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.

The End Of Summer

It has been an ambition of mine for some while to coax the buddleia bushes into retaining enough blossoms past the end of September to attract a few last butterflies.  This year has to go down as a near miss.

A red admiral managed an appearance on the 29th September and there was a large white on the 30th but by today there are so few flowers left that it looks like there is no realistic chance of further visitors.

The last Red Admiral

Frustratingly I can't know if anything turned up in the good weather yesterday as Malcolm and I decided to go to Holy Island, where there had been a couple of sightings of a rustic bunting..

There it was still pretty much summer weather all day but we didn't see anything of great note - let alone the rustic bunting - and neither did anyone else we spoke to.  In fact we didn't see many birds at all in our wanderings.

There were a few sanderling and turnstone plodging in the mud near the pier, the latter seeming to be between their summer and winter suits.

Turnstones

Further along the bay there was a pair of eiders and a heron, but nothing in the Vicar's garden apart from one cockerel lying on a flower bed.

Male Eider Duck

We paused at a pub for liquid refreshment and shared a picnic bench with a number of crumb-stealing sparrows, the one species we did see a lot of, more in fact than I see anywhere nearer home. It was nice to see them close up.

Sparrows

Walking further around the island produced even more sparse results - mainly a stonechat posing nicely and this oversized owl.

Stonechat

Owl

We stopped at the bird hide where there were a large number of ducks on the shallow lake. However identification was difficult against the light and because they all had their heads tucked firmly down. In fact some of them looked like they were completely stuck in the mud. Definitely present were mallard, mute swan, coot, little grebe and probably teal.

It was pleasing not to see any dead birds but we did see this partly exposed human skeleton on the archaeological dig at the sight of a possible mediaeval monastery.

Skull

Presumably it belonged to a mediaeval monk rather than a twitcher who waited around too long for the rustic bunting.

Quiet Days

It may be my imagination but there seems to be much less going on in the way of rare bird sightings compared to previous years.  November was mild and waxwings haven't irrupted in any numbers.  Only the odd hawfinch has appeared at Morpeth.  Apart from that most twitchers are reporting gulls and other sea birds that don't excite me that much.

You may have observed that I have posted several photos of long-tailed tits tucking into suet nuggets.  About three weeks ago, I finally managed to get the shot I was really after - six of them having a go at the same time.  Unfortunately, on the last trip to the supermarket in question, the suet nugget shelf was totally empty so maybe other customers have had the same positive results.  The high energy fatballs I've replaced them with don't exercise the same magic, so no more long-tailed tit invasions as yet.

Long-tailed tits

In slightly murky conditions more recently two male bullfinches turned up on the forsythia bush, which I remember attracted bullfinch interest last winter.  I've often noticed bullfinches feeding on fresh shoots at this time of year but it isn't so common to see two males together.

Bullfinches

Perhaps they have a particular liking for forsythia.

Over Christmas I was at my son's in Moffat and we did a walk at Carriefran near the Grey Mare's Tale.  Although the scenery was pretty impressive we didn't see much in the way of wildlife - a single buzzard, a volley of pipits and a few tits and not a single mammal.  This is a new walk and, like Chopwell Woods, they've signposted a lot of trees to show what kind they are.  I'd no idea there were so many varieties of willow

Carriefan

On the way back into Moffat we drove past the Hammerlands Centre, now developed into a serious resort. There used to be a stew pond where it was dead easy to catch a few trout on baits.  The fly fishing seems to have expanded now and is reasonably priced.  I've often told myself I wanted to try some trout fishing again.  I think what I would like to do is catch a trout on my late dad's vintage fly fishing gear.  Perhaps it doesn't extend further than that: I'm not sure I'm up for clambering up and down river banks any more.

Yesterday, I met up with Malcolm to do a dog walk round the QE II lake near Ashington, the one WACAC venue I hadn't sussed out yet.  There wasn't much bird life about apart from common items - swans, cormorants, canada geese and standard ducks.

However I was impressed with the look of it as a fishing venue.  It mainly gets reported as a specimen venue for quality carp and pike but all the main other coarse species are present and it didn't seem as exposed as I had imagined.

Although we didn't see anything much, Malcolm's dog certainly did, showing a great deal of interest in the reedy areas and at one point plunging into a boggy bit of water in full attack mode.  We wondered if it might have been a water vole as there are some in the vicinity.

Vole Hunter

Another advantage of the QE II was the real ale in the (rather plasticy) pub near the car park.

Today I was out on a long bike ride and noticed that there were a lot of chaffinches about.

Sunday 25th March

Following various legal delays, I ended up staying with friends and relatives before moving in to new house.

Malcolm and did a nice inland walk along the line of the restored Alnwick railway line, where we saw a couple of youngish goosanders scooting along the Aln after a good view of a wigeon at Amble the previous day. An eider duck also sailed in on the tide at some speed.

Wigeon

Waxwing

Joining my sister Hilary at the weekend, we did a bit of twitching in the hope of catching up with some waxwings that had been showing up in the middle of Forest Hall.  They were still there alright - two of them, also juveniles apparently.  It was hard to get a decent shot and this was the best I could manage.  The colouration seemed distinctly pale and I wondered if this is typical of young birds rather than the result of low sunshine.

These birds stayed in the same location for a fortnight or so and by the end of it, local residents were complaining about them.  They certainly weren't too shy about standing in the middle of the road to get a better view.

Our attempt to see a scaup on Killingworth Lake later in the day did not work out and mostly there were just more wigeon and a more adult (I thought) goosander plus swans / canada geese and other bits and pieces.

Goosander

Thursday 6th April

We progress slowly into Spring though not with much warmth. A female siskin made a brief appearance at the bottom of next door's garden on Monday.  It's good to see they appear occasionally and it was a frequent occurrence when there were more conifers about.  Further west a lot of redpolls are being seen in gardens but I think that's a forlorn hope where I am.  I did hear a greenfinch today.

Swan and apple

Wednesday's bike ride was a little murky and windy, but there were one or two things about.  I stopped for a break on the observation platform at Lochfoot, where a couple of mute swans were feeding in shallow water. By way of a scientific experiment, I decided to see if they would like the remains of my apple.  The result was inconclusive but they did have a bit of a go at it.

The military road to Castle Douglas does tend to be a bit plain.  As usual there were a few wagtails knocking about on the stretch after Milton to Haugh of Urr.  I've often wondered if I could spot a white wagtail among them if one appeared.  Recently however I did a photo identification test on a birdwatching act and found the white wagtail much easier to identify than from book illustrations. There were a few buzzards around of course.

Better luck was to come.  Just before Ernespie there were some skylarks to be heard and I got a very good view of one flapping and singing like crazy right next to the roadside.

Stonechat

I had decided I would come back through the Glenkilns thinking there might be a chance of seeing an early whinchat or a wheatear.  As usual I stopped at the place on the road up where there is usually a good deal of bird and squirrel activity but today there was absolutely nothing. The same was true of the wheatear and the whinchat but I did get some good views of a meadow pipit and a couple of stonechats perching on old grass stalks.  The stonechats hung around for some time.

The other things I didn't see were any swallows or - unremarkably - butterflies.  Interestingly there wasn't a single red kite either.

Saturday 11th February

How time is slipping by and there's not much to report really. Spottings over the last week have mainly related to waterfowl.

Last weekend I discovered that my sister is living but three hundred yards from a carp fishing venue - Burradon Pond, which may help to restimulate my lapsed interest in fishing.  A couple of people were actually fishing for them on a relatively mild day but the main wildlife activity for me was some minor aggression from this mute swan.  Judging by the muck on its breast, it may already have a nest on the go.

Mute Swan

I selected this week's bike ride down the Nith as a possible chance to see an egret but the weather was cold and the banks more or less deserted except for a small group of barnacle geese at reasonably close range.  It struck me that I haven't really noticed that barnacles have quite a pronounced eye stripe.  I wondered how much longer they will be hanging round before heading back to Svalbard. This one looked very well-feathered.

Barnacle Goose

The other side of Bankend there was another field full of pink-footed geese, now readily identifiable for me and also at reasonable range, so I took advantage of the opportunity of a photo in which, interestingly, the one on the left does seem to have strikingly pink feet.

Pink-footed Geese

After that I'd had enough of braving the chill wind, put the camera away and enjoyed a speedy run home from Ruthwell with it blowing from behind.