15.01.2026 - Indoor Meeting : Birding in the North East

Speaker: Jonathan Farooqi
Report by: Steph Plaster

On a really inclement evening with pouring rain and gusty winds, over sixty members and guests attended our first indoor meeting of 2026. Having made it to the hall in such awful weather we were treated to a wonderfully illustrated and informative talk by Jonathan Farooqi. Jonathan, who lives in Norfolk, is a guide with Oriole Birding and is also a freelance bird-surveyor and volunteer with the RSPB.

Jonathan hails originally from Northumberland where he started birdwatching at a very young age, around seven years old, being tutored in this field by his father, also a keen birdwatcher. He told us how he clearly remembers seeing a Ptarmigan for the first time at the age of nine. He then honed his craft by birdwatching with his dad throughout the north east and all around his native Northumberland, a vast county with spectacular scenery and wildlife, a location to put on your birding ‘wish list’ if you’ve never been before.
Jonathan described the many hot spots in the north east of England which are great for bird watching and he began by listing them from north to south, starting with Lindisfarne Island in Northumberland
and working his way through Durham and North Yorkshire down to Spurn Point in East Yorkshire. This vast area of the east coast contains a diverse range of habitats including: wide sandy beaches and
bays, marram grass dunes, heathland, fresh water and brackish pools, rugged rocky coast and islands, vast moorland, woodlands and several large estuaries.
This area is, we found out, an all year round fantastic place to see resident bird species with the potential for an amazing number of rarities both inland and on the coast. In a typical birding year Jonathan would be looking for winter geese, from Pale-bellied Brent
geese to the rarer Red-breasted goose. Also Barnacle geese, Cackling and Todd’s Canada geese from North America can be spotted regularly. It’s also a good place to look for birds off-shore where you’ll find Eiders, Velvet Scoters and magnificent Long-tailed duck.
It’s also a great place to see Spring migrants who arrive in good numbers and Jonathan tells us that he’s seen large flocks of Twite (100 to 200 birds) plus Wheatears, different Hirundine, Wood warblers,
Redstarts, and rarities like Citrine wagtail. In summer Pacific swifts can be seen and there are, of course, the amazing seabird colonies all along the coast, especially on the Farne Islands and at RSPB
Bempton Cliffs. Off Cullernose Point in Northumberland Sooty and Bridled Terns have been recorded and in August and September, the best time to go sea-watching, Long-tailed Skuas and Manx, Cory’s
and Great Shearwaters are a potential twitch.
October is a great time for checking scrubby areas and sand dunes for migrants such as Yellow-browed warblers and when a strong northerly wind blows Little Auks can be seen close to shore, he’s even spotted one in a beach rock pool! In December you’ll see a range of Divers, Sea Ducks and Grebes making this area such a great place to go birding where you’ll be guaranteed a ‘Tick, Lifer or Mega’ in every season. Jonathan has found many fabulous birds during his time in Northumberland and on subsequent visits and tours and Oriole Birding offer a good range of guided birding tours to this part of England.
One of Jonathan’s favourite places for birding is Lindisfarne Island, also known as Holy Island, a ‘tidal island’ as twice a day the incoming tide flows around the island covering the causeway connecting it to the mainland. Visitors have to be mindful of the tide, although there are emergency platforms on the causeway if people are cut off by the incoming tide. Lindisfarne contains several good spots for birds including the village (over 100 people live on the Island) which contains gardens, hedges and paths - ideal for finding migrants such as Redstart, Thrushes, Spotted Flycatcher and Goldcrest. Great-grey shrikes and Bluethroats have been recorded regularly here, plus Asian desert warbler and Broad-billed sandpiper too, in fact he says that basically anything can turn up. Jonathan recalls one of his best-ever birding days here (24th Aug 2015) when an easterly wind prevailed and good numbers of birds including Wood warbler, Willow warbler, Icterine warbler, Wryneck, Pied flycatcher, Red-backed Shrike, and a Greenish warbler were all spotted. Moving further south along the coast past Bamburgh Castle and to the Farne Islands you’ll be able to
spot Slavonian grebe, Grey Phalarope and a first for Northumberland here was a Black Scoter as well as a regularly returning Bonaparte’s Gull, both of which are American species. There are seabird colonies on The Farne Islands, Coquet Island and Long Nanny, which include Gulls, Puffins and Arctic and Roseate terns and a female American black tern, return each year too. There is also marine wildlife to spot as there are many Seals, Bottle-nosed dolphins and Orca have been spotted off the coast.
Druridge Bay, a wide sweeping expanse of sand and dunes (pictured below) is another good place for birding where Jonathan has seen Pacific golden plover and Terek sandpiper. At East Chevington, fresh
water lakes, there are many species of duck and grebes present, plus Bittern, Marsh harrier, Cetti’s warbler (first seen in 2012 up there) and in 2016/2017 a Pacific diver was showing well. Cresswell pond, a Northumberland Wildlife Trust reserve off Druridge Bay, is a large brackish lagoon that attracts a lot of waders including Little stint and Wood sandpiper, plus Glossy Ibis, Whooper swan, and, in lockdown, Jonathan saw a Bufflehead - a species of sea duck that breeds in Canada and Alaska - so that would have been a ‘mega’ for some people lucky enough to see it. Further inland in County Durham, there are also large grouse moors, prime habitat for Red and Black grouse, and Ring Ouzels are frequently seen here. Other habitat includes woodland which once held good numbers of Redstarts, Pied flycatchers and Wood warblers - but he advises that numbers are now falling and he thinks that within five to ten years he’ll be lucky to spot a Wood warbler in the North East.
Jonathan finished the second half of the evening by working down along the coast to Bempton and Flamborough - known for seabird colonies including Kittiwakes, Gannets, Razorbills and Guillemots.
In 2021 a Black-browed albatross could be seen soaring past the cliffs here. On one Oriole birding tour they were lucky enough (Ashley that is) to find a White-throated needletail - an Asian swift and a very rare bird to the UK. Luckily for us Jonathan had great images of all these rare birds as he is also very good at bird photography. His talk was marvelously illustrated for those of us who have never seen these rarer species.
Continuing south along the coast to the famous bird hotspot of Spurn Point in east Yorkshire he told us about the great potential of this site for seeing migrating birds. Spurn is a good place for ‘Vis-Mig’ - visible migration as you can sit for many hours here just watching thousands of birds migrate above you. Some great birds that he’s spotted in this area and in Kilnsea wetlands on the Spurn Heritage Coast include, Red-breasted flycatcher, Yellow-legged Gull, Curlew sandpiper, White-rumped sandpiper, Kentish plover, and in the sycamore scrub Pallas’s warbler and Olive-backed pipit, and several Dusky warblers have been recorded there.
This was an excellent talk by Jonathan and a great start to the WVBS indoor meetings for 2026.
Jonathan is a very knowledgeable speaker and birder who has a fantastic understanding of his native county and the birds and other wildlife found there. I’m sure his talk has whetted the appetites of many of the WVBS members and guests to make a beeline for this glorious part of the UK. Oriole Birding run several tours each year to this area and the dates below may come in handy if anyone is looking to go birding here in the future. 
Many thanks to Jonathan for such an interesting talk about a beautiful part of the UK.