“Thou shall hev a Fishy, when the boat comes in”

Saturday 29th August and I spent the day in Northumberland, with Glynn and Richard, at Newbiggin-by-the-Sea. What a fantastic place for waders and Terns. The coastal area of this small seaside town is a great place to see Roseate Tern. As they leave the breeding grounds on Coquete Island, the adults bring their youngsters to traditional feeding areas along the East Coast, where they stop off before heading south to their wintering grounds in South Africa. Today was no exception as we had around 20 Roseate Terns during the day. Plenty of waders too, including Dunlin, Knot, Redshank, Ringed Plover, Sanderling, Curlew, Turnstone and Oystercatcher. Common, Sandwich and Arctic Tern were also on view and a few Eider Duck were off shore. A great day and we had the birds all to ourselves. Update – My thanks to Glynn for pointing out to me that the Knot in below photographs, is a juvenile, rather than a moulting adult. The red colouring is most likely staining from seaweed. The bird is very neat, clean and immaculate in plumage.

Fishing Boat off Newbiggin-by-the-Sea – Tony Davison© – “Thou shall hev a fishy, when the boat comes in” – what a super song.

Dunlin – adults and juveniles – above 9 images – Newbiggin-by-the-Sea – Tony Davison©

Knot – Above 5 images – Newbiggin-by-the-Sea – Tony Davison© – As this is a juvenile rather than an adult, the red colouration is most likely to be staining from seaweed.

Roseate Tern – Juvenile – The reason for our trip was to see the juveniles – Tony Davison©

 

Roseate Tern – Juvenile and adult – Tony Davison©

 

Roseate Tern – adult – Tony Davison© – many adults had started their moult but some were still in decent plumage

 

Roseate Tern – Adult – Tony Davison© – a juvenile Arctic Tern in the background

 

Roseate Tern – adult and one that wasn’t ringed!! – Tony Davison©

 

Roseate Tern – adult and juvenile – Tony Davison©

Sanderling – above 2 images – moulting adults – Tony Davison©

Redshank – Tony Davison© – you can see why they get their name!

 

Ringed Plover – juvenile – above 2 images – Tony Davison©

Mediterranean Gull – 2 adult winter – Tony Davison© – above 3 images – There were about 20 Mediterranean Gull in with a large flock of Black-headed Gull.

Mediterranean Gull – 2 different 1st winter – Tony Davison©