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.

Monday 16th April

I have now been installed in my new home for three weeks and have been keeping a keen eye out to see what turned up in the garden, which is a good deal more rural than the one I had in Dumfries.

I put some fatballs out in a feeder at an early stage and attracted all three common tits, a couple of robins and a blackbird that managed to get its head through the outer cage.

Once unpacked, I started putting food out on the bird table, which attracted more or less the same plus a regular dunnock, a wood pigeon and a magpie.

Log-tailed tits

On going for a walk around the area, I saw a couple of red kites circling and on a bike ride to Newcastle, I saw a grey squirel run across the road and heard a skylark above the hills and a chiffchaff next to the Tyne near Newburn.

More recently I acquired a caged peanut feeder and, gratifyingly,  the first observed visitors were a pair of long-tailed tits that were not part of a larger flock.  Then a jackdaw turned up.

It seemed to me that the bird table was emptying rather quickly and after a couple of days, the peanut feeder was lying on the path spilling its contents, so it was getting clear that there was an intruder of some kind.  Something was also splitting open the striped sunflower seeds on the bird table and leaving the husks around.

I suspected Squireel Nutkin and was not surprised when one turned up digging in one of my pots before surrying off at speed.  The day after it turned up again, shimmied up the stem of the bird feeder and scoffed most of the food. Mystery solved!

That's where all the bird food went!

The day after I saw a red kite quite clearly from my kitchen window.  I think they like to circle over Garesfield Golf Club, which is nearby.

So far I have seen one or two bumble bees and a moth but no butterflies, though one or two small tortoiseshells have been reported on nature websites.

Sunday 15th October

It has been a quiet period between the seasons. A lot of my time has been spent on an overdue tidy-up in the garden including much pruning and chopping so the main forms of wildlife I have seen have been the odd spider and beetle apart from the usual infestation of greenfly on transporting things to the tip.

Temperatures have been fine and red admirals have continued to appear on occasion, the last actual sighting being last Monday.  There would have been more given some sun.  Signs of autumn are however encroaching.  The coal tit has started to reappear though less so than last year when it had a sunflower to deal with.  And numerous quckings from on high clearly indicate that barnacle geese are back in the area.

Trips out haven't produced much.  I did get a shot of female stonechat messing around on the moors at Glenkilns on 20th September and a few willow warblers still in the trees on the way up there.  Last week I saw a single swallow on the way to Kirkcudbright.

Female Stonechat

Yesterday I went for a bit of a walk round Dalbeattie Town Wood, hampered somewhat somewhat by drizzle. Nothing noteworthy appeared, just a few mallards and some garden birds.  It was a nice peaceful atmosphere though, almost eerie in its quite stillness.

Plantain Loch, Dalbeattie

Wednesday 1st July

A not surprisingly unspectacular report after the ecitement of a fortnight ago.

Went on long bike ride to Dalry last Wednesday but did not pay attention to birdlife much as needed to keep time and somewhat birded out after my visit to Provence.  This was a pity in a way as there was clearly a good deal of activity.  Surprised to notice yellowhammers just North of Dumfries and a diving brown shadow over the moors may just have been a merlin.  Also observed a red kite getting mobbed by a crow.

River Aln

What was perhaps more telling was again the almost complete lack of butterflies on a day with periods of good sunshine.  All I saw was four small whites approaching Drumwhirn Forest.

The same was apparent on a walk up the River Aln in Northumberland on Tuesday.  This time the sun was consistent but there were only a couple of pairs of meadow brown and a fleeting skipper or fritillary.  We did at least manage to establish that the river holds some fish, as if the three herons we saw were not enough proof.  All web references suggest game fish only but we found a slow section between two weirs that looked very likely to contain coarse fish.

Back at home, there was a very large bumble bee in the front garden with a totally black body and a white tail.  I assumed it was a white-tailed bumble bee but cannot find any illustration to match it.

Tuesday 10th March

As Wednesday's bike ride looks like a rain off, took advantage of bright weather to head east, biking to Annan via Ruthwell Station, Dalton, Hoddam and back along cycle route 7.  Partly my own fault I didn't see that much as I ended up looking straight into the sun for much of the run with no sunglasses on.

Nice however to see a male yellowhammer fly across my path just before Carrutherstown, the first for a good while. On the way back a relaxed female kestrel and siskin showed in the area of

Unusual cows at Dalton Pottery

Priestside and a first bumble bee of the season at Ruthwell Village.

There were also a couple of gaggles of swans and geese in farmers' fields at Brow Well and near Bankend.  However the most memorable nature sightings were the two strange cows seen in the grounds at Dalton Pottery, seemingly undisturbed by the badly parked beetle nearby.

Also heard but did not see curlew, oystercatcher and skylark but no lapwing.  There must be some reason why skylarks are hard to see at this time of year.  Maybe they are on the ground?