Today we decided to drive up to Beadnell, in the hope of catching up with a Lesser Yellowlegs, which had been sighted 1 mile SSW of Beadnell over the past couple of days. We parked at the pay and display car park (parking meter was covered and it said free today). We then travelled SW through the nearby caravan park, for about 10 mins, then continued on a path, with the dunes to our left for about another 10 mins. We located the bird in a flooded field to the right. We were unlucky to get drenched a couple of times in the heavy rain showers, however we didn’t mind as we enjoyed good views of the Lesser Yellowlegs.
After a short stop in Seahouses, to dry off and enjoy some fish and chips, we moved onto Hoppen Kiln Flash (which is close to Hoppen Kiln Farm, Bamburgh). Here we very quickly located five Garganey (one more than we’d heard were present), including one attractive male, a Wood Sandpiper and a handsome Pectoral Sandpiper.
We also found a male Shoveler, 4 Shelducks and there were lots of singing Warblers, which included Sedge, Blackcap, Willow, Chiffchaff and Whitethroats.
We also recorded our first Swifts of the year (rather late for us), as two briefly passed through.
Paul & Adriana Buskin