Home Sweet Home

A curse upon Chopwell Woods!   I keep visiting in the hope that it will produce some reasonable sightings and invariably come back disappointed.

On my last attempt about three weeks back, the main notable event was the almost total flooding of the southern path into the woods from Blackhall Mill. 

I only managed to start the walk at all by scrambling through the puddles next to the bushes and the best thing I actually saw were a few clumps of snowdrops by the River Derwent after getting off the bus.

In spite of wandering around fairly extensively through the western part of the woods, it was pretty much like a desert with hardly a thing to be seen and precious little to be heard - just a couple of blackbirds, the odd pigeon and a few blue tits.

Even when I strayed into Chopwell East Field during a burst of sunlight, the only change was a slight increase in the amount of bird song.  You would usually reckon to see a squirrel or two somewhere, but absolutely zero - just our canine friends and their captive humans.

A couple of bike rides - to Bolam Lake and yesterday to Corbridge produced nothing at all either.

So once again my interest has been tied to what happens in the garden and nearby.

Red kites have been active over the village and on one occasion right over the house as I drove into the front drive.  Coal tits and long-tailed tits have been doing well, the latter being the second most-spotted tit visitor and interestingly both are more prevalent than great tit, which seems to have dropped down the rankings for some reason.  A pair of blue tits inspected the nesting box, but as in previous years, did not pursue their interest.

Robins have visited frequently and I noted that two of them were untypically tolerant of each others' presence.  Then it became apparent that some mating behaviour was starting and one day I suddenly spotted THREE robins on the gravel within an area just one metre square - but of course it only lasted a couple of seconds or so.

As well as the regular dunnocks, a wren has been seen twice. 

Marsh tits have been past occasional visitors - meaning literally once or twice a year - but last week one actually turned up on three days out of four.  After several attempts when it proved nervy, |I finally managed to get a reasonable photo of it on its last visit.

Marsh Tit

It hasn't been seen since, but of course that doesn't mean it hasn't been back.

Overall though, my campaign to up the level of bird sightings this winter hasn't been a great success and I'm now looking forward to the return of butterflies and bees over the coming weeks.

Which reminds me that at by this time last year, I had already seen my first red admiral.  What a difference a year makes!

A Bag of Mixed Surprises

On the whole you could say not much has happened over the past couple of weeks but just occasionally something did happen that I wasn't expecting.

Last Sunday, I returned to the QEII as a female smew had been reported for two days in succession.  I couldn't find it over a two hour session but did spot a juvenile red-throated diver at considerable distance, and there have been no reports of them for a while.

Juvenile Red-throated Diver

Numerous gulls and tufted ducks turned up and I wasn't surprised to spot a couple of great crested grebes near the bank. But another distance shot of a mystery item hanging around with the mallards had me scratching my bird brain for answers.

Great Crested Grebes

Mystery Item

Hungry Mute Swan 

It was probably some sort of hybrid.

Similarly I didn't see the apparently injured whooper swan, which hopefully wasn't accepting bread offerings from the irresponsible tourists at the motel complex. 

But while I was checking a reed bed for the smew, this mute swan decided to get up close and personal. It was clearly begging for food and I could easily have reached out and stroked it.

Thinking of another mute swan I had seen earlier that was sitting motionless by the path and looked in poor condition, I decided it was best not to lay hands on the King's property and moved on.

In any case the last time I got anywhere near as close to a swan while fishing as a kid, it was hissing at me and threatening violence.

The trend to slightly unexpected but not monumental sightings in the garden has also continued.

Last time I mentioned the occasional visits by nuthatch, woodpecker and blackcap and the set was complete when a marsh tit visited the nuts last week, albeit briefly.

Nice surprises also were the appearance of a song thrush, which doesn't happen often and the fact that a pair of bullfinches, which usually lurk shyly around the back fence picked up enough courage to come and visit the peanut feeder.

Song Thrush

Bullfinch Pair

In fact Mrs Bullfinch has visited again today.

Rude birds and Chance photos

I finally accepted the challenge of a possible twitch.

A firecrest in summer in the south of England or as a passing autumn migrant on the East coast is no big deal but I couldn’t resist tales of an overwintering firecrest near Low Hauxley and duly set off there on Sunday morning.

Immediately on heading past some wasteland I spotted a few curlew and, perhaps overexcited by the prospects of a rarity, took a look at what I thought might be a flock of redpolls. The binoculars showed they were in fact goldfinches but I took a snap anyway.

Shortly afterwards I came across some twitchers and had no problem finding the relevant hot spot near the Nature Reserve.  During the next hour I got several sightings of the firecrest darting around very much in the manner of a goldcrest but, frustratingly without getting it in the lense of either camera or binoculars.

It was only when I looked at the earlier photo that I realised that two of the birds in it were certainly not goldfinches and may indeed have been firecrests!

 Firecrests and Goldfinch 

It was a bit rude of them to turn their backs on me but the head pattern would appear decisive.

While I was waiting for the firecrest to turn up I noticed a number of tree sparrows nearby, who also managed to present a rear view to the camera. No matter, I clearly saw the markings anyway. 

Rude Tree Sparrows 

One of the twitchers had reckoned that there was another firecrest at Druridge (so clearly there have been two in the area) so I decided to take a walk there. It turned out he meant Druridge Pools, which was too far for me so I baled out for a coffee at Druridge Visitor Centre.

Setting off to return I took a look at the bird feeders and fortuitously noticed a marsh/willow tit approaching them.

This time I managed to got the camera out before it turned its back on me.

Marsh Tit

Of course it is a bit of a toss up between marsh and willow tit and the habitat could have suited either. On balance I plumped for marsh tit, noting the pale neck and hint of a mark on the beak. 

Back at Hauxley I caught a quick glimpse of the firecrest at the hot spot before the sun left the trees and I waited 40 minutes in vain for it to turn up again, not knowing what was already in the camera. 

Tales of the Unexpected

In anticipation of a decent plum harvest this autumn, I decided to remove the peanut feeders from the plum tree and hang them temporarily on the washing line to prevent the birds from nibbling at the ripening plums.

They took a bit of getting used to the feeders zipwiring along the washing line and I thought it would be amusing to take a photo of the new set-up in action.

By total chance what I actually got was a shot of a marsh tit sharing one feeder with a blue tit.

Marsh Tit(l) and Blue Tit

That was really quite a chance as visits from a marsh tit are particularly seldom and I didn't see one at all last year.

The loser in this adjustment was the cheeky nut-stealing squirrel who spent a couple of days trying to work out how get onto the feeder and eventually giving up after crashing through the buddleia bush a couple of times.

Last Friday I led a Naturewatch walk around Wingate Quarry Nature Reserve, which I'm pleased to say impressed those present with its variety of butterflies (once the sun got out) and abundant flora.  There weren't as many marbled white about as I had expected but there were good numbers of large and small white, common blue and small heath.  In terms of flowers, knapweed, pussy willow and ragwort but I left it to our resident experts to identify numerous rarities including fragrant orchid.

Common Blue (f)	Common Blue (m)
Marbled White	Small Heath
Small Skipper	Painted Lady

The painted lady was a bit of a bonus, the first one most of us thought we had seen this summer.

Even before the sun came out, bumblebees were plentiful, in particular red-tailed bumblebees of both genders.  I hadn't noticed the males so far this year.  Some bees had been considerably blanched by the sun during the recent hot weather.

I spotted one particularly corpulent bee which I believe was a gypsy or vestal cuckoo bee, remembering that they are hard to separate in the field.

Gypsy or Vestal Cuckoo Bee

Monday 4th May

One of the features of my activities is sudden and often fleeting surprises. Sometimes it's not so much the sighting as the location of the sighting that defines the surprise.

So it was no surprise to catch sight of a jay on a recent bike ride through the North end of Chopwell Woods last week but I was considerably surprised when one landed on the patio corner unit earlier this week.  In fact it was the closest view of a jay I've ever managed.

I also wouldn't be surprised to spot a marsh tit in certain locations but it certainly did surprise me when one turned up in the hedgerow of the Hadrian's Cycleway right where it passes by Leamington Centre last Friday. A good amount of mature woodland in Denton Burn nearby offered some explanation.

What they had in common was that neither hung around to pose for a photo.

Overall the good weather started to break about a week ago and butterfly sightings have become scarce, just the odd peacock, speckled wood and orange tip plus a couple of green-veined whites. Last Saturday I made the first positive sighting of a female orange tip on the garlic mustard in my garden.  On the whole the whites are still performing flypasts without coming in to land, unlike most aircraft which are doing the opposite.

This Wednesday the rains finally moved in bringing a drop in temperature and I decided to indulge in a bit of flower spotting on my last visit to the Woods before it hit. It had caught my eye that most of the things I was seeing were white.  I'm not strong on wild flowers but managed to identify the following as wood sorrel, wood ruff and (I hope I've got this right) greater stitchwort.

Riding back home from Swalwell along the old railway on Friday, I suddenly picked up a whiff of garlic and so was able to add that to the gallery as well.

Wood Sorrel	Wood Ruff
Greater Stitchwort	Wild Garlic

Sunday 9th February

Lady Blackcap put in a couple more appearances over the past week, oscillating between the feeders and the mahonia.  The latter is now sadly depleted, which may be the end of her visits. Luckily I did manage to snap this fairly typical and somewhat charming pose. Still rather unclear though, as she tends not to stay in the same place for long.

Blackcap

I also finally managed to get to Wallington Hall, if by a rather roundabout route. The common crane that has been sighted in Northumberland over the past few weeks is actually in the immediate area so I went up for a bit of a scout around.  This proved unsuccessful, though I did with another birdwatcher managed to pick up a few tips about access from a local lady out with her dog.

So I went round to Wallington as a reserve, with the notion that bramblings might be a possibility.  There was quite a bit stirring at the heavily laden feeders over a period of time, including most notably loads of coal tits, a nuthatch and a couple of glimpses of a marsh tit. Initially there was also plenty of chaffinches but I couldn't find a brambling among them.  I noticed that, every now and again, all the birds suddenly dispersed and suspected a bird of prey in the area.  Sure enough, a male sparrowhawk parachuted in right below one of the feeders and started looking around for easy prey.

After he flew off and birds slowly returned, a treeecreeper turned up and, as on my last visit, started to become more of a groundcreeper, picking up sunflower seeds that were lying about beneath the tree.

Sparrowhawk

Groundcreeping treecreeper

So quite a rewarding visit for a fallback!

Friday 14th June

Large White

Last Sunday I decided on an ultra slow bike ride along the Tyne focussing on a bit of grassland heath near Newburn.  The idea was hopefully to see some small heaths and small coppers before the fine weather disappeared. It was a total failure as, apart from a quick flash of a speckled wood while careering downhill from Greenside, no brown butterfly was seen.  This is a bit concerning as over 100 small heaths were seen in the area at the same time last year, and seems to indicate that the wet and cool weather this summer so far is
going to mean a bad year for butterflies.

All I saw by the river was a few isolated whites and the only pleasing thing was that one of them settled and could be identified as a large white.  This time there were no orange
tips.

Things have been much more interesting in the garden and, after a few fleeting sightings, marsh tits have started to visit the feeders in groups. One one occasion I was able to watch them from about three yards away while pulling twitch grass out of the lawn..  This more than confirms the confident but brief sightings I reported last year.

Marsh Tits

It is also the season for baby birds.  Blue tits and on one occasion great tits have chosen my plum tree as a feeding station for their young. There seems to be a very healthy hatch of blue tits. Some have learned to take from the peanut feeder but one in particular found it hard to hang on to and fell straight off.

Baby Blue Tits

The jackdaws I thought were nesting next door have clearly been successful and there is now the interesting spectacle of a couple of juvenile jackdaws playing games around the decking.  Apart from chasing each other round in a form of musical patio furniture, they are compulsively trying to pick things up and wonder off with them.  A particular favourite is a fallen foxglove flower, which then gets dragged around to no evident purpose.

Juvenile Jackdaws

Sunday 28th December

I have often said that Boxing Day and New Year's Day are good opportunities to get out and about.
So on Wednesday it was good to revisit Carsington Water in Derbyshure while staying over briefly with my daughter and her fiance.

Lapwings and others

Apart from gulls it looked quiet at first with a lot of walkers about but tufted duck, coot and great crested grebe were also soon apparent.  When we got round to the main viewing point, there were a good head of lapwing on the edge of the lake, which was considerably lower than normal for the time of the year following the summer drought.  There were also a number of tree sparrows on the feeders next to the large observation hut.

As the sun started to fade we made our way back to a key feeder, spotting a little grebe on the way.  On the way out there had been nothing but a few great tits, so we were pleased to see a couple of marsh tits and Joe managed to get a good shot of one of them in a nearby tree.

Marsh tit

Later we had the obligatory marsh tit versus willow tit discussion but we reckoned the evidence over several photos was conclusive.

Joe was also responsible for spotting an example of the Robin's Pincushion gall on a piece of dog rose.  Apparently it is caused by the larvae of the gall wasp. Probably not a lot of people know about this so you may wish to consult the relevant wikipedia article for more detail.

Robin's Pincushion

After the event Joe also mentioned that he thought he might have seen a merlin one evening.  Strangely, I'm pretty sure I saw one today one my way back from the supermarket.  It flew across the road by the old Hookergate School at some speed but right in front of my windscreen so I got a pretty good view of it.

Wednesday 18th July

Since getting back from Bulgaria, I have been out on a couple of bike rides. Two weeks back Route14 had plenty of speckled wood, meadow brown and ringlet but I couldn't much be bothered with them after the surfeit of species in Bulgaria.  And on a ride to Corbridge, there was a nice example of a comma as the peleton passed by.

I did go to a meeting of the local Butterfly Conservation Group.  It seems the small copper has had a particularly good year here, which is interesting since I've only seen a couple.  There was also a chap who has seen some aberrant colouration on a small heath and small tortoiseshell, whereby normal colouration is partly replaced by white, like a form of albinism. I forgot the precise name for the condition.

Marsh Tit?

I had seen nothing interesting on the birds front until yesterday morning, when what appeared to be a willow or a marsh tit suddenly appeared in the plum tree, trying to get to the peanut feeder. Unfortunately, the one shot I got of it doesn't help a great deal in further identification and it didn't hang around, put off I suspect by other visitors.  I've noted before that willow tits in particular are easily put off by the presence of other birds, even blue tits.

In this case, however, it was more likely to have been a marsh tit as the habitat is predominantly woodland rather than the damp marshy areas that willow tits frequent.

Saturday 10th March

After a protracted move to Geordieland, I am now playing serious catch-up as in two months' behind.

Part of the moving preparations included the delivery of a unit of furniture to my daughter and her partner, which we engineered to include a visit to Leighton Moss in Morecambe Bay as our meeting point.

Wigeon, lapwing and cormorant

We had hoped for possible exotics in the way of bearded tit, bittern (already booming apparently) and marsh harrier but in the event the last was the only one to be seen briefly.

Instead there was a ready assortment of various other species.  The signs on the way to the lakes were already good when a robin was persuaded to take a bit of banana direct from my hand (first time that's happened) and a marsh tit showed on the feeders (my first in this country).

Then we saw, roughly in order and with fair regularity: little egret, shoveler, cormorant, wigeon, teal, lapwing, tufted duck, pintail, snipe and grey heron.

I was particularly pleased to get the following snaps, the best I have add of each species but it really wasn't too hard:  The patterned underbody of the teal was something I was unaware of.

Teal

Pintail

Little Egret

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...