Staying Close to Home

Finally following a resolution made some time ago, I got out to a couple of locations nearby recently.

Last Wednesday I did a double trip to Thornley Woods and the Far Pastures Reserve.

After wandering around a bit in search of some reported redwing, the hide at Thornley Woods was fairly quiet.

A few tits visited the feeders and I caught sight of a nuthatch and a treecreeper as well as this woodpecker, which was deemed worth a photograph since they don't come to the caged feeders I now use.

Female Woodpecker

At Far Pastures there was a bit more action and I was quite pleased to see a few teal and a family of gadwall, though I think teal is pretty much resident here.

Teal

Gadwall

The first bird I saw puzzled me a little as I took it to be a juvenile little grebe but could not see any parent birds. However it seems to be an adult in winter plumage.

Little Grebe

There was also a good deal of activity around the feeders at the car park.  I hung on for a while in fading light. just in case something memorable turned up.

Today I took a look at Stargate Pond and Beweshill Reserve which was pretty much a total failure as a bird watching trip but interesting in other ways.

I knew that Ryton Angling Club had a location in this area and sure enough there were four or five anglers trying their luck and with some success with the roach, quite impressive in temperatures of only 5C.

On talking to one of them it seems there is a good range of species present including tench and carp. If and when I start fishing again, this may well be where I go. 

It's also not a bad size and, as a former quarry, quite deep.

The positive view was endorsed by this cormorant, the only bird I saw apart from swans and a magpie. 

Cormorant

Sure enough a roach was being landed as I moved away.

My verdict on the venue was that it might be one for the summer.  

In particular the notice boards suggest that a good range of butterflies can be found there including dingy skipper.  Small copper would not surprise me either as they are certainly present at Ryton Meadows a mile or so away.  However I've never seen Stargate Pond mentioned in local reports on butterfly sightings.

I also spent some time on the other side of the main road trying in vain to find further ponds but did spot another marked wildlife area, which may well also be worth investigating.

Monday 11th November

Autumn has moved in with increasing severity.

Merveille du Jour

Towards the end of October I went to the Butterfly Conservation North East AGM.  It started with a moth trap emptying, which had unfortunately been adversely affected by heavy overnight rain but did produce this nice specimen. There was also some useful information, notably about the small blue introduction on Teesside, which sems to be very near the RSPB site, as well as the precise location of the graylings at Cambois. There was also an explanation the variation of size in the speckled wood.  Apparently research has shown that the ones with larger wings migrate further.  It's thought that wing-shape and colouration are altering as a result of the movement north.

A week or so later I went on a bike ride to Ryal, which didn't produce much in the way of nature though I

Clouded Funnel?

rather liked the 'footpath' of toadstools trailing its way out of the woodland near Stamfordham.  And one pleasant surprise was the appearance of a roe deer shambling along the hedgerow between two roads just north of the A695 at Crawcrook.

In the garden long-tailed tits have come onto the feeders in large numbers on a couple of occasions and several grey squirrels have been seen making their way over to the oak tree, which presumably has produced a lot of acorns this year.  A couple have even ventured into the garden itself briefly.

The other day I saw a (presumably second brood?) jackdaw trying to beg food from the others.  One of them took umbrage and attacked it, forcing it onto its back on the lawn - at which point a magpie immediately swept down, presumably anticipating an easy kill.  Anyway, the victim jackdaw was strong enough to escape on the third or fourth attempt.  Quite a spectacle.

Yesterday, Naturewatchers' trip to Big Waters provided some interesting sightings in addition to the normal fare such as wigeon, shoveler, gadwall etc.  Amongst several hundred canada geese, the twitchers had spotted a white-headed canada goose, pictured below next to the real thing.  Apparently it is the result of hybridisation rather than a separate species.

White-headed Canada Goose (r)

The area to the rear of the hide was under water but the feeders were heavily visited, particularly by tits. I spent a lot of time photographing an elusive willow tit so we could confirm it wasn't a marsh tit but the big surprise for us was when a warbler briefly visited the willow trees on either side.  It seems, according to a local expert, that a small number of chiffchaffs are now overwintering at Big Waters.

Wednesday 21st August

A bitty couple of weeks from a nature point of view - nothing major to report, but odd bits of interesting sightings.

Holly Blue

 Peacocks are now easy to find while there are less red admirals. Why is it you tend to see one more than the other? Travelling around there are still plenty of painted ladies to be seen, including in the garden.

The most pleasing thing at home has been a couple of brief appearances of the holly blue.  I've often wondered if the large amount of  ivy on the trees roundabout might attract them. While they weren't hanging around, the one that settled briefly could be seen to have the right underwing pattern, which just about shows up on enlarging the rather unhelpful pose I managed to capture.

The garden has also had occasional visits from a male woodpecker and one from long-tailed tits. For the first time this year that I know of, brown rat showed up and conducted an extensive search of the ground below the bird table and nearby.

There was also another example of the young magpies' favourite game, whereby one picks up an object such as a stone chip or a twig and the other one or ones chase it around for a while.

Last Monday was the only serious outing when I lead the Naturewatch group walk along the Derwent Walk towards Hamsterley, partly in the hope of more purple hairstreaks. As I suspected it would have been better to try a week or so earlier, especially as the temperature was low and the sun only briefly apparent.

Surprisingly, we did catch a glimpse of one strong suspect briefly circling the crown of the very first oak tree we saw from the viaduct at Rowland's Gill, but that was all.  Later we did get good sightings of a couple of red kites, a pensive roe dear and there was a small-leaved lime that looked quite spectacular in its decor of yellow catkins.  Really we were happy enough to have an evening out after some dire, stormy weather over the weekend.

Red Kite
(Photo by Kathy Clegg)

Wednesday 10th April

I happened to revisit Whittle Dene Reservoir last Monday week on a bike ride and  there were now 30 or 40 sand martins flying low over the Southern Reservoir.  Another group member had to go back to retrieve a lost item and reported the same thing, except that she was lucky enough to see a little owl as well.

Wary chiffchaff

Last Wednesday turned out sunny so I again ventured off over the hills on the bike to Stocksfield.  Returning along the Tyne Valley, there were a number of chiffchaffs showing in the lower bushes and trees between Prudhoe and Wylam. I got the camera out a couple of times before capturing this slightly wary-looking fellow.

More surprising since temperatures were no more than 11 or 12C was to glimpse a couple of butterflies going down a steep path - one brown and one white but impossible to identify.  However, on the way back home from Ryton a couple of red admirals clearly flew across the road.

There was another trip to the Whittle Dene itself this Monday, but frankly last year's visit, a couple of weeks later in the year produced more interesting results.  Apart from a few long-tailed tits, the main event for me was actually managing to see a skylark singing fervently above until it slowly disappeared into the low cloud as it rose.

The most interesting changes have occurred around the garden.  The jackdaws have pretty much disappeared and the smaller birds have taken over. A siskin (a young female I suspect) frequently visits the nyger seed.  A nuthatch and even a jay (first time) have been seen passing through the silver birches and a chiffchaff briefly inspected a bush in flower. I wonder if the jackdaws are finding more to intyerest them in the farm fields round about.

The idiosyncratic features of the garden are still apparent.  Plenty of dunnocks (often chased away by a robin) but no sparrows or starlings.  It was typified when I was surprised to see a chaffinch on the lawn.

Meanwhile the two magpies are still lolloping around the place without any obvious sign of producing offspring or having laid any eggs.

Magpie pair

Sunday 31st March

The magpies have continued their nest building efforts. Though at times I was thinking any of the three little pigs could have done a better job, it does now look reasonably stable though not fully visible through the bushes.  So far there is no sign of chicks.

Perhaps also looking for a nest site, two or three fat tree bumblebees have worked their way through the garden.  More amusing however have been the antics of some of the pigeons as they seek to feed on the ivy berries out the back.  One even looked like it was having an ivy bath.  A wren has also visited and I got a nice shot of it singing from the 'dreadlocks' bush, so called because I don't know its real name.

Pigeon

Wren

On a bike ride last Wednesday I heard my first chiffchaffs of the year as soon as I was out of High Spen and they are now around in the woods at the back of the garden.  Between Wylam and Matfen skylarks were about and on the River Pont in the village there was a dipper that was spending so much time underwater I started to wonder if it was a small duck.

On Friday there was a Nature Walk at Whittle Dene Reservoirs.  Quite a few birds were seen but mostly at very long distance, notably wigeon, teal, goldeneye, curlew, cormorant, grey heron and greylag goose.  

Towards the end of the afternoon the wind dropped and we did get a few better sightings near the Southern Reservoir.  There were a couple of feral pigeons at the farmhouse, a few pied wagtails and a good view of a meadow pipit on the fence.  I thought I'd seen a warbler but others disagreed. The best thing we did see was a quick flypast by a sand martin, the first hirondine of this summer.  From all that, the only decent photograph I got was this heron.

Thursday 21st March

I haven't managed any trips out over the past week but things have started to happen in the garden.

Almost as soon as I had finished writing the last post, and was regretting the lack of interesting visits to the niger seed feeder, a couple of siskins visited it and spent a prolonged period feeding away in a delicate manner.  There was one male and one female and this performance has been repeated a couple of times since.  It seems likely they are a pair.

Definitely a pair are the two magpies that are repeatedly rummaging through the prickly bush in the corner of my neighbour's garden.  As they regularly bring twigs, I assume they are nesting but so far there isn't a visible result and they've been doing it for about ten days.  I put a few sticks out on the patio table and some of them duly disappeared.

Today was warm enough to read a book in the summer house and, between snoozes I caught sight of the first butterflies I have spotted this year - probably red admirals - and a female woodpecker briefly visited the peanut feeder, the first to be seen for many a long month.

Saturday 16th February

Hot on the heels of the water rail success on Monday, I decided to try my luck with the snow buntings at St Mary's Island again. As driving there by any route is a nuisance and the weather was improving, I decided to cycle there from the Quayside, overruling my better judgment that hi-vis jacket and samll binoculars might not be advisable.  I also found no room in my bag for a bird guide.

In fact it couldn't have worked out much better.  En route along cycle track 72, I saw about eight magpies in the same tree close to the Tyne Tunnel, and roughly the same number again round about - more than ever before in the same view.

I rode right through to St Mary's without stopping and immediately heard an invisible skylark over the adjacent fields.  Following the call of nature on the edge of the nature reserve, I got a good view of a curlew in the same field, as well as canada geese, mallard and teal in the reserve itself.  Then I cycled very slowly towards the lighthouse with camera and binoculars at the ready.

When looking for an uncommon bird, the best plan seems to be to not look for the bird but to watch out for a twitcher with a huge camera lens.  It worked again today as soon as I reached the second car park.  There was the twitcher and the three snow buntings were running around on the grassy slope eating seeds - one male and two females.

Snow Buntings

Snow buntings have the reputation of not being shy of humans and this little group was relatively unphased by most repeated disturbances, including amusingly that from the middle-aged bikers in the car park less than ten yards away, revving their throttles.

Occasionally the birds retired to the foreshore or the railings on the promenade but always came back while I sat for around half an hour having my lunch.

It was a flat, high tide and there wasn't much else about apart from a few cormorants.  I took a couple more looks into the reserve but only saw a group of redshanks on the pool if you discount these Dartmoor ponies that are employed to keep the vegetation down.

Dartmoor Ponies at work

There were stories of a black redstart at Tynemouth as well as a ring-necked parakeet in Newcastle but hey, I'd seen both of those in my travels to Europe.  So I decided to head back in a vain attempt to beat the rush hour.

Wednesday 28th January

Some rather mixed recent weather and a need to address my increasing post-Christmas weight have limited my recent excursions.

I rode to Newcastle by bike on Saturday for non-nature reasons but encountered a group of twitchers on the Tyne at Blaydon, one of whom amusingly said they were trying to change a chaffinch into a brambling.  I understood - bramblings are like that.

On the way back I cycled up the hill from Rowland's Gill and saw a series of five low-flying red kites between the town centre and Highfield.  In between there was a brief sighting of a seagull pursuing a much smaller finch-sized bird. Not something that normally occurs but I supposed it was a dispute over a garden titbit.

On Sunday morning I attempted to take part in the Great British Garden Birdwatch.  Gale force winds meant that I spent most of my time twiddling my thumbs and produced a not particularly typical final count of six jackdaw, two magpies, one wood pigeon and one blue tit apart from four unidentifiable seagulls flying high above.

Typically of course a posse of long-tailed titis turned up towards dusk and this morning blue tit, great tit and coal tit all visited the bird table that yesterday had largely been ignored.

Today the red kites were back in evidence again at Rowland's Gill.  I had a few minutes to spare at the viaduct when one hovered low overhead offering good views. The resulting mobile phone footage gives an impression of greater distance but it was pleasing when another bird joined in.

A male and a female perhaps?

There was another guy on the viaduct who told me that there were only 36 red kites in the area, but I think that would have been the original release number.  Presumably they will have bred.

Friday 11th May

Orange tips are now turning up quite regularly now, along with the other main whites.  On Tuesday I visited Thornley Woods for a general lookaround and in the vague hope of finally seeing a green woodpecker.

Speckled Wood on Wild Garlic

I didn't see the green woodpecker and it was the time of year still when butterflies are flying about (in search of mates?) more than settling.  As well as the main whites there were some (very) large whites and 10 -20 small brown butterflies fluttering along the woodland path.  I suspected they were speckled woods but it took some while before one settled long enough to convince me.  It's been an awful long while since I saw one, so I was well pleased.

After passing through a hedgerow crammed with willow warblers, I followed the riverside path along an attractive stretch of the Derwent and spotted a kestrel in a tree above some open ground.  As I got closer, it kept shuttling around between three different perches and diving down onto the grass.  I'm not sure what it was eating but it must have been pretty small and never hovered in the typical kestrel manner so that for a while I took it to be a sparrowhawk.

What struck me most was that it seemd completely undeterred by the arrival of various passers-by.  I thought this to be the fortunate result of having such a large amount of lush woodland that is so frequently visited. I don't think I could have expected to observe one for so long in Dumfries and Galloway.

Kestrel - with flies

Further along the river there was a green-veined white that seemed to be fascinated by the bankside mud.

This is certainly an area I will consider revisiting, especially as there are one or two stories about hairstreaks being sited. It also seems that the holly blue is a bit more common here.

Meanwhile I had some amusing attempts trying to get a photo of a magpie attacking the peanut feeder in the back garden. It didn't quite work, but here's another one preparing to move in...

Magpie

Monday 16th April

I have now been installed in my new home for three weeks and have been keeping a keen eye out to see what turned up in the garden, which is a good deal more rural than the one I had in Dumfries.

I put some fatballs out in a feeder at an early stage and attracted all three common tits, a couple of robins and a blackbird that managed to get its head through the outer cage.

Once unpacked, I started putting food out on the bird table, which attracted more or less the same plus a regular dunnock, a wood pigeon and a magpie.

Log-tailed tits

On going for a walk around the area, I saw a couple of red kites circling and on a bike ride to Newcastle, I saw a grey squirel run across the road and heard a skylark above the hills and a chiffchaff next to the Tyne near Newburn.

More recently I acquired a caged peanut feeder and, gratifyingly,  the first observed visitors were a pair of long-tailed tits that were not part of a larger flock.  Then a jackdaw turned up.

It seemed to me that the bird table was emptying rather quickly and after a couple of days, the peanut feeder was lying on the path spilling its contents, so it was getting clear that there was an intruder of some kind.  Something was also splitting open the striped sunflower seeds on the bird table and leaving the husks around.

I suspected Squireel Nutkin and was not surprised when one turned up digging in one of my pots before surrying off at speed.  The day after it turned up again, shimmied up the stem of the bird feeder and scoffed most of the food. Mystery solved!

That's where all the bird food went!

The day after I saw a red kite quite clearly from my kitchen window.  I think they like to circle over Garesfield Golf Club, which is nearby.

So far I have seen one or two bumble bees and a moth but no butterflies, though one or two small tortoiseshells have been reported on nature websites.

Sunday 11th February

Some nasty weather and other concerns meant that I didn't venture out on the bike for a couple of weeks, so I decided on a bit of self-discipline and set off for a round trip to Bankend and Torthorwald last Sunday.

Just past weekend I saw the pink-footed geese in exactly the same field where I saw them last month and another skein on the other side of the road proved to be barnacles.  The rest of the ride didn't produce much but there were quite a few snowdrops around, though these I took a couple of weeks ago at Ken Dee Marshes.

Snowdrops

Part of the reasoning for the trip was to get ready for a longer ride on to Dalbeattie on Wednesday. I started up The Glen and immediately saw a huge powder puff heading into the undergrowth next to the road, evidence of a disappearing roe dear.  Then there was a male bullfinch flying into the hedgerow, after which I saw a female in the hedgerow on the other side of the cycle track.  I hope I wasn't disturbing anything.

Crossing the road after Kirkgunzeon there was a sole magpie, still not a common sighting west of Dumfries.

The weather was bitter and my hands were freezing under two pairs of gloves so the ride took on more the aspect of a survival challenge.  A frequent sight was loan buzzards perched on telegraph poles, perhaps hoping for enough wind to get airborne without undue effort. Most looked like immature birds.

Then today, after flogging round Mersehead before Christmas and several times keeping my eye out for them, I finally saw a single brambling on the way back from the shops with the Sunday paper.  It was a definite sighting, confirmed by another nature lover who passed by.

Of course I didn't have my camera in my pocket.  I returned with it a few minutes later but the brambling made off and I was left with just a couple of poor distance shots of a bullfinch and a goldfinch near to where it had been.

Bullfinch

Goldfinch

Saturday 7th May

Still playing catch up...

On Wednesday it was back to what has become somewhat usual - a testing bike ride in rather challenging, windy conditions so that the concentration was more on the road on the wildlife.

Loch Arthur

Managed a stop at Loch Arthur for half an hour, where I did however see some swallows and house martins flying over the water surface in the search for flies, plus a great crested grebe and a diving cormorant.  A question arose as to why I did not see any swallows when I was in Italy last week?? And so here's a theory: the birds need to spend more time in Northern Europe than Southern Europe in order to get enough food to feed their offspring and nourish themselves for the flight back to Africa.

Whether this idea has any sense in it, I really do not know. I do however remember comparing notes with a German friend who told me one Autumn that swallows had already left Thuringia when I was still seeing them in Scotland, which struck me at the time as strange. The grebe incidentally was only just developing his crest.

Today took part in a walk from Whitehaven to St. Bees with the Amnesty West Cumbria Group, a total of about fifteen miles.  This is the first and only time I have walked that far, and I had wondered how well I would cope, as I often notice on birdwatching trips that I am quite tired after about six miles.

Guillemots

Well I was fine, although I saw comparatively little in the way of birdlife on the walk.  I think the main reason is that the pace was so much faster than when idling around scanning the horizon for birds. There were a couple of magpies and pipits, some skylarks and the odd cormorant.  And I did get the chance to photograph this guillemot colony, although did not attempt to count guillemots.

Another thing that is prejudicial to birdwatching on a long walk is the use of walking sticks. Although much appreciated in terms of getting through the walk, you really need to keep your eyes on the ground to see where you are going to put them.

I was pleased to manage the walk, but for nature purposes, I prefer to take things more slowly.

Friday 8th April

Things often happen unexpectedly.  Last Sunday I headed off to buy a paper at the local shop and happened to notice about a dozen birds in the treetops on the road up I hadn't seen before.  I couldn't make out much in the prevailing light beyond some pale colouring and shortish length.  So having retrieved the paper I went back out with the binoculars and realised quickly they were siskins, feeling slightly annoyed I hadn't recognised their twitterings.

Siskin was also the first bird I saw on Tuesday, when I set off on a lone bike ride towards Annandale having decided the Wednesday group ride would be a washout.  Two siskins were sitting on the ground on a farmer's field doing not much apparently.

Skylarks were much in abundance again. I heard them calling in five or six different locations, though only once near enough to observe. I also heard curlew and a lapwing that I saw briefly in passing.

The early afternoon was fine and there was a heron flyng over a field, a couple of magpies and a mobbed buzzard.  Not observed however were tree sparrow or linnet, or indeed any form of butterfly.

On the way back there was a dead pheasant on the roadside so I pinched a couple of its tail feathers for the cat.

Wednesday 16th September

An excellent cycling day today - plenty of sun and, for the first time for ages little wind.

My theory that swallows may have disappeared early this year was put to rest as there was a healthy cluster on the telegraph wires just north of Newbridge, and a single one doing the same on the approach to Glenmidge.  Here there was also a pale looking slim item that kept landing and flicking its tail in a chat-like manner, but without binoculars and in full fluorecent gear, it was never likely to settle long enough to allow identification.  I wondered about a whinchat, but not really convinced.

On the way to the pharmacy yesterday, a large number of house martins were also in evidence so it clearly isn't quite the end of the summer for the hirundines, though no sign of sand martins over the Nith.

There were also a couple of buzzards and a single magpie north of Keir Mill.  Magpies are definitely spreading into the area.

However the main spot of the day was a small field of what I believe to be a purple leaved norway maples between Holywood and Portrack Estate. Unfortunately the plentiful sun has affected the photograph below. On a non-nature note, my friend Tony suggested a quick visit to see the gravestone of Kirkpatrick MacMillan, the inventor of the pedal cycle, just past Keir.  Interestingly, his achievement does not rate a headline mention on the family gravestone, more a footnote.  Yet without him I possibly wouldn't have been there today!

Purple leaved Norway Maple

At Kirkpatrick MacMillan's Gravestone

Thursday 23rd October

A fairly quiet week on the nature front as the autumn thermocline sets it and makes everything seem less attractive.

Wednesday's bike ride revealed nothing new but what was interesting was the number of magpies seen quite far west while heading towards Dalbeattie from Crocketford.  There was a legend thathooded crows replace magpies in Dumfries and Galloway, which was always nonesense as you would need to visit Wigtownshire to have much chance of seeing them.  But the magpies do seem to be gaining a foothold in areas where they were previously scarce.

Several wrens flew in front of the bike, one for several seconds providing a good close-up view. Otherwise geese and buzzards were heard but not seen, the usual array of goldfinches and chaffinches and a couple of cormorants.

Collar doves have reappeared on the garden bird table, two of them as ever, and so did a particularly foolhardy kitten from next door but one, which clambered up to find the table was bare.

Wednesday 19th March

Another bike ride to Auldgirth via Nether Keir.  Only sixteen species identified today, partly because ended up in a peleton on the way back. Interesting inclusions were yellowhammer (three in total) and a lone magpie towards Keir, uncommon this far West.  Did not see coal tit again and managed not to see sparrow, dunnock or wren, but did see first red squirrel of the spring and another lone butterfly. One cyclist says he heard chiffchaff in Glenmidge.

Saturday 1st March

Spot the bullfinch!

After much wet weather, went up to a drier Edinburgh for a couple of days.  A.m. walk to Saughton Park, which is obviously well-maintained.  A bird singing extensively at the top of a small tree confused me for some while.  Took me some time to work out it was a dunnock.  I've never seen them do this before.  Also bullfinch and long-tailed tit and a crow that had some very pale markings - but not enough to be a hooded crow, in which case it would anyway have been well outside its normal area in North West Scotland.  Also several magpies.  On revisiting a day later, I counted eight magpies in the same tree at one point.

Monday 13th January

Back from a series of walks resulting from a weekend away at Malcolm's in Sheffield.  Did Amber Valley, Derwent Reservoir and the yellow trail at Mabie on returning here, though managed to get lost and make a massive detour.

Good to see that there are still a few kestrels patrolling the A1(M) along with many magpies. Malcolm saw his first siskin at Derwent, which was followed by a host of them (perhaps 40 - 50) feeding on the ground at Mabie.

We also complimeted each other's poor knowledge of trees to identify alders, larches and ashes.

Keeping Derwent Reservoir Clean

Sunday 31st March

Another trip out in this boring, freezing Easter holiday.

Visited Brooms to check the fishing prospects, which fully justified my decision not to try yet.  Small match on and though they claimed they'd taken a few fish, I saw no evidence of it in the 20 minutes I was watching.  Most were fishing the pole well out on F1 pond. All the waters looked dead and there was absolutely sign of fish near the surface.  If absolutely forced to fish, I would have gone for the

A Fishing Match on the Annan

deep swim om the oval as I thnk that's where they'll be hiding.

Spoke to one guy who made a mysterious comment about big fish in there but he seemed a bit of a beginner.  Main consolation was one curlew and one kestrel overhead.

Decided on brief walk by the Annan, possibly willow tit connected, and quickly saw two magpies on the way (hooray! Means NUFC must now beat Benfica).  Once there observed wagtails in large numbers - mainly pied south of A75 bridge and mainly grey north of it, goosander, two dippers, two herons, cormorant, suspected redwings that all departed nervously once they saw me and six jackdaws sharing a small tree right next to the “Blue Bell Inn”.

On the way back a couple of not highly coloured tits flew into a tree right by me, but did not stay long.  I sat around but they did not return.  I think they were coalies, the fading light diminishing the appearance of colour.  There was however something about their demeanour and the length of their tails that did not seem quite right...

17th June

By today the weather was really closing in so the result was a short morning walk in Dunwich Forest before heading home.  I might have heard a green woodpecker, but once again, the woodland birds were simply not coming out to play, apart from the several magpies that are everywhere.  A brief dartford warbler suspect moved on too quickly to be verified through binoculars.  But I did see three male red deer cross my path, already showing impressive antlers.  On a last circuit looking for a mystery bird hide shown on the displayed map, a volley of tits passed my way including at least one marsh/willow tit - the habitat would suggest marsh tit but I can't tell the difference with any confidence.

So the woodland exotics - green woodpecker, tree pipit and nightingale will need to be left for another day and only the first two will be possible locally.  In a way it's good to know there's still something to aim for near where I live, which is why not seeing sedge warbler or egret didn't concern me much. But I really wanted that woodpecker...