12/05/2017 Catton Moss, Northumberland

Short-toed Lark: First of all I have to say how wonderful Catton Moss is, it's full of upland breeding birds, many of which had young or displaying. The place was full of Curlew calling and Snipe drumming overhead. Brilliant!!! 

The one bird which was unusual was this little chap, a Short-toed Lark which gave me and a fellow birder Alistair McCulloch a run around. The bird took one and a half hours to show before flying in to the nearby sheep pen and disappearing, before returning to the path which it favours and giving us some awesome views.

The main purpose of our trip was for Dawn and I to spend a night away in Seahouses with the intention of getting the boat across to Farne so made a booking with Billy Shiel's Farne Island Boat Tours.







However I have to say that their customer service was horrendous, after making a booking (no deposit necessary) and turning up at 9.30, on time and ready to go, they told us that the landing on Inner Farne was too choppy and no boats were running, but come back at 11am and we can get you on the next boat. That was fine as the weather had changed over night and I understand that we were unable to get a boat. My main issue is that when we came back after waiting around all morning they said that no boats at all were sailing. Now they have a twitter account and our email and telephone number so why on earth would they not get in touch or at the very least put some information on their Twitter account or website. This was a morning well wasted. I was not impressed.