Activities resume...

Immediately following the power, boiler and broadband outages initiated by Storm Arwen,  I sought shelter in Alnwick and we went on a beach walk at Warkworth.

I thought there might be some bird activity but in fact there was precious little.  Just when I thought I might have spotted a couple of greenshank, my friend called me to bring the camera over.

There was a young seal pup sitting on a rocky outcrop and we spent some time wondering how it had ended up there and what to do about it.  There had been some talk from a walker that a chap had returned a seal pup to the area in a wheelbarrow, which indeed we found - but in that case we couldn't understand why it hadn't been returned to the sea.

Seal pup

There was no sign of a mother seal and the two dogs with us were making whining noises to go and play with their new friend, which started to toss its head around a bit but didn't move.  Eventually we recalled that the best thing to do with a stranded seal is to leave it alone.  It must have been quite fortunate in a way as we discovered two larger dead seal pups stranded at the top of the beach on the way back.

On Sunday I decided to take a walk along the Tyne from Wylam to Newburn and back, which proved to be a bit longer than I had reckoned.  

An early sighting was a couple of goosanders sheltering from the current until a rival turned up and they pursued it downstream at high speed.  By the end of the walk I counted nine goosanders in total.

Goosanders

On the section of the Keelman's Way where it is still permitted to walk following a landslip, there was straight away clear evidence of the damage caused by Storm Arwen as some deciduous trees had had branches ripped off.  This area looked like a good place to see willow tits but I didn't spot any.

Damaged tree

There were however a few other birds around.  I tried to sneak up on a jay but it eventually flew off across the river.  Approaching dusk on the way back a volley of long-tailed tits passed through the trees.  A wren skulked through the undergrowth and a single bullfinch showed up.

But perhaps the most interesting discovery was that the meadow area near to the Stephenson Cottage is actually advertised in a notice as an area of calaminarian grassland and home to some rare species of wild flower.  Having never heard of calaminarian grassland before, I resolved to revisit in the summer when the flowers are actually out.

Notice

After a slight delay..

Unfortunately nature activities have been suspended over the past month due to a bereavement followed by a loss of broadband connection, broken boiler and lengthy powercut in the wake of Storm Arwen.

As a result I've seen very little beyond what has turned up around the garden.  I only got out on one trip, a bike ride to Corbridge when, after seeing a single low-hovering kite early on, I spent some time peering into someone else's garden.  Apart from trying to transform a chaffinch into a brambling as someone once amusingly put it, there was nothing of any significance.  

There hasn't been that much in my garden anyway.  A couple of weeks back I glimpsed a queen wasp

Long-tailed tits

passing by the mahonia but no early bumblebees, which might have been a possibility.

I've spent some time thinking about the long-tailed tits and how gregarious and shy they are.  I moved the suet balls they obviously like onto the plum tree to see if they would come closer.  Apart from one occasion they didn't so I put them back near the fence and about six visited shortly afterwards.  It's a case of feast or famine though.

For a while a dunnock with no tail visited the bird table, moving uptypically slowly. The first time it even stayed there motionless for about an hour.  Presumably it had been attacked.

A wren has also visited on a couple of occasions.

My occasional visitors have sometimes noticed tawny owls calling from the trees by the stream.  I don't usually but there was one evening, quite early, when there was one calling from fairly close by.

A sighting of a furtive jay in the same area had me wondering if one would visit the garden again, but nothing so far.