Monday 23rd March

In spite of the increasing threat of the evil coronavirus I have managed a couple of worthwhile trips out.

Lapwing

The next Naturewatch trip (cancelled) would have been to St Mary's Island so I decided to take a lone bike run there anyway via Holywell Dene, as I had never visited the Dene before.  In fact the best sighting proved to be a number of lapwings on the edge of some flooded land at East Holywell. Unfortunately they weren't displaying.

Just a few minutes later a volley of long-tailed tits landed in a hedgerow, making me realise that they aren't turning up in large numbers in the garden any more.  Instead of the lightning mobhanded visits over the winter, they are now turning up in ones and twos and staying rather longer.

There was a tree sparrow on the way out of the Dene near Seaton Sluice but at St Mary's Island the tide was high, so that there wasn't much to see apart from a few cormorants hanging out to dry. I suspect in any case that walking through the Dene would be more productive as the cycle track doesn't follow the burn very closely.

A couple of days later I was gazing out of the bedroom window when a chiffchaff turned up in the silver birches behind the garden.  Of course both camera and mobile phone were sitting downstairs.  They were also out of reach when a raiding grey squirrel came right up to the back doors and took a drink from the old sink that used to serve as a herb garden.

On Saturday, I decided to visit the quiet (n.b. self-isolation now a priority) Linton Lane Reserve in Northumberland and was really quite impressed with the variety of ducks that turned up on the two ponds, including tufted duck, wigeon and male and female pochard as well as little grebe, great-crested grebe, cormorant and teal.  I was particularly pleased with the pochard, as I haven't recorded seeing one for seven years!

Male Pochard

Tufted Ducks

Wigeon

Reed Bunting

I was just about to decide I had exhausted what was on offer when I noticed that reed buntings were turning up to feed, which they did on several occasions.  Then another chiffchaff (possibly two) occurred in the trees to the right.  Having again missed the photo opportunity on two or three occasions, I waited about three quarters of an hour for a reappearance, which didn't materialise...

Although it was boggy and the Eastern hide had been seriously vandalised, I liked the Linton Lane ponds.  While quite productive, they are narrow enough to allow reasonably easy identification of the birds, a contrast to some venues where your eyesight and binoculars are left struggling to pick up vague shapes half a mile away.

Then yesterday I got another surprise when, in spite of the cool temperature, the first peacock of the year landed on my garden fence.  This time I did at least have my mobile phone at the ready!

Peacock