Thursday 6th June

A recent run of mixed weather has somewhat curtailed nature activities over the past couple of weeks.

Meadow Pipit

Typical was last Friday's Naturewatch trip to Trow Point and Marsden Rock, when the last leg at the local quarry was cancelled after continuous drizzle meant that there was little chance of seeing butterflies or many flowers.  The main part at Trow Point was a geology session, though I did get a nice photo of a meadow pipit advertising the area.

At Marsden Rock there was a large colony of seabirds, from which we managed to pick out a number of razorbills.  I don't think we quite answered the question whether there were any guillemots among them.  My guess was that there had to be.

Yesterday I took the train to Haltwhistle and rode back along cycle track 72, passing Vindolanda then following the Stanegate road down from the hills south of the military
road.  I had hoped there might have been some interesting butterflies around but again it turned out duller than forecast and there was just a few isolated whites.

A view from the Stanegate road

There were several curlews and a couple of grey wagtails in flight and a lot of skylarks to be heard.  To be honest, I was a bit surprised that the scenery was not as wild as I was expecting.

I saw a yellowhammer by the Northumberland showground then, just after passing Bywell was wondering while looking for somewhere to rest why I hadn't seen any orange tips. When I did stop, the sun came out and I soon saw four one after the other.