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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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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.
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