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...

Firsts for the Year

Last Wednesday I took a slow ride along the Derwent and the Tyne, particularly looking out for any sites that might produce a common blue.

Again the horse meadow at Derwenthaugh produced a small skipper, which continually sat with wings closed but just open enough to allow identification.  Although there is now plenty of bird's foot trefoil in the field, there were no common blues but the first ringlet I have seen this season landed nearby and a meadow brown flew past.

Not much turned up along the Tyne apart from a couple more ringlets until I parked the bike and headed up the western Spetchells as the sun started to come out.  Here the mining bees were no longer active but there were still plenty of Gooden's Nomad bees around the nest holes, which I suppose makes perfect sense.  A good number of red-tailed bumblebees were also to be seen.

Here there was less bird's foot trefoil than I suspected so it was a pleasant surprise when a male common blue (first of the year) flew straight past me shortly after I had disturbed a basking red admiral.  As I made my way back along the track more appeared and I saw five in total - all males.

Common Blue

Not seen however were dingy skipper or any Burnett moths.

At home I've been wondering if any of the bumblebees I've seen were were white-tailed bumblebees but mostly concluding they weren't.  This one might be so I've submitted it to i-record to see if they confirm it.

White-tailed Bumblebee?

It looks from the hairy legs that it is a male, which apparently makes identification more difficult.  Garden bumblebees are still turning up occasionally too.

At the weekend I travelled South to visit Rutland Water with Jen and Joe on the Sunday.

The weather was disappointingly dull and only a small number of ringlets and meadow browns ventured from the extensive flower meadow as we wondered along to the osprey viewpoints on the South shore, plus the odd skipper and chimney sweeper moth.  

Here we had good success however as a couple of ospreys showed well during the hour we were there, and a chick can be made out in some of the photos taken.                                                                                                                                                                         

Osprey

There were a fair few reed buntings about as well as sedge warblers, which however I only managed to hear.

Reed Bunting

Moving between hides it warmed up a bit and butterflies gradually became more active.  Mostly these were ringlets and meadow browns but there were about half a dozen skippers.  Interestingly, they were mainly large skippers, which I'm not actually sure that I've seen nearer to home though records suggest they are common.

Ringlet

Large Skipper

It happened that the meadow brown I snapped was an already rather worn male.  Or I assume that the white patches were signs of wear.

Meadow Brown

One or two more chimney sweeper moths appeared as well as a blue bug I couldn't hazard a guess at.  Returning to the visitor centre I also discovered this silver ground carpet moth lurking in the undergrowth.

Silver Ground Carpet

After a pause for refreshments, we decided to check some of the lagoon areas on the Western shore and pretty much hit the jackpot at the Harrier Hide, where it was for some while possible to see little egret, great white egret and grey heron all fishing in the same area.

A particular bonus was the sighting of an Egyptian Goose, a first ever for me as it isn't present further North.

Great White Egret

Egyptian Goose

Next a marsh harrier duly jetted in and passed around either side of the hide before moving away behind the trees. Perhaps just as exciting was the foraging of an early-rising barn owl that was clearly hungry or had young and hunted extensively over the marshland, at one point carrying some prey in its talons.

Barn Owl hunting

At one point it flew in front of the hide so close you could see it giving us the eye.

Afterwards we briefly visited the 'photographic' hide where a goldfinch obligingly sat for well over five minutes.

Goldfinch

Not the most spectacular sighting of the day but an attractive bird that isn't always so easy to take pictures of.

All the time we were in the Harrier Hide, we could clearly hear a cuckoo calling in the distance, which interested me a good deal as I reckoned I'd heard one at home earlier in the week, but discounted it as being too late for a cuckoo.  It was calling again today.

Sunday 11th October

The last butterfly I saw was on 6th October, a probable red admiral at Chollerford on the way to a small group walk at Miltonrigg Woods near Brampton.  It was an impressive piece of ancient woodland and a pleasant walk, although not much wildlife was spotted.  I did see a few long-tailed tits, a buzzard and a thrush.  Otherwise there were quite a few funghi around.

Tree Fungus

There were of course examples of non-wildlife around and we met these welcoming sheep, though fortunately not the bull that was supposed to be in a neighbouring field.

Sheep

I was back in the same area yesterday for a walk with son and fiancée around the Geltsdale RSPB reserve.  Ironically we'd had a recent discussion about not seeing many kestrels but I've never seen as many as we saw yesterday - scores of them, often three or four in the air at the same time.

There were a few buzzards too.  While we were watching a faster bird passed over with pointed wings and we concluded it was a peregrine.

Unfortunately there was a much sadder sighting - a wee barn owl chick that had fallen from the nest and seems certain to die.  Ages since I saw one.

Barn Owl

Others we saw were tufted duck, barnacle goose, goldfinch and siskin (probable).

There were several things we hoped to see and didn't, confirming that there are good reasons to go back there,  It's far more strikingly pictoresque than I had remembered...