Back to Black - Black Scoter off Stag Rocks, Bamburgh, Northumberland

With news that a Black Scoter had been spotted associating amongst the raft of Common Scoter regularly seen off Stag Rocks near Bamburgh in Northumberland during the week (it transpired that the bird had in fact been present since the 15^th Jan), we made the decision to make the long journey up to the North East to see this vagrant American sea duck. Only recently spilt from our Common Scoters in the last decade or so, and with just 13 accepted records, this was a great opportunity to finally nail this mega duck after not managing to get up for any of the previous individuals that have graced the East coast and Scotland over the past 5 years or so and being too young to twitch the long staying individual that resided off Llanfairfechan back in 1999 all the way through to 2007. With birds seen off the Northumberland coast in 2011 (in both the spring and winter) and again in 2015, it is highly likely this could be the same returning individual, especially as the April 2011 bird was actually found off Stag Rocks.

With strong gales and rain forecast for the Saturday however, we decided to call our journey off, thinking it would be near impossible to locate the Black Scoter in stormy seas and driving rain. A report at just after 11am on Saturday morning soon put paid to that theory however, and after booking a last minute hotel 10 minutes away from Bamburgh we were soon on our way north hoping the weather for Sunday would stay calm and dry like predicted.

Nearby Bamburgh Castle

Sure enough, we awoke to an extremely calm and still morning (with Alex soon picking out an Iceland Gull from the hotel window before we were even out on the road) and by 10am we were on site ready to track down the Black Scoter. Being nailed down to a regular site unlike last year’s Northumberland bird, I was hopeful we would connect and joining 30 or so other birders overlooking the sea we were soon watching a distant Scoter flock to the north of the rocks. Despite some of those present convinced one individual had a much brighter bill than the others, the birds were just far too distant to get adequate views and confirm it as the Black Scoter.

A map of where we viewed from - our two viewing spots in red and the car park in yellow

Winter Birding on Anglesey - Hooded Crow, Iceland Gull, Black Guillemots and Slavonian Grebe!

With a whole host of great birds present on Anglesey over the winter, we decided to make the trip over from the mainland to try and catch up with what was an excellent selection of quality birding goodies on offer.

First stop was the Hooded Crow that has been favouring the McDonald’s car park in Holyhead for the past month. Presumably a bird from Ireland or the Isle of Man, it was great to see this subtly beautiful corvid up close, perching obligingly on the aerials of nearby houses and on the lampposts in the car park itself. 

With various hybrids scattered across the line where both Hooded and Carrion Crows reside up in Scotland, it was refreshing to see what is definitely a pure looking bird.

The Black Guillemots at Holyhead Harbour dutifully performed on cue, and viewing from Beach Road they were in their usual spot feeding near the ferry terminal.

The Iceland Gull near South Stack RSPB at the Range also proved to be extremely easy to connect with, and as soon as we turned the corner towards the farm fields that the gird reference had directed us to (SH 22971 80396), we spotted a bright white shape feeding in the grass.