I and Jenna got up at 4.00am this morning and headed north to Goswick Bay in Northumberland, where a black scoter had been found. I needed this for my England list, as I had only seen one of this species before, many moons ago in February 2003 at Llanfairfechan in Gwynedd, Wales.
Llanfairfechan bird
We arrived on site just after 8.30am and made our way across the golf course and sand dunes, arriving at the beach.
Goswick Sands
It took a good hour to find the bird (see below) amongst the common scoter, but eventually it was found even though it was distant. Other birds of note while I was looking for the Black scoter were Black-throated diver, 2 Red-necked grebes, Red-throated diver, and 8 Long-tailed ducks.
Shocking photo, but it's on the England list
Moving on from here, we called in at Ross Bank Sands, where an American pipit had been present for the last month. The bird was good 2.5 km from where we parked the car, so we took our time enjoying the sea views on our way.
Skeins of Brent geese flew past us as we walking down the beach and a Great northern diver was out in the bay.
On arrival, the bird was showing straight away, feeding on the seaweed bed.
We had great views of the bird, and we just sat down on the beach as it approached us down to a few meters. A great day birding, and we were back in Cheshire for 7.00pm.