Improving Slightly

Typically, the day after my previous post, there was a minor invasion of long-tailed tits on the suet balls, which was exactly what I hoped would happen when I put them out in the first place.

Long-tailed tits

There have been a few visits since but only in small numbers.

Otherwise sightings have been unremarkable, having been too preoccupied with other matters to chase up some of the rarities turning up at the coast, notably the pied wheatear that hung around entertaining the tourists at Whitley Bay skate park for several days.

Yesterday was better. I took a ride to the Cheese Factory via a very flooded Prestwick Carr. Disappointingly the feeders at the Carr were empty but there were several suspected redwing around, which I eventually managed to confirm with the binoculars though the resulting photos were poor.

Redwing

On the way out I noticed a couple walking along with a tripod and, sure enough, on the way back there was a small group of twitchers clustered on the track.

The main reason for the excitement was a couple of female hen harriers, one of which showed nicely for a while and I tracked it in the binoculars, getting mobbed at one point by a  crow. There were also several stonechats and a distant sparrowhawk but no sign of the short-eared owl. The redwings had also largely moved on.

But the strangest thing I saw was actually this orange peel fungus growing out of the Cheese Factory building edge.

Orange Peel Fungus

I’ve no idea how common these are but I’ve never seen one before. It was so intricate, I even wondered if it had been sculpted by an artist, possibly from Red Leicester cheese…