37 



ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM THE 

 NORTHUMBERLAND COAST. 



ALFRED CRAWHALL CHAPMAN. 



During the last twelve years I have visited the coast of Northumber- 

 land pretty regularly at all seasons, but especially during the latter 

 end of August, for the purpose of seeing and collecting the birds 

 which annually visit our shores, after having left their breeding 

 grounds in higher latitudes. 



In this paper I have endeavoured to describe the habits of some 

 of our regular migrants, as observed during the time they remain on 

 our shores-. Though the autumn migration may be said to commence 

 about the end of July, it is not till a month later that the majority of 

 the migrants appear, and it is usually September before the Little Stint 

 and Grey Plover arrive. It is difficult, perhaps almost impossible, to 

 assign anything like definite limits to the range of such a cosmopolitan 

 order as are the Limicolae, but I think it may be fairly assumed that 

 the Common Godwit (Limosa lapponicd), Sanderling ( Calidris arenaria) 

 (in comparatively small numbers), Turnstone {Strepsilas interpres), 

 Purple Sandpiper {Tringa striata), Knot {Tringa canutus), and Grey 

 Plover (Squatarola helvetica), are regular winter residents with us; 

 while the Curlew Sandpiper {Tri?iga subarquata), Wood Sandpiper 

 (Totanus glareola), Little and Temminck's Stints {Tringa minuta and 

 te?nmincki), YVhimbrel {Numenius phceopus), Dusky Redshank {Totanns 

 fuscus), Greenshank {Totanns canescens), Ruffs and Reeves {Machetes 

 pugnax),the Phalaropes {Phalaropus hyperboreus and fulicarius),2J=> well 

 as Richardson's Skua {Stercorarius crepidatus), are only spring and 

 autumn visitants, passing on to winter quarters in more southern lati- 

 tudes. This is, at least, my experience of these birds, though I am well 

 aware that stragglers of some of the latter species do occur, and some- 

 times not unfrequently, on our coasts during the winter months. Their 

 occurrence, however, can hardly entitle them to the appellation of 

 ' winter residents,' as is the case with the Common Godwit, Knot, &c. 



The Green Sandpiper {Helodromas ochropus) is a typical example 

 of a 'casual visitant,' occurring with almost equal regularity during 

 each month of the year. In Stevenson's ' Birds of Norfolk ' a table 

 is given (ii, 223) illustrative of the erratic movements of this species. 

 Though Richardson's Skua is stated by Mr. Hancock, in his ' Birds 

 of Northumberland and Durham,' to be 1 an autumn and winter 

 visitant,' I have never once seen it on the coast during winter, and I 

 believe it goes southward with the Terns, about the end of September. 



The majority of our migratory ducks and geese, although having 

 a very si milar breeding range to the different species of wader already 



Feb. 1886. 



