With lots of rare birds being in the country e.g. Two Barred Greenish Warbler, Siberian Thrush etc and as my lady friend and I had planned a trip up to Amble in Northumberland, you can imagine how I felt when a Red Flanked Bluetail had been found on Holy Island on Saturday! We left Lancashire early on Sunday morning heading up the M6 and onto an unfamiliar road to myself, the A69 across to Newcastle and onto the A1. News on the way that the Red Flanked Bluetail was still at The Snook on Holy Island seemed to help the rest of the journey. We arrived and immediately realised that there had been a large fall of migrants overnight as a few Redstart then a Ring Ouzel were seen in the first few yards. Around 30 birders present were split into two groups as we got to The Snook at this point we asked about the Bluetail and given good directions. The bird was seen perching low down in the small trees and catching prey items, the Robin`s did not seem to like the Bluetail and chased it about. This was only my second ever sighting of this beautiful migrant to our country, my lady friend really enjoyed seeing it, but also enjoyed being part of her first twitch. In the farm garden, Spotted and Pied Flycatchers were seen along with around 30+ Goldcrest that would allow you to watch them avidly feeding down to a couple of feet away. More Redstart`s scattered around the area and then news of a Lesser Grey Shrike, Red Breasted Flycatcher, Yellow Browed Warbler had my head spinning! Also seen: 60+ Pink footed Geese, Lesser Whitethroat, Chiffchaff, Bar tailed Godwit, Curlew, Redshank, and Lapwing. We had a walk around Lindisfarne, saw the still closed castle then enjoyed a pint and a snack. As we strolled along we met a birder who told us that the RB Flycatcher & Yellow Browed Warbler were showing very well in the Vicars Garden As I passed through the Priory I met a birder who took me to the right garden and he told me, That this is the mecca for birders in Northumberland due to the amount of rare birds that have been found in there. As we searched I noticed a couple of familiar people also looking, it was only Maurice and Lyndsey McCann that I had last seen on a Birdfinders trip to China in 2017! The flycatcher and warbler were soon seen and I dashed away to the car park to drive away and not get stuck in the incoming tide. Quite a day really enjoyed by us both.
With the news that the Bluethroat had not been seen on Boulmer beach, near Alnwick, we decided to visit a Great Grey Shrike that had been seen near Seaton Point caravan site near Boulmer. As we passed through the village a couple of quite late Swallows were seen resting on the telephone wires, probably the last we will see this year! A few birders were present looking in the distance for the Shrike, the news that it had not been seen for a while did not help, but after 10 minutes or so the Shrike was seen sat on top of a distant hawthorn bush about 400 yards away, but in good light it was seen very well. It was nice to be able to combine a bit of birding in with a nice break in a lovely county that is Northumberland.
