What an awesome trip to Newcastle Upon Tyne in NE England! Hooked up with Neil Osborne through Birdingpal.com and he showed me one glorious day of birding in which we saw 86 species of birds and of which 18 were either only heard or I had seen before. That's 68 life birds!!!!! That is easily a Vegas Jackpot! List provided below.
A few remarkable items were my awe and drooling over their "common" birds that they quickly passed over in our observations - I say "they" as we ran into quite a number of other birders who would enter into birding conversations. Most notable were the beautiful Chaffinch, the singing of the Blackbird, the uniquely handsomer-than-here House Sparrow, their "Barn Swallow" that looked uniquely different from ours and their Robin as a small almost warbler looking bird. A lot of their birds that share names with ours could have been subspecies or variants of some sort. Some common birds for us that I would see there would have slightly different or simply one word names. In abundance was what I would refer to their "chickadee-like" species that took the name of Tit. Many species and variation and all acting like chickadees. I was overwhelmed with the abundance of rabbits and different pigeon species and numbers - all with a near absence of raptors. THey apparently have buzzards and kestrels as their primary feathered predators but they were few and far between. There mammalian predator numbers were also highly limited to foxes for the most part. The sparsity of predators easily explained the nearly constant presence of potential prey species but also begs that question of what limits their numbers from taking over the entire island? A light note was the presence of Kittewakes nesting on the bridge towers along the Tyne River so far inland. They lined up in nest all with the tails pointing out. Neil mentioned that this was one of the most inland nesting colonies he was aware of. Birding the moors was a dream come true as just the idea of being in English and nearly Scottish moors is so Shakespearean and practically legendary. I was so overcome by being in them that I totally forgot to take pictures. As my wife points out - I get to have the pictures in my heart. So true for this experience on so many levels. Birding along the North Sea was also legendary for me. Across it lay Scandinavia and to the north the Arctic Ocean and nearly Iceland. This body of water really keeps this part of the world chilly and the overlap of the incoming Gulf Stream current ensures clouds and light rain for a large percentage of the time. The birds just hanging out along the coast were jaw dropping in their proximity and abundance. The banner event was easily our tour trip to Coquet Island where some 50,000 plus birds nest - with greater emphasis on puffins and three variety of terns - most scientifically notably the Roseate Tern. Check out the island website as no words can truly cover the experience. The only thing I can share is that puffins and terns were lined up like cord wood on the island's edge and there still lay some 18 acres of island behind them. The puffins now fall into the realm of bumblebees as creatures who should not scientifically be able to fly. And every now and then for no apparent reason, practically all of the birds (save the most reserved Roseates) would all take to flight in something that reminded me of the cyclone in the Wizard of Oz. Meanwhile rafts of thousands of puffins sat in the sea just off the island and would occasional in turn rise up and rush the island almost in a tag team exchange for space. We were constantly monitored by the Grey Seals who seamed to act as behavior supervisors for any visitors who come to sit off the island to watch. This trip holds volumes of stories and experiences and Neil requested that anyone else going over there to contact him - Birdingpal.com is a good place to find him. The birders over there are mirrors to us in our enthusiasm, concerns, passion, and scientific detail. The places we birded via an email report from Neil: Morpeth (River Wansbeck), Beacon Hill and Longhorsley Moor area and then Druridge Bay, finishing at Coquet Island. This is the bird list: Mute Swan, Greylag Goose, *Shelduck,Mallard, Gadwall, Wigeon, *Tufted Duck, *Eider, *Common Scoter, Pheasant, *Fulmar, *Great Cormorant, Common Buzzard, Kestrel, *Moorehen, *Eurasian Coot, Oystercatcher, *Ringed Plover, *Northern Lapwing, *Sanderling, *Greenshank, *Redshank, *Ruff, *Eurasian Curlew, *Black-headed Gull, *Common Gull, *Great Black-backed Gull, *Lesser Black-backed Gull, Herring Gull, *Little Gull, *Sandwich Tern, *Common Tern, *Arctic Tern, *Roseate Tern, *Puffin, *Common Guillemot, *Wood Pigeon, *Collared Dove, Common Cuckoo(H), *Swift, Great Spotted Woodpecker(H), *Skylark, *SandMartin, *House Martin, Barn Swallow, *Rock Pipit, *Tree Pipit, *Meadow Pipit, *Pied Wagtail *White Wagtail, *Grey Wagtail, *White-throated Dipper, Dunnock(H), *Robin, Redstart(H), *Stonechat, *Song Thrush, *Mistle Thrush, *Blackbird, *Garden Warbler, *Blackcap, *Common Whitethroat, *Sedge Warbler, *Reed Warbler, Grasshopper Warbler(H), *Willow Warbler, *Chiffchaff, *Wren, *Spotted Flycatcher, *Great Tit, *Coal Tit, *Blue Tit, *Marsh Tit, *Nuthatch, Magpie, Carrion Crow, *Rook, *Jackdaw, Starling, House Sparrow, *Tree Sparrow, *Chaffinch, *Greenfinch, *goldfinch, *Linnet, *Reed Bunting, *Yellowhammer *Kittewake. ALL IN ONE DAY! The asterisks indicate life birds for me despite many names nearly the same as the ones I have seen in the US. They were not the same birds. Birds we heard were not listed as life birds as I only count observed birds for my life. Thomas Maiello Angel Environmental Management, Inc. Maple Grove, MN ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
