Blustery Day

Not ideal weather conditions for birding today, but I had a day off and was starting to get cabin-fever after yesterdays rain kept me indoors.

So a lunchtime visit to Druridge was attempted, it started off quite nice, if a little windy, watching a flock of goldfinch in the bushes, hoping to see Alan Tillmouth's brambling from last week. A flock of 16 siskin in the alders were a year-tick.

The Budge Fields were 'lifting' with wildfowl, the pintail count now up to five and a couple of whooper swans there too. Wigeon was most numerous species with at least 350 present and about 250 teal.

You could have surfed on some of the waves on the big pool, but was brown like the chocolate lake Augustus Gloop fell into in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, so it might not have been pleasant. The sky began to darken from the north, we beat a hasty to retreat back to the car, before a squally shower of rain/hail/sleet hit us.

We're off to the Cheviots tomorrow to finish our winter atlas work, hope it hasn't snowed too much up there!

64 whooper swan
65 siskin