The travel tales of this bird carried on, after its trip across the Atlantic, then Devon, Sussex and now Northumberland in the well looked after town of Newbiggin-by-the-Sea. It has been in the area for a couple of weeks until a resident birder reported its presence and viewing was arranged. With a couple of our team not having made the trip down to Devon, a trip to see the bird was arranged. The weather forecast was pretty miserable from 10am onwards, so an early start was called for. By 8-45am we arrived and after following on site instructions, we were soon watching the Northern Mockingbird sat in some brambles in a garden! The lads got some good pictures of the bird as an hour soon passed, the promised rain then swept in from the sea making conditions quite unpleasant. We took sanctuary in a nearby bakers shop and sampled their products before we tried to do a bit of sea watching. Bad idea, more rain had us running for the car!
After a no show of a Black/Grey headed Wagtail at Bothal (it was refound later) we decided to go to a place none of us had ever been to before, Grindon Lough between Hadrian`s Wall and Haydon Bridge in Northumberland. We hoped to see an adult, female Red necked Phalarope. The rain seemed to be getting worse as we crossed the hills, we eventually reached Grindon Lough and again ventured into the rain. We were greeted by a few birders from Greater Bolton who soon had us watching the distant Phalarope, which was unusually feeding on the mud banks, out of the water, with a Dunlin! The weather began to become even worse, so we loaded up and headed for home via the A686 towards Penrith and onto the M6, passing through some lovely scenery. We all had a good day out and as we got into Lancashire it stopped raining!
