10th September 2005 – Fawn yawn and cryptic patterns
There had been strong south easterlies and patchy rain for a couple of days and with a good sprinkling of scarce migrants and rarities down the east coast….. I just couldn’t wait for the weekend to arrive !
By Friday there seemed to be wrynecks, barred warblers and iccys all over the shop, from Shetland down to Norfolk, plus quite a few greenish warblers too. The Farne Islands had its fair share with iccy, barred warbler, wryneck and a Citrine Wagtail !! You can see the Farnes from Newton so by my logic that meant there must be something good to be found at Newton too…
I arrived at the Tin church at around 11am on Saturday 10th September. First off I crept along the private track to quarry house, the bank of elder and hawthorn scrub here was just crying out for a wryneck or barred warbler, I grilled every inch but only managed a few willow warblers, blackcaps and garden warblers, but these were all migrants so that got me fired up to press on.
At the Tin Church it became apparent there had been a fall over the previous few days, Garden Warblers and Blackcaps seemed to be all over the place and at least one pied flycatcher was flitting along the fence lines. The trees and scrub here held a couple of lesser whitethroats, and a few goldcrests. Deciding this could be the place for the big crippling rarity, I walked along the fence line behind the church to grill every inch of scrub. A “churrrr, churrrr, churrr….” Alerted me to a willow tit with the roving tit flock amongst the trees, the tit flock had a couple of goldcrests and a chiffchaff attached to it…
Towards the cattle grid where the scrub and trees run out I was surprised that there still seemed to be birds everywhere, a willow warbler working its way along a bare fence line and a garden warbler on a drystone wall reminded me a bit of Fair Isle or Shetland. It seemed like these birds were new in and had yet to find any decent cover….. it felt RARE !!
I left the cover of the Tin Church and headed out over the open field at Newton Point. I walked to the compound and found a couple of wheatears, a chiffchaff, and blackcap sheltering inside the fencing. Over at the fenced out pond I did my usual walk around and pished, an unstreaked acro appeared and got the heart racing, after good views I found it hard to turn it into anything other than a reed warbler, nice though, another migrant !
As I turned to walk away from the reed warbler I caught a bird flying low over the ground out of the corner of my eye, I locked on with my bins, expecting to be a skylark or something, and was stunned to see a wryneck !! It was flying from the compound area towards the scrub bank that faces north overlooking Football Hole, I watched it disappear into the gorse scrub.
Had this bird just arrived and flown into the first bit of available cover, or had I overlooked it in the compound ? WHO CARES !!! I legged it over to the gorse bank and managed just one 3 second view of it on the ground before it flew into even denser gorse. I spent the next half hour trying to relocate it, but no luck.
A WRYNECK IN FLIGHT AT NEWTON.
NOTE: This is actually a different wryneck at newton taken in 2007, but you get the idea !!
But it didn’t matter, it had put me on a high and I headed off to check the bushes at Football Hole, home of so many rares in the past. Today a good grilling of the bushes produced a sedge warbler, 2 willow warblers and the usual linnets and stonechats…… But…… if there’s a wryneck here what else could there be ? I proceeded to check out every scrap of tiny scrub and bramble in the bay, again nothing much, a chiffchaff, then a couple of reed buntings and linnets, the usual…
Enthusiasm not dented I decided to head across the point and along the shore to Low Newton. Along the fence line and on the rocks a willow warbler was feeding, a little further along a whinchat was added to the day total of species… Seeing newly arrived migrants on headlands with no cover except wire fences and tussocks of grass always gets me excited, on days like this every patch of cover must be checked, you never know what may be lurking !
I arrived at Low Newton and checked the large walled Garden, the bushes held a number of garden warblers, willow warblers, blackcaps and a lesser whitethroat. A red flash turned out to be a juvenile redstart, closely followed by a brown and white flash, another pied fly. This garden was full of common migrants, but despite spending some time trying hard, I couldn’t turn up anything better than the pied fly and redstart.
As I moved on along the track towards the wardens cottage I paused at the end of the village to scan the field, in the autumn a flood pool sometimes develops in the field next to the wardens cottage. This year the flood was large and I could see some waders with the naked eye. I ignored the wagtails and large flocks of starlings, instead focussing in on the waders….. a couple of ruff, a few redshank and a handful of dunlin. I started to scan them again to make sure I hadn’t missed anything, I noticed a pale bird with the starlings out of the corner of my field of view, as I turned and focussed in of it I couldn’t believe my luck….. a juvenile rose-coloured starling !! Awesome, not only a patch tick, but a UK find tick too !! …..Sad isn’t it…..
THE NEWTON STARLING
Picture taken by Alan Gilbertson, but i couldn't get in touch with Alan to ask his permission to use this...
so if you're reading this Alan I hope you don't mind me using your pic, drop me an e-mail if you do
I watched the starling for a few seconds before deciding to put my scope up for better views of it… That was the kiss of death ! As soon as my tripod was half up and my hands were full, the massive starling flock lifted and flew over the village ! Not wanting to just drop my scope, I had to watch with the naked eye and try to follow the rosy… it flew over the cottages towards the beach…
On legging it round the square to the beach I could see a flock of starlings feeding on seaweed, but no rosy…. Like the wryneck the starling had done a disappearing act…. but I did see it again later in the day, flying towards High Newton with a large flock of starlings.
Even more fired up now I headed back down the track towards Newton Pool. As I walked past the flood a little stint flew round a couple of times and then landed with the dunlin. The copse at the side of the wardens house was alive with willow warblers and chiffchaffs, but no sign of that Greenish I dream of finding there one day.
A scan of the pool produced the usual wildfowl and black headed gulls. Eager to move on, I left the hide and headed for the dunes and scrub by the golf course. Despite giving the bushes a good solid flogging, I couldn’t rustle up anything of great note here, just a few more willow warblers, blackcaps and the ever present reed buntings.
Time was getting on, I decided to back track towards the church. It was good to see a couple of groups of birders had arrived and connected with the starling (which I had put on birdline earlier), they had less luck with the wryneck though unfortunately.
The rose-coloured starling and wryneck were both seen again the following day but not subsequently.