Having had to work the Bank Holiday the news of a Temmincks Stint at Cresswell made me break off and head north mid afternoon. I joined Brian near the causeway and got some good views of the tiny bird although distant on the far shore and way out of range for my camera. Then, with the light fading and rain threatening I made the short trip to Hauxley for the Spoonbill. From the Ponteland hide the bird was located feeding in the bay, as usual, as far away from the hide as it could get! The number of rings on the leg was a bit detrimental to the aesthtics of the bird although at the range and with the poor light spectacular photographs were not to be had. I have however checked Mike Hodgsons excellent paper on the rise of Spoonbills in Northumberland (currently unavailable due to the re-vamping of the bird club website) and found this was the same bird present for 45 days at Druridge Pools in May / July 2011. Ringed as a nestling at Schiermonnikoog Oosterkwelder in the Netherlands on 26th June 2009 it is now coming up to its fifth ringing day. It visited Cantabria later in 2009 a movement of 1323km shortly after being ringed so one can only speculate how far it has travelled in the meantime.
Eventually it stopped feeding coming closer and having a bit of a preen before standing alongside the resident Heron who of course took exception to the visitor and chased it back into the far corner of the pool. Hauxley must be far enough away from Amble not to come under the umbrella of 'the friendliest port'.
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