Saturday 14th March

After various delays and some help on location from a fellow birdwatcher, I made a successful second attempt to track down the Middleton crane.

On the way down to the river, all I spotted was a good cluster of tree sparrows in the hedgerow to add to the heard but not seen skylarks above.

After scouring around the fields along the Wansbeck to the West of the village, I turned tail and headed east along the North bank,  A few hundred yards along from the wooden bridge there was what looked like an old wildfowling area on the other side of the river.  I thought I heard a sort of croaking noise from the area and was saying something aloud about not knowing what a crane's call was like when it was flushed out from behind the reeds and flew off further East at some speed.

Unfortunately it settled at some way away from the far bank so that after a good initial view, I could only get a couple of distant shots once I caught up.  Then it flushed again and I was momentarily surprised to see that there were two birds.  For a moment I thought it was two cranes, which really would have been something as only one wintering juvenile bird has been reported. However it was apparent that the lead bird was in fact a grey heron, the crane as if in pursuit of it from behind.

Common crane

Crane pursues Heron

This concludes a rather fruitful week.  The treecreeper recently observed in the oak tree out the back paid a visit to the mahonia and, after giving it a work over, did the same on the back fence.  There has also been a sighting of a small brown mouse picking up left over bird food, a brief visit from a chaffinch (not particularly common here) and a quick sighting of a jay on the lane near the old school. And there was a kestrel hovering on the way back to Ponteland today..