Sunday 15th November

 A variety of bits and bobs have caught my attention over the past week or so.

A bike trip to Stamfordham didn't reveal much except for a few long-tailed tits and a fleeting sighting of a reed bunting.

A considerable surprise this week was to see a couple of pigeons getting fruity with each other in the birches behind the garden.  Surely they didn't think Spring had already arrived?  It's been pretty mild.

I often wonder where all the food on the bird table goes to.  Usually it disappears when as soon as I turn my back and I tend to blame the jackdaws.  The other day I got a pleasant surprise when I witnessed  eight or ten coal tits visiting in quick succession and departing each time with a few seeds.  At one point there was half a dozen strung out between the clothes on the washing line.  Usually it's just the odd one or two.  Maybe I'm too hasty in blaming the jackdaws.

Last weekend I was in Dumfries and went with the family to RSPB Mersehead.  The weather was questionable and sightings limited as a result.  My son wanted to see the barnacle geese, which was as ever not a problem to arrange.

Barnacle Geese

From Bruaich Hide we could see a few teal and wigeon and one of the former was preening itself to reveal the green underwing patch.  Unfortunately we had to wear masks which steamed up my glasses and when the young ones went outside for a clearer view, everything took flight.

We moved on to Meida Hide where there was just a few greylags but in time for the starling murmuration, which was pretty impressive and lasted for a good half hour.

Murmuration

I knew there was a murmuration at Mersehead but I thought it was considerably smaller.  Comparing it to the one at Gretna/Rockcliffe, I noticed that the birds flew in a broader formation.  It was almost as if they were hoovering up smaller groups of starlings.  At Gretna, the formation was higher and did not cover such a wide area.

On the Monday I checked out St Michael's Churchyard for waxwings.  As suspected, there weren't any yet though the yewberries have started to ripen and blackbirds were eating them.  I was interested to see an unexpected nuthatch climbing up one of the walls, and later a song thrush.

On Thursday I took a bike ride from Kirkley to Abbey Mill near Morpeth, where hawfinches had been sighted several days in succession.  I was very conscious of the sod's law of binoculars, which postulates that if you don't take binoculars, you will see something of interest in the distance.  Sure enough approaching Saltwick, I reckoned I could see some visiting throstles feeding in the fields at about 300m range.  Depending only on my camera, I took a few shots to see if I could identify them later - only to then find I'd picked out a group of starlings!  From what I could make out from views in flight, I reckoned that the winter visitors were pretty much entirely fieldfares.  Probably most redwings are still feasting on berries.

As to the hawfinches, my main aim was to establish precisely where they had been seen.  After a bit of a wander I managed to find the twitchers who were looking for them. They reported that there had been no sightings so far.  My immediate instinct was that the hawfinches had moved on and, sure enough, no further sightings have resulted.  I hope it wasn't my high-vis cycling jacket that scared them... or maybe it was the high-vis leggings of the lady joggers who also passed through.

On Friday I did a walk at East Cramlington Nature Reserve with a friend in the hope of finding some crossbills.  In the event  it turned out to be more of a survival exercise as we ended up on a muddy track next to a drain.  Afterwards we took a look at the well-stocked bird feeders nearing dusk, when I was surprised to see an unexpected bird coyly visiting the feeders.  At first I thought it was a linnet but expert advice suggests it is a female reed bunting.

Reed Bunting

I've never seen either species on a feeder before.