Tracey and myself had booked to stay away at a lovely cottage at Glororum, approx. 5 minutes drive from Bamburgh on the stunning Northumberland coast .
So this morning, we set off bright and early on our journey north.
After a relatively trouble free journey apart from the usual traffic around Newcastle we stopped off at Warkworth for some well earned brekkie, before travelling onto Seahouses.
The weather was a bit showery as forecast, so i dropped Tracey at the shops while i went to have a look at the sea in the blustery northerly.
I managed to record 38 species from my watchpoint at the harbour which included 21 Eider, 2 Red-breasted Mergs, 3 Arctic Skua, 1 Manx Shearwater, 2 Red-throated Diver, 15 Arctic, 2 Common and 5 Sarnie Terns.
After an hour Tracey joined me and we headed off to the cottage.
After we un-packed our gear, i travelled the 5 minute journey to Budle Bay while Tracey settled in at the cottage.
I had visited here several times in the past, so new it was great for birds.
While scanning a flock of Pale-bellied Brents, i briefly saw what i thought was a Black Brant in amongst them, but it was pretty distant and i hoped they would come nearer. Un beknown to me another birder had also seen the Brant and we eventually managed better views and much closer than i had originally seen the bird. I managed some decent phone-scoped video of the bird and it appeared to be mated to a male Pale-bellied Brent, with a hybrid young tagging along with them also.
After several messages on the local birders WhatsApp group it became clear that this was a Northumberland mega and only the second record for the county and the first since 1999!!!!.
What a start to the holiday!, other species enjoyed on this first visit included 2 Mergs, 5 Spotted Redshank, 2 Greenshank, 4 Med Gulls(Adult, 2nd W and 2 1st W), 46 Pinks and 54 Pale-bellied Brents.
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| The River Coquet, Warkworth |
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| Drake Eider, Seahouses |
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| Eider Pair, Seahouses |
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| Great black-backed Gull, Seahouses |
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| Bamburgh Castle |
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