck had returned to the Junction Pool as the heavens opened and the rest of the afternoon was washed away by rain. I hardly ever mention football scores but Cabaye's goal that sunk Manchester United this afternoon and gave Newcastle United their first win at Old Trafford for 41 years was very special indeed!

Long-tailed Duck usually turns up in late autumn in Lancashire

Storm clouds over Southport

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