Northumberland has the Farne Islands, the only roseate terns in the UK and a goose that commutes from Svalbard to Holy Island. It also has a North Sea wind that goes straight through a fleece. Here's where to go and when, from a North East family with two small kids and one pair of binoculars.
Birdwatching in Northumberland is at its best on the coast. The Farne Islands, reached by boat from Seahouses, hold around 43,000 pairs of puffins plus Arctic terns, guillemots, razorbills, shags and eiders from May to July, with landings on Inner Farne from April to September, and around 3,000 grey seal pups are born there each autumn. Coquet Island, seen from Puffin Cruises boats out of Amble, is the only place in the UK where roseate terns breed. In winter Lindisfarne National Nature Reserve is the only regular British wintering site for light-bellied brent geese, and the Druridge Bay reserves (Hauxley, East Chevington, Druridge Pools and Cresswell Pond) are good all year. Inland, ospreys have nested at Kielder since 2009 and are watched on a live nest camera at Tower Knowe from April to mid August.
Birdwatching in Northumberland does the thing most birding places only promise. You get on a small boat at Seahouses, it smells of diesel and chips, and not long after there are puffins everywhere; the National Trust counts around 43,000 pairs on the Farnes. Down the coast at Amble a one hour boat goes round Coquet Island, the only place in the UK where roseate terns breed. In winter the light-bellied brent geese fly in from Svalbard to Holy Island, their only regular wintering site in Britain, and inland there are ospreys at Kielder and curlews bubbling over the Cheviots.
Now the honest bit. The puffins are a May to July thing and most have left by the start of August, so an August puffin trip is mostly a boat trip. You can't land on Coquet at all, Staple Island is currently closed to visitors, and Inner Farne landings stop at the end of September. Seal pups come in late autumn, when it's boats only and the North Sea gets the final say. And Holy Island is cut off by the tide twice a day, so the council's crossing times matter more than the bird list. A boat in a swell after a sausage roll is its own kind of wildlife experience.
So, this page. The month strip says what's about now. The site finder has all 35 places on a map, filters for area, habitat and bird, and sorts by distance from where you're stood. The species gallery has 63 birds with a tick box each, and the ticks stay on your phone. Check the boat before the Farnes and the crossing times before Holy Island.
Where to go
Filter by area, habitat, the bird you want, free, kids, step-free or hides, then sort by what's nearest to you.
Open the site finder →The birds
Every one worth a trip, how to find it, your odds, and a tick list that lives on your phone.
Open the checklist →Boats and islands
The Farne Islands from Seahouses and Coquet Island from Amble: when to go, landing seasons and what you see.
Read the Farnes page →What's about now
What's about this month. Pick a month and the strip gives you the headline birds, where to go and the honest warning about wind, tides or boats that comes with them.
September
Last month for Inner Farne landings. Wigeon and pink-footed geese arrive, godwits and golden plovers gather on the Lindisfarne flats, and gannets still pass offshore.
Look for: Wigeon, Pink-footed goose, Bar-tailed godwit, Golden plover, Gannet, Greylag goose, Turnstone, Sanderling
Best sites: Lindisfarne NNR and Holy Island, Budle Bay, Grindon Lough, East Chevington, Cresswell Pond
All 35 sites. Filter by area, habitat or the bird you're after, sort by distance from where you are, and tap a pin for parking, toilets and tide notes.
Holy Island · Berwick and Holy Island
Check the council's safe crossing times before anything else and plan round them. The Paul Greenwood hide on the Lough is open at all times, and check boots and the dog for pirri-pirri bur before you leave.
Bamburgh · Bamburgh and the north coast
Watch from the white railings along the Bamburgh to Waren Mill road rather than going down onto the shore, and come nearer high tide for sea duck, grebes and divers.
Haydon Bridge · Hexham and Hadrian's Wall
There's no access onto the reserve. Pull in on the Stanegate west of Newbrough, bring a telescope, and come in winter or in August and September.
Red Row · Morpeth and the south east
Paths are level and wide with a boardwalk, so buggies are fine. The toilets and cafe are at Druridge Bay Country Park, and in winter give it time for the owls.
Sixty-three birds, from the easy ones to the long shots, each with where and how. Tick what you've seen; the ticks save on your device only and never leave it.
Your Northumberland list
0 of 63 seen
Ticks are saved on this device only. Nothing is sent anywhere.
Mareca penelope
Winter visitorEasy
Winter ducks that graze in tight flocks on the mudflats and wet grass; males have a chestnut head with a cream stripe. Listen for the whistling call before you see them.
Where: Lindisfarne NNR and Holy Island, East Chevington, Druridge Pools and Druridge Bay, Cresswell Pond, Grindon Lough, Greenlee Lough and the Wall crags
Amber listed because large numbers winter at a few UK sites; many come from Iceland, Scandinavia and Russia. Source ↗
Anser brachyrhynchus
Winter visitorEasy
Listen for the high yapping before you see the skeins. Northumberland Wildlife Trust says large flocks pass over East Chevington in spring and autumn; they commute between roosts and feeding fields at dawn and dusk, so watch the sky then.
Where: East Chevington, Cresswell Pond, Lindisfarne NNR and Holy Island, Grindon Lough, Greenlee Lough and the Wall crags
Breeds in Iceland, Greenland and Spitsbergen and does not nest in the UK. Source ↗
Limosa lapponica
Winter visitorEasy
Long-billed, long-legged waders feeding on the Lindisfarne and Budle mudflats, pushed closer by the rising tide. Watch from the shore; do not walk out onto the flats.
Where: Lindisfarne NNR and Holy Island, Boulmer, The Tweed estuary at Berwick
Breeds in the Arctic of Scandinavia and Siberia, and hundreds of thousands pass through the UK or stay for the winter. Source ↗
Pluvialis apricaria
ResidentFair chance
Gold-spangled plovers on high moorland in spring and summer; in autumn and winter look for tight flocks at Grindon Lough and on the Lindisfarne flats that wheel and flash white underneath.
Where: Grindon Lough, Lindisfarne NNR and Holy Island
Gold and black in summer, brown and white in winter; wintering golden plovers are one of the features Lindisfarne Special Protection Area is designated for. Source ↗
Morus bassanus
Summer visitorFair chance
There is no colony in Northumberland, so these are birds passing offshore and fishing. Seawatch from Church Point at Newbiggin or the rocks at Bamburgh, or scan from a Farnes boat, for big white birds with black wingtips that fold up and plunge straight in.
Where: Bamburgh and Harkess Rocks (Stag Rocks), Newbiggin-by-the-Sea and Church Point
Amber listed in the UK; adults are large and bright white with black wingtips and feed by diving into the sea from a height. Source ↗
Anser anser
ResidentEasy
The big grey goose with an orange bill, on the lakes and loughs all year and in bigger numbers in winter. Cresswell Pond, East Chevington and Grindon Lough are reliable.
Where: Cresswell Pond, East Chevington, Grindon Lough, Greenlee Lough and the Wall crags, Lindisfarne NNR and Holy Island
Wintering greylag geese are one of the bird features Lindisfarne Special Protection Area is designated for. Source ↗
The big set pieces, the days that make the wind worth it. Eight of them, with numbers, timings and where to stand (or sit in a boat).
Late March to early August; best May to July
Around 200,000 seabirds nest on the Farnes between May and July, about 43,000 pairs of them puffins. Land on Inner Farne and the terns nest by the boardwalk while the puffins whirr past your ears.
Around 43,000 breeding pairs of puffins and around 200,000 breeding seabirds (National Trust)
May to July
Nobody lands on Coquet, and nowhere else in the UK has breeding roseate terns: 144 pairs in 2025. An hour round it from Amble gets you puffins, four kinds of tern and seals.
144 pairs of roseate terns and 18,704 pairs of puffins in 2025, and more than 25,000 breeding pairs of 12 species (RSPB, reported by BirdGuides)
Late October to January, by boat only
Around 3,000 pups a year, white and blinking on the rocks from late October to January. Boats only, when the sea allows, and it's properly cold out there.
Around 3,000 pups a year, about 2.5 per cent of all grey seal pups born in Britain (National Trust)
Autumn and winter
Geese from Svalbard on the Holy Island mudflats, their only regular wintering site in Britain. Watch from the shore, and read the crossing times before you read the bird book.
40 per cent of the world population, in Natural England's words; their only regular wintering site in Britain
May to July
Around 2,000 Arctic terns and a few very rare little terns on a beach between Beadnell and High Newton, guarded round the clock by National Trust rangers from May to July.
Around 2,000 Arctic terns and a handful of little terns (National Trust)
Late March or early April to late summer; osprey watch April to mid August
Back on their own since 2009, about 130 young raised since. The Tower Knowe camera and scopes do the hard work from April to mid August.
About 130 young ospreys have migrated from Kielder since 2009 (Visit Kielder)
Kielder Water and Forest Park (and the Kielder ospreys) · More ↗
All year; biggest numbers when the flock gathers to moult
Up to around 800 swans on the estuary, the second largest swan colony in Britain according to Destination Tweed. Free, in town, and nobody needs a boat.
Peaks of around 800, with around 200 all year (Destination Tweed)
Spring and autumn for geese overhead; spring and summer for marsh harriers; winter for bittern
Pink-foot skeins overhead in spring and autumn, marsh harriers over the reeds in summer (breeding here since 2009), bitterns in winter if you're patient.
Marsh harriers first bred here in 2009, the first Northumberland breeding record for 130 years (NWT)
Boats and islands
The Farne Islands and Coquet Island: when the puffins are in, how the boats and landing tickets work, the seal pups, and what you'll actually see month by month.
The Farnes are the big one. A scatter of low rocky islands off Seahouses, owned by the National Trust, with around 200,000 seabirds nesting on them between May and July, about 43,000 pairs of them puffins. Add Arctic and Sandwich terns, guillemots, razorbills, shags and eiders, and a grey seal colony that produces around 3,000 pups every autumn. St Cuthbert lived out here as a hermit and in 676 brought in protection for the eiders, which is why round here the eider is still the cuddy duck.
Birding with a six and a seven year old is a different sport. Here's what works, what's a slog, and where the hides, cafes and toilets are.
We've got a six and a seven year old, and birding with kids is mostly snacks, toilets and negotiation, with some birds in the gaps. What works in Northumberland is a boat, or a hide with a cafe near it. Hauxley near Amble is the easy win: hides on a short accessible route, a cafe, toilets with baby changing and a chance of red squirrels (no dogs, though). East Chevington next door has level paths and a boardwalk, with the toilets and cafe at Druridge Bay Country Park, and at Kielder the Tower Knowe osprey camera does the looking for you. The winner, if they're old enough, is Inner Farne in June: puffins with fish in their beaks, eiders sitting on nests, and terns aiming for your head, which children rate as either the best or the worst thing that has ever happened to them. For little ones the one hour Coquet cruise from Amble is kinder. Rainy days: the RSPB's Coquet Island cameras in summer, and the Big Garden Birdwatch in January, one free hour at the kitchen window.
Bird and nature events across Northumberland, pulled live from the Almanac, so guided walks, seal trips and talks show up here as soon as they're listed.
Wednesday 30 September 2026, 17:20
Etal Village Hall, Etal
Sunday 4 October 2026, 10:30
Hauxley Wildlife Discovery Centre, Amble
Sunday 4 October 2026, 10:45
Kielder Waterside, Kielder
Monday 5 October 2026, 19:30
Jubilee Institute, Armstrong Hall, Rothbury
Tuesday 6 October 2026, 19:30
St Mary's Parish Centre, Ponteland
Thursday 8 October 2026
Coquet valley, just past Alwinton, Alwinton
Saturday 10 October 2026, 10:00
West Chevington nature reserve, Widdrington
Saturday 10 October 2026, 10:00
West Chevington nature reserve, Widdrington
Saturday 10 October 2026, 10:00
Wark Town Hall and Mechanics Institute, Wark
Saturday 10 October 2026, 10:30
West Chevington nature reserve, Widdrington
Saturday 10 October 2026, 10:30
West Chevington nature reserve, Widdrington
Saturday 10 October 2026, 13:00
Wallington, Cambo
You need less than the catalogue says; eight things, in the order I'd buy them.
Seven lines worth knowing, because a lot of Northumberland's best birds nest where people walk, and the seals are easy to spook.
On this coast the tide decides nearly everything: where the waders are, and whether you can get onto Holy Island and back. Here's how it works and where to check.
At Lindisfarne and Budle Bay the geese, ducks and waders are spread across miles of mudflat at low water and out of reach; the rising tide pushes them closer to the shore, and on the rocky coast purple sandpipers and turnstones are easiest at high tide when they gather on the last rocks above the water. Holy Island is cut off twice a day. Only drive the causeway within the safe crossing times published by Northumberland County Council, and allow the extra 30 minutes the council advises, because conditions such as high winds can change when the causeway floods. The council's times are for the road only: anyone walking the Pilgrims' Way over the sands should go in daylight with someone who has local knowledge and must never set out on a rising tide. If you are caught by the tide on the causeway, use the refuge box, and if someone is in difficulty call 999 and ask for the Coastguard. Never walk out onto the mudflats after birds.
Holy Island safe crossing times (Northumberland County Council) ↗ · Admiralty EasyTide (free UK tide predictions, seven days ahead) ↗ · BBC Weather tide tables ↗
Where to see what's been reported lately, so you don't drive to an empty mudflat.
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May to July. They're back around the Farnes and Coquet from the end of March and settle to nest from mid April, and the National Trust says most have gone by the end of July. Take a boat from Seahouses (landing on Inner Farne from April to September) or the one hour Puffin Cruises trip round Coquet from Amble.
Yes, on Inner Farne, April to September. The National Trust landing fee is on top of the boat: in 2026 it was 17 pounds an adult and 8.50 pounds a child (5 to 17) in May to July, and 13 pounds and 6.50 pounds in April, August and September, with members free. Staple Island is currently closed, and no dogs on the islands.
Late October to January. Around 3,000 grey seal pups are born on the Farnes each autumn, according to the National Trust. Nobody lands in winter, so it's seal cruises from Seahouses, when the sea lets them sail.
The National Trust recommends booking the boat ahead, and in summer I would. Three operators sail from Seahouses (Billy Shiel's, Golden Gate and Serenity), the landing ticket comes from the Trust's trailer on the harbour, and the pay and display car parks fill up.
No. It's an RSPB sanctuary with no public access because it holds the UK's only breeding roseate terns (144 pairs in 2025). See it from Puffin Cruises boats out of Amble harbour, or on the RSPB's live cameras in the breeding season.
On the Lindisfarne mudflats around Holy Island and Budle Bay in autumn and winter; Natural England says it's the only regular wintering site in Britain for the light-bellied brent geese from Svalbard. Watch from the shore, never walk out after them, and check the council's crossing times before you drive over.
Only with care and the right timing. The council's safe crossing times are for the causeway road; walkers on the Pilgrims' Way should go in daylight with someone who knows the route, never set off on a rising tide, and aim to finish before the midpoint of the safe period. If anyone's in trouble, ring 999 and ask for the Coastguard.
Yes, at Kielder, where they came back on their own in 2009 and about 130 young have left the forest since. They're back in late March or early April, and the Tower Knowe osprey watch has a live nest camera and scopes on Saturdays, Sundays and Wednesdays from April to mid August.
Northumberland Wildlife Trust's Hauxley (hides, cafe, toilets), East Chevington (reedbeds with marsh harriers, bearded tits and wintering bitterns), Druridge Pools (wetland hides) and Cresswell Pond (a lagoon where avocets have nested since 2011). East Chevington's toilets and cafe are at Druridge Bay Country Park next door.
After St Cuthbert, who lived as a hermit on Inner Farne and in 676 brought in protection for the eiders and other seabirds, thought to be among the earliest bird protection laws anywhere. They still nest on the Farnes and Coquet and live along this coast all year.
That's the county, or as much of it as I could check. A few entries are thin because the people who run the places don't list their birds, and I'd rather say so than make it up. If it's different when you go, tell me.
