Exciting Springtime Sightings

 Starting with a bit of bad news, I found this dead great tit in the garden last week.  

Great Tit

I sort of assumed that it had crashed into the summerhouse, but on inspection it seemed to have a wound on its upper breast so maybe got nobbled by something.

Yesterday, I went on the first big trip of the year with son and fiancee to Leighton Moss, which provided a sufficient parade of sightings to justify even the £9 entry fee for non-RSPB members.

We saw a good number of marsh harriers flying at considerable height, which surprised me a bit.  On previous occasions in the Netherlands and at Leighton Moss before, I'd been used to seeing them flying low looking for prey.  Often they were in groups of two or more so I supposed that it was some sort of pre-mating routine, disturbed by occasional buzzards.  Anyway, I was delighted to get a photo of one in flight with my pocket camera, even though it wasn't brilliant.

Although we didn't manage to see one, we did hear numerous bitterns booming, which was a first time for me.  I must say 'booming' is a bit of a misnomer.  As one of the signs pointed out, it sounds much more like someone blowing over the top of an old-fashioned glass milk bottle.

Also not seen was the bearded tit.  We hadn't really expected them to show at this time of year although apparently they are still around.

One bird that is present is the ring-necked duck and I thought I might have seen one at distance from the tower.  In fact it proved to be just another tufted duck.

Shortly afterwards, heading for lunch I spotted some small red fungi next to the path.  I think they are called scarlet elf cups.

At the last hide we visited there was a view over several bits of land sticking out into the water, surrounded by various ducks.  A group of twitchers reckoned there was a water pipit working its way along one of them.  Unfortunately, try as we might, we couldn't confirm or deny it as a sighting as the photos we took of the wee bird were all too blurry.  Apparently it had been identified earlier by someone using a powerful telescope, so presumably correctly.

Overall, there were just too many photos to post individually, so I've amalgamated them together in  brief video.  Unfortunately there is no background music as that now costs extra from Microsoft!

Onshore and Inland

Having survived a cold snap over the past week, I decided on a trip to the coast on Thursday after dropping my ebike off for a service.  I'd thought about concentrating on birdwatching but decided to meet a friend instead, and actually saw a couple of things anyway.

Walking into Cullercoats there was a stonechat on the promenade railing and a woman drew my attention to a kestrel hovering for long periods over the foreshore.

Kestrel

I've never had the chance to capture a hovering kestrel with my wee camera before so it was a pleasing result.

Having collected my bike again, I saw what I initially thought was a woodpecker of some kind crossing my path at the top of the Byker Link track, where there is a bit of a flytipper's paradise.  It had a stripey appearance that put me in mind of illustrations I had seen of a three-toed woodpecker.  Knowing it couldn't really be that I stopped and approached with camera in hand.  The bird took fright at my high vis jacket and made itself scarce but I saw it long enough to note that it was a leucistic blackbird.

The day after I was on a Naturewatch walk to Letah Wood near Hexham.  The main idea was to see the wild daffodils that grow there, which should have been showing well.  However the cold weather over the previous few days has held them back and it was hard to find a decent batch.

Wild Daffodils

There were plenty of birds singing but high up in the canopy and I only actually saw a robin and some woodpigeons.  

However, there was a very healthy tree fungus, probably a shelf fungus and a healthy colony of wood ants.

Shelf Fungus

Wood Ants

The day after I was out again after visiting my son's new house in Crawford when we went along a nice track near Leadhills.  Before we got soaked in a sudden downpour we had managed to see all of curlew, lapwing, buzzard, red kite, meadow pipit, pied wagtail, and raven.

However most sightings were at distance above the horizon.  At one point a lapwing was mobbing a buzzard.  It must be because nesting time is near.

Today I briefly saw the first bumble bee of the year in the garden and at the tennis courts there were several honey bees struggling across the surface. They must have come out too early.