Quiet at The Coast

The forecast was for it to be mild over the festive season and, sure enough I woke up on Christmas Eve morning to witness a red admiral flying around my garden.  it did not settle but seemed to be in good health, flying around robustly.

I spent most of Christmas at Alnwick, having taken advantage of the opportunity to try again for the grey headed lapwing at East Chevington en route.  It had appeared the day before but didn't show.  

However a major consolation was the appearance of a pair of marsh harriers.  I could only get some distance shots of the (I think) female at several hundred yards range but nevertheless worth recording.  Marsh harriers have been turning up in the area for some time but it's the first time I've seen one in Northumberland.

Marsh Harrier at distance

They showed up again briefly around dusk somewhat closer and I got a good view of the wing edgings of the male.  Unfortunately their flight was a bit irregular and didn't last long.  Presumably they are breeding.

A chap who was looking for the grey-headed lapwing reckoned it might be amongst the lapwings in a field near the coastal path.  However I got a view of the 'lapwings' in the camera viewfinder.  They were clearly geese, so I wasn't tempted.

The only birds I got reasonably close to, apart from a single wren, were a couple of moorhens who had forsaken the nearby pond to go foraging in a grassy field.

Moorhens

Turnstone

A Christmas Day walk on Warkworth Beach brought totally calm conditions with virtually no wind and a flat sea nearing high tide.  Unsurprisingly a large number of dogwalkers were out so that birds were not to be found on the foreshore and the only one I saw was a single turnstone on the rocks, its bright underside undermining an otherwise effective camouflage.

It spent its time turning over the seaweed rather than the stones though.

I think I did see a seal pop its head out of the water out at sea a couple of times, but couldn't confirm.

It was the dogs who were the most active animals by far, including the Grays' Arthur who excelled himself and startled other dog owners by digging a hole in the sand big enough for him to be buried in.  This is one of his earlier trial runs:

Daft Dog

It was similarly quiet on Boxing Day when we did another beach walk at Low Newton.  What birds there were were swimming in the bay or snoozing out on the rocks and difficult to decipher.  There were some more turnstone and I think these may be dunlin, while bobbing on the sea there was what Google Lens thought was a Bonaparte's Gull.  But I suspect it was a black-headed gull and others on facebook thought so too.

Dunlin?

Black-headed Gull

As the pub and public toilets were both closed, I had a view over the fields and nearby lake and could make out curlew and greylag geese.

Greylag Goose

Wigeon

In a way the best sighting was the last.

Just before we left I got a clear view over the northern part of the bay, where a few more birds were noticeable.

Floating around on the sea was a group of wigeon, the first time I have ever seen them on salt water.

I suspect they don't do this often, preferring inland lakes - and certainly a much clearer view than the ones at Geltsdale.  It was  probably testament to how calm the conditions were all day.

Reflections and A Narrowly Failed Twitch

Christmas Cactus

It struck me recently that I don't pay much attention to flowers. I really should as recognising flowers is help in finding butterflies and bees in the summer.

The trigger for this thought was the christmas cactus on the windowsill, which is looking particularly smart this year and may even last until the 25th for once. In previous years, perhaps when the heating has been on more, it has often had it by mid-December.

On Saturday, a notably cold and rather windy day, I went to Geltsdale with Alex and Vicki to exchange presents and check for sightings.

Here it

 became apparent that I am suffering from increasing bird blindness.  Almost immediately after setting off, Alex spotted a flypast by a peregrine which Vicki even manged to get a photo of while I remained blissfully unaware and could see nothing but grey sky.

Peregrine Falcon

Similarly I could not spot the first stonechat they saw skirting the first bit of woodland.  I did see the grouse Alex spotted on the horizon once he'd pointed it out and did get a photo against the light.

I fiddled with the result to see if it might prove to be a black grouse but the only difference was a rather apocalyptic background while the bird remained a dark shadow:

Grouse

We reached the lake, where a number of wigeon were having a doze.  I got some shots but, like the rest I took on the day, the focus wasn't great.  I think the cold may have caused some condensation on the lens and the wind anyway made it different to hold the camera steady and avoid the lakeside reeds in distance shots.

One phot was slightly different and puzzled me briefly but I think it is just an unclear rear view of a mallard. 

Wigeon

Mallard

After that it was quiet for a while.  There was nothing but a few tits and chaffinches near the feeders at the Information Centre.

It's often the case withe birdwatching that you see nothing for a longish period, and then several things in quick succession.  It was probably a full twenty minutes before I (for a change) saw a few birds landing in a tree, which turned out to be bullfinches.

Bullfinch

Then  Alex noticed a barn owl hunting early and eventually landing some distance away, and another stonechat showed up on the moorland.

We walked back past the quarry through some attractive countryside but only saw another - or perhaps the same - barn owl, again at some distance.

Barn Owl

While this was going on, a mega rarity was again being sighted at East Chevington Reserve in the shape of a grey headed lapwing, so I decided to try my luck the day after.

I arrived about 11.20  and parked where a lot of other cars were standing.  This proved to be next to the field where the bird had been sighted while I was at Geltsdale, but it had flown to a distant ploughed field near which the shapes of standing people could just be made out.

I walked up there, which took longer than expected by a roundabout route, only to be told that the bird had not been seen since 10.20 am. The story was that a marsh harrier had appeared and frightened off the lapwings while the grey-headed version had circled a few times and then resettled not to be seen since.

So I hung around for about an hour, peering into the distance across many furrows of mud and seeing nothing.  One of the twitchers, some of whom had come considerable distances, however said he'd managed to spot 64 lapwings in the area I had been surveying!

Eventually, at 1.30 pm with only an hour of decent light left, I decided to look elsewhere.  On the walk back it was apparent that all the twitchers were following me, the latest news being that the lapwings including the suspect bird had left en groupe and headed for Cresswell Pond/Druridge Pools depending who you talked to.

So all I got for my efforts was some unusable shots of pheasants and half-hidden curlews, a single female reed bunting and a group of greater twitchers.

Reed Bunting

Twitchers

One of them asked me if I'd seen the birds move on.  Well I did briefly see a distant flock on the skyline, impossible to distinguish, but my reaction was that they were too small for lapwings.  

It's a bird that has kept returning to the area for over a week now, so who knows...

Staying Close to Home

Finally following a resolution made some time ago, I got out to a couple of locations nearby recently.

Last Wednesday I did a double trip to Thornley Woods and the Far Pastures Reserve.

After wandering around a bit in search of some reported redwing, the hide at Thornley Woods was fairly quiet.

A few tits visited the feeders and I caught sight of a nuthatch and a treecreeper as well as this woodpecker, which was deemed worth a photograph since they don't come to the caged feeders I now use.

Female Woodpecker

At Far Pastures there was a bit more action and I was quite pleased to see a few teal and a family of gadwall, though I think teal is pretty much resident here.

Teal

Gadwall

The first bird I saw puzzled me a little as I took it to be a juvenile little grebe but could not see any parent birds. However it seems to be an adult in winter plumage.

Little Grebe

There was also a good deal of activity around the feeders at the car park.  I hung on for a while in fading light. just in case something memorable turned up.

Today I took a look at Stargate Pond and Beweshill Reserve which was pretty much a total failure as a bird watching trip but interesting in other ways.

I knew that Ryton Angling Club had a location in this area and sure enough there were four or five anglers trying their luck and with some success with the roach, quite impressive in temperatures of only 5C.

On talking to one of them it seems there is a good range of species present including tench and carp. If and when I start fishing again, this may well be where I go. 

It's also not a bad size and, as a former quarry, quite deep.

The positive view was endorsed by this cormorant, the only bird I saw apart from swans and a magpie. 

Cormorant

Sure enough a roach was being landed as I moved away.

My verdict on the venue was that it might be one for the summer.  

In particular the notice boards suggest that a good range of butterflies can be found there including dingy skipper.  Small copper would not surprise me either as they are certainly present at Ryton Meadows a mile or so away.  However I've never seen Stargate Pond mentioned in local reports on butterfly sightings.

I also spent some time on the other side of the main road trying in vain to find further ponds but did spot another marked wildlife area, which may well also be worth investigating.