Trip birds in bold, year birds in green. Photo credit to David Miller if it says (DM)
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| First light at Linton Lane |
A clear frosty start with the temperature at -2 C and ice on ungritted roads as we headed for Linton Lane to watch the sunrise. As we got out of the car we had robin, blue tit, song thrush, great tit and chaffinch all singing and three pheasants clattered out of the tree above our head with their raucous calls giving us a bit of a shock. The lake itself had teal, moorhen, wigeon, mallard, shoveler, mute swan, gadwall, tufted duck, goldeneye, grey heron, coot, moorhen, little grebe, oystercatcher and Canada geese. As the light improved carrion crow, blackbird and woodpigeon started moving and common and black-headed gull dropped in. Unusually for Linton we did not see any owls or raptors. We gave it an hour and then moved on to Queen Elizabeth 2 Country Park.
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| QE2 Country Park |
Herring gull joined the list along with cormorant, rook and three tree sparrows on a feeder. The lake itself contained mallard, coot and goldeneye but did not add any new birds. On to Woodhorn Flash and a female kestrel en route plus magpie before and emergency stop and a U turn as David spotted three grey partridge I had missed.
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| Grey partridge (DM) |
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| Grey partridge (DM) |
We drove on round to Snab Point where the tide was coming in. This little car park gives beach, rocky coast and a good view out to sea so is well worth a stop. In no particular order we added eider duck, red-throated diver and a raft of 20+ guillemot drifting north on the sea. A nice bonus was up to five fulmar coming in to their nesting sites below the cliff. The shore added ringed plover, redshank, sanderling, purple sandpiper, turnstone and curlew while the gorse behind us had a pair of stonechat and a flock of 25 linnets. A brief stop at Cresswell village gave us starling, jackdaw and house sparrow plus an awful lot of curlew and dunlin out on the rocks.
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| Snab Point looking north (DM) |
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| Snab Point seawatching point (DM) |
So to Cresswell Pond where we had been given a heads up about pink-footed geese in a field behind the Drift Cafe which contained some Russian white-fronted geese. We were happy to find two, and David also noticed a barn owl in a hedge which I managed to miss! Hard to find something different when looking through around 1000 pinkies for 10 white fronts which were then spooked by a micro-lite. That's my excuse anyway.
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| Large pinkfeet flock (DM) |
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| Barn owl in the hedge!! (DM) |
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| Magnificent!! (DM) |
There was also a buzzard sitting in a nearer hedge. The pond itself was very quiet (for Cresswell) Again in no particular order we saw mallard, wigeon, teal, gadwall, goldeneye, little grebe, curlew, lapwing, one bar-tailed godwit, three little egrets and some cormorants. Everything was lifted by a female sparrowhawk at one stage. The hedgerow turned up a tree sparrow and little else as there were no feeders around or they were empty.
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| Cresswell Pond with the snow covered Cheviot Hills in the distance |
We moved north to Bell's Farm and picked up skylark in the cattle fields as well as a large flock of pinkfeet and at least 150 white -fronted geese. The camera revealed a couple of barnacle geese which I again managed to miss.
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| Pinkies and white fronts at Bell's Farm (DM) |
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| Close ups |
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| (DM) |
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| (DM) |
Then on to a very wet Druridge Pools with more water than we have ever seen. I was there in August when it was bone dry.
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| Druridge Pools in August 2025 |
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| Golden plover and lapwing and a lot of water |
There were an awful lot of ducks and waders in view from the hide and we added snipe, pintail, shelduck, golden plover and three ruff. This is the first time we have ever seen ruff in February in Northumberland. The icing on the cake here was a splendid marsh harrier which came over and lifted everything. We gave the other hides a miss as the path was flooded and parked up to walk to East Chevington. Again in no particular order we had grey partridge again, a flock of 100+ twite, stonechat, lapwing, red-breasted merganser and great crested grebe off the coast. We reached a nice new hide in the SE corner of the reserve where a group of birders were looking at a kingfisher perched up and giving good views and we then scoped a distant red-necked grebe, greylag geese and another selection of ducks and waders. The return walk added wren and amazingly a singing cetti's warbler in the reeds. This is the first time I have heard this species in Northumberland but of course we didn't see it! Widdrington Moor Lake added great black-backed gull, reed bunting and lunch at 1530!
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| Kingfisher at East Chevington |
With time pressing we then headed into Druridge Bay Country Park and connected with two birds we knew were there - redhead smew and a male scaup as well as pochard. At this stage with the light starting to go we thought we should check the feeders to add a few missing tits and finches but when we reached the turning circle in the car park there were no feeders!! Decision time, so we went to Hauxley to check their feeders and added bullfinch, coal tit and dunnock, but not goldfinch which was still missing from the list! By this time it was past 4.30 so a last hurrah at Hadston Scaurs for the odd wader only added a dead puffin in the sand dunes. Apparently it has been a bad winter for seabirds and dead birds are washing up all along the east coast. We finished with 80 and no goldfinch and I added 15 birds to the 2026 list. Thanks to the Northumberland WhatsApp group and the many friendly and helpful birders we met along the way. We had a wonderful day and finished off with a shower and out to Puccinis in Cramlington for a celebratory meal.
93: Slavonian grebe
95: Grey partridge
96: Fulmar
97: Sanderling
98: Pink-footed goose
99: White-fronted goose
100:Kestrel
101: Skylark
102: Golden plover
103: Ruff
104: Kingfisher
105: Red-necked grebe
106: Cetti's warbler
107: Smew
108: Scaup
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